The Essential Guide to Server Performance and Benchmark Testing In this guide Introduction Introduction Maintaining high server performance and appropriate scale to keep up with growing computing demands doesn't happen automatically. Data center Select the right server administrators must continuously track performance and make the most of In the toolbox hardware resources. There are ways in which IT professionals can simplify server management at top performance. Get useful benchmarks Benchmark testing helps administrators monitor server resources, manage A well-oiled machine utilization, optimize performance and identify problems before they occur. Getting more PRO+ exclusive Simple server configuration tweaks can squeeze more performance out of content physical and virtual machines (VMs). This guide covers best practices for benchmark testing with valuable tips from data center experts on how to improve server performance. Page 1 of 76 In this guide Select the right server Introduction Serving different data center needs Select the right server The data center needs to run applications, which means the right servers for the In the toolbox right workloads need to be in place. Just as important as raw performance data Get useful benchmarks is how different server architectures handle tasks. A well-oiled machine Getting more PRO+ exclusive content Why Purpose-built vs. general purpose While an x86 CISC processor can be used for anything, it's not always the best choice. Simplified and highly integrated purpose-built RISC processors are improving efficiency and power in data centers. With demand for high computing performance and low power use, systems designers are realizing that the all-encompassing x86 processor, with its complex instruction set, cannot build functionality and efficiency. Performance- built processors can address the computing needs of servers, storage arrays, network devices and other systems. RISC vs. CISC processors Page 2 of 76 Today's x86 processor designs are an amalgamation of features and In this guide functionality from the last 30 years, right up to today's Intel-VT and AMD-V Introduction instructions to support hardware-assisted virtualization. Select the right server But there's a problem with this complex instruction set computing (CISC) approach; every new instruction or feature adds tens of thousands of transistors In the toolbox to the processor die, adding power demands and latency even if the instructions Get useful benchmarks are rarely used. The chip is extremely versatile, but it runs hot and sucks power with ever-increasing clock speeds. A well-oiled machine Processors run much more efficiently when tailored to a specific task. Reduced Getting more PRO+ exclusive content instruction set computing (RISC) strips out unneeded features and functionality, and builds on task-specific capabilities. Simpler, more reliable RISC processors provide the same effective computing throughput at a fraction of the power and cooling. The question in CISC vs. RISC arguments is versatility vs. efficiency. Traditional x86 CISC processors can tackle almost any computing task using an extraordinarily comprehensive instruction set. This made CISC the preferred chip design for general-purpose computing platforms: enterprise servers, desktop PCs and laptop/notebook systems. Purpose-built RISC processors sacrifice versatility for efficiency. Removing unneeded instructions dramatically reduces the processor's transistor count. Page 3 of 76 Tackling fewer tasks in hardware means those tasks are performed faster, even In this guide at lower clock speeds (less power) than a full x86 CISC counterpart. Introduction Printers, home routers, and even multifunction telephones and remote controls Select the right server use RISC processors, and the concept is growing dramatically for fully featured computing platforms. A tablet or smartphone's RISC processor can deliver In the toolbox smooth video playback, fast webpage display and a responsive user interface Get useful benchmarks for many hours on a battery charge, with no cooling devices. This same chip design paradigm is systematically finding traction in data center systems. A well-oiled machine Examples of RISC processors Getting more PRO+ exclusive content Chip designers, such as Intel, are forging ahead with RISC processors for data centers and endpoints. Intel's Atom processor family has diversified into numerous purpose-built variants using major parts, but not necessarily all, of the x86 instruction set. The Atom single-core Silverthorne family for the mobile Internet device (MID) market supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3 and Enhanced SpeedStep Technology, but not all models support Hyper-Threading or Intel-VT. While an Atom-based system will support most basic x86 applications, it is not intended for virtualization in this case. The Atom S12x9 family supports a complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) with 40 lanes of PCIe 2.0 for high I/O capacity. It is used in storage systems. The Atom Page 4 of 76 Avoton is a 64-bit SoC processor that includes an Ethernet controller and is In this guide designed for microservers. The Atom Rangeley SoC processor is tailored for Introduction handling network traffic and used in entry- to mid-level routers, switches and security devices. Select the right server Linux-based multi-core SoC RISC processors like Tilera TILE Gx-8072 provide In the toolbox 72 interconnected RISC cores in the same package. You'll find these in low- Get useful benchmarks power servers, allowing huge complements of processor cores for tasks like network data handling and video transcoding. A well-oiled machine A more general expression of RISC processors is the ARMv8 reference design Getting more PRO+ exclusive content licensed by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM). Tablet processors like Apple's A6 and NVIDIA's Tegra 3 are based on ARM's Cortex A9 RISC processor. The 64- bit Cortex-A57 design supports applications programmed in Linux, Linaro and other open-source languages. AMD will develop a RISC SoC processor for enterprise servers based on the Cortex-A57 design. Mainframe pronounced relevant again The IT landscape has changed, and talk of the mainframe's benefits is again audible. The mainframe vs. server question comes down to space and facilities costs as well as simplicity of operations. Page 5 of 76 Remember the mainframe? A few decades ago, with the rise of client-server In this guide computing, everyone thought mainframes would quickly disappear from the data Introduction center. In the 1990s, when servers grouped in local networks stored files in a central location, there was no need to keep the expensive mainframe. For the Select the right server price of one mainframe, you could afford to buy a hundred servers. In the toolbox As the Internet took over, servers became more complex. Often, several servers Get useful benchmarks had to work together to accomplish a specific task. Data centers grew to accommodate more and more servers, which demanded power and cooling A well-oiled machine resources. Some power providers increased capacity just for data centers, and Getting more PRO+ exclusive electricity costs continued to rise. Virtualization and cloud computing trends content have influenced the numbers, but server sprawl is still on the rise. But the mainframe vs. server argument never really went away. And, to the surprise (or dismay) of many, mainframes might be winning the debate. A large Midwestern U.S. security company replaced more than 200 servers with one big mainframe in 2012, according to the company's data center architect. "We save a fortune on electricity and the mainframe is doing everything our 200-plus servers were doing in the past. And we can reduce the size of the data center, which means that we can save an additional fortune on realty," he explained. Next-generation mainframes can run an open operating system like Linux, eliminating the cost and inconvenience of proprietary OSes. Major Linux Page 6 of 76 vendors like Red Hat and SUSE have a version of their distribution that runs on In this guide mainframe hardware. Introduction "A mainframe is like one very large server that can do anything that multiple Select the right server servers in a rack are able to do. It's a virtualization platform; its hardware is highly redundant, so it replaces a cluster of servers. And, compared to all the In the toolbox x64 servers, it's not even that expensive," said the data center architect. Get useful benchmarks Even if mainframes are a tough sell, it is clear that a comeback is in the works. A well-oiled machine Large companies can even save money on IT infrastructure by replacing hundreds of servers with one huge -- if expensive -- mainframe computer. Getting more PRO+ exclusive content FPGA servers touted as flexible hosting machines New processors use FPGA chips to accelerate applications, enabling server specialization with flexible programming. Page 7 of 76 In this guide No single processor architecture handles every workload optimally, and the demand for efficiency at scale is pushing new, powerful app-centric servers. In Introduction one design, the central processing unit (CPU) offloads tasks to a field Select the right server programmable gate array (FPGA) component. In the toolbox Depending on the nature of the application, the tasks and the quality of Get useful benchmarks hardware descriptive language (HDL) coding in the FPGA programming, FPGAs A well-oiled machine boost performance substantially. Getting more PRO+ exclusive content