Network Planning; Network Characteristics Of A Sybase Sql Server Environment; Network Protocols: Packet Sizes - Compaq 117755-003 - ProSignia - 740 Configuration Manual

Page 8 Configuration and Tuning of Sybase System 11 for Microsoft Windows NT on Compaq Servers
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Non-bootable partitions to be formatted with FAT file system are limited to 4GB. Non-
bootable partitions to be formatted with NTFS file system are typically limited by the
physical space.

Network Planning

The objective of the Network Planning section is to provide information on how the network can
influence performance of Sybase SQL Server. This section is somewhat incomplete at this time,
and as we continue investigating various areas of performance, optimization and interpretability,
additional information will be released when it becomes available. The information in this
section is being provided to give the reader a heads up to evaluate alternative implementations.
Results presented below are with Windows NT workstations and a Windows NT server, and may
not be indicative of other workstation/server combinations.

Network Characteristics of a Sybase SQL Server Environment

On-line transaction processing (OLTP) environments typically generate a large number of small
packets, and the amount of data being transmitted between the clients and the server is relatively
small. On the other hand decision support systems (DSS) environments typically generate a
large number of large packets, and the amount of data being transmitted between the clients and
the server is relatively large. Many applications heavily utilize stored procedures, which not only
decrease processing at the server, but also reduce network traffic. Stored procedures are invoked
by passing the name of the stored procedure along with its parameters to the server. Even though
stored procedures can return any amount of data, a typical stored procedure returns only a very
small result set.
However, using stored procedures or not, the bulk of OLTP and DSS processing still occurs at the
server, with the physical network layer (network interface controller or cables) seldom having a
significant influence on the overall performance.
From the hardware perspective, you should have a 16- or 32-bit bus-master network card
installed in the server to minimize the processing overhead associated with non-bus master
network cards.
Check to insure that the Sybase SQL Server system is not the server responsible for being the
Default Gateway, Primary WINS Server, Secondary WINS Server, or Domain Name Service
Server (DNS). Having these services enabled on the Sybase SQL Server system will impact the
overall performance of the server and increase the amount of network traffic to this server. When
possible, move these services to another Windows NT server on the network.
Refer to the Sybase SQL Server, Installation Guide for Microsoft Windows NT for information on
how to configure the server and the clients to support a particular network protocol.

Network Protocols: Packet Sizes

Sybase SQL Server communicates with clients through Tabular Data Stream (TDS). TDS
packets have a default size of 512 bytes. Applications can manipulate the packet size using the
DB-Library dbsetlpacket() call; with BCP and ISQL utilities you can change the packet size using
the [-a packetsize] parameter. The TDS packet size also needs to be incremented at the Sybase
SQL Server for the clients to connect properly to the server. From sp_configure alter the setting
for maximum network packet size to match or exceed the maximum application packet size.
Utilizing larger TDS packet sizes also requires that you increase the memory requirements for
the Sybase SQL Server kernel. The sp_configure value for additional netmem controls the size of
this kernel memory allocation and will need to be increased. Please refer to the Sybase SQL
Server, Systems Administration Guide for more guidelines on computing the amount of
additional netmem required.
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