IBM and TEMENOS T24 workload

optimization on the new IBM PureFlex

System
TEMENOS T24 Enterprise performance testing using IBM POWER7 and x86
hybrid architectures with IBM DB2 v 9.7

Authors
Temenos UK
Simon Henman
&
IBM Systems and Technology Group ISV Enablement
Murali Neralla
John Nuttle
May 2012

Copyright IBM Corporation, 2012

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IBM and Temenos T24 workload optimization on the new IBM PureFlex System
Table of contents
Abstract........................................................................................................................................1
Introduction .................................................................................................................................1
Results (monthly close of business) at a glance ..................................................................................... 1
Test environment topology ........................................................................................................2
Physical component layout ...................................................................................................................... 2
SAN Storage ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Storwize V7000 configuration .................................................................................................................. 5
Easy Tier.................................................................................................................................................. 5
Test methodology .................................................................................................................................... 6
Test description........................................................................................................................................ 6
Data preparation ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Data build process............................................................................................................. 6
Bulk Test .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Bulk Test configuration and setup ..................................................................................... 7
Online test................................................................................................................................................ 9
Running the tests......................................................................................................................10
Results (COB)........................................................................................................................................ 11
Easy Tier results with TEMENOS T24................................................................................................... 11
Summary....................................................................................................................................13
Resources..................................................................................................................................14
Trademarks and special notices..............................................................................................15

IBM and Temenos T24 workload optimization on the new IBM PureFlex System
Abstract
This white paper describes the testing and optimization of the TEMENOS T24 core banking
solution running on the IBM PureFlex System.
Temenos, as a long-standing IBM Business Partner IBM, has regularly benchmarked its
products on IBM hardware and software as part of that teaming. This paper describes a
benchmark of the Temenos T24 product on the IBM PureFlex System.
The intended audience for this paper includes technical consultants working with banks on the
hardware options available to run a T24 solution and bank employees planning the deployment
of T24 on IBM PureFlex.

Introduction
TEMENOS T24 is one of the most widely-used international banking systems in the world. It is a 24x7
real-time banking application that provides multiple application server support to a large numbers of banks.
As one of the worlds most widely used banking systems, T24 is an open and highly configurable system,
incorporating industry-standard practices based on the Temenos implementations in 125 countries.
An IBM PureFlex System was made available to Temenos for a short period prior to product
announcement. A join IBM-Temenos team carried out testing to meet the following objectives:
Investigate the performance of T24E for Java and T24 on the new IBM PureFlex platform
Test the performance of T24E for Java with IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM DB2
on IBM AIX and Linux at transaction rates typical of a midsized bank with 5 million accounts.
Test the performance of T24E 1 in a hybrid environment with some components of the solution
deployed on Intel nodes and some on IBM POWER7 nodes the first time T24E has been
tested in a hybrid environment
Test the performance of T24E for Java with the IBM Storwize V7000 Easy Tier feature
Compare the performance of T24 and T24E for Java.

Note that hardware requirements and sizing for actual customers are not to be inferred from this paper as
other factors, such as architecture, scalability, high availability, additional applications, and growth must
also be considered to size a workload correctly.

Results (monthly close of business) at a glance

The system processed 5 million accounts capitalization during COB process at the rate of 330 and 345
transactions per second (TPS), respectively (see Table 1). This was also tested using a mix of both
architectures.

1
Temenos T24 and Temenos T24E for Java are identical functionally but run in different environments. T24 has its own c-based
application server, T24E for Java runs in a JEE application server, such as IBM WebSphere Application Server

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 Platform TPS Threads Application DB
processor processor
POWER7-T24E- 330 36 66% 30%
WebSphere
Application Server
x86-T24E- 345 36 60% 40%
WebSphere
Application Server
Table 1. Results (monthly close of business) at a glance

Test environment topology

The integrated design of the PureFlex System starts with a single rack capable of holding up to 14 nodes.
Those nodes can be any combination of Intel and IBM POWER processor-based nodes. In addition, built
into the PureFlex System rack, are switches for Ethernet and Fiber Channel (FC) connectivity. The
PureFlex System is designed for full redundancy, which allows for multiple switches, fans, and power
supplies to ensure that there is no single point of failure. Multiple PureFlex System racks can be combined
to satisfy growth and larger configuration requirements.

Physical component layout

The PureFlex System used for the Temenos T24 testing used one IBM POWER7 compute node, two Intel
compute nodes, and an IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage system. The PureFlex System chassis
management module provides the management capabilities for all the elements in the chassis. The
Storwize V7000 Unified storage subsystem is attached through an integrated FC QLogic 8 Gb switch.
Figure 1 shows all the components and the physical layout used during this testing.

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 PureFlex System Chassis

8Gb Fibre Channel switch

Intel node

10Gb Ethernet switch

IBM Storwize V7000

Intel node
Workload
drivers 2x8 Gb
Fibre
Power node Channel

PureFlex System
chassis management
module

Figure 1: The test environment displaying the components and layout

This section provides the software and hardware details of each individual partition.
Database server partition specifications (POWER7 node):
POWER7 3.2 GHz 7 cores, 96 GB
IBM AIX 7.1 TL01 SP01
One 10 Gb Ethernet (Virtual),
Two 8 Gb Fiber Channel (Virtual)
DB2 V9.7 fp5 and additional fixes (build 28524)
One IBM Storwize V7000

Application server partition specifications (POWER7 node):

POWER7 3.2 GHz 24 cores, 24 GB
AIX 7.1 TL01 SP01
One 10 Gb Ethernet (Virtual)
Two 8 Gb Fiber Channel (Virtual)
IBM WebSphere Application Server v8 FP2

Virtual I/O server partition specifications (POWER7 node):

POWER7 3.2 GHz 1 core, 3 GB
VIOS 2.2.1.1

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 One 10 Gb Ethernet
Two 8 Gb Fiber Channel

Application server node specifications (Intel node):

Intel 2.7GHz E5-268016 cores, 48 GB
RHEL 6.2 64-bit
One 10 Gb Ethernet
IBM WebSphere Application Server v8 FP2

MQ Server node specifications (Intel node):

Intel 2.7GHz E5-2680 8 cores, 24 GB
RHEL 6.2 64-bit
One 10 Gb Ethernet
IBM WebSphere MQ v7.1

IBM Storwize V7000 specifications:

Software version 6.3.0.1
One control enclosure
Twenty-two 600 GB 10K rpm SAS hard disk drives (HDDs)
Two 300 GB solid-state drives (SSDs)

SAN storage
IBM Storwize V7000 Unified is a virtualized storage system designed to consolidate block and file
workloads into a single storage system for simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable
capacity, performance, and high availability. IBM Storwize V7000 Unified storage also offers improved
efficiency and flexibility through built-in SSD optimization, thin provisioning, and non-disruptive migration of
data from existing storage. The system can virtualize and reuse existing disk systems, offering a greater
potential of return on investment (ROI). Highlights of the Storwize V7000 Unified storage include:
File support: Consolidates block and file storage in a single system for simplicity and greater
efficiency
IBM Active Cloud Engine: Enables highly-efficient policy-based management of files to reduce
costs through use of tiered storage

Clustered systems: Ability for block systems to both scale up and scale out for performance and
capacity.
Automated storage tier: Advanced technology for automatically migrating data between storage
tiers based on real-time usage analysis patterns
New-generation GUI: Easy-to-use data management designed with a graphical user interface
(GUI) and point-and-click system management capabilities
Virtualized storage: Built-in efficiency technologies virtualization, thin provisioning, Easy Tier,
and more

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Storwize V7000 configuration
The internal disk used for the testing resides in 1 control enclosure with twenty-two 600 GB 10K rpm SAS
and two 300 GB SSDs. Storwize V7000 is configured with three 6+P RAID5 managed disks (MDisks) for
SAS with stripe size set to 128 and one RAID1 pair for SSDs. These are in a single Easy Tier enabled
pool (refer to Figure 2).

Figure 2: Storwize V7000 configuration

Easy Tier
Easy Tier is a no-charge feature of the IBM Storwize V7000 system that brings enterprise storage
functions to the midrange segment. It enables automated sub-volume data placement throughout different
storage tiers to intelligently align the system with current workload requirements and to optimize the usage
of SSDs.
This functionality includes the ability to automatically and nondisruptively relocate data (at the extent level)
from one tier to another tier in either direction to achieve the best available storage performance for your
workload in your environment.
Easy Tier reduces the I/O latency for hot spots, but it does not replace storage cache. Both Easy Tier and
storage cache solves a similar access latency workload problem, but these two methods weigh differently
in the algorithmic construction based on locality of reference, recency, and frequency. As Easy Tier
monitors I/O performance from the device end (after cache), it can pick up the performance issues that
cache cannot solve and complement the overall storage system performance.

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In general, the I/O of the storage environment is monitored on volumes and the entire volume is always
placed inside an appropriate storage tier. Determining the amount of I/O is too complex for monitoring I/O
statistics on a single extent and moving them manually to an appropriate storage tier and reacting to
workload changes is very tedious task.

Test methodology
The primary objective of the test was to measure the performance of T24 Enterprise for Java R12 on IBM
DB2 V9.7 in a realistic, typical retail banking environment. The following section describes the T24 test
environment and the test cases used.

Test description
The transaction test cases and mix percentages were compiled from existing Temenos clients to simulate
real-world scenarios and the daily processing load of a typical retail bank with a suitable amount of
transaction history. Tests of both online and bulk usage are reported here.
The bulk test was of interest accrual and capitalization, or close-of-business (COB) or end-of-day, and
consisted of a full T24 month-end close of business run, as per standard T24 benchmarking conditions.
The online test was of nine different transaction types (including withdrawals, ATM transactions, and
deposits) to represent typical activity during business hours in a retail bank.

Data preparation
The data volumes used in the tests are shown in Table 2.

Data set 5 million CAP

Customers 5,000,000

Accounts all local

5,000,000
currency

Branches 2000

Transaction history 1 x month full history

Table 2: Data volumes

The data for the benchmark was prepared using a methodology adapted for mid-tier benchmarking. Two
sets of T24 R12 model bank were prepared on the JBASE database, 1 million accounts and 5 million
accounts, based on the actual account volumes required and these were then imported using the T24
DBImport utility into the IBM DB2 database. Two sets of backup were taken after the database import
process. The two sets of data were used to test the scalability of the environment.

Data build process

The process involves the following steps:

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 1. Create scripts for the three transaction types: Customer, Account, and Balances.
2. Run these three scripts in order into T24.
3. Prepare T24 for Accruals and Capitalization.
4. Run COB Accruals till the month-end date.
5. Backup the JBase database in this pre-CAP state.
6. Create a new database in DB2.
7. Set up T24E for Java and run the DBImport utility to convert the JBase data into IBM DB2 data.
8. After the import process, back up the DB2 database.

This data build process was done twice for the two sets of account volumes.

Bulk Test
The close of business (COB) and capitalization (CAP) process is run at month-end capitalization in which
the interest accrued over the month is added to the accounts.
This is a bulk 2 process and not the only job that occurs during the month end. This job is typically the most
demanding and so it is routinely used to size T24 installations.
This workload is typically I/O bound in the database server and processor bound in the application server.

A typical CAP transaction contains over 25 I/Os comprising:

20 selects, 3 inserts and 5 updates, on multiple tables.

Bulk Test configuration and setup

The Bulk Test was run as follows:
1. Two CAP runs were run individually on two environments and the results collected.
2. Both the runs were run from T24E for Java, inside WebSphere Application Server.
3. The T24 on AIX test was run from the AIX environment with 36 threads or agents set up in T24.
jDLS (jBASE Distributed Locking) was used for this test.
4. T24E for Java memory locking was set up for the WebSphere Application Server-based) tests.
5. Threads were set to 36+ at the following level for the WebSphere Application Server-based tests.
a. T24 workload profile for COB
b. Data source connecting to DB2
c. SIBJMSRAThreadPool inside IBM WebSphere Application Server
6. The same database prepared for T24 tests was used for the T24E for Java tests, in order to get a
direct comparison of performance of T24 and T24E for Java.

2
We use the term bulk rather than batch as, in T24, bulk processes are run on the online system while the online system is
processing normal work.

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7. Database differences between T24 and T24E:
a. T24 used table types of XML and BLOB.
b. T24E used table types of XML and CLOB. The BLOB tables of T24 were exported and
imported as CLOB types.

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Online test
The set of transaction types for the online sizing activity is listed in Table 3.
Channel type Representative transaction Trans type interface
T24 transaction
name
ATM and POS Custom routine OFS-MQ
Balance inquiry OFS.GET.ACCT.BA
LANCE
OFS-MQ
OFS CLEARING
Cash withdrawal MANAGER with
transaction request
Branch office TELLER,MB.DEPOS XML-browser web
Teller cash deposit
transactions IT
Outward clearing transactions OFS-MQ
FT,MB.OT
(collections)
SB account opening (non- XML-browser web
ACCOUNT,MB.NEW
monetary)
IVR Custom Routine OFS-MQ
Balance inquiry OFS.GET.ACCT.BA
LANCE
Internet banking Funds transfer (account to FT,MB.ACCT.TO.AC XML-browser web
account Transfer) CT
ENQ OFS-MQ
Balance inquiry
ACCT.BAL.TODAY
ENQ OFS-MQ
Bank statement
STMT.ENT.BOOK
ENQ OFS-MQ
Financial transaction Enquiry
STMT.ENT.BOOK
Clearing OFS CLEARING OFS-MQ
Clearing transactions
MANAGER (BULK)

Table 3: Transaction set

The online test runs a mixture of these transactions, representing a typical online load. The transactions
are injected into T24 using WebSphere MQ. This is a reasonable approach as T24 runs transactions
asynchronously even when they are interactive transactions from user interfaces.
Please note that the online transactions were run in isolation for proof of concept and collection of metrics
for sizing. No formal results (all running at the same time) were taken for measurement during this testing.

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Running the tests
This section describes how the bulk and online tests were run and reports the results of those tests.
The following tests were run:
Running COB through POWER7-WebSphere Application Server
Running COB through x86-WebSphere Application Server
Running COB through POWER7 and x86- WebSphere Application Server
Running COB through TAFC
UPM-DB (Capitalization simulation without T24 using the Temenos tool UPM running in Java ) on
DB2-JVM
Running single-thread tests online (as detailed above on page 8). These tests were streaming
thousands of online transactions individually to get the metrics of a single transaction.
a. POWER7-WebSphere Application Server
b. x86-WebSphere Application Server

The above testing was conducted to prove compatibility and performance profiling. Number 1 of the tests
was run to validate the install of T24 Enterprise and to validate the database tables were present and
correct.
Though all these tests were run, the results of prime importance were those of running COB CAP with
POWER7, x86 on 5 million accounts and an online test of POWER7 and x86 on 5 million accounts.

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Results (COB)
The system processed 5 million accounts capitalization during COB process at the rate of 330 and 345
transactions per second (TPS) and in excess of 500 TPS in a mixed-architecture workload. These
transaction rates would meet the requirements of a typical 5 million account retail bank, and clearly the
PureFlex System as a whole is capable of supporting much larger workloads (see Table 4).

Platform TPS Threads Application DB

processor processor
POWER7-T24E- 330 36 66% 30%
WebSphere
Application Server
x86-T24E- 345 36 60% 40%
WebSphere
Application Server
POWER7-TAFC 402 36 54% 55%

Table 4. Summary of results

The results show that the T24 Enterprise application can run on WebSphere Application Server and share
the architecture between different server types, each running WebSphere Application Server, to enable it
to process workload to a single database instance running in Power 7. The flexibility this shows enables
T24 Enterprise to run as a single application server or multiple application servers sharing database
connections through WebSphere Application Server.
The POWER7-TAFC result is only used as a basic comparison. TAFC is the traditional way T24 is
executed on several architectures. This was used to refine the table types in DB2 that should be used in
T24 Enterprise for performance testing.

The above results show the new Temenos offering of T24 Enterprise running achieved approximately 20%
lower throughput in these tests than the traditional workload processing of TAFC. The Java workload (T24
Enterprise) has been shown in other tests to exceed the performance of the TAFC implementation and the
discrepancy may be because in these tests there was only time for very basic tuning.
Due to the way the memory was allocated between server types, x86 and POWER 7, you can see that the
x86 server running less cores was able to outperform the POWER 7 application server. The team believes
this is due to the spread of memory between the nodes.

Easy Tier results with TEMENOS T24

Initial testing prior to enabling Easy Tier showed spikes in response times. These spikes peaked at over
400 ms. Easy Tier was enabled and resulted in reductions in response times and improved throughput.
The combination of HDD and SSD with Easy Tier activated resulted in the best drive utilization, response
time, and processor (user, sys, wait) times.
The test team also observed that there is no need to manually tune the storage to see the performance
benefits; Easy Tier takes care of it automatically. The test team had also observed the ease with which
Easy Tier can be configured and deployed.

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With the IBM Storage Tier Advisor Tool and Easy Tier, the users are now able to provision SSDs
accurately for their workloads. The Storage Tier Advisor Tool provides a high-level summary of workload
characteristics and hot extents of the volumes that are monitored. It also provides assistance for SSD
capacity planning with Easy Tier. When Easy Tier is enabled, it observes the I/O pattern, and then
migrates the data from the HDD MDisks to the SSD MDisks non-disruptively.

This combination of Easy Tier and the Storage Tier Advisor Tool provides a high impact, combined with
low investment of efforts for the user (refer to Figure 3 and Figure 4).

Figure 3. Easy Tier results

Figure 4. Easy Tier results (continued)

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Summary
After careful consideration of the performance profile results:
This testing validated IBM PureFlex System as a platform for both T24 and T24E for Java.

Performance testing showed the IBM PureFlex System performing exceptionally well and easily
capable of handling the workloads of typical T24 customers.

The sizing data should be considered preliminary data only. This testing was run on prerelease
hardware and firmware and there was very limited time available for performance optimization.

EasyTier storage optimization and the V7000 storage subsystem provide a big improvement in
disk response times, which can translate into faster transaction response times and faster batch
runtimes.

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Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper:
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibm.com/partnerworld/systems

Virtual Loaner Program

ibm.com/systems/vlp

IBM Redbooks
ibm.com/redbooks

Temenos T24 and T24 Enterprise

www.temenos.com

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Trademarks and special notices
Copyright IBM Corporation 2012.
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country.

IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
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other countries, or both.
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Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
Information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind.
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer.
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published
announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM. Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
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tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claims
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statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance, function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products. Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements. The information is

IBM and Temenos T24 workload optimization on the new IBM PureFlex System

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presented here to communicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers' future planning.

Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the
storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an
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Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in production models.

Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
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the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk.

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