IBM 88743BU - System x3950 E User Manual page 83

Table 2-3 Processor scalability by application type
Processors File and
print
1 way Suitable
2 way Suitable
4 way —
8 way —
16 way —
Processors are only one part of the scalability story. Typically, an important task
is to examine the following items for scalability: memory, disk, and networking
subsystems. Normally, the performance gains from adding processors are only
realized when memory is added in parallel. For disk-intensive applications, such
as OLTP-type applications, it is essential to have a large disk array to stream data
to the CPU and memory subsystems so that any disk-related delays are kept to a
minimum.
Also important is to plan your system in advance according to your business
requirements. Plan so that you will not have to replace your server, operating
system, or storage subsystem because your server no longer meets your
processing requirements, for example, if the operating system does not support
more than four processors, or your server is not able to hold more than seven
PCIe adapters.
Table 2-4 shows how application types scale and what is required to achieve
peak performance. This table lists the server configurations used to produce
several recent benchmark results. As you can see, the amount of memory and
disks varies widely depending on the application.
Table 2-4 Differences in benchmark resource configurations
Benchmark
TPC-C (Databases)
TPC-H (Decision Support)
TPC-E (Databases)
SPEC CPU2006
Web E-mail
server collaboration
Suitable Suitable
Suitable Suitable
— Suitable
— —
— —
Cores Threads
32 32
16 16
32 32
32 32
16 16
16 16
Business Database
logic
Suitable —
Suitable Suitable
Suitable Suitable
— Suitable
— Suitable
Processors Memory
8 512 GB
4 256 GB
8 32 GB
8 256 GB
4 128 GB
4 64 GB
Chapter 2. Product positioning
Server
consolidation
—
Suitable
Suitable
Suitable
Suitable
Disk Drives
1361
775
304
544
384
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