FrontBase Documentation

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    4. Administering a FrontBase Server
      4.10. Tuning FrontBase
Updated: 20-Nov-2000
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4.10.2. Raw Device Driver

FrontBase's Raw Device Driver (RDD) mechanism
With today's fast computers, most performance issues in a database server are related to how fast you can get data off the hard disk. One way to increase the performance in this area, is to bypass the host OS filesystem. In FrontBase this is done through the deployment of the Raw Device Driver (RDD) module. RDD even allows you to specify a raw partition to be used as datastore. Additionally, RDD allows you to specify the size of its combined write-through and read cache.

When should RDD be used?
RDD is typically used in combination with table caching so that smaller tables are cached 100%, while larger tables are cached via the RDD cache. An example is an indexing solution. You would typically have two smaller tables, WORDS and DOCUMENTS, with the third larger table being the relation table, HIT. With FrontBase, you would cache WORDS and DOCUMENTS 100%, while letting the RDD manage the HIT table. 100-300 MB of RDD cache memory might work well, depending on the size of the HIT table.

Adjusting RDD settings
RDD settings are specified when the database is created or started. Both the FBManager and FBWebManager let you specify RDD settings with their respective "Start Advanced" commands. From the command-line, you specify RDD settings when starting a FrontBase process.

If you have feedback or questions on this document, please send e-mail to doc-feedback@frontbase.com. Please reference the section number and topic. Thanks!!