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Performance of HP ProLiant BL465c G7
with AMD Opteron 6100 Series
processors in 32- and 64-bit HP SBC
environments
Technical white paper
Table of contents
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3
G7 technologies ..........
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Executive summary Designed for virtualization yet flexible enough for any business application, the HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade combines best-in-class features to help reduce network sprawl and lower infrastructure costs. Multi-core AMD Opteron™ 6100 Series processors with up to 16 DIMMs provide the performance needed for demanding applications and virtualization workloads. The HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade also offers two 10 Gb Ethernet ports with converged network support,
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Introduction Figure 1 shows the HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade. Figure 1. The HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade, illustrating a unique drawer design that allows you to service hard drives independently G7 technologies Seventh-generation AMD Opteron-based HP ProLiant servers such as the BL465c G7 server blade feature the following key technologies: AMD Opteron 6100 Series processors DDR3 memory 4 Embedded dual-port FlexFabric 10 Gb Ethernet converged network adapter
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HP Integrated Lights-Out 3 (iLO 3) Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Thermal logic The following sections of this paper describe testing performed by HP to characterize the performance and scalability of an HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade in 32- and 64-bit HP SBC environments. Test methodology HP continues to upgrade existing HP ProLiant servers and introduce new servers to meet particular business needs. To help you select the appropriate server for your particular HP SBC environm
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Table 1. Components of TSScaling Component Description Automation tools Robosrv.exe Drives the server-side of the load simulation Robocli.exe Helps drive the client-side of the load simulation Test tools Qidle.exe Determines if any scripts have failed and require operator intervention Tbscript.exe A script interpreter that helps drive the client-side load simulation Help files TBScript.doc Terminal Server bench scripting documentation TSScalingSetup.doc A scalability test environm
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Test scenario To characterize its scalability, HP tested the HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade in 64- and 32-bit HP SBC environments when running a workload based on the User profile described above. Note: As recommended by HP for most applications, the FBWC was configured with 100% write for all testing. Use the BIOS to adjust the read/write ratio. Testing was initiated by running the particular workload with a group of 15 simulated users; start times were staggered to eliminate authe
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Test topology Figure 2 illustrates the HP SBC test environment. Figure 2. The tested environment (64-bit implementation shown) Note: Test environments such as that shown in Figure 2 are available to customers at HP Solution Centers to help solve a wide variety of business problems. 7
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Configurations This section outlines the configurations of servers and clients used in the test environment. Table 3 presents information on system configurations; Table 4 provides a system summary. Table 3. System configurations Server Configuration HP SBC server 2P HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade with: AMD Opteron processor Model 6174 (12-core/2.2 GHz), Model 6164 HE (12- core/1.7 GHz), Model 6136 (8-core/2.4 GHz), or Model 6128 HE (8-core/2.0 GHz) – 12 MB shared L3 cache
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Table 3. System configurations (continued) Server Configuration Domain controller 2P HP ProLiant DL360 G5 server with: Dual-core Intel Xeon processor (3.2 GHz) 2 x 2 MB L2 cache 2 GB RAM Four 72 GB 15,000 rpm SAS hard drives Integrated Smart Array P400i controller with RAID 5 NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Client Variety of Intel Pentium®-based Compaq Evo workstations (600 MHz – 2.533 GHz), each with: At least 256
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Table 4. System summary for the bare-metal HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade (continued) Component Description Boot device \Device\HarddiskVolume1 Locale United States Hardware abstraction layer 5.2.3790.3959 (srv03_sp2_rtm.070216-1710)/ 5.2.3790.1830 (srv03_sp1_rtm.050324-1447) User name Not available Total physical memory Model 6174: 65,531.39 MB/65,531.39 MB Model 6164 HE: 65,531.39 MB Model 6136: 65,531.39 MB /8,187.39 MB Model 6128 HE: 65,531.39 MB Available physical memory Mo
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The following scenarios were tested: Server blade configured with the AMD Opteron processor Model 6174, 6164 HE, 6136, and 6128 HE HP SBC test environments – 64-bit: 6174, 6164 HE, 6136, 6128 HE – 32-bit: 6174, 6136 Configured with processor Model 6174 An HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade featuring the AMD Opteron processor Model 6174 was tested in 64- and 32-bit HP SBC test environments. 64-bit test environment Perfmon values and canary times are presented. Perfmon values
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Figure 4 shows normalized Perfmon values. Figure 4. There were no stopped sessions when 487 Heavy Users were logged on With 487 users active, there were no stopped sessions. The processor became saturated with approximately 500 users logged on, which coincided with the marked increase in processor queue length shown in Figure 3. The maximum number of users able to log on was 739, though approximately 2% of sessions had stopped. 12
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Canary times Figure 5 shows sample results for the tested server when running a typical canary script. Individual user response times are shown in blue, with a yellow line depicting average response times. HP analyzed this figure to determine when response times began to increase markedly and consistently over a baseline level, indicating that user response times had become unacceptable. Figure 5. Canary time values show that user response times started to become unacceptable when 514
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Figure 6. % Processor Time values – showing that 141 Heavy Users were supported when system PTEs became exhausted The optimal number of Heavy Users supported by the HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade was 141. Configured with processor Model 6164 HE An HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade featuring the AMD Opteron processor Model 6164 HE was tested in the 64-bit HP SBC test environment. 64-bit test environment Perfmon values and canary times are presented. Perfmon values HP ran
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Figure 7. % Processor Time values – showing that 447 Heavy Users had been able to log on when processor utilization reached 80% Thus, as many as 447 Heavy Users were supported when processor utilization reached 80%. Figure 8 shows normalized Perfmon values. 15
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Figure 8. Although 447 Heavy Users were able to log on, two sessions had stopped With 447 Heavy Users – the number of users logged on when processor utilization reached 80% – there were two stopped sessions. Thus the optimal number of users is (447 – 2); that is, 445. 16
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Canary times Figure 9 shows sample results for the tested server when running a typical canary script. Individual user response times are shown in blue, with a yellow line depicting average response times. HP analyzed this figure to determine when response times began to increase markedly and consistently over a baseline level, indicating that user response times had become unacceptable. Figure 9. Canary time values show that user response times started to become unacceptable when 477
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Figure 10. % Processor Time values – showing that 411 Heavy Users were supported when processor utilization reached 80% The optimal number of Heavy Users supported by the bare-metal HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade was 411. Canary times Figure 11 shows sample results for the tested server when running a typical canary script. Individual user response times are shown in blue, with a yellow line depicting average response times. HP analyzed this figure to determine when response
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Figure 11. Canary time values show that user response times started to become unacceptable when 475 Heavy Users were active Response times were acceptable when 411 Heavy Users – the optimal number – were active. 32-bit test environment HP ran a performance test using a workload based on the Heavy User profile. Figure 12 shows select Perfmon values during this test run. 19
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Figure 12. % Processor Time values – showing that 161 Heavy Users were supported when disk utilization began to increase exponentially Disk utilization increased exponentially during this test run due to lack of system PTEs. The optimal number of users supported by this HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade was 161. Configured with processor Model 6128 HE An HP ProLiant BL465c G7 server blade featuring the AMD Opteron processor Model 6128 HE was tested in a 64-bit HP SBC test environm
