Database compression analyzer

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a data acquisition module executable by the processor to receive a single request to execute, on a sampled basis, a plurality of compression and/or decompression mechanisms on at least one database object; and

a processing module executable by the processor to:

execute each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms, on the sampled basis, on the at least one database object;

determine comparative performance characteristics associated with each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms;

determine derivative characteristics associated with each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms based on the comparative performance characteristics, wherein the derivative characteristics include normalization of processing characteristics of at least one candidate system configured to perform the compression and/or decompression mechanisms, wherein the normalization of processing techniques of the candidate system is relative to other systems configured to perform the plurality of compression and/or decompression mechanisms; and

record at least some of the comparative performance characteristics and/or derivative characteristics in a performance summary table to be published to at least one of a tangible storage medium or a display screen.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a display to display a menu of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a storage node that includes the tangible storage medium.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a storage node to store the database object.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a first node to house the data acquisition module; and

at least one second node to house the processing module.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a user input device to transmit a sampling specification to the data acquisition module, the sampling specification to determine the sampling basis.

7. A processor-implemented method to execute on one or more processors that perform the method, comprising:

receiving, with the one or more processors, a single request to execute, on a sampled basis, a plurality of compression and/or decompression mechanisms on at least one database object;

executing, with the one or more processors, each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms, on the sampled basis, on the at least one database object;

determining, with the one or more processors, comparative performance characteristics associated with each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms;

determining, with the one or more processors, derivative characteristics associated with each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms based on the comparative performance characteristics, wherein the derivative characteristics include normalization of processing characteristics of at least one candidate system configured to perform the compression and/or decompression mechanisms, wherein the normalization of processing characteristics of the candidate system is relative to other systems configured to perform the plurality of compression and/or decompression mechanisms;

recording, with the one or more processors, at least some of the comparative performance characteristics and/or derivative characteristics in a performance summary table to be published to at least one of a tangible storage medium or a display screen; and

selecting, with the one or more processors, a compression and/or decompression mechanism to perform compression and/or decompression of the at least one database object based on at least one of the determined comparative performance characteristics and the determined derivative characteristics.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the receiving comprises:

receiving, with the one or more processors, the request comprising the plurality of compression and/or decompression mechanisms as a plurality of user-selected compression and/or decompression mechanisms specified in a structured query language (SQL) statement.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the database object comprises one of a table, an index, a materialized view, or a database name.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the compression and/or decompression mechanisms comprise a default set of all mechanisms available on a system that accomplishes the executing.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the receiving further comprises:

receiving, with the one or more processors, a sampling specification in the request; and

when no sampling specification is received in the request, implementing, with the one or more processors, a default sampling specification.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the sampling specification includes a percentage of data to be sampled.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the sampling specification includes a sampling amount associated with at least one partial database processing module.

14. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

extrapolating, with the one or more processors, the comparative performance characteristics to provide the derivative characteristics with respect to the entire database object.

15. A processor-implemented method to execute on one or more processors that perform the method, comprising:

receiving, with the one or more processors, a single request to execute, on a sampled basis, a plurality of compression and/or decompression mechanisms on at least one database object;

executing, with the one or more processors, each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms, on the sampled basis, on the at least one database object;

determining, with the one or more processors, comparative performance characteristics associated with each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms;

determining, with the one or more processors, derivative characteristics associated with each of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms based on the comparative performance characteristics, wherein the derivative characteristics include normalization of processing characteristics of at least one candidate system configured to perform the compression and/or decompression mechanisms, wherein the normalization of processing techniques of the candidate system is relative to other systems configured to perform the plurality of compression and/or decompression mechanisms; and

recording, with the one or more processors, the derivative characteristics in a performance summary table to be published to at least one of a tangible storage medium or a display screen.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

determining, with the one or more processors, the derivative characteristics as a function of the normalized processing attributes comprising at least one of processor attributes or storage attributes.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the processor attributes comprise:

at least one of a processor speed, a processor type, a number of processors, and/or a processor cache size.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the storage attributes comprise:

at least one of a tangible storage medium cache size, a tangible storage medium type, a network latency time, a storage read speed, or a storage write speed.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the derivative characteristics are published in terms of processor cycles, data block processing time, or input/output performance.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the executing, with the one or more processors, comprises:

executing, with the one or more processors, more than one of the compression and/or decompression mechanisms, in a cumulative series, on the at least one database object.