Thread: Performance of PostgreSQL vs. Other DBs

Performance of PostgreSQL vs. Other DBs

From
"Mirko Geffken"
Date:
Hi,

I am currently trying to sell the usefulness of PostgreSQL to my company (A consulting firm). I need a couple
convincingarguments. One thing that I was unable to find good comparisons of is performance of PostgreSQL vs. Others
(Oracle,SQL Server, Sybase). Does anyone have any benchmarks that I could use to demonstrate performance of PostgreSQL
againstthese other databases.  

By the way, even if PostgreSQL lags a little behind these numbers would still be helpful to me for 2 reasons:

1) A little lag would still show that it is almost equivalent with databases which cost significantly more.
2) Whether I should actually be pushing towards PostgreSQL if it is not performing well enough.

Thanks to anyone who can give me some information on this. Any info is greatly appreciated.

Mirko



Re: Performance of PostgreSQL vs. Other DBs

From
Ron Peterson
Date:
Mirko Geffken wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am currently trying to sell the usefulness of PostgreSQL to my company (A consulting firm). I need a couple
convincingarguments. One thing that I was unable to find good comparisons of is performance of PostgreSQL vs. Others
(Oracle,SQL Server, Sybase). Does anyone have any benchmarks that I could use to demonstrate performance of PostgreSQL
againstthese other databases. 

I saw a post on this list recently from Ned Lilly of Great Bridge saying
that they would be publishing some benchmark comparisons soon.  That's
really all I know.  Stay tuned.


> Hi Gunnar,
>
> Great Bridge has been running PostgreSQL against several of the leading
> commercial contenders in some professional benchmarks (TPC-C, TPC-D, AS3AP),
> and will be releasing the findings in June.  I think people here will be very
> happy with the results... :)
>
> Regards,
>
> Ned Lilly
> VP, Hacker Relations
> Great Bridge, LLC

I assume that an announcement of these benchmarks will be made on this
list...?

________________________
Ron Peterson
rpeterson@yellowbank.com

Re: Performance of PostgreSQL vs. Other DBs

From
"Bryan White"
Date:
> Hi,
>
> I am currently trying to sell the usefulness of PostgreSQL to my company
(A consulting firm). I need a couple convincing arguments. One thing that I
was unable to find good comparisons of is performance of PostgreSQL vs.
Others (Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase). Does anyone have any benchmarks that I
could use to demonstrate performance of PostgreSQL against these other
databases.
>
> By the way, even if PostgreSQL lags a little behind these numbers would
still be helpful to me for 2 reasons:
>
> 1) A little lag would still show that it is almost equivalent with
databases which cost significantly more.
> 2) Whether I should actually be pushing towards PostgreSQL if it is not
performing well enough.
>
> Thanks to anyone who can give me some information on this. Any info is
greatly appreciated.

I seem to remember that there is something in the Oracle license the
prohibits you from publishing performance analysis without Oracles approval.
Such restrictions give me the willies.  With such censorship in place I
think it is fair (but possibly incorrect) to assume that Oracles performance
is lousy.


Re: Performance of PostgreSQL vs. Other DBs

From
"J.R. Belding"
Date:
Hello:

You may wish to take a look at this link:

http://www.postgresql.org/mhonarc/pgsql-general/1999-11/msg00227.html


J.R. Belding
jrbelding@yahoo.com


Mirko Geffken wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am currently trying to sell the usefulness of PostgreSQL to my company (A consulting firm). I need a couple
convincingarguments. One thing that I was unable to find good comparisons of is performance of PostgreSQL vs. Others
(Oracle,SQL Server, Sybase). Does anyone have any benchmarks that I could use to demonstrate performance of PostgreSQL
againstthese other databases. 
>
> By the way, even if PostgreSQL lags a little behind these numbers would still be helpful to me for 2 reasons:
>
> 1) A little lag would still show that it is almost equivalent with databases which cost significantly more.
> 2) Whether I should actually be pushing towards PostgreSQL if it is not performing well enough.
>
> Thanks to anyone who can give me some information on this. Any info is greatly appreciated.
>
> Mirko



Re: Performance of PostgreSQL vs. Other DBs

From
Ned Lilly
Date:
Ron Peterson wrote:

> I saw a post on this list recently from Ned Lilly of Great Bridge saying
> that they would be publishing some benchmark comparisons soon.
>
> > Hi Gunnar,
> >
> > Great Bridge has been running PostgreSQL against several of the leading
> > commercial contenders in some professional benchmarks (TPC-C, TPC-D, AS3AP),
> > and will be releasing the findings in June.  I think people here will be very
> > happy with the results... :)
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Ned Lilly
> > VP, Hacker Relations
> > Great Bridge, LLC
>
> I assume that an announcement of these benchmarks will be made on this
> list...?

Bryan White pointed out that Oracle (and Microsoft too) have squirrelly little clauses in their licenses prohibiting
"publishing"benchmark results.  He's right. 

We're thinking about fun ways to informally discuss our results, without naming particular companies' products.  This
listis where it will happen - stay tuned. 

Thanks,
Ned


Re: Performance of PostgreSQL vs. Other DBs

From
Richard Moon
Date:
At 08:30 14/06/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello:
>
>You may wish to take a look at this link:
>
>http://www.postgresql.org/mhonarc/pgsql-general/1999-11/msg00227.html

Except he's wrong about Informix - it supports row level locking (always
has - long before Oracle did), it supports various isolation levels
(including dirty read which allows read of a row locked for update, you
decide), it allows full or incremental backup while on-line (why it's used
in many 24*7 operations such as telcos and global reservation systems). I
cannot comment on the failsafe as I don't really know what the tester did
but it is fail safe in that a system failure will cause an automatic
recover when the server is brought back up.

I agree it is difficult to install (you need a couple of third-party books
and/or a training course). As far as performance is concerned, it allows
you to set up databases across raw-disk partitions, thus avoiding the Unix
file system altogether. When configured properly it's very quick.

Its also an Object Relational DBMS and incorporates much of the early work
which also resulted in PostgreSQL I believe (Informix bought Illustra which
came out of Postgres  they then combined Illustra with their code and
called it Universal Server expecting the world to beat a path to their
door. AFAIK they're still waiting ).

The step from Version 7.3 to 9 which he mentions isn't as great as it
sounds. V9 is the version with the Object Relational extensions turned on.
Its called Internet 2000 or some such now I believe.

Performance comparisons with databases which allow huge degrees of tuning
are always tricky. If I was setting up a big database for OLTP I'd use a
different config than if I was setting it up for Data Warehousing. You tune
the DB to the need - there's no 'one size fits all' at that level.

I don't work for Informix but I've used it for many years. My summary would
be expensive, needs experience to install, fast, reliable, badly marketed
(compared to Oracle).


>J.R. Belding
>jrbelding@yahoo.com
>
>
>Mirko Geffken wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am currently trying to sell the usefulness of PostgreSQL to my
> company (A consulting firm). I need a couple convincing arguments. One
> thing that I was unable to find good comparisons of is performance of
> PostgreSQL vs. Others (Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase). Does anyone have any
> benchmarks that I could use to demonstrate performance of PostgreSQL
> against these other databases.
> >
> > By the way, even if PostgreSQL lags a little behind these numbers would
> still be helpful to me for 2 reasons:
> >
> > 1) A little lag would still show that it is almost equivalent with
> databases which cost significantly more.
> > 2) Whether I should actually be pushing towards PostgreSQL if it is not
> performing well enough.
> >
> > Thanks to anyone who can give me some information on this. Any info is
> greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Mirko
>
>


Richard Moon
richard@dcs.co.uk