Your datacenter is capable of doing great things—if you let it. Upgrades from Intel for compute, storage, and networking components can help your business support new services and expand your customer base. In our hands-on testing, we found that new Intel processors, high-bandwidth network components, and SATA or PCIe SSDs working together can boost your datacenter’s capabilities, which could translate to better business operations for your organization.
SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC630 QLogic 1...Principled Technologies
Upgrading the hardware running your SQL Server to a space-efficient modular Dell EMC modern environment can help your company achieve a great deal of database work in a small amount of space. With the Dell Express Flash technology, adding a caching solution such as Samsung AutoCache can make the environment even more efficient.
In the PT labs, we ran a mixed database workload on six Dell EMC PowerEdge FC630 servers, powered by Intel Xeon E5-2667 processors, in three PowerEdge FX2 enclosures. The solution included the QLogic QLE2692 16Gb FC adapter with StorFusion Technology, Dell EMC Storage SC9000 all-flash storage, and Dell EMC PowerEdge Express Flash NVMe Performance PCIe SSDs.
With no caching solution, the 36 SQL Server 2016 VMs on the six servers achieved a total of 431,839 orders per minute while an Oracle workload ran on 12 VMs. When we added a caching solution to accelerate the SQL database volumes, the performance across the 36 SQL Server 2016 VMs doubled to 871,580. These numbers show the power of server-side caching to alleviate pressure on the storage array allowing you to get even more out of the Dell EMC modern environment.
Run compute-intensive Apache Hadoop big data workloads faster with Dell EMC P...Principled Technologies
Moving compute-intensive, Hadoop big data workloads to current-generation Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 servers powered by 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors could allow your organization to better meet the data analysis challenges of today. Faster analysis of large data sets means getting insight into your organization, products, and services sooner, which could help your organization grow and beat its competition.
Ensure greater uptime and boost VMware vSAN cluster performance with the Del...Principled Technologies
The Dell EMC PowerEdge MX with VMware vSAN Ready Nodes delivered a 55.9% faster response time than a Cisco UCS solution and a 41.3% faster response time than an HPE Synergy solution
Business-critical applications on VMware vSphere 6, VMware Virtual SAN, and V...Principled Technologies
Moving to the virtualized, software-defined datacenter can offer real benefits to today’s organizations. As our testing showed, virtualizing business-critical applications with VMware vSphere, VMware Virtual SAN, and VMware NSX not only delivered reliable performance in a peak utilization scenario, but also delivered business continuity during and after a simulated site evacuation.
Using this VMware Validated Design with QCT hardware and Intel SSDs, we demonstrated a virtualized critical Oracle Database application environment delivering strong performance, even when under extreme duress.
Recognizing that many organizations have multiple sites, we also proved that our environment performed reliably under a site evacuation scenario, migrating the primary site VMs to the secondary in just over eight minutes with no downtime.
With these features and strengths, the VMware Validated Design SDDC is a proven solution that allows for efficient deployment of components and can help improve the reliability, flexibility, and mobility of your multi-site environment.
A company’s success depends on critical application performance and availability. Upgrades and patches can improve application efficiency and user experience, but making the necessary changes requires resource intensive environments to test updates before deploying them. What’s more, these applications need to continue accessing data even in the event of an on-premises crisis.
Our Dell EMC VMAX 250F and PowerEdge server solution supported test/dev environments and production database applications simultaneously without affecting the production applications’ performance. Storage latency for the VMAX 250F peaked at a millisecond in our testing while IOPS stayed within an acceptable range. The solution also kept data highly available with no downtime or performance drop when we initiated a lost host connection for the primary storage. Consider the Dell EMC VMAX 250F array for your datacenter to support the critical database applications that drive your company.
Symantec NetBackup 7.6 benchmark comparison: Data protection in a large-scale...Principled Technologies
The footprint of a VM can grow quickly in an enterprise environment and large-scale VM deployments in the thousands are common. As this number of deployed systems grows, so does the risk of failure. Critical failures can become unavoidable and offering data protection from a backup solution promotes business continuity. Elongated protection windows requiring multiple jobs of different types can create resource contention with production environments and may require valuable IT admin time, so a finite window for system backups can have plenty of importance.
In our hands-on SAN backup testing, the Symantec NetBackup Integrated Appliance running NetBackup 7.6 offered application protection to 1,000 VMs in 66.8 percent less time than Competitor “E” did. In addition, the Symantec NetBackup Integrated Appliance with NetBackup 7.6 created backup images that offered granular recovery without additional steps. These time and effort savings can scale as your VM footprint grows, allowing you to execute both system protection and user-friendly, simplified recovery.
Slow performance and unavailable critical applications can impinge a company’s progress. You can apply patches and updates to improve application quality and user experience, but these changes need to be tested in resource-intensive environments before deployment. Keeping these applications accessing data is vital, too, as on-premises events can put availability at risk.
Our Dell EMC VMAX 250F and PowerEdge server solution supported test/dev environments and production database applications simultaneously without affecting the production applications’ performance. As we added VMs designed for test/dev environments, the production workload maintained an acceptable level of IOPS and achieved an average storage latency of less than a millisecond. The solution also kept data highly available with no downtime and no performance drop when we initiated a lost host connection for the primary storage. To run critical database applications of your company, consider the Dell EMC VMAX 250F for your datacenter.
SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC630 QLogic 1...Principled Technologies
Upgrading the hardware running your SQL Server to a space-efficient modular Dell EMC modern environment can help your company achieve a great deal of database work in a small amount of space. With the Dell Express Flash technology, adding a caching solution such as Samsung AutoCache can make the environment even more efficient.
In the PT labs, we ran a mixed database workload on six Dell EMC PowerEdge FC630 servers, powered by Intel Xeon E5-2667 processors, in three PowerEdge FX2 enclosures. The solution included the QLogic QLE2692 16Gb FC adapter with StorFusion Technology, Dell EMC Storage SC9000 all-flash storage, and Dell EMC PowerEdge Express Flash NVMe Performance PCIe SSDs.
With no caching solution, the 36 SQL Server 2016 VMs on the six servers achieved a total of 431,839 orders per minute while an Oracle workload ran on 12 VMs. When we added a caching solution to accelerate the SQL database volumes, the performance across the 36 SQL Server 2016 VMs doubled to 871,580. These numbers show the power of server-side caching to alleviate pressure on the storage array allowing you to get even more out of the Dell EMC modern environment.
Run compute-intensive Apache Hadoop big data workloads faster with Dell EMC P...Principled Technologies
Moving compute-intensive, Hadoop big data workloads to current-generation Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 servers powered by 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors could allow your organization to better meet the data analysis challenges of today. Faster analysis of large data sets means getting insight into your organization, products, and services sooner, which could help your organization grow and beat its competition.
Ensure greater uptime and boost VMware vSAN cluster performance with the Del...Principled Technologies
The Dell EMC PowerEdge MX with VMware vSAN Ready Nodes delivered a 55.9% faster response time than a Cisco UCS solution and a 41.3% faster response time than an HPE Synergy solution
Business-critical applications on VMware vSphere 6, VMware Virtual SAN, and V...Principled Technologies
Moving to the virtualized, software-defined datacenter can offer real benefits to today’s organizations. As our testing showed, virtualizing business-critical applications with VMware vSphere, VMware Virtual SAN, and VMware NSX not only delivered reliable performance in a peak utilization scenario, but also delivered business continuity during and after a simulated site evacuation.
Using this VMware Validated Design with QCT hardware and Intel SSDs, we demonstrated a virtualized critical Oracle Database application environment delivering strong performance, even when under extreme duress.
Recognizing that many organizations have multiple sites, we also proved that our environment performed reliably under a site evacuation scenario, migrating the primary site VMs to the secondary in just over eight minutes with no downtime.
With these features and strengths, the VMware Validated Design SDDC is a proven solution that allows for efficient deployment of components and can help improve the reliability, flexibility, and mobility of your multi-site environment.
A company’s success depends on critical application performance and availability. Upgrades and patches can improve application efficiency and user experience, but making the necessary changes requires resource intensive environments to test updates before deploying them. What’s more, these applications need to continue accessing data even in the event of an on-premises crisis.
Our Dell EMC VMAX 250F and PowerEdge server solution supported test/dev environments and production database applications simultaneously without affecting the production applications’ performance. Storage latency for the VMAX 250F peaked at a millisecond in our testing while IOPS stayed within an acceptable range. The solution also kept data highly available with no downtime or performance drop when we initiated a lost host connection for the primary storage. Consider the Dell EMC VMAX 250F array for your datacenter to support the critical database applications that drive your company.
Symantec NetBackup 7.6 benchmark comparison: Data protection in a large-scale...Principled Technologies
The footprint of a VM can grow quickly in an enterprise environment and large-scale VM deployments in the thousands are common. As this number of deployed systems grows, so does the risk of failure. Critical failures can become unavoidable and offering data protection from a backup solution promotes business continuity. Elongated protection windows requiring multiple jobs of different types can create resource contention with production environments and may require valuable IT admin time, so a finite window for system backups can have plenty of importance.
In our hands-on SAN backup testing, the Symantec NetBackup Integrated Appliance running NetBackup 7.6 offered application protection to 1,000 VMs in 66.8 percent less time than Competitor “E” did. In addition, the Symantec NetBackup Integrated Appliance with NetBackup 7.6 created backup images that offered granular recovery without additional steps. These time and effort savings can scale as your VM footprint grows, allowing you to execute both system protection and user-friendly, simplified recovery.
Slow performance and unavailable critical applications can impinge a company’s progress. You can apply patches and updates to improve application quality and user experience, but these changes need to be tested in resource-intensive environments before deployment. Keeping these applications accessing data is vital, too, as on-premises events can put availability at risk.
Our Dell EMC VMAX 250F and PowerEdge server solution supported test/dev environments and production database applications simultaneously without affecting the production applications’ performance. As we added VMs designed for test/dev environments, the production workload maintained an acceptable level of IOPS and achieved an average storage latency of less than a millisecond. The solution also kept data highly available with no downtime and no performance drop when we initiated a lost host connection for the primary storage. To run critical database applications of your company, consider the Dell EMC VMAX 250F for your datacenter.
A company’s success depends on critical application performance and availability. Upgrades and patches can improve application efficiency and user experience, but making the necessary changes requires resource intensive environments to test updates before deploying them. What’s more, these applications need to continue accessing data even in the event of an on-premises crisis.
Our Dell EMC VMAX 250F and PowerEdge server solution supported test/dev environments and production database applications simultaneously without affecting the production applications’ performance. Storage latency for the VMAX 250F peaked at a millisecond in our testing while IOPS stayed within an acceptable range. The solution also kept data highly available with no downtime or performance drop when we initiated a lost host connection for the primary storage. Consider the Dell EMC VMAX 250F array for your datacenter to support the critical database applications that drive your company.
3 key wins: Dell EMC PowerEdge MX with OpenManage Enterprise over Cisco UCS a...Principled Technologies
In head-to-head tests, the modular Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™ MX7000 with
OpenManage™ Enterprise reduced admin time and effort on repetitive tasks when compared to Cisco UCS® 5108 with Cisco UCS Manager and HPE Synergy with OneView.
Keep remote desktop power users productive with Dell EMC PowerEdge R840 serve...Principled Technologies
When the Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™ R840 launched, we found that companies could get more power for their CPU-intensive workloads with this 2U four-socket rack server.1 Now, it presents an opportunity for you to support more power users, speed desktop responsiveness, and grow your employee base.
Keep your data safe by moving from unsupported SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server ...Principled Technologies
Many small and medium businesses delay updating their server operating systems and applications. When software reaches end-of-support and the vendor ceases to release security updates and patches, businesses that fail to migrate risk incurring downtime and expense. They may encounter technical problems, and their vital data becomes especially vulnerable to cyber attackers, who often target outdated software.
A single-socket Dell EMC PowerEdge R7515 solution delivered better value on a...Principled Technologies
If your company is running important business applications in VMware vSAN clusters of servers that are several years old, chances are good that you’re considering upgrading to newer hardware. Our testing demonstrated that our clusters of single-socket Dell EMC PowerEdge R7515 servers and clusters of dual-socket HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 servers could both improve upon the database performance of a legacy cluster with five-year-old servers by more than 50 percent, with the Dell EMC cluster achieving 93.4 percent of the performance of the HPE cluster.
Spend less time, effort, and money by choosing a Dell EMC server with pre-ins...Principled Technologies
Deploying a Dell EMC PowerEdge R740 with pre-installed Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard took less time and fewer steps than deploying the same server without it
Compute intensive performance efficiency comparison: HP Moonshot with AMD APU...Principled Technologies
AMD’s accelerated processing units can be an enormous boon to those who perform compute intensive processing workloads, such as the 3D rendering workload we tested. In the Principled Technologies labs, an AMD-based HP Moonshot 1500 chassis with the ProLiant M700 server cartridge outperformed an Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 V2-based server —delivering 12.6 times the rendering performance of a single Intel server. It achieved this performance advantage while utilizing 10 percent less power than the more traditional server solution, and used just 4.3U of rack space instead of the 12U that 12 Intel servers would have used.
Consolidating Web servers with the Dell PowerEdge FX2 enclosure and PowerEdge...Principled Technologies
Consolidating Web servers to a new environment can save you a great deal on operating costs such as power and cooling, and the shared nature of converged infrastructure solutions can maximize these savings. In our tests, we found that the Dell PowerEdge FX2 enclosure with Intel Atom processor C2750-powered FM120 nodes provided better consolidation ratios and power efficiency than both the HP Moonshot 1500 shared infrastructure solution and the current-generation HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 rack server. The Dell PowerEdge FX2 could consolidate 12 legacy Web servers and deliver up to 6.7 times the power efficiency that legacy servers would use. It also delivered up to 110.1 percent more performance/watt compared to the current-generation Web server solutions we tested from HP.
As these results show, the Dell PowerEdge FX2 with FM120x4 microserver blocks could provide your organization with dramatic power savings through consolidation, all while providing the Web server performance you require.
Watch your transactional database performance climb with Intel Optane DC pers...Principled Technologies
Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd servers with Intel Optane DC persistent memory handled more transactions per minute than configurations with NAND flash NVMe drives or SATA SSDs
Get higher transaction throughput and better price/performance with an Amazon...Principled Technologies
In addition, the EBS gp3-backed EC2 r5b.16xlarge instance delivered a lower average transaction latency to offer more consistent transactional database performance than two Microsoft Azure E64ds_v4 VM configurations
With new automation tools, tying up your administrator’s time with repetitive processes can become a thing of the past. Our tests showed how Dell ASM, with the ability to build deployment templates, can save significant administrator time and steps compared to a solution that lacks these features. In an age where business IT demands grow rapidly, providing administrators with the right tools to manage their virtualized infrastructure is critical for keeping your datacenter running efficiently.
Dell PowerEdge R920 running Oracle Database: Benefits of upgrading with NVMe ...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R920 provides strong performance in its base configuration with 24 SAS hard disks, but this performance gets an enormous boost when running the configuration containing NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs. In our testing, the upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R920 delivered 14.9 times the database performance of the base configuration. In addition, in testing the raw I/O throughput of the NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs, we saw as much as 192.8 times the IOPS as compared to the base configuration. Given that the storage subsystem is critical in servers and specifically database applications, the performance improvements offered by NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs can lead to great service improvements for your customers, making this upgrade a very wise investment.
In our tests, we found that the HP Z8 tower with Intel Xeon Gold 6226R processors completed three sample media and entertainment tasks in up to 44 percent less time than the Apple Mac Pro with Intel Xeon W-3275M processor, while adding only 11 percent to the purchase price.
Consolidate SAS 9.4 workloads with Intel Xeon processor E7 v2 and Intel SSD t...Principled Technologies
A key to modernizing your data center is to consolidate your legacy workloads through virtualization, which can help reduce complexity for your business. Fewer servers require fewer physical resources, such as power, cabling, and switches, and reduce the burden on IT for ongoing management tasks such as updates. In addition, integrating newer hardware technology into your data center can provide new features that strengthen your infrastructure, such as RAS features on the processor and disk performance improvements. Finally, using SAS 9.4 ensures that you have the latest features and toolsets that SAS can offer.
Compared to a legacy server, we found that a modern four-socket server powered by Intel Xeon processors E7-4890 v2 with Intel SSD DC P3700 Series provided eight times the amount of SAS work, over 11 times the relative performance, and a shorter average time to complete the SAS workload. Running eight virtual SAS instances also left capacity on the server for additional work. Consolidating your SAS workloads from legacy servers onto servers powered by Intel Xeon processors E7 v2 and SAS 9.4 can provide your business with the latest hardware and software features, reduce complexity in your data center, and potentially reduce costs for your business.
Each server configuration we tested enabled us to do more work than our baseline without risking performance. Compared to the total cost of a server, the initial cost of a processor upgrade is easily offset by the performance boost each processor drives. Each upfront investment means you’ll be able to meet rising customer demands better and, in some cases, gives your business room to grow.
A company’s success depends on critical application performance and availability. Upgrades and patches can improve application efficiency and user experience, but making the necessary changes requires resource intensive environments to test updates before deploying them. What’s more, these applications need to continue accessing data even in the event of an on-premises crisis.
Our Dell EMC VMAX 250F and PowerEdge server solution supported test/dev environments and production database applications simultaneously without affecting the production applications’ performance. Storage latency for the VMAX 250F peaked at a millisecond in our testing while IOPS stayed within an acceptable range. The solution also kept data highly available with no downtime or performance drop when we initiated a lost host connection for the primary storage. Consider the Dell EMC VMAX 250F array for your datacenter to support the critical database applications that drive your company.
3 key wins: Dell EMC PowerEdge MX with OpenManage Enterprise over Cisco UCS a...Principled Technologies
In head-to-head tests, the modular Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™ MX7000 with
OpenManage™ Enterprise reduced admin time and effort on repetitive tasks when compared to Cisco UCS® 5108 with Cisco UCS Manager and HPE Synergy with OneView.
Keep remote desktop power users productive with Dell EMC PowerEdge R840 serve...Principled Technologies
When the Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™ R840 launched, we found that companies could get more power for their CPU-intensive workloads with this 2U four-socket rack server.1 Now, it presents an opportunity for you to support more power users, speed desktop responsiveness, and grow your employee base.
Keep your data safe by moving from unsupported SQL Server 2008 to SQL Server ...Principled Technologies
Many small and medium businesses delay updating their server operating systems and applications. When software reaches end-of-support and the vendor ceases to release security updates and patches, businesses that fail to migrate risk incurring downtime and expense. They may encounter technical problems, and their vital data becomes especially vulnerable to cyber attackers, who often target outdated software.
A single-socket Dell EMC PowerEdge R7515 solution delivered better value on a...Principled Technologies
If your company is running important business applications in VMware vSAN clusters of servers that are several years old, chances are good that you’re considering upgrading to newer hardware. Our testing demonstrated that our clusters of single-socket Dell EMC PowerEdge R7515 servers and clusters of dual-socket HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 servers could both improve upon the database performance of a legacy cluster with five-year-old servers by more than 50 percent, with the Dell EMC cluster achieving 93.4 percent of the performance of the HPE cluster.
Spend less time, effort, and money by choosing a Dell EMC server with pre-ins...Principled Technologies
Deploying a Dell EMC PowerEdge R740 with pre-installed Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard took less time and fewer steps than deploying the same server without it
Compute intensive performance efficiency comparison: HP Moonshot with AMD APU...Principled Technologies
AMD’s accelerated processing units can be an enormous boon to those who perform compute intensive processing workloads, such as the 3D rendering workload we tested. In the Principled Technologies labs, an AMD-based HP Moonshot 1500 chassis with the ProLiant M700 server cartridge outperformed an Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 V2-based server —delivering 12.6 times the rendering performance of a single Intel server. It achieved this performance advantage while utilizing 10 percent less power than the more traditional server solution, and used just 4.3U of rack space instead of the 12U that 12 Intel servers would have used.
Consolidating Web servers with the Dell PowerEdge FX2 enclosure and PowerEdge...Principled Technologies
Consolidating Web servers to a new environment can save you a great deal on operating costs such as power and cooling, and the shared nature of converged infrastructure solutions can maximize these savings. In our tests, we found that the Dell PowerEdge FX2 enclosure with Intel Atom processor C2750-powered FM120 nodes provided better consolidation ratios and power efficiency than both the HP Moonshot 1500 shared infrastructure solution and the current-generation HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 rack server. The Dell PowerEdge FX2 could consolidate 12 legacy Web servers and deliver up to 6.7 times the power efficiency that legacy servers would use. It also delivered up to 110.1 percent more performance/watt compared to the current-generation Web server solutions we tested from HP.
As these results show, the Dell PowerEdge FX2 with FM120x4 microserver blocks could provide your organization with dramatic power savings through consolidation, all while providing the Web server performance you require.
Watch your transactional database performance climb with Intel Optane DC pers...Principled Technologies
Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd servers with Intel Optane DC persistent memory handled more transactions per minute than configurations with NAND flash NVMe drives or SATA SSDs
Get higher transaction throughput and better price/performance with an Amazon...Principled Technologies
In addition, the EBS gp3-backed EC2 r5b.16xlarge instance delivered a lower average transaction latency to offer more consistent transactional database performance than two Microsoft Azure E64ds_v4 VM configurations
With new automation tools, tying up your administrator’s time with repetitive processes can become a thing of the past. Our tests showed how Dell ASM, with the ability to build deployment templates, can save significant administrator time and steps compared to a solution that lacks these features. In an age where business IT demands grow rapidly, providing administrators with the right tools to manage their virtualized infrastructure is critical for keeping your datacenter running efficiently.
Dell PowerEdge R920 running Oracle Database: Benefits of upgrading with NVMe ...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R920 provides strong performance in its base configuration with 24 SAS hard disks, but this performance gets an enormous boost when running the configuration containing NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs. In our testing, the upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R920 delivered 14.9 times the database performance of the base configuration. In addition, in testing the raw I/O throughput of the NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs, we saw as much as 192.8 times the IOPS as compared to the base configuration. Given that the storage subsystem is critical in servers and specifically database applications, the performance improvements offered by NVMe Express Flash PCIe SSDs can lead to great service improvements for your customers, making this upgrade a very wise investment.
In our tests, we found that the HP Z8 tower with Intel Xeon Gold 6226R processors completed three sample media and entertainment tasks in up to 44 percent less time than the Apple Mac Pro with Intel Xeon W-3275M processor, while adding only 11 percent to the purchase price.
Consolidate SAS 9.4 workloads with Intel Xeon processor E7 v2 and Intel SSD t...Principled Technologies
A key to modernizing your data center is to consolidate your legacy workloads through virtualization, which can help reduce complexity for your business. Fewer servers require fewer physical resources, such as power, cabling, and switches, and reduce the burden on IT for ongoing management tasks such as updates. In addition, integrating newer hardware technology into your data center can provide new features that strengthen your infrastructure, such as RAS features on the processor and disk performance improvements. Finally, using SAS 9.4 ensures that you have the latest features and toolsets that SAS can offer.
Compared to a legacy server, we found that a modern four-socket server powered by Intel Xeon processors E7-4890 v2 with Intel SSD DC P3700 Series provided eight times the amount of SAS work, over 11 times the relative performance, and a shorter average time to complete the SAS workload. Running eight virtual SAS instances also left capacity on the server for additional work. Consolidating your SAS workloads from legacy servers onto servers powered by Intel Xeon processors E7 v2 and SAS 9.4 can provide your business with the latest hardware and software features, reduce complexity in your data center, and potentially reduce costs for your business.
Each server configuration we tested enabled us to do more work than our baseline without risking performance. Compared to the total cost of a server, the initial cost of a processor upgrade is easily offset by the performance boost each processor drives. Each upfront investment means you’ll be able to meet rising customer demands better and, in some cases, gives your business room to grow.
Consolidate SAS 9.4 workloads with Intel Xeon processor E7 v3 and Intel SSD t...Principled Technologies
A key to modernizing your data center is to consolidate your legacy workloads through virtualization, which can help reduce complexity for your business. Fewer servers require fewer physical resources, such as power, cabling, and switches, and reduce the burden on IT for ongoing management tasks such as updates. In addition, integrating newer hardware technology into your data center can provide new features that strengthen your infrastructure, such as RAS features on the processor and disk performance improvements. Finally, using SAS 9.4 ensures that you have the latest features and toolsets that SAS can offer.
Compared to a legacy server, we found that a modern four-socket server powered by Intel Xeon processors E7-8890 v3 with Intel SSD DC P3700 Series provided 12 times the amount of SAS work, nearly 14 times the relative performance, and a shorter average time to complete the SAS workload. Running 12 virtual SAS instances also left capacity on the server for additional work. Consolidating your SAS workloads from legacy servers onto servers powered by Intel Xeon processors E7 v3 and SAS 9.4 can provide your business with the latest hardware and software features, reduce complexity in your data center, and potentially reduce costs for your business.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v4 Big Data Analytics Applications ShowcaseIntel IT Center
Deeper insights in less time at lower costs are made possible by the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v4 product family, delivering critical performance enhancements through key platform technologies that benefit the software-defined data center. See how leading software vendors are leveraging these for optimum performance.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase - Data ...Intel IT Center
This Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase focuses on Data Center Optimization & Security software companies who have seen preformance increases with Intel products.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase - Fin...Intel IT Center
This Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase focuses on Financial Services software companies who have seen preformance increases with Intel products.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase - Core ...Intel IT Center
This Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase focuses on Core Business Applicatoins software companies who have seen preformance increases with Intel products.
Now that SSDs have become more affordable, including them in your new servers makes great business sense. In our testing, both Intel S3520 SATA SSDs and Intel P3520 NVMe PCIe SSDs helped the new server we tested deliver many times more database work than a four-year-old server with hard drives—17 times and 30 times respectively. While both Intel SSD options are strong, we saw greater performance per dollar from three NVMe SSDs than from six SATA SSDs. This confirms Joel’s belief that Intel P3520 NVMe PCIe SSDs would bring greater value to his company.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v4 Enterprise Database Applications ShowcaseIntel IT Center
The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 product family delivers the high performance, increased memory, and I/O bandwidth required for all forms of enterprise databases, is ideal for next-generation application workloads, and is the powerhouse for software-defined infrastructure (SDI) environments where automation and orchestration capabilities are foundational. See how database solutions deployed on the Intel® Xeon® processor E5 v4 product family can deliver increased performance and throughput, as demonstrated by key software partners.
Increase density and performance with upgrades from Intel and MicrosoftPrincipled Technologies
As the needs of your business grow, so must the power of your server infrastructure. Rather than purchasing replacement servers with base configurations, consider upgrading key components to ensure you get the performance you need.
In our tests, we found that upgrading a server with the new Intel Xeon processor E5-2697v2, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 operating system, Intel SSD DC S3700 series drive, and Intel Ethernet CNA X520 series adapters supported 3.5 times more VMs than the legacy server we tested, which also meant 3.5 times the database performance and Exchange user mailboxes. Upgrading components piece by piece can improve your server capacity, but upgrading the processor, OS, storage, and network configuration together provided the biggest increase in our tests. By investing in upgraded components from Intel and Microsoft, you can get the most out of your server infrastructure both now and in the future.
As the needs of your business grow, so must the power of your server infrastructure. Rather than purchasing replacement servers with base configurations, consider upgrading key components to ensure you get the performance you need.
In our tests, we found that upgrading a server with the new Intel Xeon processor E5-2697v2, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 operating system, Intel SSD DC S3700 series drive, and Intel Ethernet CNA X520 series adapters supported 3.5 times more VMs than the legacy server we tested, which also meant 3.5 times the database performance and Exchange user mailboxes. Upgrading components piece by piece can improve your server capacity, but upgrading the processor, OS, storage, and network configuration together provided the biggest increase in our tests. By investing in upgraded components from Intel and Microsoft, you can get the most out of your server infrastructure both now and in the future.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v4 Tech Computing Applications ShowcaseIntel IT Center
Where breakthrough performance is expected, the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v4 product family, a key ingredient of the Intel® Scalable System Framework and the software-defined data center, is designed to deliver better performance and performance per watt than ever before. The combination of Intel Xeon processors, Intel® Omni-Path Architecture, Intel Solutions for Lustre* software, and storage technologies improves bandwidth and reduces latency, providing a high-performing, highly scalable system for your most demanding workloads.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase - Telec...Intel IT Center
This Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v3 Product Family Application Showcase focuses on Telecommunications and Cloud software companies who have seen performance increases with Intel products.
Webinář: Dell VRTX - datacentrum vše-v-jednom za skvělou cenu / 7.10.2013Jaroslav Prodelal
Dokážete si představit, že byste provozovali své datacentrum v prostředí kanceláře? Ano, je to možné. Společnost Dell uvedla na trh novinku v podobě tzv. datacenter-in-a-box (vše-v-jednom), které je optimalizované (odhlučnění, napájení) pro provoz i v kanceláři, samozřejmě jej můžete dát i do samostatné místnosti.
Dell VRTX kombinuje v jediném 5U šasí výpočetní výkon (až 4 2-CPU servery), diskové úložiště (až 24 HDD) a síť.
Ve webináři vás seznámíme s touto cenově velmi zajímavou novinkou a ukážeme rozdíl mezi tímto řešením a případnými alternativami v době samostaných serverů, diskového pole a síťových switchů.
Agenda:
* co je Dell VRTX?
* segment zákazníků pro VRTX
* co VRTX nabízí
* řešení provozované na VRTX
* technické specifikace
* možná použití
* cena
* aktuální nabídky a promo akce
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 v4 Telco Cloud Digital Applications ShowcaseIntel IT Center
Cloud and telecommunication companies can deliver better end user experiences while improving cost models across their data centers with the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v4 product family. See how innovative technologies can deliver high throughput, low latency and more agile delivery of network services to the software-defined data center. Additionally, unparalleled versatility across diverse workloads, such as 4K video processing, editing, and decoding and encoding where improved bandwidth and reduced latency provide noticeable performance improvements.
The innovative Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors are architected to provide the
foundation for mission-critical workloads. The new Intel® Xeon® Platinum and Gold
processors are optimized to deliver exceptionally fast performance and high reliability
for robust business continuity.
When compared to the no-cache solution results, the Intel solution increased database performance in our tests by up to 65 percent using a real-world database workload. Additionally, the Intel solution provided 7 percent greater database performance when compared to the competing solution. This means that with the Intel solution, administrators can give their databases an extra boost to improve performance for end users, especially when RAM upgrades and additional storage are no longer feasible options.
Component upgrades from Intel and Dell can increase VM density and boost perf...Principled Technologies
As the needs of your business grow, so must the power of your server infrastructure. Rather than purchasing replacement servers with base configurations, consider upgrading key components to ensure you get the performance you need.
We found that upgrading to the Dell PowerEdge R730 with the Intel Xeon processor E5-2699 v3, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system, Intel SSD DC S3700 series drive, and Intel Ethernet CNA X520 series adapters supported an extra 16 VMs, 67 percent more VMs than the previous-generation Dell PowerEdge R720 solution.
When you purchase a server, wisely selecting these components offered by Dell and Intel can allow your business to hit the sweet spot of supporting all your users without breaking the bank. The option to upgrade server components can provide your infrastructure with room to grow in the future, as your business needs increase.
Finally, these select upgrades could translate to savings for your business—fewer servers you need to purchase now to meet performance demands and a longer lifespan for these servers as your business continues to grow.
Similar to Boost your work with hardware from Intel (20)
Investing in GenAI: Cost‑benefit analysis of Dell on‑premises deployments vs....Principled Technologies
Conclusion
Diving into the world of GenAI has the potential to yield a great many benefits for your organization, but it first requires consideration for how best to implement those GenAI workloads. Whether your AI goals are to create a chatbot for online visitors, generate marketing materials, aid troubleshooting, or something else, implementing an AI solution requires careful planning and decision-making. A major decision is whether to host GenAI in the cloud or keep your data on premises. Traditional on-premises solutions can provide superior security and control, a substantial concern when dealing with large amounts of potentially sensitive data. But will supporting a GenAI solution on site be a drain on an organization’s IT budget?
In our research, we found that the value proposition is just the opposite: Hosting GenAI workloads on premises, either in a traditional Dell solution or using a managed Dell APEX pay-per-use solution, could significantly lower your GenAI costs over 3 years compared to hosting these workloads in the cloud. In fact, we found that a comparable AWS SageMaker solution would cost up to 3.8 times as much and an Azure ML solution would cost up to 3.6 times as much as GenAI on a Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. These results show that organizations looking to implement GenAI and reap the business benefits to come can find many advantages in an on-premises Dell solution, whether they opt to purchase and manage it themselves or choose a subscription-based Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. Choosing an on-premises Dell solution could save your organization significantly over hosting GenAI in the cloud, while giving you control over the security and privacy of your data as well as any updates and changes to the environment, and while ensuring your environment is managed consistently.
Workstations powered by Intel can play a vital role in CPU-intensive AI devel...Principled Technologies
In three AI development workflows, Intel processor-powered workstations delivered strong performance, without using their GPUs, making them a good choice for this part of the AI process
Conclusion
We executed three AI development workflows on tower workstations and mobile workstations from three vendors, with each workflow utilizing only the Intel CPU cores, and found that these platforms were suitable for carrying out various AI tasks. For two of the workflows, we learned that completing the tasks on the tower workstations took roughly half as much time as on the mobile workstations. This supports the idea that the tower workstations would be appropriate for a development environment for more complex models with a greater volume of data and that the mobile workstations would be well-suited for data scientists fine-tuning simpler models. In the third workflow, we explored tower workstation performance with different precision levels and learned that using 16-bit floating point precision allowed the workstations to execute the workflow in less time and also reduced memory usage dramatically. For all three AI workflows we executed, we consider the time the workstations needed to complete the tasks to be acceptable, and believe that these workstations can be appropriate, cost-effective choices for these kinds of activities.
Enable security features with no impact to OLTP performance with Dell PowerEd...Principled Technologies
Get comparable online transaction processing (OLTP) performance with or without enabling AMD Secure Memory Encryption and AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization - Encrypted State
Conclusion
You’ve likely already implemented many security measures for your servers, which may include physical security for the data center, hardware-level security, and software-level security. With the cost of data breaches high and still growing, however, wise IT teams will consider what additional security measures they may be able to implement.
AMD SME and SEV-ES are technologies that are already available within your AMD processor-powered 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers—and in our testing, we saw that they can offer extra layers of security without affecting performance. We compared the online transaction processing performance of a Dell PowerEdge R7625 server, powered by AMD EPYC 9274F processors, with and without these two security features enabled. We found that enabling AMD Secure Memory Encryption and Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Encrypted State did not impact performance at all.
If your team is assessing areas where you might be able to enhance security—without paying a large performance cost—consider enabling AME SME and AMD SEV-ES in your Dell PowerEdge servers.
Improving energy efficiency in the data center: Endure higher temperatures wi...Principled Technologies
In high-temperature test scenarios, a Dell PowerEdge HS5620 server continued running an intensive workload without component warnings or failures, while a Supermicro SYS‑621C-TN12R server failed
Conclusion: Remain resilient in high temperatures with the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 to help increase efficiency
Increasing your data center’s temperature can help your organization make strides in energy efficiency and cooling cost savings. With servers that can hold up to these higher everyday temperatures—as well as high temperatures due to unforeseen circumstances—your business can continue to deliver the performance your apps and clients require.
When we ran an intensive floating-point workload on a Dell PowerEdge HS5620 and a Supermicro SYS-621CTN12R in three scenario types simulating typical operations at 25°C, a fan failure, and an HVAC malfunction, the Dell server experienced no component warnings or failures. In contrast, the Supermicro server experienced warnings in all three scenario types and experienced component failures in the latter two tests, rendering the system unusable. When we inspected and analyzed each system, we found that the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 server’s motherboard layout, fans, and chassis offered cooling design advantages.
For businesses aiming to meet sustainability goals by running hotter data centers, as well as those concerned with server cooling design, the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 is a strong contender to take on higher temperatures during day-to-day operations and unexpected malfunctions.
Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift: An easily deployable and powe...Principled Technologies
The 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor‑powered solution deployed in less than two hours and ran a Kubernetes container-based generative AI workload effectively
Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift: An easily deployable and powe...Principled Technologies
The 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor‑powered solution deployed in less than two hours and ran a generative AI workload effectively
Conclusion
The appeal of incorporating GenAI into your organization’s operations is likely great. Getting started with an efficient solution for your next LLM workload or application can seem daunting because of the changing hardware and software landscape, but Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift powered by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors could provide the solution you need. We started with a Dell Validated Design as a reference, and then went on to modify the deployment as necessary for our Llama 2 workload. The Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift solution worked well for our LLM, and by using this deployment guide in conjunction with numerous Dell documents and some flexibility, you could be well on your way to innovating your next GenAI breakthrough.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
For organizations running clusters of moderately configured, older Dell PowerEdge servers with a previous version of VCF, upgrading to better-configured modern servers can provide a significant performance boost and more.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5
If your company is struggling with underperforming infrastructure, upgrading to 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers running VCF 5.1 could be just what you need to handle more database throughput and reduce vSAN latencies. As an additional benefit to IT admins, we also found that the embedded VMware Aria Operation adapter provided useful infrastructure insights.
Realize 2.1X the performance with 20% less power with AMD EPYC processor-back...Principled Technologies
Three AMD EPYC processor-based two-processor solutions outshined comparable Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based solutions by handling more Redis workload transactions and requests while consuming less power
Conclusion
Performance and energy efficiency are significant factors in processor selection for servers running data-intensive workloads, such as Redis. We compared the Redis performance and energy consumption of a server cluster in three AMD EPYC two-processor configurations against that of a server cluster in two Intel Xeon Scalable two-processor configurations. In each of our three test scenarios, the server cluster backed by AMD EPYC processors outperformed the server cluster backed by Intel Xeon Scalable processors. In addition, one of the AMD EPYC processor-based clusters consumed 20 percent less power than its Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based counterpart. Combining these measurements gave us power efficiency metrics that demonstrate how valuable AMD EPYC processor-based servers could be—you could see better performance per watt with these AMD EPYC processor-based server clusters and potentially get more from your Redis or other data intensive applications and workloads while reducing data center power costs.
Improve performance and gain room to grow by easily migrating to a modern Ope...Principled Technologies
We deployed this modern environment, then migrated database VMs from legacy servers and saw performance improvements that support consolidation
Conclusion
If your organization’s transactional databases are running on gear that is several years old, you have much to gain by upgrading to modern servers with new processors and networking components and an OpenShift environment. In our testing, a modern OpenShift environment with a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7615 servers with 4th Generation AMD EPYC processors and high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs outperformed a legacy environment with MySQL VMs running on a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7515 servers with 3rd Generation AMD EPYC processors and 25Gb Broadcom NICs. We also easily migrated a VM from the legacy environment to the modern environment, with only a few steps required to set up and less than ten minutes of hands-on time. The performance advantage of the modern servers would allow a company to reduce the number of servers necessary to perform a given amount of database work, thus lowering operational expenditures such as power and cooling and IT staff time for maintenance. The high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs in this solution also give companies better network performance and networking capacity to grow as they embrace emerging technologies such as AI that put great demands on networks.
Boost PC performance: How more available memory can improve productivityPrincipled Technologies
With more memory available, system performance of three Dell devices increased, which can translate to a better user experience
Conclusion
When your system has plenty of RAM to meet your needs, you can efficiently access the applications and data you need to finish projects and to-do lists without sacrificing time and focus. Our test results show that with more memory available, three Dell PCs delivered better performance and took less time to complete the Procyon Office Productivity benchmark. These advantages translate to users being able to complete workflows more quickly and multitask more easily. Whether you need the mobility of the Latitude 5440, the creative capabilities of the Precision 3470, or the high performance of the OptiPlex Tower Plus 7010, configuring your system with more RAM can help keep processes running smoothly, enabling you to do more without compromising performance.
Deploy with confidence: VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 on next gen Dell PowerEdg...Principled Technologies
A Principled Technologies deployment guide
Conclusion
Deploying VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 on next gen Dell PowerEdge servers brings together critical virtualization capabilities and high-performing hardware infrastructure. Relying on our hands-on experience, this deployment guide offers a comprehensive roadmap that can guide your organization through the seamless integration of advanced VMware cloud solutions with the performance and reliability of Dell PowerEdge servers. In addition to the deployment efficiency, the Cloud Foundation 5.1 and PowerEdge solution delivered strong performance while running a MySQL database workload. By leveraging VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 and PowerEdge servers, you could help your organization embrace cloud computing with confidence, potentially unlocking a new level of agility, scalability, and efficiency in your data center operations.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5
Conclusion
If your company is struggling with underperforming infrastructure, upgrading to 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers running VCF 5.1 could be just what you need to handle more database throughput and reduce vSAN latencies. We found that a Dell PowerEdge R760 server cluster running VCF 5.1 processed over 78 percent more TPM and 79 percent more NOPM than a Dell PowerEdge R750 server cluster running VCF 4.5. It’s also worth noting that the PowerEdge R750 cluster bottlenecked on vSAN storage, with max write latency at 8.9ms. For reference, the PowerEdge R760 cluster clocked in at 3.8ms max write latency. This higher latency is due in part to the single disk group per host on the moderately configured PowerEdge R750 cluster, while the better-configured PowerEdge R760 cluster supported four disk groups per host. As an additional benefit to IT admins, we also found that the embedded VMware Aria Operation adapter provided useful infrastructure insights.
Based on our research using publicly available materials, it appears that Dell supports nine of the ten PC security features we investigated, HP supports six of them, and Lenovo supports three features.
Increase security, sustainability, and efficiency with robust Dell server man...Principled Technologies
Compared to the Supermicro management portfolio
Conclusion
Choosing a vendor for server purchases is about more than just the hardware platform. Decision-makers must also consider more long-term concerns, including system/data security, energy efficiency, and ease of management. These concerns make the systems management tools a vendor offers as important as the hardware.
We investigated the features and capabilities of server management tools from Dell and Supermicro, comparing Dell iDRAC9 against Supermicro IPMI for embedded server management and Dell OpenManage Enterprise and CloudIQ against Supermicro Server Manager for one-to-many device and console management and monitoring. We found that the Dell management tools provided more comprehensive security, sustainability, and management/monitoring features and capabilities than Supermicro servers did. In addition, Dell tools automated more tasks to ease server management, resulting in significant time savings for administrators versus having to do the same tasks manually with Supermicro tools.
When making a server purchase, a vendor’s associated management products are critical to protect data, support a more sustainable environment, and to ease the maintenance of systems. Our tests and research showed that the Dell management portfolio for PowerEdge servers offered more features to help organizations meet these goals than the comparable Supermicro management products.
Increase security, sustainability, and efficiency with robust Dell server man...Principled Technologies
Compared to the Supermicro management portfolio
Conclusion
Choosing a vendor for server purchases is about more than just the hardware platform. Decision-makers must also consider more long-term concerns, including system/data security, energy efficiency, and ease of management. These concerns make the systems management tools a vendor offers as important as the hardware.
We investigated the features and capabilities of server management tools from Dell and Supermicro, comparing Dell iDRAC9 against Supermicro IPMI for embedded server management and Dell OpenManage Enterprise and CloudIQ against Supermicro Server Manager for one-to-many device and console management and monitoring. We found that the Dell management tools provided more comprehensive security, sustainability, and management/monitoring features and capabilities than Supermicro servers did. In addition, Dell tools automated more tasks to ease server management, resulting in significant time savings for administrators versus having to do the same tasks manually with Supermicro tools.
When making a server purchase, a vendor’s associated management products are critical to protect data, support a more sustainable environment, and to ease the maintenance of systems. Our tests and research showed that the Dell management portfolio for PowerEdge servers offered more features to help organizations meet these goals than the comparable Supermicro management products.
Scale up your storage with higher-performing Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS ...Principled Technologies
In our tests, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS outperformed similarly configured solutions from Vendor A, achieving more IOPS, better throughput, and more consistent performance on both NVMe-supported configurations and configurations backed by Elastic Block Store (EBS) alone.
Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS supports a full NVMe backed configuration, but Vendor A doesn’t—its solution uses EBS for storage capacity and NVMe as an extended read cache—which means APEX Block Storage for AWS can deliver faster storage performance.
Scale up your storage with higher-performing Dell APEX Block Storage for AWSPrincipled Technologies
Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered stronger and more consistent storage performance for better business agility than a Vendor A solution
Conclusion
Enterprises desiring the flexibility and convenience of the cloud for their block storage workloads can find fast-performing solutions with the enterprise storage features they’re used to in on-premises infrastructure by selecting Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS.
Our hands-on tests showed that compared to the Vendor A solution, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered stronger, more consistent storage performance in both NVMe-supported and EBS-backed configurations. Using NVMe-supported configurations, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS achieved 4.7x the random read IOPS and 5.1x the throughput on sequential read operations per node vs. Vendor A. In our EBS-backed comparison, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered 2.2x the throughput per node on sequential read operations vs. Vendor A.
Plus, the ability to scale beyond three nodes—up to 512 storage nodes with capacity of up to 8 PBs—enables Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS to help ensure performance and capacity as your team plans for the future.
Get in and stay in the productivity zone with the HP Z2 G9 Tower WorkstationPrincipled Technologies
We compared CPU performance and noise output of an HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation in High Performance Mode to Dell Precision 3660 and 5860 tower workstations in optimized performance modes
Conclusion
HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation users can change the BIOS settings to dial in the performance mode that best suits their needs: High Performance Mode, Performance Mode, or Quiet Mode. In good
news for both creative and technical professionals, we found that an Intel Core i9-13900 processor-powered HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation set to High Performance mode received higher CPU-based benchmark scores than both a similarly configured Dell Precision 3660 and a Dell Precision 5860 equipped with an Intel Xeon w5-2455x processor. Plus, the HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation was quieter while running CPU-intensive Cinebench 2024 and SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 workloads than both Dell Precision tower workstations. This means HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation users who prize performance over everything else can do so without sacrificing a quiet workspace.
Open up new possibilities with higher transactional database performance from...Principled Technologies
In our PostgreSQL tests, R7i instances boosted performance over R6i instances with previous-gen processors
If you use the open-source PostgreSQL database to run your critical business operations, you have many cloud options from which to choose. While many of these instances can do the job, some can deliver stronger performance, which can mean getting a greater return on your cloud investment.
We conducted hands-on testing with the HammerDB TPROC-C benchmark to see how the PostgreSQL performance of Amazon EC2 R7i instances, enabled by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, stacked up to that of R6i instances with previous-generation processors. We learned that small, medium-sized, and large R7i instances with the newer processors delivered better OLTP performance, with improvements as high as 13.8 percent. By choosing the R7i instances, your organization has the potential to support more users, deliver a better experience to those users, and even lower your cloud operating expenditures by requiring fewer instances to get the job done.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Generating a custom Ruby SDK for your web service or Rails API using Smithyg2nightmarescribd
Have you ever wanted a Ruby client API to communicate with your web service? Smithy is a protocol-agnostic language for defining services and SDKs. Smithy Ruby is an implementation of Smithy that generates a Ruby SDK using a Smithy model. In this talk, we will explore Smithy and Smithy Ruby to learn how to generate custom feature-rich SDKs that can communicate with any web service, such as a Rails JSON API.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
1. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017
Boost your work with hardware from Intel
The right configuration of Intel processors, SSDs, and
networking can give your business a competitive advantage
Every day, your business faces new challenges—
so how can you leverage your datacenter to stay
competitive? To keep up with the variety and
complexity of your workloads, you need a datacenter
that can deliver meaningful insights, fast. Servers
with hardware from Intel can empower you to fine-
tune your datacenter to analyze risk and reward more
quickly, and increase agility and competitiveness.
At Principled Technologies, we measured the
performance of essential server components that are
the foundation of the modern datacenter: the Intel®
Xeon®
processor E5-2660 v4 (compute); Intel®
Solid
State Drive Data Center S3520 Series, and the Intel
Solid State Drive Data Center P3520 Series with
PCIe®
-performance speed (storage); and the Intel
Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540-T2
and Intel Ethernet Controller XL710 (networking).
As we upgraded, we saw marked improvements in
throughput and data analysis speed, which can help
your business stay ahead of the competition when
it matters the most. We saw the biggest benefit by
far when our server took advantage of the E5-2660
v4 processor, PCIe SSD, and the 40GbE Ethernet
Controller XL710 working together.
Read on to learn how each of these technologies can
add value to your datacenter.
Intel SSD DC
S3520 Series
6X faster
to process
data warehouse
workloads*
Intel Ethernet Converged
Network Adapter X540-T2
8.4X faster
to migrate VMs
over a network*
Intel Ethernet
Controller XL710
24.5X faster
to migrate VMs
over a network*
*Compared to the legacy solution.
Intel®
Xeon®
processor
E5-2660 v4
Intel SSD DC
P3520 Series
16.4X faster
to process
data warehouse
workloads*
A Principled Technologies report: Hands-on testing. Real-world results.
2. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 2
Server components examined
Your choice of server components can have a long-lasting effect on your datacenter’s efficiency and capability.
In our datacenter, we began with a baseline server that used the Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v2 for compute,
a standard hard disk drive for storage, and a 1GbE Intel network controller. We then measured datacenter
workload performance with several different server options to get a better picture of how these upgrades can
accelerate your work to improve your business capabilities.
Brand-new compute
Based on our experience, we know that newer processors—such as the Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4—are
more efficient than their older counterparts. These high-bin processors can extend the life of your servers, allowing
them to keep up with the work your company does for longer than an older processor would allow. In our tests,
the baseline server was equipped with the E5-2660 v2 processor. Each upgraded configuration used the E5-2660
v4 processor. According to benchmarking results from the SPEC organization,1,2
the Intel Xeon processor E5-2660
v4 outperformed the processor in our baseline configuration by 52 percent. Furthermore, in another Principled
Technologies study, we tested a server configured with an E5-2660 v4 processor and found it was able to support
48 VMs—21 more than a server equipped with another entry-level processor from Intel, the E5-2620 v4.3
E5-2620 v4 processor
(x2) with 2133MHz RAM
E5-2630 v4 processor
(x2) with 2133MHz RAM
E5-2660 v4 processor
(x2) with 2400MHz RAM
E5-2650 v4 processor
(x2) with 2400MHz RAM
27 VMs
37 VMs
42 VMs
48 VMs
Total number of virtual machines (higher is better)
Intel Xeon
processor
upgrades
48
SUPPORT
UP
TO
VIRTUAL
MACHINES
3. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 3
Fast and efficient storage
The latest SATA and PCIe SSDs from Intel can improve your company’s analytics capabilities, as database operations
query information from storage many times per second and can greatly benefit from faster disk IO. The faster your
server can locate and retrieve the queried database information, the faster you can serve your customers.
To test the analytics capabilities of our own server, we used a TPC-H-like benchmark called HammerDB to
simulate complex ad hoc queries on large volumes of data. HammerDB gauges server performance based on
how quickly the server can process a full set of queries. The “winner” of this test is the server that can process
the set of queries the fastest. The figure below shows how long it took our baseline server configuration (with
hard drives and the Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v2) to fulfill all the queries, compared to a server configured
with the Intel SSD DC S3520 Series and the Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4.
Improved interface standards and architecture mean PCIe SSDs can provide higher bandwidth and faster transfer
rates. The figure below shows how our baseline server configuration fared versus the same server configured
with an Intel SSD DC P3520 Series and the Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4.
Total request time to process data
warehouse workloads (lower is better)
HDDs
SSD
34m 56s
10h 9m 56s
16.4X
FASTER
Intel SSD DC
P3520 Series
Intel SSD DC
S3520 Series
Total request time to process data
warehouse workloads (lower is better)
HDDs
SSDs
1h 26m 1s
10h 9m 56s
6X
FASTER
4. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 4
Building a fast network
We tested the networking capabilities of our servers by moving six virtual machines across the network.
The faster the server can migrate VMs over the network, the faster you can complete routine maintenance
operations, resolve emergencies, or balance workloads across your datacenter when high demand requires it.
The figures show how each of the Intel network components affected how quickly our server could move the VMs
compared to the baseline server configuration with a 1GbE controller. The server with the 10GbE Intel Ethernet
Converged Network Adapter X540-T2 pushed six VMs in 4 minutes and 18 seconds, but the 40GbE Intel Ethernet
Controller XL710 was able to do the same work in less than half the time: 1 minute and 36 seconds. That means the
40GbE controller is 2.6 times faster than the 10GbE adapter, and 24.5 times faster than the 1GbE baseline when
migrating the same number of VMs.
Intel Ethernet
Controller XL710
Total time to migrate VMs over
a network (lower is better)
1GbE NIC
40GbE controller
1m 36s
40m 48s
24.5X
FASTER
Total time to migrate VMs over
a network (lower is better)
1GbE NIC
10GbE adapter
4m 18s
40m 48s
8.4X
FASTER
Intel Ethernet
Converged Network
Adapter X540-T2
5. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 5
Conclusion
Your datacenter is capable of doing great things—if you let it. Upgrades from Intel for compute,
storage, and networking components can help your business support new services and expand your
customer base. In our hands-on testing, we found that new Intel processors, high-bandwidth network
components, and SATA or PCIe SSDs working together can boost your datacenter’s capabilities, which
could translate to better business operations for your organization.
1 http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2014q4/cpu2006-20141016-32254.html
2 http://www.spec.org/cpu2006/results/res2016q2/cpu2006-20160308-39374.html
3 facts.pt/Yr6pQh
The SPEC test results in the cited paper are noncompliant, though our test environment had only minor differences
from SPEC guidelines. As such, we believe the results are an accurate measurement of server performance.
Review the paper’s methodology in Appendix B to learn more about how we tested.
6. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 6
On December 1, 2016, we finalized the hardware and software configurations we tested. Updates for current and
recently released hardware and software appear often, so unavoidably these configurations may not represent
the latest versions available when this report appears. For older systems, we chose configurations representative
of typical purchases of those systems. We concluded hands-on testing on December 9, 2016.
Appendix A: About the hardware and software we tested
Intel Xeon processor E5 family
The Intel Xeon processor E5 family incorporates new technology and features to help meet the computing
demands of the present and future. The Intel Xeon processor E5 family can deliver intelligent and adaptive
performance using such features as Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, Intel Advanced Vector Extension, Intel
Integrated I/O, and Intel Data Direct I/O Technology. These new processors also feature Intel Trusted Execution
Technology (Intel TXT) and utilize Intel Advance Encryption Standard New Instructions (Intel AES-NI) to help keep
your data safe.
For more information about the Intel Xeon processor E5 family, visit www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/
processors/xeon/xeon-processor-5000-sequence.html.
Intel Solid State Drive Data Center Family
Solid-state drives from the Intel SSD Data Center Family were designed for fast response times and lower power
consumption. These SSDs can provide 4KB random read performance and up to 75,000 IOPS. Intel SSDs also
include error correction technologies to help ensure that data stays safe. For more information about the Intel
SSD Data Center Family, visit www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/data-center-family.html.
Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540-T2
The Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X540-T2 is the latest 10-Gigabit Ethernet offering from Intel.
The adapter hosts the Intel Ethernet Controller X540, a single-chip solution for LAN on Motherboard (LOM)
to deliver Ethernet to the latest server platforms. For more information about the Intel Ethernet Converged
Adapter X540-T2, visit www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ethernet-products/converged-network-adapters/
ethernet-x540.html.
Intel Ethernet Controller XL710 40 GbE
The Intel Ethernet Controller XL710 40 GbE is designed to provide the necessary bandwidth to converge
multiple fabrics into just one wire. The XL710 delivers 40 Gbps performance, and is capable of Intelligent Off-
load to enable high performance with Intel Xeon processor-based servers. For more information on the Intel
Ethernet Controller XL710 40 GbE, visit www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/products/networking/
ethernet-controller-x710-xl710-family-overview.html.
7. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 7
VMware vSphere (ESXi) 6.0
VMware®
vSphere®
(ESXi™
) 6.0 is a leading server virtualization platform with management for virtual datacenters.
This release includes improvements in the following areas:
• Compute. Increased scalability, expanded support, improved graphics, Instant Clone Technology
• Storage. vSphere Virtual Volumes, Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM)
• Network. Network IO control, multicast snooping, multiple TCP/IP Stack for vMotion®
• Availability. vMotion enhancements, Replication-Assisted vMotion, fault tolerance (up to four vCPUs)
• Management. Content Library, cross-vCenter™
Clone and Migration, enhanced user interface
Learn more at www.vmware.com/products/vsphere#sthash.39OOD5Cl.dpuf.
Intel Server System R1208WT2GS
The Intel Server System R1208WT2GS with Intel Board S2600WT supports two Intel Xeon processors E5-2600
v4, up to 1.5 TB of memory, and is equipped with Gen 3/Gen 2 PCIe lanes for maximum I/O capacity. The Intel
Board S2600WT family is ideal for business IT, appliance, data center, cloud and high performance computing
(HPC) applications. For cloud and HPC scenarios, the S2600WT is also available as part of fully validated Data
Center Blocks from Intel. For more details visit ark.intel.com/products/82155/Intel-Server-Board-S2600WT2 and
http://ark.intel.com/products/81814/Intel-Server-System-R1208WT2GS.
HammerDB
HammerDB is a graphical, open-source server benchmarking suite. We used its TPC-H-like benchmark to assess
a server’s analytics capabilities via a data warehousing workload. Many large technology companies use HammerDB
to derive meaningful information about server environments, such as hardware performance comparisons and
software configurations. Learn more at http://www.hammerdb.com.
8. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 8
Appendix B: Test results summary
HammerDB overall test results (lower is better)
Time
(hours)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1:26:01
10:09:56
0:34:56
Intel SSD DC P3520 Series
Intel SSD DC S3520 Series
HDD
New sales refresh test Old sales refresh test Query test
0:04:19
0:05:39
2:13:36
0:02:53
0:06:10
1:16:40
0:27:43
1:14:12
6:39:13
HammerDB detailed test results (lower is better)
Time
(hours)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Intel SSD DC P3520 Series
Intel SSD DC S3520 Series
HDD
9. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 9
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
Intel Ethernet Controller
XL710 (40GbE)
Intel Ethernet Converged
Network Adapter X540-T2
(10GbE)
1GbE NIC
Total time and bandwidth to migrate VMs over a network
Bandwidth
(Mbps)
Minutes (lower is better)
4m 18s
40m 48s
1m 36s
10. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 10
Appendix C: System configuration information
Server configuration
information
Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™
R720 server
Intel Server System
R1208WT2GS
Intel Server System
R1208WT2GS
BIOS name and version Dell 2.5.4
Intel SE5C610.8
6B.01.01.0019.101220160604
Intel SE5C610.8
6B.01.01.0019.101220160604
Operating system name
and version/build number
ESXi 6.0.0 Update 2 (Build
4510822)
ESXi 6.0.0 Update 2 (Build
4510822)
ESXi 6.0.0 Update 2 (Build
4510822)
Date of last OS updates/
patches applied
12/1/2016 12/1/2016 12/1/2016
Power management policy Performance Performance Performance
Processor
Number of processors 2 2 2
Vendor and model Intel Xeon E5-2660 v2 Intel Xeon E5-2660 v4 Intel Xeon E5-2660 v4
Core count (per processor) 10 14 14
Core frequency (GHz) 2.20 2.00 2.00
Stepping 4 M0 M0
Memory module(s)
Total memory in system
(GB)
256 256 256
Number of memory
modules
16 8 8
Vendor and model Hynix HMT42GR7MFR4C-PB Micron®
MTA36ASF4G72PZ-
2G3A1MG
Micron MTA36ASF4G72PZ-
2G3A1MG
Size (GB) 16 32 32
Type Dual rank Dual rank Dual rank
Speed (MHz) 1,600 2,400 2,400
Speed running in the
server (MHz)
1,600 2,400 2,400
Storage controller
Vendor and model PERC H710P Mini LSI 9265-8i N/A
Cache size (MB) 1,024 1,024 N/A
Firmware version 21.3.2-0005 23.34.0-0019 N/A
Driver version 06.805.56.00 6.612.06.00 N/A
Local storage (type A)
Number of drives 4 2 1
Drive vendor and model Seagate®
ST600MM0088 Intel SSDSC2BB800G701 Intel SSDPE2MX012T701
Drive size (GB) 600 800 1,200
Drive information (speed,
interface, type)
10K, SAS, 12Gb/s SSD, SATA, 6Gb/s SSD, PCIe NVMe 3.0
Network adapter
Vendor and model Intel I350-t Intel X540 Intel XL710-QDA1
11. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 11
Server configuration
information
Dell EMC™ PowerEdge™
R720 server
Intel Server System
R1208WT2GS
Intel Server System
R1208WT2GS
Number and type of ports 4 2 1
Driver version 17.5.10 21.1 21.1
Cooling fans
Number of cooling fans 6 6 6
Power supplies
Vendor and model Dell PWR SPLY 1100W Delta®
DPS-750XB Delta DPS-750XB
Number of power supplies 2 1 1
Wattage of each (W) 1,100 750 750
12. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 12
Appendix D: How we tested
HammerDB testing
We installed VMware ESXi 6.0 U2 on each server under we tested. We also configured a separate client server to host a domain controller
VM and a VMware vCenter server VM that managed all three servers under test. For HammerDB testing, we created six VMs. Each VM was
configured with 16 GB of memory, eight vCPUs, one 40GB virtual disk to host the operating system, a 60GB virtual disk to host database
files and a 20GB virtual disk that was used for database logs. We installed Windows Server®
2016 and Microsoft SQL Server®
2016 on each
of those VMs, and after configuring each VM we installed HammerDB and created a 30-scale database for testing. We then used TCP-H-like
power tests from HammerDB to measure how quickly a single user can complete a full query set on the database. The HammerDB power
test is composed of 22 database queries, one new sale refresh and one old sale refresh. We used the results from those three tests to find
out how quickly a server can complete complex analytical tasks.
Server configurations we tested
Baseline server with HDDs Upgraded server with SATA SSDs Upgraded server with PCIe SSD
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v2 2 x Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4 2 x Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4
Guest OS and
database software
Windows Server 2016 with SQL 2016 Windows Server 2016 with SQL 2016 Windows Server 2016 with SQL 2016
Storage
4 x 600GB 10k HDDs RAID10 =
1.2TB usable
2 x 800GB S3520 SATA SSD RAID1 =
800GB usable
1 x 1.2 P3520 PCIe SSD No RAID=
1.2TB usable
Configuring each server and the SQL environment
Installing VMware ESXi 6.0
1. Attach the installation media to the server.
2. Boot the server.
3. At the VMware Installer screen, press Enter.
4. At the EULA screen, to Accept and Continue, press F11.
5. Under Storage Devices, select the appropriate disk, and press Enter.
6. Select US as the keyboard layout, and press Enter.
7. Enter the root password twice, and press Enter.
8. To start the installation, press F11.
9. After the server reboots, press F2, and enter root credentials.
10. Select Configure Management Network, and press Enter.
11. Select VLAN, and enter the appropriate VLAN. Press Enter.
12. Select IPv4 Configuration, and enter the static IP, subnet mask, and default gateway. Press Enter.
13. Select DNS Configuration, and enter the Primary DNS Server, and name of the host. Press Enter.
14. Press Esc, and press Y to accept changes.
Configuring VM networking on ESXi servers
1. Using the VMware vSphere client, connect to the ESXi host.
2. Click the host, click the Configuration tab, and click Networking.
3. Click Add Networking.
4. Choose Virtual Machine, and click Next.
5. Choose create a vSphere standard switch.
6. Choose the NIC associated with VM traffic.
7. Assign the network label and VLAN.
8. Click Next, and click Finish.
Setting up a VM to serve as Active Directory®
(AD)
1. Connect to the server via the VMware vSphere client.
2. Log in as root.
13. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 13
3. In the VMware vSphere client, under Basic Tasks, select Create a new virtual machine.
4. Choose Custom, and click Next.
5. Assign the name AD to the virtual machine, and click Next.
6. Select the host, and click Next.
7. Select the appropriate storage, and click Next.
8. Choose Virtual Machine Version 11, and click Next.
9. Choose Windows, choose Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (64-bit), and click Next.
10. For CPUs, select two virtual processor sockets and one core per virtual socket, and click Next.
11. Choose 4GB RAM, and click Next.
12. For the number of NICs, click 1. Select VMXNET 3, connect to the VM network, and click Next.
13. Leave the default virtual storage controller, and click Next.
14. Choose to create a new virtual disk, and click Next.
15. Make the OS virtual disk size 50 GB, choose thin-provisioned, specify storage, and click Next.
16. Keep the default virtual device node (0:0), and click Next.
17. Click Finish.
18. Connect the VM virtual CD-ROM to the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 installation disk.
19. Start the VM.
Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 on the Active Directory VM
1. Right-click the VM, and select Open Console.
2. At the Windows Language Selection screen, click Next.
3. Click Install Now.
4. Enter the product key, and click Next.
5. Select Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter (Server with a GUI), and click Next.
6. Check I accept the license terms, and click Next.
7. Click Custom.
8. Click Next.
9. Enter the desired password for the administrator in both fields, and click Finish.
10. Log into the VM, and install VMware Tools.
11. Connect to the internet, and install all available Windows updates. Restart as necessary.
12. Assign a static IP address to the VM, and use Server Manager to change the hostname.
13. Enable remote desktop access, disable firewalls, and disable IE security as necessary.
14. Open Server Manager, and click Add roles and features.
15. Click Next three times.
16. Select Active Directory Domain Services, DHCP Server, and DNS Server. Click Next.
17. Click Next, then click Install.
18. Restart as necessary.
19. Promote the server to a domain controller, and restart the VM.
20. Complete the DHCP post-deployment configuration.
21. Open Server Manager, and click Add roles and features.
22. Open DNS Manager, and create entries for all the components for future deployment.
23. Create a primary reverse lookup zone.
Setting up a VM to host VMware vCenter Server 6.0
1. Connect to the server via the VMware vSphere client.
2. Log in as root.
3. In the VMware vSphere client, under Basic Tasks, select Create a new virtual machine.
4. Choose Custom, and click Next.
5. Assign the name vcenter1 to the virtual machine, and click Next.
6. Select the host, and click Next.
7. Select the appropriate storage, and click Next.
8. Choose Virtual Machine Version 11, and click Next.
9. Choose Windows, choose Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (64-bit), and click Next.
10. For CPUs, select two virtual processor sockets and one core per virtual socket, and click Next.
11. Choose 8 GB RAM, and click Next.
14. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 14
12. For the number of NICs, click 1. Select VMXNET 3, connect to the VM network, and click Next.
13. Leave the default virtual storage controller, and click Next.
14. Choose to create a new virtual disk, and click Next.
15. Make the OS virtual disk size 50 GB, choose thin-provisioned, specify storage, and click Next.
16. Keep the default virtual device node (0:0), and click Next.
17. Click Finish.
18. Connect the VM virtual CD-ROM to the Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 installation disk.
19. Start the VM.
Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 on the vCenter VM
1. Right-click the VM, and select Open Console.
2. At the Windows Language Selection screen, click Next.
3. Click Install Now.
4. Enter the product key, then click Next.
5. Select Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter (Server with a GUI), and click Next.
6. Check I accept the license terms, and click Next.
7. Click Custom.
8. Click Next.
9. Enter the desired password for the administrator in both fields, and click Finish.
10. Log into the VM, and install VMware tools.
11. Set a static IP address for the VM.
12. Connect to the internet, and install all available Windows updates. Restart as necessary.
13. Enable remote desktop access, disable firewalls, and disable IE security as necessary.
14. Change the hostname, join the appropriate domain, and reboot when prompted.
Installing VMware vCenter Server 6.0
1. Log into the vCenter VM.
2. From the VMware vCenter Server 6.0 install media, to start the install wizard, click Run.
3. Select vCenter Server, and click Install.
4. At the Install wizard welcome screen, click Next.
5. Agree to the License Agreement, and click Next.
6. Select vCenter Server and Embedded Platform Controller, and click Next.
7. Enter the system fully-qualified domain name, and click Next.
8. Enter and confirm the password you wish to use with the Administrator account for vCenter Single Sign On, and click Next.
9. Click Next.
10. Accept the default database settings, and click Next.
11. Accept the default https port, and click Next.
12. Accept the default installation path, and click Next.
13. Click Install.
14. To exit the wizard, click Finish.
15. To confirm completion, click OK.
16. On the installer, click Exit.
17. Using the vSphere web client, log into the vCenter server as Administrator@vsphere.local
18. Right-click the root of vCenter, and click New Data center.
19. Name the new datacenter.
20. Add servers under test to the new datacenter.
Setting up virtual machines under test
Creating virtual machines
1. Connect to the server via the VMware vSphere client.
2. Log in as root.
3. In the VMware vSphere client, under Basic Tasks, select Create a new virtual machine.
4. Choose Custom, and click Next.
5. Assign the name vcenter1 to the virtual machine, and click Next.
15. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 15
6. Select the host, and click Next.
7. Select the appropriate storage, and click Next.
8. Choose Virtual Machine Version 11, and click Next.
9. Choose Windows, choose Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64-bit), and click Next.
10. For CPUs, select eight virtual processor sockets and one core per virtual socket, and click Next.
11. Choose 16GB RAM, and click Next.
12. For the number of NICs, click 1. Select VMXNET 3, connect to the VM network, and click Next.
13. Leave the default virtual storage controller, and click Next.
14. Choose to create a new virtual disk, and click Next.
15. Make the OS virtual disk size 50 GB, choose thin-provisioned, specify storage, and click Next.
16. Keep the default virtual device node (0:0), and click Next.
17. Click Finish.
18. Connect the VM virtual CD-ROM to the Microsoft Windows Server 2016 installation disk.
19. Start the VM.
Installing Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition
1. Boot the server to the Windows Server installer.
2. When the installation screen appears, leave language, time/currency format, and input method as default, and click Next.
3. Click Install now.
4. When the installation prompts you, enter the product key.
5. Select Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition (with Desktop), and click Next.
6. Check I accept the license terms, and click Next.
7. Click Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).
8. Select Drive 0 Unallocated Space, and click Next. This starts Windows automatically, and Windows will restart automatically
after completing.
9. When the Settings page appears, fill in the Password and Reenter Password fields with the same password.
10. Log in with the password you set up previously.
Installing SQL Server 2016
1. Attach the installation media ISO for SQL Server 2016 to the VM.
2. Click Run SETUP.EXE. If Autoplay does not begin the installation, navigate to the SQL Server 2016 DVD, and double-click it.
3. In the left pane, click Installation.
4. Click New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation.
5. Check I accept the license terms, and click Next.
6. Click Use Microsoft Update to check for updates, and click Next.
7. To install the setup support files, click Install.
8. If there are no failures displayed, click Next.
9. At the Setup Role screen, choose SQL Server Feature Installation, and click Next.
10. At the Feature Selection screen, select Database Engine Services, Full-Text and Semantic Extractions for Search, Client Tools
Connectivity, Client Tools Backwards Compatibility, Management Tools – Basic, and Management Tools – Complete.
11. Click Next.
12. At the Instance configuration screen, leave the default selection of default instance, and click Next.
13. At the Database Engine Configuration screen, select the authentication method you prefer. For our testing purposes, we selected Mixed Mode.
14. Enter and confirm a password for the system administrator account.
15. Click Add Current user. This may take several seconds.
16. Click on the Data Directories tab.
17. Change the Temp DB and Temp Log directories to the same location as your HammerDB database and log files.
18. Change the TempDB file size to 1024 MB and the Temp Log file size to 512 MB.
19. Click Next.
20. At the Error and usage reporting screen, click Next.
21. At the Installation Configuration Rules screen, check that there are no failures or relevant warnings, and click Next.
22. At the Ready to Install screen, click Install.
23. Close the installation window.
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Enabling Lock pages in memory
1. Inside the VM, click Start, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
2. In the Local Group Policy Editor, expand Computer ConfigurationWindows SettingsSecurity SettingsLocal Policies.
3. Select User Rights Assignment, and in the right pane, scroll down to Lock pages in memory.
4. Right-click Lock pages in memory, and click Properties.
5. Click Add User or Group, and add your SQL user account.
6. Click OK.
Installing HammerDB
1. Download the latest version of HammerDB from www.hammerdb.com/download.html
2. Double-click the .exe file, chose English, and click OK.
3. Click Yes.
4. Click Next.
5. Choose a destination location, and click Next.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Finish.
Creating the database and database backup file
1. Open HammerDB, and click OptionsBenchmark
2. Choose MSSQL Server and TPC-H.
3. Expand SQL ServerTPC-HSchema Build.
4. Double-click on Options.
5. Choose 30 scale, and 12 virtual users, and click OK.
6. Double-click Build. This could take several hours.
7. Once the database has been created, open SQL Server Manager.
8. Right-click the TPC-H database, and click TasksBack up...
9. Choose a location to store the backup, and click OK.
Running HammerDB power tests
1. Open SQL Server Manager, and run the following query:
alter database tpch set allow_snapshot_isolation on alter database tpch set read_committed_snapshot on
2. Close SQL Server Manager, and open HammerDB
3. Select OptionsBenchmark.
4. Choose MSSQL Server and TPC-H.
5. Expand SQL ServerTPC-HSchema Build.
6. Double-click Options, and set the scale to 30. Click OK.
7. Expand Driver Script, and double click Options.
8. Set MAXDOP to 6, check the box for Refresh Function, and change the trickle_refresh to 0.
9. Click OK.
10. Double-click Load.
11. In the Script Editor window, scroll down to line 436. Highlight and copy (cast(l_quantity as bigint)) after “sum.” Paste the phrase after
“avg” later in the line, as highlighted below.
set sql(1) “select l_returnflag, l_linestatus, sum(cast(l_quantity as bigint)) as sum_qty, sum(l_
extendedprice) as sum_base_price, sum(l_extendedprice * (1 - l_discount)) as sum_disc_price, sum(l_
extendedprice * (1 - l_discount) * (1 +l_tax)) as sum_charge, avg(cast(l_quantity as bigint)) as
avg_qty, avg(l_extendedprice) as avg_price, avg(l_discount) as avg_disc, count(*) as count_order from
lineitem where l_shipdate <= dateadd(dd,-:1,cast(‘1998-12-01’as datetime)) group by l_returnflag, l_
linestatus order by l_returnflag, l_linestatus option (maxdop $maxdop)”
12. Expand Virtual User, and double-click Options.
13. Choose 1 Virtual User, and select Show Output, Log Output to Temp, and Use Unique Log Name.
14. Click OK.
15. Double-click Create users.
16. Start Perfmon to capture CPU, RAM, and disk counters.
17. Click Start to start the Power Test run.
18. When the run finishes, stop Perfmon.
19. Save the HammerDB results text file and Perfmon output.
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20. Open SQL Manager, delete the TPC-H database, and create a new one by restoring from the backup file.
21. Reboot the server.
22. Follow steps 1 through 21 two more times.
vMotion testing
For vMotion testing, we configured shared storage on the two servers with Intel Xeon E5-2660 v4 processors and reconfigured the same VMs
we used for HammerDB testing. We added 10GbE and 40GbE network adapters to each server and created a new vSwitch and vMotion
VMkernel adapters. We set up the dual port 1GbE and 10GbE adapters in an active-standby configuration, and we configured the single-port
40GbE adapter as a single active uplink. We set MTU to 9,000 and enabled vMotion on each VMkernel adapter. We configured each of the six
VMs under test with four vCPUs and 40 GB of memory. With VMs powered on and active, we pushed memory and CPU utilization close to 80
percent before we executed concurrent VM host migrations.
Baseline server with 1GbE Upgrade to10GbE Upgrade to 40GbE
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4 2 x Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4 2 x Intel Xeon processor E5-2660 v4
Guest OS Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2016
NIC 1GbE network adapter X540-T2 network adapter (10 GbE) XL710 network controller (40 GbE)
Configuring the vMotion network
1. Connect to the vCenter Server.
2. Click the host, click the Configuration tab, and click Networking.
3. Click Add Networking.
4. Choose VMkernel, and click Next.
5. Choose the 1, 10, or 40GbE NICs associated with vMotion traffic, and click Next.
6. Assign the network label, and check the box Use this port group for vMotion.
7. Click Next.
8. Assign IP and VLAN settings, and click Next.
9. Click Finish.
10. Click Properties for the new vSwitch.
11. Select the vSwitch, and select Edit.
12. Change the MTU settings to 9,000.
13. Click Ok.
14. Select the VMkernel, and click Edit.
15. Change the MTU settings to 9,000.
16. Click OK.
17. Click the Network Adapters tab
18. Click Add.
19. Select the unclaimed adapter, and configure one adapter as active and the second one as standby.
Performing vMotion test
1. Connect to the vCenter Server via the VMware vSphere client.
2. Select the host with all six active VMs.
3. Click the Virtual Machine tab.
4. Select all six active VMs.
5. Right-click, and select Migrate.
6. Select Change host.
7. Click Next.
8. Select the destination host, and click Next.
9. Select High Priority vMotion, and click Next.
10. Click Finish.
18. Boost your work with hardware from Intel March 2017 | 18
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