Two firsts for the TPC: A benchmark to characterize databases virtualized in the cloud, and a publicly-available, complete end-to-end reference kit

Abstract

The TPC formed a subcommittee in 2010 to develop TPC V, a benchmark for virtualized databases. We soon discovered two major issues. First, a database benchmark running in a VM, or even a consolidation scenario of a few database VMs, is no longer adequate. There is demand for a benchmark that emulates cloud computing, e.g., a mix of heterogeneous VMs, and dynamic load elasticity for each VM. Secondly, waiting for system or database vendors to develop benchmarking kits to run such a benchmark is problematic. Hence, we are developing a publicly-available, end-to-end reference kit that will run against the open source PostgreSQL DBMS. This paper describes TPC V and the proposed architecture of its reference kit; provides a progress report; and presents results from prototyping experiments with the reference kit. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.