CompTIA Server+ SK0-005 Practice Question

The correct answer is High Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS). Online transaction processing (OLTP) database workloads are characterized by a large number of small, random read and write operations. IOPS is the metric that measures the storage system's ability to handle these types of operations per second. For an OLTP application, the storage's IOPS capability is typically the primary performance bottleneck, and prioritizing it is crucial for low-latency transaction processing.

• High sequential read/write speed is more critical for a file server or a data warehouse that deals with large, contiguous files, such as video streaming or large data transfers. It is less important for the small, random access patterns of an OLTP database.
• High network throughput is important for overall system connectivity, but in a multi-tier architecture where the database is dedicated, the most common bottleneck is disk I/O, not the network connection to the application server (unless it is severely undersized).
• High CPU core count, while important, is secondary to storage performance in an I/O-bound workload like OLTP. The CPU will often be idle, waiting for the storage subsystem to complete read/write operations if the IOPS are insufficient.