Infor EAM and SQL Server 2008 R2: Benchmark - Microsoft · PDF fileInfor EAM and SQL Server...

Infor EAM and SQL Server 2008 R2:

Benchmark Testing Results

Benchmark testing confirms that SQL Server 2008 R2 supports enterprise-

class deployments of Infor EAM

V1.0 Published: February 2011

Abstract

The preferred Infor™ EAM deployment platform for small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) is the

Microsoft® software stack, which includes Windows Server®, Microsoft® SQL Server™, and Microsoft®

SharePoint® Server. With the new Infor/Microsoft alliance, the companies now aim to support tier-1

clients as well.

This white paper presents the results of benchmark testing with Infor EAM v8.5 and Microsoft SQL Server

2008 R2 data management software running on Intel® Xeon® processors. Engineers from Infor and

Microsoft conducted tests on enterprise-class hardware capable of hosting up to 2,400 concurrent users

and with a volume of data typically generated by this number of users.

The benchmark testing showed that transaction times for typical business tasks remained almost constant

for the duration of the test on both a full hardware configuration with a full load and on a scaled-down

hardware configuration with a reduced load more typical of production infrastructure. The tests clearly

demonstrate that SQL Server is an appropriate database choice in scenarios that require the application

and database servers to run for a long time without downtime.

Benchmark Testing Results for Infor EAM on Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server 2 2

©2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is provided “as-is.” Information and

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Table of Contents

1 OVERVIEW ....................................................................................................................................... 4

1.1 OVERVIEW OF INFOR EAM ENTERPRISE EDITION ..................................................................................... 4

1.2 OVERVIEW OF SQL SERVER 2008 R2 .................................................................................................... 5

1.3 OVERVIEW OF INTEL XEON PROCESSORS ................................................................................................. 6

2 BENCHMARK TESTING ..................................................................................................................... 7

2.1 THE BENCHMARK TEST ENVIRONMENT................................................................................................... 7

2.2 RESULTS OF BENCHMARK TESTING ........................................................................................................ 8 2.2.1 Full Hardware Configuration ............................................................................................................. 8 2.2.2 Scaled-Down Hardware and Reduced Load .................................................................................... 10

3 SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 15

4 FURTHER INFORMATION ............................................................................................................... 16

5 APPENDIX: DETAILED RESULTS OF FRONT-END MANUAL RELIABILITY TESTS ................................. 17

5.1 RELIABILITY TESTING RESULTS FOR FULL HARDWARE CONFIGURATION ....................................................... 17

5.2 RELIABILITY TESTING RESULTS FOR SCALED-DOWN HARDWARE CONFIGURATION ......................................... 18


1 Overview

In capital-intensive industries such as utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, and real estate,

physical assets—including buildings, infrastructure, and equipment—form a significant

percentage of the organization’s total assets. These industries operate in highly competitive

markets and are required to adhere to stringent occupational and environmental safety

regulations. Underperforming assets can decrease an organization’s profitability and inhibit

growth by increasing costs and decreasing production and productivity. Poor asset management

can expose the business to violations of safety regulations and compliance requirements, and

can reduce customer satisfaction.

Enterprise asset management (EAM) software helps organizations manage their assets across

departments, locations, and facilities—improving utilization and performance, reducing capital

costs, reducing asset-related operating costs, extending asset life, and improving the

organizations’ return on assets (ROA).

Infor EAM is a leading EAM software solution that has been helping companies worldwide—

including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500—for more than 20 years. By taking

advantage of Infor’s experience, organizations can streamline their asset and maintenance

planning processes to save time, improve equipment and staff productivity, and increase

inventory efficiency to save money.

Infor recognizes that Microsoft is a key vendor in many of their customers' businesses and has

engaged in a long-standing strategic partnership with Microsoft built on a close working

relationship to deliver business-specific solutions that meet the individual needs of customers.

The partnership provides Infor with access to Microsoft resources and lets Infor develop a clear

understanding of Microsoft technology. Infor uses Microsoft platforms and tools to enrich,

extend, and evolve Infor solutions, including Infor EAM, to help customers manage the fast-

paced changes in their businesses.

The Microsoft software stack—including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft

SharePoint Server—has been the preferred software stack for small-to-medium size businesses

(SMBs) using Infor EAM solutions. Now, Infor and Microsoft have conducted benchmark testing

to demonstrate that SQL Server is an appropriate database platform for large, tier-1 enterprises

using Infor EAM Enterprise Edition running on Intel Xeon processors.

1.1 Overview of Infor EAM Enterprise Edition Infor EAM Enterprise Edition, designed for large enterprise customers, lets organizations analyze

data for key trends and anomalies, forecast performance issues, and make forward-looking

decisions to drive performance and ensure that projected financial results are achieved. Infor


"Nearly 50 percent of our customers

have deployed Infor solutions on

Microsoft SQL Server…[the

Infor/Microsoft partnership] will

create new value and lower total cost

of ownership for our customers by

making it easier for them to acquire

and deploy Infor software that uses

Microsoft SQL Server."

Dennis Michalis,

Senior Vice President, Global Partners,

Infor

EAM Enterprise Edition is easy to use, with a familiar look and feel that cuts down on training

time and increases user acceptance.

Infor EAM Enterprise Edition has a flexible, configurable design that includes business-specific

modules and unique features, such as:

Asset management—used to identify, track, locate, and analyze physical assets, and to

facilitate metered usage measurement and automatic usage value transmission to sub-

components.

Materials management—used to monitor and control the inventories of storerooms.

These tools, which include economic order quantity (EOQ) and class calculations and

assignments, support parts receipts, issues, returns, and cycle counts.

Microsoft Project interface—used to pass work orders and trade personnel from the

Infor solution to Microsoft Project for planning and scheduling purposes, and to return

scheduling data from Project for execution and tracking.

Additional features, including advanced modules that extend the functionality of Infor

EAM Enterprise Edition to meet specific needs, such as industry regulations, a mobile

workforce, integrated procurement, or advanced analytical and reporting requirements.

Along with Infor EAM Enterprise Edition, the Infor EAM products include the Infor EAM Business

Edition, Infor EAM MP2 for SMBs, and the Infor EAM Asset Sustainability Edition for companies

planning to “go green.”

1.2 Overview of SQL Server 2008 R2 Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 data management software provides an ideal database platform

for Infor EAM. SQL Server is a high-performance, integrated database and business intelligence

(BI) solution for data management and analysis; this easy-to-

implement, easy-to-support foundation provides a multifunctional

solution for data integration, analysis, and reporting.

SQL Server helps companies manage large volumes of mission-

critical data and run software applications—such as Infor EAM—to

optimize their business performance. In addition to rapid data

mining, analysis, processing, and reporting capabilities, SQL Server

has built-in features that provide a secure, reliable, and productive

data management environment that truly protects a company’s

data—helping reduce the potential risk of corruption. With its

scalable infrastructure, SQL Server has the capability to grow with a

business and keep up with the toughest data challenges.

For Infor EAM, SQL Server 2008 R2 brings specific benefits; Microsoft SQL Server Reporting

Services play a key role in Infor’s long-term BI strategy. Authentication, security, and access

control come from Microsoft Single Sign-On (SSO) service. On a foundation of SQL Server with


Reporting Services and Analysis Services, Infor EAM creates application-specific and industry-

specific BI content in the form of reports, scorecards, key performance indicators (KPIs), and

alerts. Many of these BI interfaces are delivered and consumed through the SharePoint portal

technology.

Additionally, SQL Server 2008 R2 comes with dynamic chart integration to Microsoft SharePoint

2010; self-service BI through Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010; and Microsoft® Excel® 2010,

which supports “instant sort” on 100 million rows of data; backup compression; data

compression with UCS-2 Unicode support; and highly scalable complex event processing with

SQL Server StreamInsight. With Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF), Infor and Infor

customers gain industry-standard tools to deliver user interface page flows, human workflows,

business rule-driven workflows, document-centric workflows, composite workflows for service-

oriented apps, and even system management workflows.

1.3 Overview of Intel Xeon Processors Intel Xeon processors deliver advances in scalable performance and virtualization, in addition to

reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS), providing a robust foundation for enterprise

solutions. The combination of Intel Xeon processors and Microsoft software delivers a powerful

and responsive solution infrastructure for Infor EAM Enterprise Edition deployments.

In this benchmark study, the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series was used with SQL Server 2008 R2

as the database tier for Infor EAM Enterprise Edition. The Intel Xeon processor 5600 series was

used with the reporting server and an earlier version of the Intel Xeon 5000 series, the Intel

Xeon processor 5500 series, was used with the application servers.

Intel Xeon processor 7500 series delivers massive scalability―up to 8 sockets or more, with up

to 8 cores per socket, and up to 16 processing threads per processor and 2 terabytes of memory

capacity in an 8-socket configuration. Designed for large-scale deployments and mission-critical

applications, the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series delivers not only massive scalability and

performance, but also leading RAS capabilities. With the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series, more

than 20 new hardware-based RAS features have been introduced to help detect and correct

errors and prevent them from happening again. These new RAS features can be found

throughout the processor microarchitecture—across memory, CPU/socket, Intel QuickPath links,

and the I/O Hub—to further help strengthen system reliability.

The Intel Xeon processor 5600 series delivers enhanced, energy-efficient performance and is

ideally suited for a wide range of application deployments, especially with a high density of

servers. The Intel Xeon processor 5600 series offers intelligent performance by adjusting

performance and power usage in real-time to meet the requirements of a particular workload.

The processors also allow for manual adjustments for maximum flexibility. With the Intel Xeon

processor 5600 series, deployments will realize outstanding performance and reductions in

energy costs.


2 Benchmark Testing

In September and October of 2010, engineers from Infor and Microsoft worked together at the

Microsoft Solution Center (MSC) in Redmond, Washington, to confirm that SQL Server 2008 R2

can support enterprise-class deployments of Infor EAM, and to develop a hardware specification

capable of hosting up to 2,400 concurrent Infor EAM users. The tests were designed to emulate

actual business scenarios and transactions and to provide a realistic representation of

production infrastructure requirements.

Two sets of front-end manual reliability tests were run: a set of tests with a full hardware

configuration and a set of tests with two scaled-down hardware configurations.

The results of the benchmark testing with both hardware configurations showed that

transaction times varied little over the testing period. This shows that SQL Server 2008 R2 is an

appropriate choice for enterprise deployments of Infor EAM in scenarios that require the

application and database servers to run for extended periods of time without downtime.

2.1 The Benchmark Test Environment Infor EAM was deployed on six virtual servers, each capable of supporting up to 400 virtual

users. The database software, SQL Server 2008 R2, was deployed on one virtual server,

managing transactions for all users.

Table 1 describes the servers used for the benchmark testing.

Table 1. Details of servers used

Number and Role of Servers

Make and Model

CPU Cores RAM Drives

1 database server IBM X3850 X5 4 - 2.27GHz Intel X7560 32 512GB

6 application servers HP BL460G6 2 - 2.53GHz Intel E5540 8 48GB SATA - 300GB

2 reporting servers HP BL460G6 2 - 2.53GHz Intel E5540 8 48GB SATA - 300GB

1 reporting server HP BL490G6 2 - 2.67GHz Intel X5650 12 48GB SSD - 2x64GB

1 DC HP DL380G3 2 - 3.4GHz Intel Xeon 2 6GB 72GB

Table 2 describes the software used in the benchmark testing.


Table 2. Software used in the benchmark testing

Software Role Software Used

Virtualization VMware ESX

Operating system Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise

(application and reporting servers)

Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

(database servers)

Database SQL Server 2008 R2

Application Infor EAM v8.5

JBoss v5.1

Load simulation HP Mercury LoadRunner Controller (to monitor and record server biometrics during the stress test)

HP Mercury Injectors (to execute Infor test scripts simulating a virtual user load up to 2,400 concurrent users)

2.2 Results of Benchmark Testing Engineers ran tests to confirm the reliability of Infor EAM on SQL Server 2008 R2, both with a full

hardware configuration and with two scaled-down hardware configurations.

The results of the reliability tests with all hardware configurations showed that transaction

times varied little over the testing period, confirming SQL Server 2008 R2 running on Intel Xeon

processor 7500 series as an appropriate database platform for Infor EAM in scenarios where the

application and database servers are expected to run for extended periods of time without any

downtime.

2.2.1 Full Hardware Configuration

Initial reliability tests were run with a full hardware configuration with the following parameters:

A transaction load simulating 2,400 concurrent users was used, balanced across six

application servers of identical configuration, with each application server handling 400

users.

The test was run over a 120 hour time period.

A total of 14,843,337 transactions were completed during this time period.

Table 3 shows some sample transaction rates that were recorded during the testing.


Table 3. Sample transaction rates using full hardware configuration

Transaction Name Number Saved per Hour

Work Orders (WO) 1,000

Activities 1,273

Book Labor 301

Meter Readings 123

Purchase Orders 167

Requisitions 462

Issues/Returns 438

Quick WO Close 145

Assets 403

Parts 150

Table 4 shows the average amount of time required to open the screen for the various

transactions and the amount of time required to save data for the various transactions at 24-

hour time intervals. Details of the results are shown in Appendix: Detailed Results of Front-End

Manual Reliability Tests.

Table 4. Average times (in seconds) to perform operations for various transactions

Start 24 hours 48 hours 72 hours 96 hours 120 hours

Average time (sec) to open the screen for the various transactions

3.8 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.8 4.0

Average time (sec) to save data for the various transactions

2.4 2.8 2.9 2.5 2.6 2.6

Figure 1 graphically shows the average transaction times for opening a screen and for saving

data over the 120-hour time period.


Figure 1. Transaction times (in seconds) over a 120 hour time period

The results showed that the transaction times changed very little over the 120 hour time period,

confirming the reliability of Infor EAM on SQL Server 2008 R2.

2.2.2 Scaled-Down Hardware and Reduced Load

Engineers next ran reliability tests with two scaled-down hardware configurations. These

configurations represent typical production infrastructure requirements.

Scaled-Down Hardware Configuration 1

Following are the parameters used in the first scaled-down configuration:

Configuration 1 used hardware with eight CPUs and 256 GB RAM.

A transaction load simulating 1,200 concurrent users was used.

The test ran for 30 hours.


Table 5 shows some sample transaction rates recorded during the testing with the first scaled-

down hardware configuration.

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Start 24h 48h 72h 96h 120h

Tran

sact

ion

Tim

es

(se

c)

Time Intervals (hours)

Average Screen Open Times Comparison

Average Save Data Times Comparison


Table 5. Sample transaction rates using first scaled-down hardware configuration

Transaction Name Number Saved Per Hour

Work Orders (WO) 510

Activities 624

Book Labor 149

Meter Readings 58

Purchase Orders 88

Requisitions 213

Issues/Returns 225

Quick WO Close 80

Assets 190

Parts 85

Table 6 shows the average amount of time required to open the screen for the various

transactions and the amount of time required to save data for the various transactions at 6-hour

time intervals. Details of the results are shown in Appendix: Detailed Results of Front-End

Manual Reliability Tests.

Table 6. Average times (in seconds) to perform operations for various transactions for first scaled-down hardware

configuration



3.8 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.8 4.0


2.4 2.8 2.9 2.5 2.6 2.6


data over the 30-hour time period.


Figure 2. Average transaction times (in seconds) for opening a screen and for saving data over the 30-hour time

period

The results showed that the transaction times changed very little over the 30-hour time period,

confirming the reliability of Infor EAM on SQL Server 2008 R2 and Intel Xeon processor 7500

series.

Scaled-Down Hardware Configuration 2

Following are the parameters for the second scaled-down configuration:

Hardware with 16 CPUs and 256 GB RAM was used.

A transaction load simulating 1,800 concurrent users was used.

The test was run over a 34-hour time period.


Table 7 shows some sample transaction rates recorded.

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

START 6h 12h 18h 24h 30h

Tran

sact

ion

Tim

es

(se

c)


Average Screen Open Times Comparision

Average Save Data Times Comparision


Table 7. Sample transaction rates using second scaled-down hardware configuration

Transaction Name Number Saved per Hour

Work Orders (WO) 793

Activities 954

Book Labor 232

Meter Readings 78

Purchase Orders 134

Requisitions 367

Issues/Returns 355

Quick WO Close 118

Assets 287

Parts 133

Table 8 shows the average amount of time to open the screen for the various transactions and

the amount of time to save data for the various transactions at 6-hour time intervals. Details of

the results are shown in Appendix: Detailed Results of Front-End Manual Reliability Tests.

Table 8. Average times (in seconds) to perform operations for various transactions for second scaled-down

hardware configuration



3.8 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.8 4.0


2.4 2.8 2.9 2.5 2.6 2.6


data over the 30-hour time period for the second hardware configuration.


Figure 3. Average transaction times for opening a screen and saving data over the 34-hour time period

The results showed that the transaction times changed very little over the 30-hour time period,

confirming the reliability of Infor EAM on SQL Server 2008 R2 running on Intel Xeon processor

7500 series.

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

START 6h 12h 18h 24h 30h

Tran

sact

ion

Tim

es

(se

c)


Average Screen Open Times Comparision

Average Save Data Times Comparision


3 Summary

Engineers from Infor and Microsoft conducted benchmark testing to confirm SQL Server 2008 R2

as an appropriate database for tier-1 deployments of Infor EAM running on Intel Xeon processor

7500 series.

A first test ran for a continuous 120 hours with a 2,400 concurrent-user load. The test showed

consistent results for both the “page open” and “page save” transactions for the duration of the

test. This simulates real-world scenarios in which the application server and database server are

expected to run for extended periods of time without any downtime.

A second test used reduced load and scaled-down hardware, representing typical production

infrastructure requirements. The test also showed consistent results for the duration of the test.

Future tests are planned to explore additional SQL Server database configurations, such as SQL

Server database server clustering and database mirroring.


4 Further Information

The following links provide more information.

For more information about the Microsoft/Infor alliance, see:

http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/partners/infor.aspx

For more information about Infor EAM, see:

http://www.infor.com/solutions/eam/

For more information about SQL Server 2008 R2, see:

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/r2.aspx

For a case study with Infor EAM with SQL Server, see:

http://www.infor.com/content/casestudies/mohawk.pdf/

For more information on Intel Xeon processors, see:

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/products/server/processor

http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/partners/infor.aspx

http://www.infor.com/solutions/eam/

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/r2.aspx

http://www.infor.com/content/casestudies/mohawk.pdf/

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/products/server/processor


5 Appendix: Detailed Results of Front-End

Manual Reliability Tests

The tables that follow show the average amount of time (in seconds) to open the screen for the

various transactions and the amount of time (in seconds) to save data for the transactions at

various time intervals for both the full hardware configuration and two scaled-down hardware

configurations.

5.1 Reliability Testing Results for Full Hardware Configuration The following tables show the detailed results of the front-end manual reliability tests obtained

using the full hardware configuration.

Table 9 shows the times to open the screen for 24-hour time intervals up to 120 hours.

Table 9. Time to open screen at various time intervals

Function Start 24 hours 48 hours 72 hours 96 hours 120 hours

Assets 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0

Issues 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0

Non-PO Receipts 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0

Parts 4.0 4.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 4.0

Purchase Orders 4.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 4.0 4.0

Quick WO Close 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0

Receipts 4.0 4.0 5.0 4.0 4.0 5.0

Requisitions 4.0 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 4.0

Call Center 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0

Work Order 5.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 5.0

Average 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.8 4.0


Table 10 shows the times to save data for 24-hour time intervals up to 120 hours.

Table 10. Time to save transaction at various time intervals


Asset 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 3.0

Part 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 2.0

Purchase Orders 2.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0

Purchase Orders, Parts 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 2.0 4.0

Requisition 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 2.0

Requisition, Parts 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0

Call Center 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 3.0

Work Order 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0

Average 2.4 2.8 2.9 2.5 2.6 2.6

5.2 Reliability Testing Results for Scaled-Down Hardware

Configuration The following tables show the detailed results of the front-end manual reliability tests obtained

using the two scaled-down hardware configurations.

Table 11 shows the times to open the screen for 6-hour time intervals up to 30 hours for the

first scaled-down hardware configuration and up to 34 hours for the second hardware

configuration.


Table 11. Times to open screen at various time intervals


Assets 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0

Issues 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0

Non-PO Receipts 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0

Parts 4.0 4.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 4.0

Purchase Orders 4.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 4.0 4.0

Quick WO Close 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0

Receipts 4.0 4.0 5.0 4.0 4.0 5.0

Requisitions 4.0 3.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 4.0

Call Center 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 4.0

Work Order 5.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 5.0

Average 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.8 4.0

Table 12 shows the times to save data for 6-hour time intervals up to 30 hours.

Table 12. TImes to save data


Asset 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 3.0

Part 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 2.0

Purchase Orders 2.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0

Purchase Orders, Parts 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 2.0 4.0

Requisition 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 2.0

Requisition, Parts 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0

Call Center 2.0 2.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 3.0

Work Order 3.0 4.0 3.0 3.0 4.0 3.0

Average 2.4 2.8 2.9 2.5 2.6 2.6

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