Performance and price analysis of Yitian edition (ARM architecture)

Background

Alibaba Cloud provides two ways to try this solution:

• Free trial: Alibaba Cloud provides a pre-configured environment with all the necessary stress testing resources. You do not need to create any resources. You can simply configure the stress testing parameters to start the free trial.

• Dedicated trial: You can quickly deploy the required products, tools, and resources in the Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB console. This method reduces the time required for deployment, environment setup, and data initialization, allowing you to quickly create a dedicated stress testing environment.

  You can perform the following operations:

  • Configure resource specifications and stress testing parameters based on your requirements.

  • Launch all required resources with a single click. The system automatically creates resources, deploys tools, and prepares datasets. This saves a significant amount of time on environment deployment.

  • Log on to the ECS instance where the web UI is deployed to customize and verify parameters and scripts.

Prerequisites

If you use a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, the RAM user must have the permissions of the `AliyunServiceRoleForADAMYaoChiSolution` role.

Impacts

None.

Technical implementation

This analysis is part of the product-led growth (PLG) solution framework. It uses the Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB console solution and Resource Orchestration Service (ROS) to automatically build, deploy, run, and release a proof-of-concept (PoC) testing platform. The following figure shows the architecture of the solution.

The products compared in this test are RDS for MySQL and MySQL on ECS. The RDS for MySQL instance is a high-availability (HA) dual-node database that uses the Yitian edition (ARM architecture). The MySQL on ECS instance is a self-managed primary/secondary replication database on a Standard Edition ECS instance that uses the x86 architecture. Two stress testing machines continuously test each database and forward the results. A web UI machine pushes the results to the frontend for a real-time display.

Costs

• Free trial: The resources used in the trial are not part of your account, so no costs are incurred. You can proceed with the trial without being charged.

• Dedicated trial: This trial incurs costs because an ECS instance and an RDS for MySQL cluster are created in your account. These resources use the pay-as-you-go billing method. Costs are based on the usage duration or storage capacity. The actual price is the price displayed in the Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB console when you deploy the resources.

Procedure for the free trial

1. Create a stress testing task.

   1. Click here to start the free trial.

   2. In the lower-right corner of the page, click Create Free Trial Task. Select the stress testing parameters based on your requirements, and then click OK.

2. View the stress testing results.

   1. Click Trial Records > My Tasks.

   2. When the Status changes to Completed, click View Details to view the performance stress testing results, price comparison, and cost-effectiveness information for RDS for MySQL (ARM) and self-managed MySQL on ECS (x86).

      

      Note

      • The page displays the formula used to calculate cost-effectiveness and normalizes the final ratio. This helps you intuitively understand the cost-effectiveness information.

      • The results show that RDS for MySQL (ARM) is more cost-effective than self-managed MySQL on ECS (x86).

Procedure for the dedicated trial

1. Deploy resources.

   1. Click here to start the dedicated trial.

   2. In the lower-right corner of the page, click One-Click Deployment.

      Note

      Stress Testing Product defaults to RDS MySQL, and Stress Testing Tool defaults to Sysbench.

   3. In the panel that appears, configure the following parameters.

      Item	Parameter	Description	Example
      Common parameters	Region	The region where the stress testing resources (ECS and RDS instances) will be created. Select a region as needed. You can select Hangzhou or Beijing.	Hangzhou
      	Zone	The zone where the stress testing resources (ECS and RDS instances) will be created. Select a zone as needed.	Zone J
      Stress testing environment (ECS instance for deploying the Sysbench tool)	ECS instance password	The password for the ECS instance.	Test@******
      	Whitelist	The IP address whitelist for accessing the web UI trial page. To allow access from all IP addresses, you can set this to 0.0.0.0/0, but this is not recommended. We recommend that you set this to your local public IP address. You can obtain your public IP address by visiting ipconfig.me or myip.ipip.net in your browser.	127.X.X.X
      	Trial environment specifications	The ECS instance type. Select an instance type as needed. You can select 8 vCPU, 16 GB or 8 vCPU, 32 GB.	8 vCPU, 16 GB
      RDS for MySQL (Yitian edition, ARM architecture)	Specifications	The specifications of the RDS for MySQL instance. Select specifications as needed. You can select 8 vCPU, 16 GB; 8 vCPU, 32 GB; or 8 vCPU, 64 GB. The specifications of the RDS instance must be the same as the specifications of the ECS instance where the self-managed MySQL database is deployed.	8 vCPU, 16 GB
      	Storage (GB)	The storage space of the RDS for MySQL instance.	20 GB
      	RDS username	The account for the RDS for MySQL instance.	root_******
      	RDS password	The password for the RDS for MySQL instance account.	Rds@******
      Self-managed MySQL (ECS instance for deploying the self-managed MySQL database)	Node specifications	The specifications of the ECS instance. Select specifications as needed. The specifications of the ECS instance must be the same as the specifications of the RDS instance.	8 vCPU, 16 GB
      	Storage (GB)	The storage space of the ECS instance.	20 GB
      	Database password	The password for the MySQL database deployed on the ECS instance.	Database@******
      Configuration	Stress testing pattern	Select a pattern based on your testing scenario.	oltp_read_write
      	Stress testing concurrency	Select a value as needed.	16
      	Stress testing duration (seconds)	Select a value as needed.	600

   4. Click Create Resources.

      Note

      After you click Create Resources, the page displays the progress of resource creation (such as creating ECS and RDS instances), stress testing tool deployment, and data initialization. Resource creation takes about 10 to 20 minutes. You can click the ROS Stack Console link on the page to view the detailed progress.

   5. After the deployment is complete, a message appears on the page.

2. Stress testing

   1. After the deployment is complete, the system automatically starts the stress test.

      Note

      • During the stress test, you can click View Details to view the real-time progress.

      • If you want to restart the stress test, or if a previous test has finished and you want to start another one, click Start Now.

   2. After the stress test is complete, a message appears in the upper-right corner of the page. You can view information such as the performance, cost-effectiveness of RDS for MySQL (ARM) versus self-managed MySQL on ECS (x86), and the cost of the trial.

      • Performance of RDS for MySQL (ARM) versus self-managed MySQL on ECS (x86):

      • Cost-effectiveness of RDS for MySQL (ARM) versus self-managed MySQL on ECS (x86):

        

        Note

        • The page displays the formula used to calculate cost-effectiveness and normalizes the final ratio. This helps you intuitively understand the cost-effectiveness information.

        • Cost-effectiveness is shown from two dimensions: list price and discounted price. The list price is displayed by default. The discounted price is calculated based on the discount that applies to your account.

        • The results show that RDS for MySQL (ARM) is more cost-effective than self-managed MySQL on ECS (x86).

3. Release resources.

   1. On the left side of the resource deployment page, click Release Resources. In the dialog box that appears, confirm the information and click One-Click Release.

      Note

      The page then displays Releasing Resources.

   2. You can click the ROS Stack Console link on the page to view the detailed progress.

   3. When the Status on the Stack Information tab is Delete Succeeded, the resources have been released.