When businesses are creating applications, architects and designers should target perfect scalability to the best extent. This is referred to as linear scalability, where the number of CPUs deployed for the system is directly proportional to its throughput. In a real-life scenario, linear scalability is not possible for certain reasons that are over the control of the designer. It is here that the implementation and design of the application should be made as scalable as possible so that present and future objectives of performance can be attained via the evolution of the CPU technology and by expanding hardware components.
An Insight into scalability and what are the factors that prevent linear scalability
The following are the factors that prevent linear scalability:
The design of the implementation, configuration, and application is poor
Note that the application has a maximum impact on scalability. For instance:
- If the schema design is poor, it results in SQL that does not scale
- If the design of the transaction is poor, it causes serialization and locking issues
- If the connection management is poor, it leads to systems that are unreliable and bad response times.
The physical incorporation of an application
The design is not the sole issue. The physical incorporation of an application often is the link that is weak. For instance:
- Systems can move to environments of production with bad input and output strategies
- The production environment can use different execution plans over those that have been generated in the testing phase.
- The applications that are memory-intensive allocate large volumes of memory without a lot of thought for making the memory free during run time. This leads to the excessive use of memory.
- If the memory use and memory leaks place high stress of the virtual memory subsystem that is operating, this influences the availability and performance.
The hardware components have been sized incorrectly
If the capacity of hardware components has been planned badly, there are issues in the scalability of the database system. The above becomes less problematic with a decrease in hardware prices. If the capacity is too much, this masks the problem in scalability with an increase in the workload on the system.
Restrictions in software components
All components of software have resource and scalability limitations when it comes to using. This holds true for application servers, operating systems, and database servers. The design of the application should never place heavy demands on the software that cannot manage.
Limitations with hardware components
Note that hardware components are not optimally scalable. Most of the multiprocessor computers get close to linear scaling with a fixed number of CPU systems; however, with time, every extra CPU increases the overall performance but not in a proportionate manner. There are instances where an additional CPU may not increase the levels of performance. It has the ability to reduce performance, as well. Specialists in Oracle DBA consulting state the above behavior is linked closely to the setup of the operating system and the workload.
An insight into the system architecture and how it works for businesses
There are two segments to the system architecture. They are:
- Software and hardware components
- Configuring the correct system architecture for business needs
An overview of software and hardware components
Both software and hardware components should be functional. Businesses should be able to understand the architecture and design of the application. There is a difference between hardware and software components. The former performs a single task, whereas the latter performs more than one task. For instance, the disk drive retrieves and stores data, whereas any client software program has the ability to manage business logic and manage the whole user interface. The major hardware components are:
- Memory
- CPU
- Input/output system
- Network
As for software components, besides managing the user interface and business logic, they perform the following functions:
- Manage resource allocation and user requests
- Manage transactions and data
Configuring the correct system architecture for business needs
Configuring the original system architecture is an iterative process. Architects of the system should satisfy all the requirements of the system within budget and schedule. If the system needs interactive users, transacting business decisions should be based on the database contents that the user needs to drive this architecture. If there are fewer interactive users on the database, the architecture created should be process-driven.
What are the instances of interactive user applications?
The following are some common examples of interactive user applications:
- Bookkeeping and accounting applications
- Email servers
- Trading systems
- Applications that are retail based on the web
- Systems associated with order entries
What are the examples of process-driven applications?
The following are some general examples of process-driven applications:
- Direct mail
- Systems relating to the detection of fraud
- Systems linked to utility billing
Consultants in Oracle DBA systems state it is simple to design process-driven applications over multi-user applications. Here, the user interface component does not need to be present, and this makes it easier for architects to design such a system. However, the objectives are process-driven, and architects of the system are not used to managing large volumes of data. There are some confusing success factors, and so architects often fail to create optimal systems. In the case of applications that are process-driven, the skill sets in both data warehousing and applications that are user-based are deployed in the system.
Therefore, consultants of Oracle DBA systems state that when it comes to any database, one should be aware of the limitations of scalability. Linear scalability is crucial for the system of any system. At the same time, the architecture of the database has to be done, keeping the unique needs of the business in mind. The hardware and software components need to be selected correctly for interactive and process-driven databases. In this way, the system can function optimally and perform for the business. For getting customized solutions, businesses should always hire skilled and experienced consultants in Oracle DBA systems to get the right advice and suggestions with success!
