The document outlines Cisco's UCS integrated infrastructure optimized for big data workloads using Cassandra, highlighting performance benchmarks and server configurations. It details various server models with specifications and capabilities for high performance and storage balance, designed for scalable solutions in big data applications. Additionally, it discusses the advantages of using Cisco UCS including reduced costs, efficient management, and operational simplification while supporting rapid deployment and future growth.

1. Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure
for Big Data with Cassandra
Big Data Solutions Group
Cisco

2. 2© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Agenda
• Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with Cassandra
• Performance Benchmarking with DSE
• Future work
• Q & A

3. 3© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
SingleConnect
• LAN
• SAN
• Management
UCS 6200 Series Fabric Internments,
Installed in pairs, active-active.
UCS Manager is embedded
Support for direct connectivity to Fabric
Interconnects or through Nexus 2232
10GE Fabric Extender
Pre-tested and pre-validated
configuration
Fabric-based infrastructure integrates
computing, networking, and storage
resources
Designed for high performance and
availability
Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data
Optimized for Big Data Workloads Today and Tomorrow
Provisioning
Monitoring
Maintenance
Growth
UCS 220 M4 Servers

4. Cisco Confidential 4© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Server 8x UCS C220 M4
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon
E5-2620 v3 (15M
Cache, 2.40 GHz)
Memory 256GB
Storage 8 1.2-TB 10K SAS
SFF HDD
Starter High Performance
Server 8x UCS C220 M4
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon
E5-2680 v3 (30M
Cache, 2.50 GHz)
Memory 256GB
Storage 2 1.2-TB 10K SAS
SFF HDD, 6 400-
GB SAS SSD
Performance Optimized Capacity Optimized
Server 16x UCS C240 M4
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2680
v3 (30M Cache, 2.50
GHz)
Memory 256GB
Storage 2 120-GB SATA SSD,
24 1.2-TB 10K SAS
SFF HDD
Server 16x UCS C240 M4
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon
E5-2620 v3 (15M
Cache, 2.40 GHz)
Memory 128GB
Storage 2 120-GB SATA
SSD. 12 4-TB 7.2K
SAS SFF HDD
Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data
Reference Architectures and Bundles

5. Cisco
UCS
Integrated
Infrastructure
for
Big
Data:
High
Performance
5
• Bundle:
UCS-­‐SL-­‐CPA3-­‐H
(8
Servers)
• Designed
for
extreme
performance
key-­‐value
store
and
business
analyIcs
• 2
x
1.2TB
10K
SAS
(RAID
1
for
OS)
• 6
x
400GB
enterprise
performance
SSD
• 19
TB
flash
storage
• Reference
Architecture
Scalable
to
32
Server
Designed
for
Extreme
performance
and
density
for
analy5cs
engines
Server
UCS
C220
M4
CPU
2
x
Intel
Xeon
E5-­‐2680
v3
(30M
Cache,
2.50
GHz)
Memory
256GB
Storage
Controller
Cisco
12-­‐Gbps
SAS
Modular
Raid
Controller
with
2-­‐GB
FBWC
Storage
2
x
1.2-­‐TB
10K
SAS
SFF
HDD
(for
OS)
6
x
400-­‐GB
SSD
(for
Data)
6
x
1.8TB
SSD
(for
Data)
6
x
3.8TB
SSD
(for
Data)
Network
Controller
Cisco
UCS
VIC
1227
2
10GE
SFP+
Network
2
Cisco
UCS6248UP
FIs

6. Cisco
UCS
Integrated
Infrastructure
for
Big
Data:
Performance
OpImized
6
Designed
for
Balance
of
compute
and
storage
for
scale-­‐out
applica5ons
including
Hadoop,
NoSQL,
and
MPP
databases
Server
UCS
C240
M4
CPU
2
x
Intel
Xeon
E5-­‐2680
v3
(30M
Cache,
2.50
GHz)
Memory
256GB
Storage
Controller
Cisco
12-­‐Gbps
SAS
Modular
Raid
Controller
with
2-­‐GB
FBWC
Storage
2
120-­‐GB
SATA
SSD,
24
1.2-­‐TB
10K
SAS
SFF
HDD
Network
Controller
Cisco
UCS
VIC
1227
2
10GE
SFP+
Network
2
Cisco
UCS
6296UP
FIs
• Bundle:
UCS-­‐SL-­‐CPA3-­‐P
• v3
of
our
popular
performance
bundle
• Offers
a
balance
of
compute
and
storage
for
Hadoop,
NoSQL,
and
MPP
database
deployments
• Featuring
24
x
1.2TB
10K
SAS,
offer
20%
more
capacity
and
30%
overall
all
befer
performance
than
our
most
popular
v2
performance-­‐capacity
balanced
bundle
• Includes
2
x
120GB
enterprise
value
SSDs
for
OS
freeing
up
all
24
disks
for
data
store
• Scalable
to
80
servers
per
UCS.
Scale
to
thousands
of
servers
with
Cisco
Nexus
7000
or
9000
Series
Switches

7. 7© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Why Cisco UCS for Big Data with Cassandra
• Possesses all the UCS advantages
• Enables consistent and rapid deployments
using UCS service profiles
• Offers operational simplification
• Delivers a modular solution
• Reduces risk
• Coexists with enterprise applications
• Ensures that rack servers are form factor
extensions of UCS blades

8. 8© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Unified Fabric’s SingleConnect Technology
Provides an Efficient Foundation for Growth
One connection type for all protocols
SINGLECONNECT TECHNOLOGY
Efficient capacity scaling
Automated I/O bandwidth allocation
Auto-discovery & self-integrating components:
network and compute
Direct SAN access
Wire once then manage through software
Traditional Cisco Unified Fabric
As you scale, simplified architecture reduces cost and facilitates growth
SAN A SAN BETH 1 ETH 2
10 GE Ethernet
FCOE—Fibre Channel over Ethernet
(LAN/SAN/Management)

9. 9© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Abstraction of all configuration and identity information into a service profile speeds deployment, reduces errors, lowers costs
Unified Management
Robust Management Delivers Superior Programmability, Scalability, and Automation for Big Data Deployments
Traditional UCS Manager Service Profile
LAN
SAN
NIC MACs
HBA WWNs
Server UUID
VLAN Assignments
VLAN Tagging
FC Fabrics Assignments
FC Boot Parameters
Number of vNICs
Boot order
PXE settings
IPMI Settings
Number of vHBAs
QoS
Call Home
Template Association
Org & Sub Org Assoc.
Server Pool Association
Statistic Thresholds
BIOS scrub actions
Disk scrub actions
BIOS firmware
Adapter firmware
BMC firmware
RAID settings
Advanced NIC settings
Serial over LAN settings
BIOS Settings
Server UUID
Serial over LAN settings
Boot order
IPMI settings
BIOS scrub actions
BIOS firmware
BIOS Settings
RemoteKVM IP settings
Call Home behavior
Remote KVM firmware
Number of vNICs
PXE settings
NIC firmware
Advanced feature settings
VLAN assignments for NICs
VLAN tagging config for NICs
Number of vNICs
PXE settings
NIC firmware
Advanced feature settings
FC Fabric assignments for
HBAs
Number of vHBAs
HBA WWN assignments
FC Boot Parameters
HBA firmware
RAID settings
Disk scrub actions
LAN
SAN
QoS settings
Border port assignment per
vNIC
NIC Transmit/Receive Rate
Limiting

10. 10
UCS 6200 Series
Fabric Interconnect
UCSCentral
UCS Manager
UCS Manager
UCS Manager
16
Servers
Per
Rack
• UCS
Domain
(160
Servers
(with
FEX)
• 80
Servers
direct
connect)
• Manage
by
UCS
Manager
• Up
to
11.2
PB
storage
• MulIple
UCS
Domains
• Interconnect
using
Nexus
7000/9000
• Scalable
to
1000s
of
servers
• Centrally
manage
by
UCS
Central
Scale
from
Small
to
Very
Large
Clusters

11. PCIe x16
10GbE/FCoE
User
Definable
vNICs
Eth
0
FC
1
2
FC
3
Eth
256
§ Converged Network Adapter
§ Bare metal and VM deployments
§ Virtualize in hardware
§ PCIe compliant
§ vNIC Fabric Failover
§ Up to 256 distinct PCIe devices
§ Ethernet vNIC and FC vHBA
§ QoS
§ 8 queues
§ vNIC bandwidth guarantees

12. • Fabric
provides
NIC
failover
capabiliIes
chosen
when
defining
a
service
profile
• TradiIonally
done
using
NIC
bonding
driver
in
the
OS
• Provides
failover
for
both
unicast
and
mulIcast
traffic
• Works
for
any
OS
on
bare
metal
• (Also
works
for
any
hypervisor-­‐
based
servers)
vNIC
1
10GE
10GE
vEth
1
OS
/
Hypervisor
/
VM
vEth
1
FEX
FEX
Physical
Adapter
Virtual
Adapter
6200-­‐A
6200-­‐B
L1
L2
L1
L2
Physical
Cable
Virtual
Cable
Cisco
VIC
1225

13. 13© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Quantified Savings with UCS
Greater
Business Agility
Lower Operating
Expenses
Reduced Costs/
Complexity
Lower Computing
Cost
Faster Fact-based
Decision Making
84%
Reduced
Provisioning Times
77%
Reduced Cabling
61%
Reduced
Management
Costs
54%
Reduced Power
& Cooling Costs
100
World-Record
Performance
Benchmarks
LAN
SAN
NIC MACs
HBA WWNs
Server UUID
VLAN Assignments
VLAN Tagging
FC Fabrics Assignments
FC Boot Parameters
Number of vNICs
Boot order
PXE settings
IPMI Settings
Number of vHBAs
QoS
Call Home
Template Association
Org & Sub Org Assoc.
Server Pool Association
Statistic Thresholds
BIOS scrub actions
Disk scrub actions
BIOS firmware
Adapter firmware
BMC firmware
RAID settings
Advanced NIC settings
Serial over LAN settings
BIOS Settings
Single Connect technology:
One connection type for all
protocols. Wire once then
manage through software
UCS Service Profile:
Abstraction of all configuration
and identity information
speeds deployment, reduces
errors, lowers costs

14. 14© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential
Cisco Unified Computing System
Fastest Growing Product in the Market
46,500+ UNIQUE UCS
CUSTOMERS 2
Top 5 Server Vendor 1
100+world record performance benchmarks to date
3,800+ UCS CHANNEL PARTNERS
#1
Americas revenue
market share in x86
blades 1
Source: 1 IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, 2015 Q2, August 2015, Vendor Revenue Share
Source: 2 As of Cisco Q4FY15 earnings results Data Center Revenue is defined as Cisco UCS and Nexus 1000V
More than 85% of all
customers have invested in UCS
Fortune 500
$3.5B+
Data Center
Annualized
Revenue Run
Rate 2

15. Cisco Confidential 15© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Performance Results with DataStax
Enterprise

16. Cisco Confidential 16© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
High Performance
Server 8x UCS C220 M4
CPU 2 x Intel Xeon
E5-2623 v3 (10M
Cache, 3 GHz)
Memory 256GB
Storage 2 1.2-TB 10K SAS
SFF HDD, 6 400-
GB SAS SSD
Performance Test - Configuration
Network:
• Two
redundant
Cisco
UCS
6248
Fabric
Interconnects
Servers:
UCS-­‐SL-­‐CPA3-­‐H
(8
Servers)
• 2x2623v3
10M
cache,
3GHz,
4
Cores
per
socket
• 256
GB
DDR4
RAM
• 6
x
800GB
SSD
for
data
and
2
10K
RPM
disk
drives
for
OperaIng
System
SoSware:
• RHEL
6.5
• DataStax
Enterprise
4.6
• Includes
Apache
Cassandra
2.0.12
Note:
Detailed
cassandra.yaml,
cassandra-­‐env.sh
and
OS
tunings
are
in
the
soluIon
brief

17. Cisco Confidential 17© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Throughput – 8 nodes vs. 4 nodes
-­‐
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0r100w
1r99w
1r32w
1r
16w
1r4w
1r1w
4r1w
16r1w
32r1w
99r1w
100r0w
Operations
per
Second
(in
Thousands)
Thousands
r
reads
w
writes
Throughput
(ops/sec)
8n
800-­‐threads
4n
800-­‐threads
4n
400-­‐threads

18. Cisco Confidential 18© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Median Latency – 8 nodes vs. 4 nodes
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
0r100w
1r99w
1r32w
1r
16w
1r4w
1r1w
4r1w
16r1w
32r1w
99r1w
100r0w
Latency
(in
ms)
r
reads
w
writes
Median
Latency
(ms)
8n
800-­‐threads
4n
800-­‐threads
4n
400-­‐threads

19. Cisco Confidential 19© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Network Isolation
§ Use VIC to create different ip-addresses and
QoS policies
Data Isolation
§ Each instance of DSE on different data drives
(SSD, HDD, etc)
Resource Isolation (using cgroups)
§ Linux kernel feature that limits, accounts for
and isolates the resource usage (CPU,
memory, disk I/O, network, etc.)
Future Work – Cassandra as a Service
(Requires Validation and testing)
Single Host OS, Multiple instances of DataStax on different IP, different data drives
And separate CPU/Memory resources through cgroups
DSE1 DSE2 DSE3

20. Cisco Confidential 20© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Advantages
§ Better IO Bandwidth as direct disk access
§ Can provide different SLA options Network (QoS/
bandwidths), IO (SSD/HDD), Resources (cgroups)
To do’s
§ Requires validation. Not tested.
§ Using Same underlying OS for all tenants. If only
cassandra is exposed to clients, not much concern.
Cassandra as a Service contd.
Single Host OS, Multiple instances of DataStax on different IP, different data drives
And separate CPU/Memory resources through cgroups
DSE1 DSE2 DSE3

21. Thank you
http://www.cisco.com/go/bigdata