We all know that IT is using virtualization on x86 servers to solve tough data center challenges (server sprawl, accelerating power and cooling costs, the need to extend life of current facilities, achieving high-availability and disaster recovery through live migration, etc.)
But which x86 servers are they using? According to IDC’s q3’08 Server Virtualization tracker, 85% of all the x86 servers deployed in 2008 for virtualization were based on Intel® Xeon® processors.
Ok, next question: Is there a benefit to going with scalable 4 Socket servers (Multi-processor) vs. 2 socket servers (Dual-Processor)? It’s a religious argument really, but as IT budgets continue to tighten, scalable 4 Socket servers offer more ‘capabilities’ (i.e. processors, memory, I/O ports and reliability features) that enable higher consolidation ratios.
So I thought I would write about 5 specific scenarios where you should see a benefit to scalable 4 Socket (MP) servers over 2 Socket newest (DP). Tell us if you agree or disagree.
1. Higher Consolidation Ratios for Memory-Constrained Apps
Do you have a bunch of apps that you need to keep running but at the same time face tremendous pressure to address the challenges listed above? A key advantage of scalable servers is that they can be configured with more memory than smaller 2S servers, typically 2x-4x more. Often times, especially with multi-core processors, virtual machines will run into memory constraints before they run into processor constraints. A 2x-4x memory capacity advantage can translate into 2x-4x the VMs. Scalable servers also tend to use available memory more efficiently, since code and data can be stored once and shared among multiple virtual machines. Solvay Pharmaceuticals, for example, intends to run with consolidation ratios as high as 25:1 on 4 Socket Xeon servers.
2. Performance and Reliability for Business-Critical Workloads
Intel’s launch last September of the Xeon 7400 processor (6-cores, 16mb shared L3 cache) brings 24 processing cores and up to 256gb memory (32 dimm slots x 8gb dimms) to a 4 Socket Server environment. This provides a lot of resources for demanding applications and unexpected workload spikes. Tests within Intel’s IT department have shown that 4-socket servers show much less variation in throughput than comparable 2-socket servers as virtualized workloads are increased.
3. Faster and More Cost-Effective Test and Development
Development teams can be demanding. The faster IT can provision testing environments for the developers the better. Scalable servers offer more headroom to deploy additional dev environments when needed, without waiting for new physical servers to be provisioned. Scalable servers can also support a broader range of applications, including enterprise applications that may require the processor, memory and I/O resources of a large, multi-processor system. Using the same Solvay Pharmaceuticals example listed above, they were able to deploy new apps in 10 min vs. 1 week prior to deploying virtualization on Xeon based servers.
4. Larger and More Robust Flexible Resource Pools
With VMware Virtual Infrastructure, applications can be migrated without downtime among all the servers in a resource pool, which can include up to 32 physical hosts (in a VMware HA* or VMware DRS* cluster). Using larger, scalable servers would simply expand the capacity of those resource pools due to the additional memory, processors, I/O, etc.
5. Better Utilization of Limited Data Center Resources
Many data centers are operating at or near the limit of their power, cooling and networking capacity. By using larger, scalable servers to increase consolidation ratios, IT can reduce power and cooling requirements and share local area network (LAN) and storage area network (SAN) ports more efficiently – all of which can help defer the high cost of new data center construction.
Let us know what you think…
