Upgrading to Advantage Database Server 9.1 Get the Advantage

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1 Upgrading to Advantage Database Server 9.1 Get the Advantage Product Datasheet Advantage Database Server 9.1 offers many benefits over 8.1 including performance enhancements and functionality that can help your application perform better, make development easier, open new doors for your application, and reach new heights in satisfying your customers. Performance, Performance, Performance Nothing is more exciting than knowing your customer is getting the information they need at lightning fast speeds. With your application providing the business domain functionality, Advantage provides the speed. With Advantage 9.1 we have increased performance once again. Here s how: Improved Transaction Performance Advantage 9.1 provides improved performance in situations involving larger transactions (transactions involving thousands of updates). In particular, if multiple SQL statements are run during the transaction, filtering and processing of updated records can be significantly faster. Enhanced Reindex Reindex performance has been enhanced. In the past the table was scanned once as each index was created. In Advantage 9.1, all indexes are created based on a single scan of the table data, resulting in increased performance, most notably on larger tables. SQL Engine and AOF Performance Enhancements The server will now attempt to optimize multi-segmented AOFs connected with the logical AND operator by evaluating the most restricted segment first. When the evaluation of the more restrictive segments results in only a few rows passing the filter, the server will shortcircuit the index scan of the less restrictive segments, avoiding the cost of scanning many index pages. This optimization is most useful when the filter is applied to a very large table (>1,000,000 rows) and when one or more conditions are significantly more restrictive than the others. Since AOFs are used extensively by the SQL engine, this optimization will provide a positive impact on the performance of certain SQL statements. 64bit Windows and Linux Servers In order to further enhance scalability, support for the x86_64 architecture was added to the Advantage Database Servers for Windows and Linux. On computers with an x86_64 processor and a 64 bit Operating System the Advantage Database Server will now be able to use memory in excess of 4GB. The extra memory will allow more users to access the server concurrently and increase the amount of information the server can cache when processing queries. Check out the Appendix for detailed comparison data on 64 bit performance.

2 New Features and Functionality These enhancements and improvements allow your application to grow with the changing needs and demands of your customers. With these added features, utilities, and functionality, Advantage continues to provide a feature rich product for business application development while maintaining true to some of the fundamental values you have grown accustom to including high performance, scalability, quality, low administration, small foot print, and simple architecture. SQL Debugger A fully functional SQL debugger is integrated into the Advantage Data Architect (ARC) SQL Utility. The debugger can be used to set breakpoints, step through scripts line by line, view variable data, call stack information, and other useful debugging information. The debugger can be used to find problems in existing SQL scripts, and can be helpful when writing and testing new scripts. The SQL debugger provides the following functionality: Line breakpoints Line-by-line statement execution Object breakpoints (breakpoints in stored procedures, triggers, functions, etc.) Variable inspection Call stack inspection Debug connections made by external applications (applications other than ARC) Break into script execution at any point. Useful for finding infinite loops or portions of a script that are consuming too much time. Persist changes made to database objects (stored procedures, triggers, etc) back to the database by simply choosing to save the editor buffer. Dynamic Server Configuration Advantage is no longer limited to the initially configured number of connections, tables, indexes, work areas, and locks. If all the available resources are in use, Advantage will allocate more resources, as opposed to returning an error as it has in the past. The configuration values are no longer maximum values, but used as initial allocation values. This can be convenient if the majority of your installations never need more resources than originally configured, but a few outliers often exceed your initial configuration values. Instead of returning errors, Advantage will automatically adjust to handle the new requirements. Notifications Notifications are a mechanism that allows an action at the server to proactively notify clients that an event they are interested in has occurred. For example, an event can be signaled by a trigger on a table. When the trigger is executed all connections waiting on the event will be notified. Clients use the system procedure sp_createevent to register for event notifications. Once registered, the client can call sp_waitforevent or sp_waitforanyevent to efficiently wait for the event to be signaled. Events are signaled using the sp_signalevent procedure. Replication Enhancements A new pause property has been added to replication subscriptions. This new property can be used to pause replication processing on a specific subscription. New merge functionality has been added. By enabling the MERGE UPDATE article option, if a record being updated is not found at the target, it is then inserted instead of returning an error. Likewise with the MERGE INSERT article option enabled, if a record being inserted already exists at the target, it will be updated rather than returning an error.

3 Support for the SQL MERGE Statement The MERGE statement attempts to match each record of one table with one or more records of another table. For each matching record found in the first table, an UPDATE on the record is performed using the UPDATE specification. If no matching record is found, an INSERT into the first table is performed using the INSERT specification. If the UPDATE specification is not defined, no action will be taken when a match occurs. Likewise if the INSERT specification is not defined, no action will be taken when no matches occur. New SQL RDD for Visual Objects The VO AXSQL RDDs (AXSQLADT, AXSQLCDX, AXSQLNTX) are now fully supported. These new drivers provide a native way to utilize the Advantage SQL Engine using the existing VO RDD architecture. Previously these drivers were released only as prototypes. Support for VarChar and VarBinary Field Types Support has been added for two new field types for storing variable length data in Advantage ADT tables. These new VarChar and VarBinary fields are created with a maximum length that can be up to 64,000 bytes. These fields are similar in usage to the existing Char and Raw field types except that when the data is retrieved from the field it is not space or zero padded (unless the data was specifically stored with spaces or zeros on the end). Data for these field types is stored entirely in the table and does not result in memo file usage. Miscellaneous SQL Engine Changes Named and unnamed parameters are now supported in all script statements, except when they are in the cursor definition or in the text of an EXECUTE IMMEDIATE statement. Added support for the ALTER PROCEDURE and ALTER TRIGGER statements New Default User Groups The Data dictionary now has predefined roles for administrators (DB:Admin), backup users (DB:Backup), and SQL debuggers (DB:Debug). These user groups have predefined access permissions that allow the users in the group to perform the specified functionality. In addition, the Data dictionary now has a predefined role (DB:Public) that includes all users in the database. This predefined role makes it possible to grant permissions on specific database objects to all users in the database. Support for Field and Record Constraints to DBF Tables Previously only available on ADT tables, field and record level constraints are now available for use on DBF tables that are part of a data dictionary. Constraints include, but are not limited to: default field values, minimum field values, maximum field values, etc. Binary Concatenation Operator Supported in DBF Tables Support for the binary concatenation operator (specified with the semicolon character) has been added to the DBF table format and can be used when you open DBF/CDX tables with the new ADS_VFP table type. This provides an efficient mechanism for combining different field types in a single index without the use of conversion functions as well as the ability to avoid having completely NULL keys when one field in an index expression is NULL. Note that if you use this operator, the resulting index will not be compatible with Visual FoxPro. Variable Length Key Expressions Supported The ability to specify index expressions that may result in variable length data is now supported. For example, if you use the TRIM() function in index expressions without having to use other functions to pad the result to a fixed length.

4 Enhanced Backup and Restore Functionality Advantage Online Backup functionality will now include DLLs for Advantage Extended Procedures (AEP s) and Triggers in the backup image, and restore them when performing a restore operation. Ability to Flip Index Descend Flag at Runtime The AdsSetIndexDirection API can be used to change the value of the descend flag, so a single index can be used to traverse data in either direction. AdsSkipUnique API The AdsSkipUnique API will allow emulation of the SQL DISTINCT operator when operating at the table/ navigational level. Each skip moves to the next unique record value in the specified index. Support to current technologies including Advantage now supports: Embarcadaro RAD Studio 2007, 2009, and Prism Crystal Reports v11 R2 and Crystal Reports 2008 Visual FoxPro v9 For a complete and current listing of supported IDEs and platforms click here. Enhanced FoxPro Support Advantage support for FoxPro DBF tables and CDX/IDX index files has been enhanced to include all data types supported by Visual FoxPro 9. This includes support for Auto-increment, BLOB (Binary Large Objects), Currency, DateTime (timestamp), VarBinary, and VarChar field types. Null field support has also been added to give true SQL-style NULL handling for Visual FoxPro DBF tables. Support for true unique (candidate) indexes is now also available on DBF tables; this allows for better SQL optimization, the definition of primary keys, and the creation of referential integrity rules. Additionally, support for long field names with DBF tables has been added. In addition to supporting the robust and high-performance Advantage proprietary locking on the new table format, Advantage also supports Visual FoxPro compatibility locking, which allows you to use Advantage-enabled applications to share tables with existing Visual FoxPro applications that are not using Advantage. Support for Visual FoxPro-Compatible Collation Tables Support has been added for Visual FoxPro-compatible collations for code pages 437, 620, 737, 850, 852, 857, 861, 865, 866, 895, 1250, 1251, 1252, 1253, and This includes the Visual FoxPro collations CZECH, DUTCH, GENERAL, GERMAN, GREEK, HUNGARY, ICELAND, MACHINE, NORDAN, POLISH, RUSSIAN, SLOVAK, SPANISH, SWEFIN, TURKISH, and UNIQWT. These collations can be used with Visual FoxPro tables and Advantage ADT tables. One benefit of these tables is that they provide the ability to give case-sensitive query and filter capabilities to normal character fields. In addition, they provide for better sorting characteristics when using characters with diacritics. They also provide support for expansion and contraction characters. For example, when using one of the Spanish collations, the character pairs "ch" and "ll" are handled and sorted as a single collation element. These collations are dynamically loaded on demand and do not have to be stamped into the server. 4

5 Utilities that make development easier. Quality utilities make development faster, easier, more convenient and more enjoyable. Advantage Database Server 9 sports new utilities and improvements to utilities you have grown familiar with. These combine to make working with Advantage easier and more enjoyable than ever. Advantage Data Architect (ARC) Enhancements The SQL Utility has been modified to include a visual SQL debugger. The debugger allows developers to step lineby-line through SQL scripts, stored procedures, triggers and user defined functions. Users can set breakpoints, inspect variables, inspect the call stack, etc. The SQL Utility now uses a multi-tabbed editor, allowing multiple documents to be opened at once. All windows in the SQL Utility are now dockable. Keyboard shortcuts in the SQL Utility can be modified via the SQL options dialog. Added find and replace functionality to the SQL Utility. TDataSet Descendant Version Management Utility The TDataSet Switch utility allows developers to maintain multiple projects on a single PC, even if each project uses a different version of the Advantage TDataSet Descendant. The utility provides an automated mechanism which modifies the version of the Advantage TDataSet Descendant that the IDE uses, in addition to updating the Advantage Client Engine DLLs in the path. The utility is installed with the Advantage TDataSet Descendant (Delphi 3 through 7) and the Advantage Data Access Components (Delphi 2006 and newer). The TDataSet_Switch.exe program is installed in the Switch subdirectory of the Advantage TDataSet Descendant Visual FoxPro Upsizing Utility To complement the enhanced support for Visual FoxPro tables, this release includes an upsizing utility that aids in updating your application to use your existing Visual FoxPro tables with Advantage Database Server. It is not necessary to update your tables or indexes to allow them to be used with Advantage Database Server. However, the upsizing utility will export much of the information in your Visual FoxPro Database Container (.DBC) to an Advantage Data Dictionary (.add) to allow support for features such as long field names, primary keys, referential integrity, and triggers. This utility, written as a Visual FoxPro application that you can modify, currently has the ability to export view definitions, referential integrity rules, default field values, field and table validation rules, and primary keys. In Conclusion Advantage Database Server 9 makes development fun again. With its lightening fast speed, new features and functionality and utilities to make your life easier the choice is clear. Upgrading to Advantage 9.1 may just be the smartest business decision you make all year. 5

6 APPENDIX How does ADS 32-bit performance compare to 64-bit? 1 We ran a few tests in our lab to compare the performance differences between the ADS 32-bit and ADS 64-bit Servers. The results were significant and using the 64-bit server could noticeably boost the performance of your application. Test 1 We ran the following query on a quad core 64-bit Windows 2003 x64 server against a total table and index size that exceeded 1GB. SELECT * FROM test WHERE f1 = 0 AND f2 = 0 AND f3 = 0 AND f4 = 0 AND f5 = 1 AND ID1 IN (7,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45, 46,47,48, 49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75, 76,77,78,79, 80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104, 105,106,107,108,110,111,112,113,114,115,116!,118,119,120,121,122,123,125,127,128,129,130,131, 132,133,134,136,137,138,140,141,142,144,145!,146,147,395,413,415,429,430,431) AND ID2 IN (2,3,4,6,37,38,39,40,41,43) AND limit = ORDER BY ID1, ID2 Resulting times: 32-bit ADS: 7.5 seconds. 64-bit ADS: 4.1 seconds. (56% faster) Test 2 We ran some TPCC tests on the same quad core 64-bit Windows 2003 x64 server. The test included 25 payment clients and 25 order clients. Order clients: 32-bit ADS: 1483 iterations 64-bit ADS: 1954 iterations (32% faster) Contact Us: North America Advantageinfo@Sybase.com Germany ADS-team@Sybase.com +49 (0) 7032 / United Kingdom AdvantageUK@Sybase.com +44 (0) Payment clients: 32-bit ADS: iterations 64-bit ADS: iterations (18% faster) Our tests published above certainly can not accurately predict any performance gains you might see in your application. Many factors contribute to increased application performance. However, the results do show that a substantial performance gain may be achieved by switching to the 64-bit Server and technology. 1 Advantage 64-bit Server Version or newer is required ianywhere SOLUTIONS, INC. WORLDWIDE HEADQUARTERS ONE SYBASE DRIVE DUBLIN, CA U.S.A. Copyright 2009 Sybase, Inc. All rights reserved. Unpublished rights reserved under U.S. copyright laws. Sybase, the Sybase logo, and Advantage Database Server are trademarks of Sybase, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. indicates registration in the United States. Specifications are subject to change without notice. 06/09 L03212