Intel AS/400 RISC Server PHP Zend Core for, System Configuration, Performance Characterization

6.2 PHP - Zend Core for i

This section discusses the different performance aspects of running PHP transaction based applications using Zend Core for i, including DB access considerations, utilization of RPG program call, and the benefits of using Zend Platform.

Zend Core for i

Zend Core for i delivers a rapid development and production PHP foundation for applications using PHP running on i with IBM DB2 for i or MySQL databases. Zend Core for i includes the capability for Web servers to communicate with DB2 and MySQL databases. It is easy to install, and is bundled with Apache 2, PHP 5, and PHP extensions such as ibm_db2.

The PHP application used for this study is a DVD store application that simulates users logging into an online catalog, browsing the catalog, and making DVD purchases. The entire system configuration is a two-tier model with tier one executing the driver that emulates the activities of Web users. Tier two comprises the Web application server that intercepts the requests and sends database transactions to a DB2 for i or MySQL server, configured on the same machine.

System Configuration

The hardware setup used for this study comprised a driver machine, and a separate system that hosted both the web and database server. The driver machine emulated Web users of an online DVD store generating HTTP requests. These HTTP requests were routed to the Web server that contained the DVD store application logic. The Web server processed the HTTP requests from the Web browsers and maintained persistent connections to the database server jobs. This allowed the connection handle to be preserved after the transaction completed; future incoming transactions re-use the same connection handle. The web and database server was a 2 processor partition on an IBM System i Model 9406-570 server (POWER5 2.2 Ghz) with 2GB of storage. Both IBM i 5.4 and 6.1 were used in the measurements, but for this workload there was minimal difference between the two versions.

Database and Workload Description

The workload used simulates an Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) environment. A driver simulates users logging in and browsing the catalog of available products via simple search queries. Returning customers are presented with their online purchase transactions history, while new users may register to create customer accounts. Users may select items they would like to purchase and proceed to check out or continue to view available products. In this workload, the browse-buy ratio is 5:1. In total, for a given order (business transaction) there are 10 web requests consisting of login, initiate shopping, five product browse requests, shopping cart update, checkout, and product purchase. This is a transaction oriented workload, utilizing commit processing to insure data integrity. In up to 2% of the orders, rollbacks occur due to insufficient product quantities. Restocking is done once every 30 seconds to replenish the product quantities to control the number of rollbacks.

Performance Characterization

The metrics used to characterize the performance of the workload were the following:

IBM i 6.1 Performance Capabilities Reference - January/April/October 2008
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