The 4Gb HBA of Choice
In Oracle Environments
QLogic vs. Emulex 4Gb Fibre Channel HBA
Performance Benchmarking with Oracle
Workloads
Executive Summary
Today’s mission-critical Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), Online Analytical Processing
(OLAP) and Web applications demand the highest levels of performance from their database
servers and storage infrastructure. To satisfy this demand, organizations are making the transition
to 4Gb Fibre Channel SANs, and IT decision makers are under pressure to select the right
components in order to ensure a cost-effective and scalable solution.
A critical element of overall SAN performance is the selection and deployment of a Host Bus
Adapter (HBA) with the right architecture. With the introduction of multi-processor CPUs coupled
with virtualization technologies, high performance database solutions need to be complemented
with high performance and scalable IO connectivity. A wrong choice can result in management
complexity and limit an organization’s overall business agility to meet continually evolving business
needs.
To help IT decision makers make the best, most informed HBA choice, QLogic has performed a
series of head-to-head performance benchmarks showing the I/O performance and scalability
advantages of the QLogic SANblade™ Pro 2400 series HBAs over Emulex® LightPulse® HBAs in
a variety of real-world OLTP, OLAP and Web scenarios using SAN-attached Oracle databases.
QLogic compared the overall performance of the 4Gb HBAs when attached to industry leading
storage arrays and solid state drives to emulate a real-world SAN with maximum throughput
workloads. Our tests highlight the advantage delivered by QLogic’s SAN Pro architecture in
Oracle environments.
Key Findings
For demanding enterprise database applications, choosing QLogic 4Gb FC HBAs provides:
•
33% Higher Performance
•
Using best-in-class Oracle™ and EMC™ components in OLTP, Web and
OLAP workloads indicative of real-world storage configurations, QLogic HBAs
demonstrated 33% better throughput than Emulex HBAs.
•
28% Superior Scalability
•
In high-performance database applications, emulated with Oracle workloads,
QLogic’s SANblade 2400 series dual port HBAs deliver 28% higher IOPs
compared to the Emulex’s 11000 series HBAs.
