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Performance report: Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0

Nirmala Venkatraman, Performance Architect, IBM
Nirmala Venkatraman is a Performance Architect on the Lotus Domino server performance team. You can reach her at nvenkatr@us.ibm.com.
Razeyah Stephen, Manager, Lotus Domino Performance Team, IBM
Razeyah Stephen is manager of the IBM Lotus Domino and IBM Lotus Sametime performance teams. She joined Iris Associates in October 1998.

Summary:  This article reports on the performance of the IBM® components of the Alloy™ by IBM and SAP 1.0 software. Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 software simplifies your interaction with people, processes, and information by providing intuitive access to SAP software and information through the familiar IBM Lotus Notes®.

Date:  29 Jun 2009 (Published 05 May 2009)
Level:  Intermediate
Activity:  5437 views

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Alloy by IBM and SAP wiki

Introduction

Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 software provides access to selected business process functions and data from SAP applications through IBM Lotus Notes. As a result, business users get the features that they need to perform functions such as the following:

  • Reports management. Personalize, schedule, and access reports from SAP Business Suite applications using Lotus Notes while maintaining data security. Share reports with coworkers without violating security, and view reports both online and offline.
  • Leave management. Approve and submit leave requests from the Lotus Notes environment. View contextual information to make approval decisions. Leave requests are processed according to approval guidelines in SAP ERP.
  • Travel management. Approve and submit travel requests from the Lotus Notes environment. View contextual information to ensure cost-effective travel that fully complies with corporate policies supported by SAP ERP.
  • Workflow decision management. Approve or reject work steps contained in SAP applications while working within Lotus Notes.

You can read more about Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0.

Figure 1 shows the configuration or landscape of the various components of Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 used for this performance study.


Figure 1. Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 configuration
Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 configuration

Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 workload

The performance of the IBM components of Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 were measured using a workload that combined the Lotus® Domino® Notesbench N8Mail workload with Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 Human Resources requests. The combined workload ran with 1000 concurrent, active simulated users, the mail requests went to the Lotus Domino 8.0.2 mail server, and the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 requests went to the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server through the Lotus Domino 8.0.2 mail server. The 1000 concurrent, active simulated users were made up of 100 managers and 900 non-managerial employees. For a detailed description of the Lotus Domino Notesbench N8Mail workload, refer to the developerWorks® article, "IBM Lotus Notes V8 workloads: Taking performance to a new level."

Table 1 presents the details of the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 requests generated by 1000 concurrent, active simulated users.


Table 1. Initial Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 requests and rates generated by 1000 concurrent, active simulated users
Requests Rates for each eight-hour day
Leave creation40
Trip creation20
Workflow approval processing60
Reports processed for employees and managers. Report templates for employees had an average size of 100 KB. The size of the report templates for managers ranged from 100 KB to 500 KB.610
Total730

Disclaimer: All our tests are lab measurements; therefore, the results can differ from those achieved in real customer environments.


Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 configuration and results

Tables 2 and 3 show the hardware and software configuration for the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server.


Table 2. Configuration for the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server
ModelIntel® 64-bit platform
Processors for test / speed 8 cores at 2.5 GHz
Installed memory8 GB
Active physical drivesHP SmartArray P400 with 6 SAS disk drives, 146 GB each
Active logical volumes4 RAID-0 logical volumes for Operating system, Pagefile, Lotus Domino EXE files, and Lotus Domino data
Operating systemMicrosoft® Windows® 2003 Server Enterprise (64-bit)

Table 3. Notes.ini settings for the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server
UsageNotes.ini settings
Used for all testsNSF_BUFFER_POOL_SIZE_MB=256
AMGR_DISABLEMAILLOOKUP=1
AMGR_UNTRIGGEREDMAILINTERVAL=1
JAVAMAXHEAPSIZE=512MB

The Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server was set up on an Intel server running Microsoft Windows 2003 64-bit Standard Server with eight cores and 8 GB of physical memory. The storage configuration was composed of six 146 GB internal disk drives. The Lotus Domino 8.0.2 executable files were installed on one 136 GB RAID-0 logical volume. The Lotus Domino data directory was set up on a 272 GB RAID-0 logical volume. Network access was through a single 1 Gbit Ethernet adapter running in full-duplex mode.

Table 4 shows the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server resource utilization during an eight-hour steady-state interval with 1000 concurrent, active simulated users. There were negligible disk I/O operations/second on the Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server during the test.


Table 4. Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 server resource utilization
ResourceResults
Processor percent busy2.7
HTTP process virtual memory in MB1150
Available memory in MB6300
Network bytes / second48300

Lotus Domino mail server configuration and results

Tables 5 and 6 show the hardware and software configuration for the Lotus Domino mail server.


Table 5. Configuration of the Lotus Domino mail server
ModelIntel 64-bit server
Processors for test / speed8 cores at 2.5 GHz
Installed memory 8 GB
Active physical drivesHP Smart Array P400 with 6x146 GB SAS disk drives (internal), HP Smart Array P800 with 14x72 GB SAS disks
Active logical volumesThree logical volumes on Array P400 for operating system, Pagefile, and Lotus Domino EXE files

One RAID-0 logical volume on Array P800 for the Lotus Domino data directory
Operating system Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Enterprise x64

Table 6. Notes.ini settings for the Lotus Domino mail server
UsageNotes.ini settings
Used for all testsCREATE_R8_DATABASES=1
Server_pool_tasks=80
Server_max_concurrent_trans=100
Show_Server_Performance=1
RouterDbCacheSize=2100
NSF_DBcache_maxentries=2100
SCHEDULE_NO_VALIDATE=1
NSF_Buffer_Pool_Size_MB=512
NLCACHE_SIZE=67108864

The Lotus Domino server 8.0.2 (32-bit) was set up as a single Lotus Domino partition server on an Intel server running Microsoft Windows 2003 64-bit Standard Server with eight processors cores and 8 GB of physical memory. The storage configuration was composed of six 146 GB disk drives (internal) and an HP StorageWorks Smart Array P800 with fourteen 72 GB disk drives. The Lotus Domino executable files were installed on one 136 GB RAID-0 logical volume. The mail databases were spread across one 956 GB RAID-0 logical volume, Network access was through a single 1 GBit Ethernet adapter running in full-duplex mode.

Table 7 shows the Lotus Domino 8.0.2 mail server resource utilization during an eight-hour steady-state interval with 1000 concurrent, active simulated users.


Table 7. Lotus Domino 8.0.2 mail server resource utilization
ResourceResults
Processor percent busy1.3
Disk I/O / second177
Available memory in MB4058
Network bytes / second649762

Conclusion

Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 provides access to selected business process functions and data from SAP applications through Lotus Notes. As seen in the performance test results, the IBM components of Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 are highly scalable and use nominal system resources.

We did not uncover bottlenecks in the IBM components of Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0 during our performance testing. In anticipation of a growing number of Lotus Notes and SAP users in an enterprise deployment of Alloy by IBM and SAP, we expect to scale the transaction rates and concurrent users on a single server and a Lotus Domino cluster in future releases of the product.


Appendix: Explanation of Notes.ini settings


Notes.Ini parameter nameExplanation
Create_R8_Databases Applies to Lotus Domino 8 servers. Set it to 1 to create new ODS 48 databases on Lotus Domino 8 servers.
NSF_Buffer_Pool_Size_MBSpecifies the maximum size (in bytes) of the NSF buffer pool, a section of memory dedicated to buffering I/O transfers between Lotus Domino and disk storage.
NSF_Dbcache_Maxentries Specifies the number of databases that a server can hold in its database cache at one time.
RouterDbCacheSizeSpecifies the size of the router database cache used to cache mail databases in the router process.
SCHEDULE_NO_VALIDATE Enables or disables whether SchedMgr validates its busytime database entry on a daily basis, as follows:
0 (default) - Enables validation
1 - Disables validation
Server_MAX_CONCURRENT_TRANS Sets the limit for the number of concurrently scheduled transactions on a server.
Server_Pool_TasksIdentifies the total number of physical threads in the Lotus Domino server (DbServer) threadpool.
Server_Show_PerformanceSpecifies whether server performance events are displayed on the console. Set this variable to 1 to display server performance events on the console.
AMGR_DISABLEMAILLOOKUPBy default, a mail-triggered agent performs a mail lookup of the user who last modified it. The agent runs only if the server running the agent is also the user's mail server. When users create or modify a mail-triggered agent on a server other than their own mail server, you can use this setting on the server to disable mail lookup so that the agent can run. Without this setting, mail-triggered agents perform mail lookups.
AMGR_UNTRIGGEREDMAILINTERVALSpecifies a delay (in minutes) between the running of the agent manager's check for untriggered mail. Valid values are 1 minute to 1440 minutes, which is the number of minutes in a day.
JAVAMAXHEAPSIZESpecifies the maximum size of Java™ Heap for the embedded JVM in Lotus Domino. Applies to a Lotus Domino server running IBM components in Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0.

About the authors

Nirmala Venkatraman is a Performance Architect on the Lotus Domino server performance team. You can reach her at nvenkatr@us.ibm.com.

Razeyah Stephen is manager of the IBM Lotus Domino and IBM Lotus Sametime performance teams. She joined Iris Associates in October 1998.

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