Configuring for Powerhouse/Oracle/Unix

[Edis, Bob]

G'day Rick

Besides Interbase as the database, what else can you tell us about the
current environment?  I.e. OS, use of ISAM type files, PH version, etc.  

Which Oracle RDBMS version has been decided on?  
What other apps will be sharing the machine/RDBMS?
Are there any interfaces between the current PowerHouse app and other
systems that need to be modified?
How many UNIX scripts need to be converted/written?
Will the database schema be modified?  I.e. any 'corrective' design changes
such as normalisation to 3NF.
What time frame is required?
How many people are available to work on the conversion?  Will you need to
bring in additional resources?
How many programs can be dumped as being obsolete?  This provides an
opportunity to trim the app down.
You didn't mention QTP jobs.  Any?
Will the database be centralized or distributed?
Have you considered using Impromptu to re-write some/most or the Quiz
reports?
Any opportunity to incorporate PowerHouse Web and/or Axiant?  The former
allows distribution of the app to many sites with a zero footprint making
roll-out and maintenance much easier.  Both provide opportunity to 'update'
the user interface.
Does the client have GOOD unix people available to work on the project and
future support?

It looks like money is not an issue here, just which vendor will give the
better 'kick-back' to the manager who influences the decision strongest.

I have heard good things about the new IBM machines in terms of performance
and technology but they are still the most expensive.  If they are committed
to a UNIX box why haven't they considered going 64 bit with a Compaq
AlphaServer/True 64 UNIX combo?

As far as the disk drives and memory is concerned, the Oracle database has
more impact on this than the PowerHouse app.  The Oracle DBA should specify
these requirements.

Use embedded SQL as much as possible when interfacing with an Oracle RDBMS
other than Oracle Rdb as PowerHouse must get to the data through more levels
of interface and this has a serious impact on performance.  With Oracle Rdb
PowerHouse goes straight to the guts of the engine.

I hope that helps a bit.  If you need any PH people make sure you advertise
on this list as many of us here are searching now-a-days.

Regards,
Blue

-----Original Message-----
From: rmhill@core.com [mailto:rmhill@core.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 8:23 AM
To: powerh-l@lists.swau.edu
Subject: Configuring for Powerhouse/Oracle/Unix


I am currently working with a customer to migrate their Powerhouse
application to work with Powerhouse 8.23, Oracle, and either HP-UX or
IBM AIX.

This is a fairly substantial Powerhouse application, with a database
of anywhere from a 1/2 million to 1-1/2 million rows of data
(depending on the site), about 1200 quick screens, quite a bit of
procedure code, 150 tables in the database, tons of triggers in the
database, and many multi-pass quiz reports that are typically run as
background processes.  The application will be installed at many
sites.

At this stage, the decisions that are somewhat firm are:
- the database will be Oracle
- the hardware and O/S will either be HP with HP-UX or IBM with AIX.
(apparently Sun/Solaris is not an option.)
- as it is a legacy application, no major additional changes to the
Powerhouse code.  For example, at this stage, we are not to go into
dozens of QUICK, QUIZ, and QTP programs and code cursors.

Given all of the above, does anyone out there have suggestions for
configuration based on their experiences with Powerhouse, Oracle, HP
9000s and IBM RS6000s?  Areas being scrutinized include the following:

1.  HP9000 vs. IBM e-series

We have tested with 15-20 QUICK users on both platforms.  The HP has
not performed as well as the IBM, and at times the users have appeared
to lock up.  All other things equal, do the HP 9000's require more
horsepower?  Are there some basic setup things to know to optimize it?
The IBM seemed to perform pretty well without much manual tuning - in
fact it seemed to tune itself quite well.  I won't bore anyone with
all the I/O, memory, and CPU statistics.

2.  # of Disk Drives

It has been recommended by the Oracle DBAs here to spread the database
over 4 drives if possible (one ea. for the data, indexes, rollback
segments, and logging).  Is it crazy to go with only one or two drives
for the Oracle portion of the application?

3.  Expected use of of memory

Given that the application has fairly procedure-intensive QUICK
programs, and that Oracle will be the database, and that there could
be as many as 15-25 users at a site, what minimum amount of memory
should we be considering per server?  Is 1 gig enough?  2 gig?  The
tests so far have been done with 512mb.

4.  Use of Cursors and imbedded SQL

As presently coded, the applications's Powerhouse code does not have
any imbedded SQL such as cursors.  Yet it runs decently in the current
Interbase environment.  With the move to Oracle, should we definitely
pick the critical processes to put cursors in?  Or should we be ok
leaving it all with pure Powerhouse code?

Any other suggestions for configuration are also welcome!

Rick Hill
Powerhouse Consultant
440-354-6950
rmhill@core.com


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