Maria DB VS Raptor DB – Where’s Waldo? Search Test – Part 4

[Forrest Falk]

My name is Forrest Falk, and I am a ServiceNow Certified Master Architect (CMA). I have had the opportunity to test both RaptorDB and RaptorDB Pro instances. With these tools, I have decided to start a series in the community where I will be testing different features of RaptorDB and RaptorDB Pro compared to MariaDB. This series should provide us with valuable insights into the advantages and disadvantages of RaptorDB and RaptorDB Pro in comparison to MariaDB. I will do my best to share the testing methods and results with everyone. If you have any questions, I would be happy to explain my testing process, and I encourage you to share any suggestions on what I should test next. I would love to keep the series interactive.

If you are just joining me, this is the second post in our series. Checkout the other posts below:

1. https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-blog/maria-db-vs-raptor-db-record-insertion-performan...
2. https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-blog/maria-db-vs-raptor-db-record-update-performance/...
3. https://www.servicenow.com/community/developer-blog/maria-db-vs-raptor-db-record-deletion-performanc...
   
   

For the fourth test, I want to focus on the raw speed of searching records using each database. In this test, we will measure how quickly each database can search for incidents containing the number 9 in the short description. I will be using the demo incident tickets that were installed with my demo instances which is around 100,000 incidents. I also plan to run multiple tests on the instances to account for any unrelated system activities such as scheduled jobs, scripts, or workflows that might affect the results.

Instance Version: glide-zurich-07-01-2025__patch0-07-15-2025

“Where’s Waldo?” Script:

// Initialize timer
var start = new GlideDateTime();

//Look up incidents with 9 in it.
var gr = new GlideRecord('incident');
gr.addQuery('short_description', 'CONTAINS', '9');
gr.query();
var count = 0;

while (gr.next()) {
    count++;
}

// Capture end time and calculate durations
var end = new GlideDateTime();
var totalMs = GlideDateTime.subtract(start, end).getNumericValue();
var averageMs = totalMs / 1000;

// Log results
gs.print('Found ' + count + ' incidents in ' + totalMs + ' ms');

Test 1
MariaDB: Found 40955 incidents in 7046 ms

RaptorDB: Found 40951 incidents in 5281 ms

RaptorDB Pro: Found 40951 incidents in 2729 ms

Test 2
MariaDB: Found 40955 incidents in 6654 ms

RaptorDB: Found 40951 incidents in 4738 ms

RaptorDB Pro: Found 40951 incidents in 2759 ms

Test 3
MariaDB: Found 40955 incidents in 6287 ms

RaptorDB:  Found 40951 incidents in 4713 ms

RaptorDB Pro: Found 40951 incidents in 2810 ms

To calculate how much faster RaptorDB and RaptorDB Pro where I used the following formula:

(Old Time / New Time)  = times faster

For each test, I used MariaDB as the baseline and then calculated how much faster RaptorDB and RaptorDB Pro performed in comparison. The fastest result was achieved in Test 1,  where RaptorDB Pro completed the task in 2,729  milliseconds. The slowest result occurred with MariaDB, which took 7,046 milliseconds during Test 1. By reviewing the table below and averaging the results, we can determine the mean times for each database. Using these averages, we can also calculate how many times faster RaptorDB and RaptorDB Pro were throughout our tests.

Test #	MariaDB (ms)	RaptorDB (ms)	RaptorDB Pro (ms)
1	7046	5281	2729
2	6654	4738	2759
3	6287	4713	2810
Average Times:	6662	4911	2766
Times Faster than MariaDB:	1	1.36	2.41

After examining the results, we can observe that in this record deletion test, RaptorDB was approximately 1.36 times faster and RaptorDB Pro was approximately 2.41 times faster than MariaDB. However, it's important to note that this single test does not provide a comprehensive comparison between MariaDB and RaptorDB; it simply offers some insight into their raw performance. Note that MariaDB found a couple of extra incidents due to some previous tests I was running. The small difference in incidents should not make a drastic impact on the test results but may add a few milliseconds to the MariaDB time.

In this test, we see a significant improvement of RaptorDB Pro over both RaptorDB and MariaDB. In some of the previous tests, such as record insertion, RaptorDB and RaptorDB Pro were closely matched. This leads me to think that ServiceNow made improvements in RaptorDB Pro to return results faster to its end users compared to RaptorDB. If there are any product managers who can provide input, I would be interested to know the differences.

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here belong solely to me, and not necessarily to my employer, organization, committee, or any other group or individual.