Page 1: Table Of Contents
ECG044.0399 Compaq Servers Prepared by OS Integration Engineering Compaq Computer Corporation Abstract: Tuning the disk system and I/O paths can be key to achieving maximum performance from your server. This paper Contents begins with definitions, guidelines, and recommendations for I/O Executive Summary ....3...
Page 2: March
PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION), EVEN IF COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set forth in the documentation accompanying such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting a further or additional warranty.
Page 3: Executive Summary
You can prevent the adverse effects of a slow network by making sure that your server is delivering maximum performance. Compaq performs extensive tests to determine the optimal configuration for different environments. The results of these tests can be invaluable tools in configuring and tuning your server.
Page 4: Introduction
I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Introduction Perhaps the most common term when maximizing server performance is bottleneck. Invariably, one component in a system will be stressed more than others and, as a result, the performance of the entire system will be limited when the limits of that device have been reached. A bottleneck is not always a single device, and in some cases, it’s not a device at all.
Page 5: Network Interface
I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Figure 1. Boundary Value Conditions Graphical Solution In Figure 1, the Parameter axis could represent a complex, composite variable such as disk systems or a simpler variable such as the type of disks used in a system. The performance axis is usually the axis being optimized.
Page 6: Peripheral Component Interconnect (Pci) Bus
(models 1200 to 7000) use a bridged-PCI architecture to connect multiple PCI busses within the server. Compaq uses two different architectures to connect the two PCI busses to the host bus: the dual-peer PCI bus and the bridged PCI bus.
Page 7 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers the bridge chip itself, but also from any synchronization or contention with the primary bus. Simply stated, I/O loads on the secondary bus are not handled as efficiently as equivalent loads on the primary bus. When placing devices on the secondary bus, select the adapters with the lightest I/O load.
Page 8 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers 3. Avoid putting two network controllers together in the same bus unless both busses already have a network controller installed. Note thatSince fewer devices can lower contention, it is generally better to have a system with one dual-port NIC in each bus than to have two single-port NICs in each bus.
Page 9: Scsi Bus
Here again, the loads placed on your server will determine the importance of a balanced bus. In general, the high-speed PCI busses in Compaq servers are less likely to become saturated in environments where random, small-block transfers are the norm.
Page 10 Improved Cabling: A new 68-pin “P” cable replaces the “B” cable for use with Wide SCSI. Compaq has extensively tested and integrated the Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 technology in Compaq servers and storage options because it allows the highest available performance in a SCSI host...
Page 11 Higher clock-rate interfaces (Fast and Ultra) will usually give performance gains. Compaq does not recommend mixing SCSI revisions or protocols within RAID arrays. If you were to put a SCSI-1 device as part of a RAID array of Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 devices, the performance of the entire array would suffer.
Page 12: Fibre Channel
I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Table 3. Smart-2 Controller Family Model Number of SCSI Channels (Busses) Maximum Number of Spindles Smart-2SL Controller Smart-2DH Controller Smart-2/P Controller Smart-2/E Controller Smart Array 3100 ES Smart Array 3200 Table 4. ProLiant Storage Systems...
Page 13 Since FC bus can carry 100 MB/s, saturating the FC bus would require at least two Fibre Channel Arrays, delivering greater than 50MB/s each. Compaq Fibre Channel Arrays are dedicated storage enclosures with integrated SMART-2 technology, each array can deliver a theoretical maximum of 80 MB/s.
Page 14: Drive Technology
SCSI busses will require mixing of SCSI revisions or placing a heavier load on one bus. Compaq storage on Fibre Channel is the Fibre Channel Array. These arrays consist of a chassis with a Fibre Channel adapter and bays for eight 1-1/2 inch drives or twelve 1 inch drives. There are two SCSI busses in each array;...
Page 15 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers All of these delays are associated with positioning the drive head above the requested data. The delay caused by the swinging of the head to any given cylinder is called seek time. In some cases, the head may only have to seek from one track to the next;...
Page 16 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers service. To a client, distributing the workload means that any individual request will be filled more quickly. By spanning the data and workload to multiple devices, it becomes more likely that an individual drive will be able to handle a request immediately. In effect, RAID allows parallel retrieval of data.
Page 17 On-the-fly failover and rebuild without user intervention. Drive monitoring and pre-fail warning. Easy configuration and management. Compaq highly recommends using hardware driven RAID systems for improved performance and reliability. Scaling The common thread in both hardware and software RAID is the concept of scaling. Scaling refers to the method of distributing the load to multiple devices.
Page 18: System Memory
As mentioned, spanning your data across more drives gives a case of increased performance with diminishing returns. Compaq has found that adding drives to an array provides greater throughput regardless of storage capacity and fault tolerance level. This is true for both like drive and like...
Page 19: Os Performance Monitoring Tools
I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers requested data is retained in high-speed RAM after the request has been filled. If this file is accessed frequently, subsequent requests can be filled immediately, without requiring the hard drive to fetch data. By adding more RAM to your server, you can allocate additional memory and increase the amount of data that can be cached.
Page 20: Microsoft Windows Nt
Processor object, then the Interrupts/sec counter, and the #1 instance. Compaq Resource Paq Version 5.0 for Microsoft Windows NT contains additional hardware performance monitoring components that give specific insight into your Compaq server PCI bus, Compaq NetFlex 3 network interface, and Compaq 32-Bit SCSI-2 controllers. Additionally, the Compaq Resource Paq for Microsoft Windows NT contains a utility called the Performance Monitor Analysis tool.
Page 21: Novell Netware
Additionally, Compaq Insight Manager can provide insight into CPU and, in some servers, PCI bus or EISA bus utilization. Compaq Insight Manager for NetWare adds the ability to add utilization thresholds to the comprehensive alerting and reporting management system.
Page 22: Conclusion
As part of the ASE training courses, Compaq offers in-depth classes on Integration and Tuning for each of the supported operating systems. Information of these classes can be obtained via the Compaq website at http://www.compaq.com/resellers.
Page 23: Appendix - Performance Tuning Data
The following graphs were collected using ZD's ServerBench 4.02, ZD's NetBench 5.01, and Intel's Iometer, rev 1998.10.08. Tests were run on a variety of Compaq servers, including ProLiant 1850R, ProLiant 6500, and ProLiant 5000. The results shown here are not intended as competitive benchmarks;...
Page 24 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Simulated Application: Web Server (8 KB, 100% Read, 0% Write, 0% Sequential, 100% Random) RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 5 No Cache RAID Level Fibre Channel Array SMART-2DH Figure 8. Relative performance of SCSI and Fibre Channel storage for web server applications.
Page 25 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Simulated Application: Maximum MB/sec (1 MB, 100% Read, 0% Write, 100% Sequential, 0% Random) RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 5 No Cache RAID Level Fibre Channel Array SMART-2DH Figure 10. Relative maximum throughput for SCSI and Fibre Channel storage systems. These results were obtained using Iometer version 1998.10.08, Copyright 1998 by Intel Corporation.
Page 26 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Simulated Workload: OLTP (2 KB, 67% Read, 33% Write, 0% Sequential, 100% Random) 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 Number of Fibre Channel Arrays 5 Meter Cable 10 Kilometer Cable 2 x 10 Kilometer Cables Figure 12.
Page 27 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Simulated Workload: Decision Support (25% Access, 8 KB, 0% Read, 100% Write, 100% Sequential, 0% Random 75% Access, 8 KB, 100% Read, 0% Write, 80% Sequential 20% Random) Number of Fibre Channel Arrays 5 Meter Cable...
Page 28: Drive Technology
I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers IO/sec vs. Number of Fibre Channel Arrays 4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 Number of Fibre Channel Arrays 2 KB OLTP WS Mix Web Server Decision Support Figure 16. Relative sustained I/O for each number of FC arrays under different applications. These results were obtained using Iometer version 1998.10.08, Copyright 1998 by Intel Corporation.
Page 29 Sequenti a l Read: 2% Sequenti a l Wri t e: 1% Random Read: 58% Random Wri t e: 39% 1400 1200 Representati v e Compaq 7,200-rpm dri v e Compaq 10k-II dri v e 1000 W i t h l a rger bl o ck si z es, the SCSI...
Page 30 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Read Latency - 7,200-rpm Write Latency - 7,200-rpm Read Latency - 10k-II Write Latency - 10k-II 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 I/Os per Second Figure 19. Response versus throughput for 10k and 7.2k rpm hard drives (7,200-rpm 9.1-GB versus 10k-II 9.1-GB drives.
Page 31 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers 7 x 9.1 GB 7,200-rpm RAID 5 7 x 9.1 GB 10k-II RAID 5 Number of Clients Server Configuration: 128MB RAM Figure 21. Relative performance of a 7-disk, RAID 5 array of 10k rpm drives and a 7-disk, RAID 5 array of 7.2k rpm drives under Windows NT.
Page 32 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Like Capacity Scaling Figures 23 through 27 show, again, the sustained performance of distributing loads to more drives regardless of the RAID level. Like Capacity Scaling (RAID 0 - 1 Controller) 16,000,000 14,000,000 4 x 2GB...
Page 33 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Like Capacity Scaling (RAID 5 - 1 Controller) 14,000,000 7+1 x 2GB 12,000,000 3+1 x 4GB 10,000,000 8,000,000 6,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 Number of Clients Figure 25. Like-capacity scaling performance comparison in a RAID 5 environment. These results were obtained using NetBench version 5.01.
Page 34 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Drive Controller Scaling Figures 27 and 28 illustrate the performance gains of distributing parity calculations by adding RAID array controllers. In Figure 29, the gains are negligible because the RAID 0 does not place a computational load on the array controller.
Page 35: Raid Level Performance
I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers RAID Level Performance The following 3 figures show relative performance of the various RAID levels for the SMART- 2DH controller for common applications. Figure 32 shows a comparison of the maximum sustained throughput for RAID 0, 1, and 5. Using these graphs you can better determine which balance of fault tolerance and speed are best for your environment.
Page 36: Hardware Raid Vs. Software Raid
I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers Compaq Smart-2DH SCSI Controller Simulated Application: Video Server Read (512 KB, 100% Read, 0% Write, 100% Sequential, 0% Random) RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 5 No Cache RAID Level Figure 31. Relative performance of RAID levels in a video server application. These results were obtained using Iometer version 1998.10.08, Copyright 1998 by Intel Corporation.
Page 37 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers (256 KB Block Size, 100% Read, 100% Sequential) 30000 26053 25874 25000 20000 17000 SMART-2SL 15000 SW RAID in NT 10480 10000 7656 4779 5000 RAID 1 ( 2 drvs ) RAID 5 ( 6 drvs ) RAID 5, Degraded ( 5 drvs ) Figure 33.
Page 38 I/O Performance Tuning of Compaq Servers IO/s for a Common Database Profile (8KB Block Size, 67% Read, 100% Random) SMART-2SL SW RAID in NT RAID 1 ( 2 drvs) RAID 5 ( 6 drvs ) RAID 5, Degraded ( 5 drvs) Figure 35.

Compaq 108164-003 - ProLiant - 800 Technical Manual

Executive Summary

Introduction

I/O Performance and Recommendations

OS Performance Monitoring Tools

Appendix - Performance Tuning Data

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