Automatically classifying database workloads

The type of the workload on a database management system (DBMS) is a key consideration in tuning the system. Allocations for resources such as main memory can be very different depending on whether the workload type is Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) or Decision Support System (DSS). In this paper, we present an approach to automatically identifying a DBMS workload as either OLTP or DSS. We build a classification model based on the most significant workload characteristics that differentiate OLTP from DSS, and then use the model to identify any change in the workload type. We construct a workload classifier from the Browsing and Ordering profiles of the TPC-W benchmark. Experiments with an industry-supplied workload show that our classifier accurately identifies the mix of OLTP and DSS work within an application workload.