Workload models for DBMS performance evaluation

Abstract

A hierarchy of workload models to support Database Management System Performance Measurement and Evaluation studies is defined herein. The hierarchy is structured so that each successive layer represents database design, DBMS functionality and workload characterization in progressively greater detail. The design of the hierarchy was influenced by the ANSI/X3/SPARC (3) model for DBMS architecture, by Senko's DIAM (20), by Scheuermann's DBMS model (19) and by Sevcik's layered model for database system performance evaluation (21). The hierarchical layers clearly isolate DBMS functionality from organizational activities and underlying machine characteristics.Specific modeling techniques for deriving both database design and workload models at each level of the hierarchy are identified. The database design models form the basis for defining certain critical components of the workload models. The hierarchy of workload models facilitates a clear separation of the relevant performance measurement and evaluation issues and objectives based upon an increasingly detailed view of the total computing environment.Figure 1 illustrates the major layers of the hierarchy. The remainder of this paper defines the workload models developed at each layer and the measurement parameters and performance metrics derived therein.