Making a database recommendation: ASA vs ASE

[Former Member]

Hi:

I am working on performance tuning a two-tier Java Swing application which connnects to an Sybase ASA database (version 10.0.1).

We are currently doing a profiling of the application across both the Java layer and also the Database layer (using Sybase Central) to identify the cause of the performance issues.

One of the goals of the exercise is to find out if Sybase ASE is a better fit than ASA (or vice-versa). I need some help in making this case - I have searched for documentation on the web and couldnt find anything which compares the two.

Are you aware of any documentation which will help me compare and contrast Sybase ASA vs. ASE? Any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[VolkerBarth]

As ASE and ASA are different products with a different focus, I think one would need much more information about the application/system you are developping, say database size, type of application (client/server, remote users, web database), expected number of users, the kind of queries you are going to run and the like...

[Breck_Carter]

@KM: Welcome to SQLA! If you have any other questions about your search for performance problems, please post new questions here.

[Breck_Carter]

If you are considering a move as dramatic as changing to a completely different RDBMS platform, with much heavier administrative requirements, consider moving to SQL Anywwhere 11.0.1 first... it has many performance improvements over 10.0.1. Note that 10.0.1 is now the oldest version of SQL Anywhere that has full support from Engineering (EBFs, etc).

As far as comparing performance of SQL Anywhere and ASE, you are not ever going to find such a document from Sybase. What you can get, is an ASE saleperson to pitch you on "upgrading" to ASE... but don't expect concrete side-by-side comparison charts with actual numbers.

You won't get numbers from anyone outside Sybase, either, because the license agreements of both products expressly forbid anyone else from publishing benchmark tests.

Back to SQL Anywhere 11: You can find one place that does an implicit comparison: Top Ten TPC-C by Price/Performance. Look down the "Database" column... you will find SQL Anywhere 11, but not ASE. That should tell you everything you need to know, if you care about money as well as performance.

Before doing anything else, however, make sure you eliminate any bottlenecks from your current database and from your application. Application bottlenecks will probably move with you to a new database (SQL Anywhere 11.0.1 or ASE) making the move moot. The same might be true of database bottlenecks, depending on their nature (if you are missing a critical index, etc). Check for fragmentation (disk and database), run the index consultant and the application profiler, maybe even hire a performance and tuning person.

[Former Member]

Thanks for the detailed explanation Breck! Just to be clear, I am not hung up on moving from one database platform to another - As part of this performance assessment exercise, I am trying to figure out if there's a valid case for migration - thats all. From your response, I think I understand your implicit answer as well 🙂

Excluding performance numbers, are there other criteria that can be used to decide if one platform would fit well than the other? Like database size, number of users etc., Is there any documentation to support it?

[VolkerBarth]

@KM: The usual iAnywhere answer will be "Without knowing your workload, we can't give a recommendation", and that's a very true statement IMHO. Glenn Paulley's whitepaper on "Capacity Planning" might be of help: http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1056535 - though that won't give quick answers, either...

[Breck_Carter]

@KM: Numbers like database size, number of users, etc., are the side-by-side comparison numbers that you will not see in any published document... I would be happy to be proven wrong, but my expectations on that point are very low :)...

[MCMartin]

Especially customers are intrigued by the word Enterprise in ASE, so we have had often the request to move to the big brother of ASA. In this case it is difficult to explain, that ASE is not the "Enterprise" version of ASA. Even more if you have a look at the marketing material of Sybase stressing the mobility use case of ASA. This has now become a bit easier, as ASA is now called SQL Anywhere showing a bit more distance to ASE than the name ASA suggested before. Anyway both are totally different products so you could as well ask what is the recommendation for SQL Anywhere vs. Mysql or SQL Anywhere vs. MS SQL Server. Therefore the link above from Breck might be the best answer you can get.

[Breck_Carter]

This isn't a direct answer to your question, just a list of SQL-Anywhere-performance-related links...

SQL Anywhere Beats Oracle, IBM DB2 in SPEC Benchmark

iAnywhere Beats Competition In Benchmarking Analysis To Win General Dynamics UK Contract For Ministr...

iAnywhere Database Powers High Performance Solutions For Global Recruitment Consultancies

...if anyone has other links, please add them.