geodata services... arcsde service... performance and speed

Hi there, we get a lot of support calls regarding SDE performance and speed. Now with ArcGIS Server and Geodata Services (publishing GIS data as SOA web services) there is a lot more confusion. Actually its pretty easy once we get the hang of it... and ESRI provides a lot of tuning tools to make your work as a DBA much easier.

Firstly, am beginning to slowly migrate all the older SDE Service (traditional windows and unix/linux SDE processes) to direct connect (DC). We can push many of these server processes to client machines (coz there are faster CPUs and bigger RAM these days) and take advantage of more tuning parameters in the RDBMS itself (Oracle 10gR2 / SQL Server 2005). I don’t think there is any problem with this… based on my experience. The default SDE service was designed many years ago coz client machines were slow and traditionally we depended a lot on high end servers for performance and speed. With direct connect, we can bypass SDE service and make direct connection to databases.

Secondly, IF you still want to make use of the traditional SDE services… then make sure you understand the tuning issues. Most ppl make the SDE installation by following the wizard. This is ok for most cases, but as data grows bigger and more users connect … tuning is paramount. In any database implementations or any serious DBAs will tell … tuning is all about optimizing hardware, o/s and software. Fortunately, the traditional SDE service has tuning parameters inbuilt:

• giomgr.defs

Populates the SERVER_CONFIG repository table. Server initialization parameters that define how ArcSDE uses memory. Before creation of the repository tables, edit the giomgr.defs file with a text editor. After the SERVER_CONFIG table is created, use the sdeconfig administration command to alter parameters.

• dbtune.sde

Controls table and layer storage, populates the DBTUNE table. Configuration strings that ArcSDE appends to CREATE TABLE and CREATE INDEX SQL statements. Before creation of the repository, edit the dbtune.sde file in a text editor. After the DBTUNE table is created, use sdedbtune to edit the table.

Finally, there’s a NEW update with ArcSDE now. This is extremely EXCITING. With the release of 9.2 and the merger or ArcSDE in ArcGIS Server. ESRI has released Geodata Services. This web service is totally different from the traditional SDE Service prior to 9.2. Geodata Service uses Web Services technology to provide access to the contents of a geodatabase for data query, extraction, and replication. This capability is always enabled when you publish a geodata service. Web Services is part of the SOA capabilities of ArcSDE that is released with 9.2. You can activate this Web Services if you already have a web server installed.