Infrastructure Matters: Cisco UCS Sets World Record Cloud Computing Performance

Infrastructure Matters: Cisco UCS Sets World-Record Cloud Computing PerformancePowered by the Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blade ServerPerformance BriefJuly 2012 Better infrastructure yields better performance—one of the reasons why the Cisco Unified Computing System delivers Highlights the best cloud computing performance of World-Record-Setting Results any 2-socket server as measured by the • The Cisco UCS® B200 M3 Blade Server delivers a VMware® VMmark™ 2.1 score of 11.30@10 tiles, VMware VMmark 2.1 benchmark. Better outperforming all other 2-socket blade servers. performance than HP. Better than Fujitsu. Better Performance for Your Since the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®) was first introduced Workloads three years ago, it has captured more a dozen world-record performance titles on • Whether you are implementing a virtualized data center or a public or VMware® VMmark™ benchmarks. The Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blade Server’s score of private cloud, these VMware VMmark 11.30@10 tiles on the VMware VMmark 2.1 benchmark demonstrates virtualization 2.1 benchmark results indicate the performance and the infrastructure performance and agility for cloud computing degree to which the Cisco Unified environments, including how well a system’s servers, network, and storage support Computing System™ (Cisco UCS) can accelerate your applications. virtual machine movement, storage migration, and virtual machine provisioning. The system used to achieve this performance included the Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blade Server Without Compromise powered by Intel® Xeon® processors and a Violin flash memory array. • Powered by the Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family • Large (up to 384 GB) memory capacity Simplicity Increases Performance • Built-in programmable I/O in which the Cisco UCS is a truly unified system whose configuration is completely automated number and type of devices can be configured on demand to best support through unified, model-based management to simplify deployment of enterprise- security, quality of service (QoS), and class applications and servers running in bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud IT best practices computing environments. Built to support blade and rack servers in the same Violin Flash Memory Arrays management domain, Cisco UCS is designed for simplicity, an approach that • Flash memory enhances performance delivers better performance at lower cost. The Cisco® fabric extender architecture and economics to support virtualized connects the system’s unified fabric from the system’s pair of fabric interconnects and cloud environments. directly to blade and rack servers and individual virtual machines. This radical • Provides the reliability required for a simplicity increases network throughput and eliminates the multiple switching, strategic business resource. • Cisco UCS interoperates with I/O, and management modules that clutter traditional blade systems and increase enterprise flash storage to increase the infrastructure cost. performance of virtualized applications Without redundant network switches, management modules, and cables blocking Infrastructure Matters More Than Ever • The radically simplified design of Cisco the rear of its blade-server chassis, Cisco UCS has an elegant, efficient, straight- UCS eliminates switching in blade through airflow and lower infrastructure power budget. This design leaves more servers, accelerating network traffic room to power and cool some of the most powerful Intel® Xeon® processors from virtual machines to a single point available, further accelerating cloud computing performance. Although not all of management for all I/O traffic in a single multichassis system. customers will choose the highest-performing processors for their servers, the fact that the same chassis has already supported three generations of Intel Xeon© 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.

Infrastructure Matters: Cisco UCS Sets WorldRecord Cloud Computing Performanceprocessors and three I/O and fabric 2 Cisco UCS 6248UPupgrades testifies to the flexibility and Fabric Interconnects 10-Gbps Unified Fabricinvestment protection that Cisco UCS (80 Gbps Total)offers. 4x Cisco Nexus 5548UP SwitchVMware VMmark 2.1 8x 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16Benchmark 4x 8x 8x 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32The VMmark 2.1 benchmark uses 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1a tiled design that incorporates six 10-Gbps Unified Fabric (160 Gbps Total)real-world workloads to determine 8-Gbps Fibre Channela virtualization score. Then it factorsVMware vMotion, Storage vMotion,and virtual machine provisioning timesto determine an infrastructure score.The combination of these scores is thetotal benchmark score. Because Cisco Systems Under Test Violin 6000 Series FlashUCS is a truly unified system, it delivers 2 Cisco UCS B200 M3 Servers, Memory Arrayboth virtualization and infrastructure Each Equipped with: • SAN Boot for VMware • 2 Intel Xeon Processors E5-2690 ESX Serverperformance. • 128 GB of Memory at 1600 MHz • Virtual Disk Storage • Cisco UCS VIC 1240Cisco UCS B200 M3 BladeServer Benchmark Results Figure 1. VMware VMmark 2.1 Benchmark ConfigurationCisco achieved a VMmark 2.1 DIMM slots (up to 384 GB with 16-GB I/O adapter that can be programmedbenchmark score of 11.30@10 DIMMs) to support large virtual machine on demand to match the needs oftiles using two Cisco UCS B200 footprints. The server is designed to the hypervisor and the workload. TheM3 Blade Servers (Figure 1), each deliver the utmost in I/O bandwidth card can support up to 256 devices, inpowered by two 8-core Intel Xeon E5- and flexibility. It is the first blade any combination of Ethernet network2690 processors. Intel Turbo Boost server anywhere to provide built-in interface cards (NICs) and FibreTechnology was enabled to raise the programmable I/O connectivity in which Channel host bus adapters (HBAs). Theclock speed from 2.9 GHz to up to the number and type of I/O devices can adapter accesses each of the system’s3.8 GHz as conditions permit. Each be configured on demand to support two network fabrics for 40 Gbps ofsystem was configured with 128 GB of the needs of both VMware vSphere I/O connectivity. The Cisco UCS B200main memory and a built-in Cisco UCS and the virtual machines running onVirtual Interface Card (VIC) 1240. M3 server’s single mezzanine slot can the server, optimizing performance be configured with an additional I/O and security for cloud computingNo-Compromise Blade Server adapter or a port expander card for environments.The Cisco UCS B200 M3 is a blade the Cisco UCS VIC 1240 to bring theserver without compromise. Powered Cisco Virtual Interface Cards VIC’s I/O connectivity to up to 80 Gbps.by the Intel Xeon processor E5 family, The built-in Cisco UCS VIC 1240 is a These options were not installed for thethe half-width blade server supports 24 modular LAN-on-motherboard (mLOM) VMware VMmark benchmark.© 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 2

Infrastructure Matters: Cisco UCS Sets WorldRecord Cloud Computing Performance Uplinks to Cisco Nexus® 5548UP Switch vEth1 vEth0 vEth2 Virtual Interfaces Connect to Servers and Virtual Machines vEth0 vEth1 vEth2 Cisco UCS vFC0 vFC1 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects Up to 160-Gbps Connectivity to Each Blade Server Chassis Cisco UCS VIC 1240 Provides Up to 20 Gbps Connectivity to Each Fabric Hardware PortChannel Cisco UCS VIC 1240 Interface-to-Fabric Connectivity (Only Active Paths Shown) Up to 256 Devices Configurable on Demand Storage Cisco Data Center vmconsole vSwitch 0 vSwitch 1 Access VM-FEX vmkernel Microsoft DS2 DS2 DS2 Olio Olio DS2 Exchange Standby Web Web Web Web DB DB Server A B C VMware VMmark Benchmark: One Tile VMware vSphere Hypervisor Cisco UCS B200 M3 Server Figure 2. The Built-In Cisco UCS VIC 1240 Was Configured for Performance and Security IsolationThe benchmark did use the Cisco maintains the association between was used to connect and securelyData Center Virtual Machine Fabric NICs and virtual machines regardless of isolate the vmkernel interface throughExtender (VM-FEX), which connects physical location. vSwitch0. The vmconsole and DVDNICs to individual virtual machines for Store Version 2 (DS2) virtual machinesgreater network throughput. Using For the benchmark, the Cisco UCS were supported by a NIC connectedthe Cisco Data Center VM-FEX, all VIC 1240 was configured with to vSwitch1. Four dynamic Ethernetnetwork traffic is centrally managed eight devices (Figure 2). Two Fibre NICs were configured using Ciscoby the system’s fabric interconnects, Channel HBAs were used to provide Data Center VM-FEX to support virtualeliminating software and blade-server redundant access for virtual machine machines in each benchmark tile for:switching. Coordination between Cisco images and for booting the VMwareUCS Manager and VMware vSphere vSphere hypervisor. One Ethernet NIC • Microsoft Exchange Server© 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 3

Infrastructure Matters: Cisco UCS Sets WorldRecord Cloud Computing Performance• Olio web servers and database on a Violin 6000 Series Flash Memory instances Array. These storage arrays are all flash• Standby server memory systems with the reliability, performance, and economics forSegregating traffic from different deployment as mission-critical storage.applications helps enable better A single system fits in three rack unitsmanagement of quality of service (3RU) of space and can deliver up to Figure 3. Cisco UCS B200 M3 Server(QoS) and provides enhanced security one million I/O operations per secondfor client applications in real-world with 4 Gbps of bandwidth. The array issituations. built with fully redundant components provide customers with a measure of with no single point of failure, hot- what they can expect when deployingIntel Xeon Processor E5 Family swappable components, active-active the Cisco Unified Computing System.The Cisco UCS B200 M3 server is Violin vRAID, spare memory to supportpowered by the Intel Xeon processor a fail-in-place model, and systemwide For More InformationE5 family (Figure 3). This versatile wear leveling. Violin’s flash-optimizedprocessor family forms the core vRAID stripes data across multiple For more information about Ciscoof a flexible and efficient data memory modules for parallel access Unified Computing System, visit http://center. Designed to deliver the right and nonblocking erase functions to www.cisco.com/go/ucs.combination of performance and built- deliver consistent latency. For more information about Violin flashin capabilities at lower cost, the Intel memory systems, visit http://www.Xeon processor E5 family delivers Conclusion vmem.com.adaptive performance to a widerange of applications. In addition, Intel Better infrastructure yields betterintegrated I/O dramatically reduces performance, and Cisco’s world- DisclosureI/O latency to help eliminate data record-setting VMmark 2.1 benchmark VMware VMmark is a product ofbottlenecks and increase agility. Almost results demonstrate how important VMware, Inc. The comparative resultsany environment—from virtualization infrastructure choices are for cloud cited in this document were available atand cloud computing platforms to computing environments. http://www.vmmark.com and were validdesign automation systems and real- as of July 10, 2012.time financial transaction processing With innovations including dual 10-systems—can take advantage of the Gbps unified fabrics, the Intel XeonIntel Xeon processor E5 family to boost processor E5 family, built-in Ciscocomputing and storage performance VICs, Cisco Data Center VM-FEX,and streamline data center operations. large memory capacity, and Violin’s all-solid-state memory, Cisco’sViolin 6000 Flash Memory Array results demonstrate the architecturalThe benchmark’s boot images and advantages of a system built forvirtual machine storage were placed virtualized environments, and theyAmericas Headquarters Asia Pacific Headquarters Europe HeadquartersCisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems (USA) Pte. Ltd. Cisco Systems International BV Amsterdam,San Jose, CA Singapore The NetherlandsCisco has more than 200 offices worldwide. Addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers are listed on the Cisco Website at www.cisco.com/go/offices.Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to thisURL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnershiprelationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R) LE-36701-00 07/12

Infrastructure Matters: Cisco UCS Sets World Record Cloud Computing Performance

by Cisco Data Center on Jul 13, 2012

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Infrastructure Matters: Cisco UCS Sets World Record Cloud Computing Performance Document Transcript