Processor equivalence

[Yogeeraj_1]

Dear experts!

I am currently planning for a server maintenance/upgrade - my RP5430 which runing my application server (no databases). The application server is basically very demanding in terms of Processor and Memory. I/O is almost negligible.

During this period, we would like to move our application server to another environment but which can give us comparable performance.

we are thinking about a set of cheaper (though less reliable) servers which would be running Linux. (e.g. DL380, etc)

My question is: How would i size such an environment such it give a performance comparable to my rp5430?

(attached a daily measureware performance graph of the performance of my server)


thanking you in advance for your replies

kind regards
yogeeraj

[RAC_1]

This is going to be difficult. Also you have not mentioned few details that would help.
How many CPU and RAM on this RP machine??
Will it be same on linux machines?? Basically, it is difficult to complare between the cpus of different arctectiure.

Still dual CPU linux should suffice.

[Arunvijai_4]

I heard AMD Opetron boxes with Linux cost less. You can check that out as well.

-Arun

[RAC_1]

Arun's suggestion is worth checking. AMD of eqal configuration as that of INTEL not only costs less, but also outperforms it too.

I am not expert in that area, but certain credible institutes have confirmed that AMD ia making INTEL feel the competition.

[Steven E. Protter]

Hello Yogeeraj,

Let me take issue with the last post.

Just because a server costs less does not mean its a good deal. There are many factors to consider. A PA-RISC system, though it costs more is one of the most reliable platforms ever produced. That means less downtime.

Next, A current PA-RISC system due to the architecture, is going to run processing circles around Intel 32 bit, Opteron or other options.

I work with both HP-9000 systems and DL380s and the IBM equivalent. I've had service issues with all. HP got the 9000 systems up each time within the 4 hour contract window. Parts showed up on time an the technicians braved difficult conditions to arrive in Jerusalem to do the work.

I've had very dissimilar expereinces with the other two platforms. I will not state specifics but its a sensitive matter here, but the service committments of the vendors were not met. Something to think about.

To the question at hand: An rp5430 system if you want pa-risc can be replaced as far as power goes with an rp3440 system. If you need a lot of periferals, you can still get rp5470 systems.

The key phrase here is: cheaper (though less reliable) servers.

SEP

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

thank you all for your replies!

As i mentioned above, the "new linux-based" server will be only temporary! Unfortunately, i cannot get another RPxxxx or RXxxxx server on loan during the upgrade period.

DL or ML servers are readily available.

Is there a way that i can SCIENTIFICALLY calculate the number of such servers that i would require so that i get the same performance as the RP5430?

This is a production environment, i want to be right first time... and dont want my end-users suffer from any degradation in performance...

Your views are most welcomed...

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Hein van den Heuvel · Accepted solution]

For rough application performance comparisons I would we tempted to use the SAP SD 2-tier benchmark results. While that test also runs a database on the box, the final performance is largely defined by the CPU and Memory intense SAP application (much like what you describe).

You would calculate a scale up from the RP5430 to a lowest possible PA result you can find (not that many as HP used to focus on SAP ATO benchmarks) and then move over to AMD or Itanium results.
You can readily get the SAP results in an EXCEL spreadsheat so it will be easy to sort & filter on user counts and benchmark dates and so on.


http://www.sap.com/solutions/benchmark/index.epx

http://www50.sap.com/benchmarkdata/sd2tier.asp


Rp4440, 8-way SMP, PA-8800 1.0 GHz, @1240
DL585, 4-way SMP, AMD Opteron 2.6 GHz, @1017

Considering the tiny form-factor (you can fit 4 in a shoebox :-) the dual core AMD blades are also impressive:

BL35p, 2-way SMP, Dual-core AMD Opteron 2.2 GHz @949


hth,
Hein.

[Steven E. Protter]

I understand now,

At my previous job, we considered using a 1U DL380 server running Linux as a transition server to do an Oracle IAS upgrade.

In the end, my sysadmin machine which had far more power than the DL was used in its stead, after I left.

I'd go for a really pumped up DL box with lots of memory and at least two processors.

SEP

[Devender Khatana]

Hi Yogeeraj,

Going for a platform change will be a difficult change but here is a CPU comparison table to choose from.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/02/17/benchmark_marathon/page32.html
&
http://images.tomshardware.com/2003/02/17/benchmark_marathon/cpu_chart.gif

HTH,
Devender

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi all,

thank you all for your replies.
Hein:
very informative links indeed. thanks

Devender:
unfortunately, i cannnot access these pages since this site is backlisted by our corporate firewall.

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Arunvijai_4]

Hi Yogee,

You can find the images in that page with this post.

Its in .png format. You can use Irfanview to view them.

-Arun

[Arunvijai_4]

One more image as ITRC doesnt support to attach multiple files.

-Arun

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

thank you for the attached files.

however, these are not much of use since they do not compare to RISC counterparts (e.g. PA-RISC, Itanium, etc)


thanks
yogeeraj

[TwoProc]

Yogeeraj,

If I remember correctly, I believe that you are running Oracle Apps. If that is so, about 1.5 years ago we completed full rounds (after round after round) of performance testing with Mercury tools, and have found that a single Linux DL380 with 2 procs (3.2 GHZ) handily and easily replaced a (then) maxed out RP7410 with 8 750 Ghz procs and 20G Ram.

So a 2-way DL380 at 3.2Ghz with 12G ram >= 8-750 Mhz cpus.

In SOME testing, the bottleneck for even more concurrent users on the little boxes was memory, not CPU. I think on the newer boxes, you can exceed 12G now.

[TwoProc]

Check this new article on the newest HP DL380s out...

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/02/72986_01TCdl380_1.html

[Chan 007]

Yogee,

Please see below

http://www.oracle.com/apps_benchmark/html/results.html

http://www.oracle.com/apps_benchmark/html/results_1153.html

Few more on the same link.

007

[Yogeeraj_1]

thank you John and 007 for these very informative links!

kind regards
yogeeraj