SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830 QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology with Dell Storage SC9000 all-flash array
The document summarizes a test report that evaluated the performance of SQL Server 2016 on a modern Dell PowerEdge R830 server with all-flash storage compared to SQL Server 2005 on an older Dell PowerEdge R820 server with HDD storage. The modern Dell configuration achieved over five times the database workload performance and sub-millisecond storage response times compared to the older configuration. Migrating from older servers and HDD storage to new servers and all-flash storage can significantly improve performance and efficiency.
SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R930 QLogic 16G Fi...Principled Technologies
As support ends for aging software and applications, such as SQL Server 2005, migrating to a new, updated version is inevitable and necessary. This migration presents a unique opportunity to upgrade the hardware running these applications, too—a real change to your datacenter.
In our test, the modern four-socket Dell PowerEdge R930 powered by Intel Xeon E7-8860 v4 processors working with the powerful Dell Storage SC9000 array and running SQL Server 2016 got over six times the database performance of a legacy solution running SQL Server 2005. The modern PowerEdge solution also delivered a faster response time.
As you move to a more modern, fully featured database software, why not also move to a powerful, modern server hardware solution as well? Consolidating your SQL Server workloads from legacy servers onto Dell PowerEdge R930 servers powered by Intel Xeon E7 v4 processors can let you do more with less, streamline your datacenter, and reduce costs.
Workstation heat and power usage: Lenovo ThinkStation P500 vs. HP Z440 Workst...Principled Technologies
A workstation that runs coolly and uses less power is a great asset to workers and the companies they work for. In our tests, both when idle and when under load, the Lenovo ThinkStation P500 generally ran at lower surface temperatures and used less power than the HP Z440 Workstation. These findings show that the Lenovo ThinkStation P500 could meet the needs of those who want to provide a reliable, comfortable work environment while using less power.
DellEMC PowerEdge R740xd Rack Server - Sinteza CoSintezaCo
The document compares the performance of Dell PowerEdge R740xd servers with Intel Xeon Scalable processors using VMware vSAN storage against Dell PowerEdge R720 servers using traditional HDD storage. Testing showed the R740xd cluster processed database transactions 8 times faster, supported 12 times the input/output operations, and had 98% lower storage latency. This superior performance from the newer hardware could help businesses better support customer needs.
The Dell PowerEdge R920 could replace nine older Oracle database servers and provide nine times the performance while reducing power consumption by 64% and lowering software licensing costs by 17%. Testing showed the R920 running Oracle Database 12c with pluggable databases provided significant savings over three years in power, cooling, and licensing costs compared to running the databases on nine older servers.
Database server comparison: Dell PowerEdge R630 vs. Lenovo ThinkServer RD550Principled Technologies
We tested the OLTP performance of a 1U Dell PowerEdge R630, powered by Intel Xeon processors E5-2660 v3, running Microsoft Hyper-V and virtual machines running SQL Server 2014, and compared it to that of the Lenovo ThinkServer RD550 running the same software. For each server, we selected the maximum SATA SSD count that was configurable for each model. The Dell PowerEdge R630 outperformed the Lenovo ThinkServer RD550 by 14.9 percent and offered more than one and a half times the storage space for data in our configuration.
By selecting a server that handles more orders per minute and offers significantly more storage capacity potential than the competition, you get a not only faster, efficient experience for your database users, but also have the scaling potential for your storage needs ahead of your business growing.
Whether you’re looking for the highest possible performance per rack unit or the strongest RAS-enabled server to run your mission-critical databases, Dell has a server to meet your needs. Factors such as performance per rack, expansion capabilities, and flash storage options will also drive your server decision.
In our hands-on tests, we found that the Dell PowerEdge R820 server could handle up to 382,397 database orders per minute and had 73.6 percent greater performance per U of rack space than the R910.
The Dell PowerEdge R910 processed 440,475 OPM. Its high number of logical processors, maximum expansion capabilities, and support for RAS technologies make the Dell PowerEdge R910 an excellent choice for your mission-critical data center applications.
Dell PowerEdge R930 with Oracle: The benefits of upgrading to PCIe storage us...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R930 provided strong performance with 22 SAS HDDs, but this performance improved when we replaced all of the drives with SAS solid-state drives. It improved further when we used a mix of HDDs and SDDs along with SanDisk DAS Cache. We saw the greatest performance boost when we used eight PCIe SSDs with SanDisk DAS Cache. The upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R930 with PCIe SSDs and SanDisk DAS Cache delivered 11.1 times the database performance of the all-HDD configuration. This makes the new Dell PowerEdge R930 a powerful platform with scalable storage options that can potentially translate into significant service improvements for your business and your customers, which helps in maximizing ROI.
Hardware upgrades to improve database, SharePoint, Exchange, and file server ...Principled Technologies
Legacy tower servers that cannot meet workload demands can restrict business growth. By upgrading to the Dell PowerEdge T630, you can obtain immediate benefits for current IT performance needs and implement upgrades that will expand server capabilities to help meet future demands. We found that replacing a legacy server with the new Dell PowerEdge T630 tower server offered up to 97.9 percent lower workload latency, 131.9 percent more IOPS, and 421.9 percent more OPM when running the same workload. With component upgrades, the PowerEdge T630 supported more Exchange, SharePoint, and file server users, and more database VM instances. Help ensure that your applications have sufficient hardware resources to keep up with the needs of today and the future by choosing to upgrade to the new Dell PowerEdge T630 tower server.
SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R930 QLogic 16G Fi...Principled Technologies
As support ends for aging software and applications, such as SQL Server 2005, migrating to a new, updated version is inevitable and necessary. This migration presents a unique opportunity to upgrade the hardware running these applications, too—a real change to your datacenter.
In our test, the modern four-socket Dell PowerEdge R930 powered by Intel Xeon E7-8860 v4 processors working with the powerful Dell Storage SC9000 array and running SQL Server 2016 got over six times the database performance of a legacy solution running SQL Server 2005. The modern PowerEdge solution also delivered a faster response time.
As you move to a more modern, fully featured database software, why not also move to a powerful, modern server hardware solution as well? Consolidating your SQL Server workloads from legacy servers onto Dell PowerEdge R930 servers powered by Intel Xeon E7 v4 processors can let you do more with less, streamline your datacenter, and reduce costs.
Workstation heat and power usage: Lenovo ThinkStation P500 vs. HP Z440 Workst...Principled Technologies
A workstation that runs coolly and uses less power is a great asset to workers and the companies they work for. In our tests, both when idle and when under load, the Lenovo ThinkStation P500 generally ran at lower surface temperatures and used less power than the HP Z440 Workstation. These findings show that the Lenovo ThinkStation P500 could meet the needs of those who want to provide a reliable, comfortable work environment while using less power.
DellEMC PowerEdge R740xd Rack Server - Sinteza CoSintezaCo
The document compares the performance of Dell PowerEdge R740xd servers with Intel Xeon Scalable processors using VMware vSAN storage against Dell PowerEdge R720 servers using traditional HDD storage. Testing showed the R740xd cluster processed database transactions 8 times faster, supported 12 times the input/output operations, and had 98% lower storage latency. This superior performance from the newer hardware could help businesses better support customer needs.
The Dell PowerEdge R920 could replace nine older Oracle database servers and provide nine times the performance while reducing power consumption by 64% and lowering software licensing costs by 17%. Testing showed the R920 running Oracle Database 12c with pluggable databases provided significant savings over three years in power, cooling, and licensing costs compared to running the databases on nine older servers.
Database server comparison: Dell PowerEdge R630 vs. Lenovo ThinkServer RD550Principled Technologies
We tested the OLTP performance of a 1U Dell PowerEdge R630, powered by Intel Xeon processors E5-2660 v3, running Microsoft Hyper-V and virtual machines running SQL Server 2014, and compared it to that of the Lenovo ThinkServer RD550 running the same software. For each server, we selected the maximum SATA SSD count that was configurable for each model. The Dell PowerEdge R630 outperformed the Lenovo ThinkServer RD550 by 14.9 percent and offered more than one and a half times the storage space for data in our configuration.
By selecting a server that handles more orders per minute and offers significantly more storage capacity potential than the competition, you get a not only faster, efficient experience for your database users, but also have the scaling potential for your storage needs ahead of your business growing.
Whether you’re looking for the highest possible performance per rack unit or the strongest RAS-enabled server to run your mission-critical databases, Dell has a server to meet your needs. Factors such as performance per rack, expansion capabilities, and flash storage options will also drive your server decision.
In our hands-on tests, we found that the Dell PowerEdge R820 server could handle up to 382,397 database orders per minute and had 73.6 percent greater performance per U of rack space than the R910.
The Dell PowerEdge R910 processed 440,475 OPM. Its high number of logical processors, maximum expansion capabilities, and support for RAS technologies make the Dell PowerEdge R910 an excellent choice for your mission-critical data center applications.
Dell PowerEdge R930 with Oracle: The benefits of upgrading to PCIe storage us...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R930 provided strong performance with 22 SAS HDDs, but this performance improved when we replaced all of the drives with SAS solid-state drives. It improved further when we used a mix of HDDs and SDDs along with SanDisk DAS Cache. We saw the greatest performance boost when we used eight PCIe SSDs with SanDisk DAS Cache. The upgraded configuration of the Dell PowerEdge R930 with PCIe SSDs and SanDisk DAS Cache delivered 11.1 times the database performance of the all-HDD configuration. This makes the new Dell PowerEdge R930 a powerful platform with scalable storage options that can potentially translate into significant service improvements for your business and your customers, which helps in maximizing ROI.
Hardware upgrades to improve database, SharePoint, Exchange, and file server ...Principled Technologies
Legacy tower servers that cannot meet workload demands can restrict business growth. By upgrading to the Dell PowerEdge T630, you can obtain immediate benefits for current IT performance needs and implement upgrades that will expand server capabilities to help meet future demands. We found that replacing a legacy server with the new Dell PowerEdge T630 tower server offered up to 97.9 percent lower workload latency, 131.9 percent more IOPS, and 421.9 percent more OPM when running the same workload. With component upgrades, the PowerEdge T630 supported more Exchange, SharePoint, and file server users, and more database VM instances. Help ensure that your applications have sufficient hardware resources to keep up with the needs of today and the future by choosing to upgrade to the new Dell PowerEdge T630 tower server.
Dell PowerEdge R930 with Oracle: The benefits of upgrading to Samsung NVMe PC...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R930 provided strong performance with 22 SAS HDDs, but this performance improved when we replaced all of the drives with SAS solid-state drives. It improved further when we used a mix of HDDs and SDDs along with a caching solution. We saw the greatest performance boost when we used eight Samsung-powered NVMe PCIe SSDs. The upgraded configurations of the Dell PowerEdge R930 with Samsung-powered NVMe PCIe SSDs delivered up to 13.9 times the database performance of the all-HDD configuration. This makes the new Dell PowerEdge R930 a powerful platform with scalable storage options that can potentially translate into significant service improvements for your business and your customers, which helps in maximizing ROI.
MySQL Cluster Performance Tuning - 2013 MySQL User ConferenceSeveralnines
Slides from a presentation given at Percona Live MySQL Conference 2013 in Santa Clara, US.
Topics include:
- How to look for performance bottlenecks
- Foreign Key performance in MySQL Cluster 7.3
- Sharding and table partitioning
- efficient use of datatypes (e.g. BLOBS vs varbinary)
Get insight from document-based distributed MongoDB databases sooner and have...Principled Technologies
With additional drive bays and 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 servers handled more Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) operations per second than previous-generation servers and handled them more efficiently
The document provides an overview of how to summarize and interpret information from MySQL server status and variable outputs to understand server performance and optimize configuration. It explains that status variables show current server activity levels, while global and session variables display configuration settings. Comparing status outputs over time calculates rates like queries/second. Key metrics help identify bottlenecks like a small key buffer size if the key read cache miss rate is high.
This document contains a professional summary and work experience for Pradeep. It outlines over 14 years of experience as an Oracle DBA, including expertise in Oracle database installations, upgrades, performance tuning, backup and recovery, and high availability features like RAC and Data Guard. Pradeep has worked with various versions of Oracle database and in industries like IT, telecommunications, banking, and healthcare.
This document discusses best practices for avoiding ORA-01555 errors by properly managing undo data and undo tablespaces in Oracle databases. It explains that undo data is used for rolling back transactions, recovering terminated transactions, providing read consistency, and performing logical flashback operations. It recommends leaving the database in automatic undo management mode and details how Oracle automatically tunes the undo retention period and allocates extents in autoextending undo tablespaces.
Are your Oracle databases highly available? You have deployed Real Application Clusters (RAC), Data Guard, or Failover Clusters and are well protected against server failures? Great – the prerequisites for a highly available environment are given. However, to assure that backend infrastructure failures also remain transparent to the client, an appropriate configuration is a prerequisite.
This lecture will discuss the Oracle technologies that can be used to achieve automatic client failover functionality. What are the advantages, but also the limitations of these technologies?
This document provides an overview of new features in Oracle Database 12c release 12.1.0.2. It discusses advanced index compression, approximate count distinct, attribute clustering, automatic big table caching, FDA support for CDBs, full database caching, in-memory column store, JSON support, the new FIPS 140 parameter for encryption, the PDB containers clause, PDB file placement in Oracle Managed Files, and PDB logging clause.
Dell Solutions Tour 2015- Dells Storage-strategi - Et hav av muligheter, Clae...Kenneth de Brucq
I høst kommer mange nyheter for de som er opptatt av god lagring. Vi deler vår ferskeste strategi og gode råd for å levere mer for mindre. Virtualisering og programvaredefinering er viktige stikkord når høstens maskinkolleksjon fra Dell presenteres
Learn about the features that can help you modernize your mission critical applications, where security and performance can go hand in hand. From the wide range of SQL Server features available, we will take a closer look at In-Memory performance, Automatic Tuning, Advanced Security Features like Always Encrypted, Polybase and integration with Machine Learning through R and Python.
Oracle RAC 12c (12.1.0.2) Operational Best Practices - A result of true colla...Markus Michalewicz
This is the latest version of the Oracle RAC 12c (12.1.0.2) Operational Best Practices presentation as shown during IOUG / Collaborate15. As best practices are a result of true collaboration this will probably be the last version before OOW 2015.
Dell Emc Ready Bundle for Red Hat OpenStack PlatformCaio Candido
The Dell EMC Ready Bundle for Red Hat OpenStack Platform provides a complete, pre-configured and tested OpenStack solution for building private and public clouds. It combines Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Ceph storage, and PowerEdge servers, with automated deployment using JetPack in less than an hour. It can launch hundreds of virtual machines per minute through optimized processing and scales independently from half a rack to three racks. The solution provides reliable operations, simplified management and rapid deployment of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds.
File server performance on the Intel processor-powered Dell PowerEdge R730xd ...Principled Technologies
Many growing businesses employ a combination of HDDs and SSDs in their datacenters to provide storage for users. Software-defined storage additions, such as Windows Storage Spaces, can help improve workload performance by using tiering and caching technologies with enabling hardware. When combined with this software, the new Intel processor-powered Dell PowerEdge R730xd can provide storage support for the increasing workload performance of your business. We found that the PowerEdge R730xd provided support for 16.5 times more file server IOPS, and up to 94.7 lower latency, than the PowerEdge R720xd. If your business needs storage and performance to support its growth, consider the new Dell PowerEdge R730xd.
SharePoint 2010 Virtualization - Hungarian SharePoint User GroupMichael Noel
Michael Noel is an author of books on Microsoft technologies and a partner at Convergent Computing. The document discusses virtualizing SharePoint 2010, including guidelines, models, and Microsoft's virtualization options. It provides recommendations for virtualizing different SharePoint roles and the licensing implications. It demonstrates quickly provisioning a SharePoint farm using a VM template and PowerShell script.
Migrating to Oracle Database 12c: 300 DBs in 300 days.Ludovico Caldara
For a customer in Switzerland, we are in process of migrating 400 databases to 12c. We have migrated 300 so far, and we have had good and bad surprises. This session will show a few scenarios that we faced during the upgrade project.
Oracle Exadata is a packaged solution offering from Oracle, configured with bundled hardware, storage and database, which is touted to be optimized for handling scalable data warehouse-type workloads in query and analysis.
Oracle ACFS is a general purpose portable cluster file system build on the enhanced ASM available since Oracle 11.2 and benefiting from the existing ASM mirroring and striping leading to performance and fault tolerance. In the presentation you will look at the concept and the architecture of ACFS. You will see how to use familiar tools such as sqlplus, asmca, asmcmd and OEM DC to configure, implement and manage ACFS. The presentation will provide an idea for deployment of ACFS for Snapshots and replications. Being fully integrated with ASM, ASM views can be used to monitor performance and usage.
Oracle RAC, Data Guard, and Pluggable Databases: When MAA Meets Multitenant (...Ludovico Caldara
This document discusses integrating Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and multitenant architecture with Oracle Data Guard. It explains that with RAC and multitenant, the container database itself is a RAC database, allowing pluggable databases to remain available even if an instance crashes. Services are used to control which pluggable databases are mounted and accessed on each RAC instance. While multitenant architecture provides benefits like simplified administration, it also means that in a Data Guard configuration, the entire container database must have the same role rather than individual pluggable databases.
Oracle Active Data Guard 12c: Far Sync Instance, Real-Time Cascade and Other ...Ludovico Caldara
Slides used for my Oracle Open World 2014 #OOW14 session.
The new release of Oracle Database has come with many new exciting enhancements for high availability. The aim of this presentation is to introduce some new Oracle Active Data Guard features through practical examples and live demos. Among the various enhancements, the new Far Sync Instance and Real-Time Cascade Standby features receive special attention in the session.
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.
Consolidate and upgrade to save up to $172K: Dell PowerEdge R620 and Microso...Principled Technologies
Your growing business needs upgraded infrastructure to keep up with increased users and demand on your hardware. Adding memory and upgrading processors does not provide the same benefits to your infrastructure as a consolidation and upgrade can. Upgrading and consolidating your IT infrastructure to the Dell PowerEdge R620 running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014 can improve performance while saving money and rack space.
Based on our findings, a single Dell PowerEdge R620 can replace four four-year-old dual-socket servers with VMs running heavy SQL Server database workloads. We found that consolidating four older servers onto a Dell PowerEdge R620 and upgrading to Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2014 could save up to $172,573 over three years, compared to keeping the four-year-old dual-socket servers. The Dell PowerEdge R620 can also consolidate 8U worth of legacy servers into 1U of space. If your business runs older versions of Microsoft SQL Server on end-of-life dual-socket servers, the Dell PowerEdge R620 with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2014 could save your company these costs while delivering better performance than the aging hardware and software.
Dell PowerEdge R930 with Oracle: The benefits of upgrading to Samsung NVMe PC...Principled Technologies
Strong server performance is essential to companies running Oracle Database. The new Dell PowerEdge R930 provided strong performance with 22 SAS HDDs, but this performance improved when we replaced all of the drives with SAS solid-state drives. It improved further when we used a mix of HDDs and SDDs along with a caching solution. We saw the greatest performance boost when we used eight Samsung-powered NVMe PCIe SSDs. The upgraded configurations of the Dell PowerEdge R930 with Samsung-powered NVMe PCIe SSDs delivered up to 13.9 times the database performance of the all-HDD configuration. This makes the new Dell PowerEdge R930 a powerful platform with scalable storage options that can potentially translate into significant service improvements for your business and your customers, which helps in maximizing ROI.
MySQL Cluster Performance Tuning - 2013 MySQL User ConferenceSeveralnines
Slides from a presentation given at Percona Live MySQL Conference 2013 in Santa Clara, US.
Topics include:
- How to look for performance bottlenecks
- Foreign Key performance in MySQL Cluster 7.3
- Sharding and table partitioning
- efficient use of datatypes (e.g. BLOBS vs varbinary)
Get insight from document-based distributed MongoDB databases sooner and have...Principled Technologies
With additional drive bays and 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 servers handled more Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) operations per second than previous-generation servers and handled them more efficiently
The document provides an overview of how to summarize and interpret information from MySQL server status and variable outputs to understand server performance and optimize configuration. It explains that status variables show current server activity levels, while global and session variables display configuration settings. Comparing status outputs over time calculates rates like queries/second. Key metrics help identify bottlenecks like a small key buffer size if the key read cache miss rate is high.
This document contains a professional summary and work experience for Pradeep. It outlines over 14 years of experience as an Oracle DBA, including expertise in Oracle database installations, upgrades, performance tuning, backup and recovery, and high availability features like RAC and Data Guard. Pradeep has worked with various versions of Oracle database and in industries like IT, telecommunications, banking, and healthcare.
This document discusses best practices for avoiding ORA-01555 errors by properly managing undo data and undo tablespaces in Oracle databases. It explains that undo data is used for rolling back transactions, recovering terminated transactions, providing read consistency, and performing logical flashback operations. It recommends leaving the database in automatic undo management mode and details how Oracle automatically tunes the undo retention period and allocates extents in autoextending undo tablespaces.
Are your Oracle databases highly available? You have deployed Real Application Clusters (RAC), Data Guard, or Failover Clusters and are well protected against server failures? Great – the prerequisites for a highly available environment are given. However, to assure that backend infrastructure failures also remain transparent to the client, an appropriate configuration is a prerequisite.
This lecture will discuss the Oracle technologies that can be used to achieve automatic client failover functionality. What are the advantages, but also the limitations of these technologies?
This document provides an overview of new features in Oracle Database 12c release 12.1.0.2. It discusses advanced index compression, approximate count distinct, attribute clustering, automatic big table caching, FDA support for CDBs, full database caching, in-memory column store, JSON support, the new FIPS 140 parameter for encryption, the PDB containers clause, PDB file placement in Oracle Managed Files, and PDB logging clause.
Dell Solutions Tour 2015- Dells Storage-strategi - Et hav av muligheter, Clae...Kenneth de Brucq
I høst kommer mange nyheter for de som er opptatt av god lagring. Vi deler vår ferskeste strategi og gode råd for å levere mer for mindre. Virtualisering og programvaredefinering er viktige stikkord når høstens maskinkolleksjon fra Dell presenteres
Learn about the features that can help you modernize your mission critical applications, where security and performance can go hand in hand. From the wide range of SQL Server features available, we will take a closer look at In-Memory performance, Automatic Tuning, Advanced Security Features like Always Encrypted, Polybase and integration with Machine Learning through R and Python.
Oracle RAC 12c (12.1.0.2) Operational Best Practices - A result of true colla...Markus Michalewicz
This is the latest version of the Oracle RAC 12c (12.1.0.2) Operational Best Practices presentation as shown during IOUG / Collaborate15. As best practices are a result of true collaboration this will probably be the last version before OOW 2015.
Dell Emc Ready Bundle for Red Hat OpenStack PlatformCaio Candido
The Dell EMC Ready Bundle for Red Hat OpenStack Platform provides a complete, pre-configured and tested OpenStack solution for building private and public clouds. It combines Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Ceph storage, and PowerEdge servers, with automated deployment using JetPack in less than an hour. It can launch hundreds of virtual machines per minute through optimized processing and scales independently from half a rack to three racks. The solution provides reliable operations, simplified management and rapid deployment of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds.
File server performance on the Intel processor-powered Dell PowerEdge R730xd ...Principled Technologies
Many growing businesses employ a combination of HDDs and SSDs in their datacenters to provide storage for users. Software-defined storage additions, such as Windows Storage Spaces, can help improve workload performance by using tiering and caching technologies with enabling hardware. When combined with this software, the new Intel processor-powered Dell PowerEdge R730xd can provide storage support for the increasing workload performance of your business. We found that the PowerEdge R730xd provided support for 16.5 times more file server IOPS, and up to 94.7 lower latency, than the PowerEdge R720xd. If your business needs storage and performance to support its growth, consider the new Dell PowerEdge R730xd.
SharePoint 2010 Virtualization - Hungarian SharePoint User GroupMichael Noel
Michael Noel is an author of books on Microsoft technologies and a partner at Convergent Computing. The document discusses virtualizing SharePoint 2010, including guidelines, models, and Microsoft's virtualization options. It provides recommendations for virtualizing different SharePoint roles and the licensing implications. It demonstrates quickly provisioning a SharePoint farm using a VM template and PowerShell script.
Migrating to Oracle Database 12c: 300 DBs in 300 days.Ludovico Caldara
For a customer in Switzerland, we are in process of migrating 400 databases to 12c. We have migrated 300 so far, and we have had good and bad surprises. This session will show a few scenarios that we faced during the upgrade project.
Oracle Exadata is a packaged solution offering from Oracle, configured with bundled hardware, storage and database, which is touted to be optimized for handling scalable data warehouse-type workloads in query and analysis.
Oracle ACFS is a general purpose portable cluster file system build on the enhanced ASM available since Oracle 11.2 and benefiting from the existing ASM mirroring and striping leading to performance and fault tolerance. In the presentation you will look at the concept and the architecture of ACFS. You will see how to use familiar tools such as sqlplus, asmca, asmcmd and OEM DC to configure, implement and manage ACFS. The presentation will provide an idea for deployment of ACFS for Snapshots and replications. Being fully integrated with ASM, ASM views can be used to monitor performance and usage.
Oracle RAC, Data Guard, and Pluggable Databases: When MAA Meets Multitenant (...Ludovico Caldara
This document discusses integrating Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and multitenant architecture with Oracle Data Guard. It explains that with RAC and multitenant, the container database itself is a RAC database, allowing pluggable databases to remain available even if an instance crashes. Services are used to control which pluggable databases are mounted and accessed on each RAC instance. While multitenant architecture provides benefits like simplified administration, it also means that in a Data Guard configuration, the entire container database must have the same role rather than individual pluggable databases.
Oracle Active Data Guard 12c: Far Sync Instance, Real-Time Cascade and Other ...Ludovico Caldara
Slides used for my Oracle Open World 2014 #OOW14 session.
The new release of Oracle Database has come with many new exciting enhancements for high availability. The aim of this presentation is to introduce some new Oracle Active Data Guard features through practical examples and live demos. Among the various enhancements, the new Far Sync Instance and Real-Time Cascade Standby features receive special attention in the session.
Oracle Active Data Guard 12c: Far Sync Instance, Real-Time Cascade and Other ...
Similar to SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830 QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology with Dell Storage SC9000 all-flash array
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.
Consolidate and upgrade to save up to $172K: Dell PowerEdge R620 and Microso...Principled Technologies
Your growing business needs upgraded infrastructure to keep up with increased users and demand on your hardware. Adding memory and upgrading processors does not provide the same benefits to your infrastructure as a consolidation and upgrade can. Upgrading and consolidating your IT infrastructure to the Dell PowerEdge R620 running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014 can improve performance while saving money and rack space.
Based on our findings, a single Dell PowerEdge R620 can replace four four-year-old dual-socket servers with VMs running heavy SQL Server database workloads. We found that consolidating four older servers onto a Dell PowerEdge R620 and upgrading to Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2014 could save up to $172,573 over three years, compared to keeping the four-year-old dual-socket servers. The Dell PowerEdge R620 can also consolidate 8U worth of legacy servers into 1U of space. If your business runs older versions of Microsoft SQL Server on end-of-life dual-socket servers, the Dell PowerEdge R620 with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2014 could save your company these costs while delivering better performance than the aging hardware and software.
As our tests show, investing in the powerful new Dell PowerEdge R920 running Oracle VM Server 3.2.8 with Oracle Database 12c VMs achieves cost savings without compromising performance. In our testing, a single Dell PowerEdge R920 could perform five times the work of a single HP ProLiant DL385 G6 server; the costs to power and cool the Dell PowerEdge would be 43 percent less than the five servers it could replace. The three-year software licensing costs of the Dell PowerEdge R920 server would be 22 percent lower than the licensing costs for the five-server solution. These dramatic savings—which come out to $212,091 for our single test environment — could grow to millions of dollars in a larger consolidation effort.
Moving your legacy database workloads to the Dell PowerEdge R930 can help you realize the benefits of consolidation, which can include savings in management costs, power usage, and cable management costs. More importantly, the licensing costs of the database application itself may be reduced by the consolidation effort. In addition to these benefits, greater database transactions per minute can keep your orders flowing smoothly.
We found that the Dell PowerEdge R930, powered by the Intel Xeon processor E7 v3 series, could consolidate three legacy servers running four Oracle Database 12c VMs each. The Dell PowerEdge R930 outperformed the legacy server with 4.4 times the overall database performance, delivering an average of 47.1 percent more performance per VM. By consolidating that many legacy servers, you can save up to 67 percent in rack space, 25 percent in database licenses, and even reduce other operating costs to improve your bottom line.
Boosting virtualization performance with Intel SSD DC Series P3600 NVMe SSDs ...Principled Technologies
When it comes time to make your server purchase or if you’re looking for an easy way to boost performance of existing infrastructure, consider upgrading your server’s internal storage. As our hands-on tests with a Dell EMC PowerEdge R630 environment running VMware Virtual SAN proved, Intel SSD DC P3600 Series NVMe SSDs could increase virtualized mixed-workload performance by as much as 59.9 percent compared to SATA SSDs while allowing you to run a large additional number of VMs. When you improve performance for your virtualized workloads, your employees and customers will benefit. By increasing performance with Intel NVMe SSDs on your Dell EMC PowerEdge R630 servers, you can potentially slash wait times and do more work on your servers without having to expand your infrastructure with additional storage arrays, which can translate to happier users and a more efficient infrastructure.
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.
Dell PowerEdge R920 and Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Migration and Benefits GuidePrincipled Technologies
The latest Dell PowerEdge R920 server is designed to provide highly scalable performance for large enterprises, with greater memory capacity, improved and expanded attached storage options, and processor architectures designed for high availability. Microsoft SQL Server 2014 is the perfect companion software to take advantage of the Dell PowerEdge R920’s impressive specifications. Upgrading has never looked more attractive, and with hardware/software upgrades must come data migration.
Migrating legacy database applications to the latest database technologies on newer Dell server platforms is a common task for businesses upgrading their hardware/software stack. As this guide shows, the process is straightforward and the cost benefits can be enormous. We calculated the savings attainable from multiple consolidation ratios, as well as how long it would take to pay off the replacement server. We found that a consolidation ratio of 13 to 1 could yield $531,725 in software savings, many times the cost of the replacement hardware itself. So not only will the business benefit from the massively-scalable current-generation Dell server technology paired with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 running SQL Server 2014, but you can save money in the process.
Maximizing Oracle Database performance with Intel SSD DC P3600 Series NVMe SS...Principled Technologies
If your organization runs critical, high-demand databases in environments such as Oracle Database, strong performance is not an option: it’s a must-have. Additionally, getting that necessary strong performance out of a single server can be essential for running a space and cost-efficient datacenter. In the Principled Technologies labs, we found that the Dell PowerEdge R930 offered strong performance for such transactional databases when configured with SATA SSDs. When we upgraded the servers to Intel SSD DC P3600 Series NVMe SSDs, performance doubled, increasing by 2.17 times, or 117 percent. If your datacenter needs a new powerhouse server, purchasing your Dell PowerEdge R930 with Intel NVMe SSDs for a cost increase of only 18 percent can double the performance you get from each server. This increases what your infrastructure can do within the same amount of space and lets you ultimately save money that would otherwise be spent purchasing additional servers and software.
Consolidate and upgrade: Dell PowerEdge VRTX and Microsoft SQL Server 2014Principled Technologies
Your growing business shouldn’t run on aging hardware and software until it fails. Adding memory and upgrading processors will not provide the same benefits to your infrastructure as a consolidation and upgrade can. Upgrading and consolidating your IT infrastructure to the Dell PowerEdge VRTX running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014 can improve performance while adding features such as high availability.
Based on our findings, a single Dell PowerEdge VRTX can replace four four-year-old dual-socket servers with VMs running heavy SQL database workloads. We found that consolidating four older servers onto a Dell PowerEdge VRTX and upgrading to Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2014 could save up to $16,390 over three years, compared to keeping the four-year-old dual-socket servers and upgrading existing storage infrastructure. If your business runs older versions of Microsoft SQL Server on end-of-life dual-socket servers, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and SQL Server 2014 could save your company these costs while delivering better performance than the aging hardware and software.
OLTP with Dell hybrid arrays: Comparing the EqualLogic PS6210XS with the Equa...Principled Technologies
The effectiveness of your OLTP database environment can depend to an enormous degree on the storage system you select. We compared a database server solution using the Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS with a database server solution using the previous-generation Dell EqualLogic PS6110XS.
The EqualLogic PS6210XS solution was superior in all areas we tested. It delivered greater performance with faster response time, and used less power. The Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS is a clear improvement over the previous-generation Dell EqualLogic PS6110XS.
Database performance: Dell PowerEdge R730xd vs. Lenovo ThinkServer RD650Principled Technologies
The document compares the database performance of the Dell PowerEdge R730xd server to the Lenovo ThinkServer RD650 server. It finds that the Dell PowerEdge R730xd delivered 27.9% more orders per minute for a Microsoft SQL Server 2014 database application than the Lenovo server. It also had lower application response times, up to 24.6% better, and lower disk response times, up to 93.1% better. The Dell server was able to process more orders per minute with faster response times for end users due to its current-generation hardware, increased solid-state drives, and storage capacity three times that of the Lenovo server.
Boosting performance with the Dell Acceleration Appliance for DatabasesPrincipled Technologies
If your business is expanding and you need to support more users accessing your databases, it’s time to act. Upgrading your database infrastructure with a flash storage-based solution is a smart way to improve performance without adding more servers or taking up very much rack space, which comes at a premium. The Dell Acceleration Appliance for Databases addresses this by providing strong performance when combined with your existing infrastructure or on its own.
We found that adding a highly available DAAD solution to our database application provided up to 3.01 times the Oracle Database 12c performance, which can make a big difference to your bottom line. Additionally, the DAAD delivered 3.14 times the database performance when replacing traditional storage completely, which could enable your infrastructure to keep up with your growing business’ needs.
Upgrade to Dell EMC PowerEdge R6515 servers and gain better OLTP and VDI perf...Principled Technologies
Additionally, PowerEdge R6515 servers with 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors could lower licensing costs and also empower your business to explore Kubernetes with VMware Tanzu
Database performance in blade environments: Dell PowerEdge M1000e vs. Cisco U...Principled Technologies
Scalable and reliable compute performance, in conjunction with your 16Gb Fibre Channel capability with SAN-based storage, means you don’t have to worry about your application VMs losing performance as your business grows. In our tests, the Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade environment delivered up to 91.7 percent greater throughput while running a virtualized OLTP database workload than the similarly priced Cisco UCS 5108 blade environment. More importantly, the Dell M1000e blade environment delivered consistent scaling as we added blade servers, in contrast to the performance degradation we observed in the Cisco UCS 5108 blade environment. The Dell M1000e also left room to grow within the 10U, with eight additional half-height slots available for compute nodes in the future, whereas the Cisco UCS 5108 blade environment would require a second enclosure to house additional blades. Finally, both solutions were similarly priced, so there is no additional cost associated with the advantages of the Dell environment. For applications demanding dense compute environments, high throughput, and lower response rates, companies will find the Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade environment better able to scale to meet predictable performance requirements as their business grows.
The Dell PowerEdge FX2 solution with an FC830 server and FD332 storage blocks supported over 4.5 times as many database VMs as a Dell PowerEdge R820 server. It delivered over 6 times the performance without caching and up to 43 times the performance with SanDisk DAS Cache enabled. This high-density, space-efficient solution allows organizations to consolidate older servers for significant performance gains while maximizing valuable data center space.
Save space, increase efficiency, and boost performance in your remote office ...Principled Technologies
Two realities drive many remote and branch office server decisions: the need for a versatile platform that delivers excellent performance, and the need for simplification by using fewer servers and cables. By consolidating your older servers to the powerful, space-efficient Dell PowerEdge VRTX server, you can increase database performance while saving valuable space. In our tests, the base-configuration Dell PowerEdge VRTX could consolidate four legacy servers while providing 5.4 times the overall performance. With the Micron P420m PCIe SSD added to the configuration, the VRTX consolidated eight legacy servers and delivered 10.7 times the overall performance.
Investing in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX—in either configuration—can elevate your IT infrastructure by answering database performance and space-saving challenges that face your remote and branch offices.
In addition to providing excellent performance in a space-efficient manner, the VRTX simplifies the office environment, brings efficiency to IT staff through its management advantages, and offers businesses the versatility of deploying performance anywhere.
Converged architecture advantages: Dell PowerEdge FX2s and FC830 servers vs. ...Principled Technologies
Based on our testing with heavy SQL Server 2014 database workloads, the converged architecture solution of a Dell PowerEdge FX2s chassis and FC830 servers delivered 3.9 times the performance of our legacy IBM solution. We also found the Dell PowerEdge FX2s and FC830 solution offered 73 percent lower cost per order compared to the legacy IBM System x3850 X5 solution. In addition, the PowerEdge FX2s and FC830 solution does not sacrifice traditional hardware redundancy while providing the same highly available database solution in a smaller rack space. If your business runs Microsoft SQL Server 2014, the converged architecture approach with Dell PowerEdge FX2s chassis and FC830 servers powered by Intel could bring a harmonious balance of performance, reliability, and cost efficiency to your data center.
Dell PowerEdge M820 blades: Balancing performance, density, and high availabi...Principled Technologies
Finding a server that can deliver the right balance of high workload performance, density, and RAS features can help you meet both infrastructure and business goals at the same time.
In our tests, the single-width Dell PowerEdge M820 blade delivered 19.3 percent better Oracle Database 12c performance than the HP ProLiant BL680c G7 in half the space, meaning it could deliver 2.38 times more transactions per U. The value of the denser Dell PowerEdge M820 was clear in our cost analysis of the two systems. Because the Dell PowerEdge M820 takes up less space, you need fewer enclosures, less rack space, and can save on port costs. In our sample comparison of two performance-equivalent solutions, we found that the Dell PowerEdge M820 solution could save up to 42.1 percent compared to an HP ProLiant BL680c G7 solution. That’s money that you can use to buy even more servers for greater performance or to innovate elsewhere. We also found that the Dell PowerEdge M820 took high availability into account by utilizing key RAS features to help increase your workload uptime.
If you’re looking for a dense blade solution to lower costs with the power to handle your important workloads and keep them running, our study shows that the Dell PowerEdge M820 blade addresses all those concerns.
Apache Cassandra performance advantages of the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with ...Principled Technologies
The PowerEdge C6620 with PERC 12 delivered lower latency and higher throughput than an HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller
Conclusion
Data proliferation today is rapid, and its growth shows no signs of stopping. For businesses that can take advantage of that data, there is tremendous potential value. One recent McKinsey study notes that “companies that are using data-driven B2B sales-growth engines report above-market growth and EBITDA increases in the range of 15 to 25 percent.” With data flooding in so quickly and in so many different forms, however, companies need high-performing big data solutions to have a chance at utilizing that data effectively.
We tested the performance of two platforms with a read-intensive Apache Cassandra database system bigdata workload to assess which might be better suited to speedily deliver the insights decision makers need. Compared to an older HPE ProLiant XL170r Gen9 server with an HPE Smart Array P440ar controller, the new Dell PowerEdge C6620 with Broadcom-based PERC 12 RAID controller delivered faster read and update latencies and more than twice the throughput. This improvement in performance can help you glean more value from your unstructured data more quickly. If you’re watching your stores of unstructured data grow but are still leaning on older servers for your critical Cassandra workloads, it may be time for an upgrade.
Handle more Oracle transactions and support more VMs with the Dell PowerEdge ...Principled Technologies
Compared to the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 with Smart Array P440ar Controller
If your organization runs Oracle Database for OLTP workloads, moving to a Dell PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 could be a choice that improves your overall performance and allows you to consolidate your data center hardware. In our tests, the PowerEdge R7625 with PERC 12 delivered 6.3 times the total NOPM and supported 2.5 times the number of VMs the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server did. By harnessing the power of the latest in RAID controller technology, the PowerEdge R7625 can provide an upgraded Oracle Database experience compared to the competitor we tested.
Similar to SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830 QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology with Dell Storage SC9000 all-flash array (20)
Bring ideas to life with the HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation - InfographicPrincipled Technologies
We compared CPU performance and noise output of an HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation in High Performance Mode to a similarly configured Dell Precision 3660 Tower Workstation in its out-of-box performance mode
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.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
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- https://www.linkedin.com/in/iglovikov/
- https://x.com/viglovikov
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People: The contributors and community that have supported Albumentations.
Metrics: The success indicators such as downloads, daily active users, GitHub stars, and financial contributions.
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Development Practices: Best practices for creating, maintaining, and scaling open-source libraries, including code hygiene, CI/CD, and fast iteration.
Community Building: Strategies for making adoption easy, iterating quickly, and fostering a vibrant, engaged community.
Marketing: Both online and offline marketing tactics, focusing on real, impactful interactions and collaborations.
Mental Health: Maintaining balance and not feeling pressured by user demands.
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GitHub: https://github.com/albumentations-team/albumentations
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SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830 QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology with Dell Storage SC9000 all-flash array
1. JULY 2016
A PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES TEST REPORT
Commissioned by Dell, Inc.
SQL SERVER 2016 DATABASE PERFORMANCE ON THE DELL POWEREDGE R830
WITH QLOGIC 16G FIBRE CHANNEL WITH STORFUSION TECHNOLOGY
AND DELL STORAGE SC9000 ALL-FLASH ARRAY
In April 2016, Microsoft discontinued extended support for SQL Server 2005,
prompting many companies to migrate to a newer version. If your company is planning
to migrate from SQL Server 2005 to a newer version, it’s a great time to upgrade your
hardware to get the most out of the new software.
In the Principled Technologies datacenter, we ran SQL Server 2016 in a modern
Dell environment—a PowerEdge R830 server, powered by Intel Xeon E5-4650 v4
processors; QLogic® QLE2692 16Gb Fibre Channel (FC) adapter with StorFusion
Technology; and Dell SC9000 all-flash storage. We found that this configuration did
more than five times the database work of an older Dell PowerEdge R820 server with
legacy HDD SAN storage running SQL Server 2005, while delivering a storage response
time of less than 1 millisecond.
When you can use fewer servers to run your SQL Server workloads at equal or
higher levels of database performance, you boost your datacenter efficiency, which can
translate to savings.
2. A Principled Technologies test report 2SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
MODERNIZE YOUR DATACENTER WITH NEW DELL SERVERS AND
STORAGE
Streamlining your datacenter hardware by replacing older servers using HDD
storage arrays with new servers using all-flash storage has the potential to benefit your
company many ways. You can use less physical space, see your power and cooling
expenses decrease, free up time for IT admins by requiring them to manage fewer
servers, and save by paying for fewer software licenses each year.
If your company is migrating your SQL Server 2005 database workloads to SQL
Server 2016 and thinking about investing in new servers as well, consider the Dell
PowerEdge R830. SQL Server 2016 features OS-maximum cores and memory as well as
in-memory OLTP, letting it fully utilize the vast resource pools new servers offer. The
Dell PowerEdge R830 is a 2U, four-socket server that features the Intel Xeon processor
E5-4600 v4 product family, provides up to 88 cores and 176 threads, and supports up to
3 TB of DDR4 RAM. This means it has large amounts of CPU and memory resources to
handle SQL Server 2016 applications in only 2U of rack space.
Dell designed the all-flash Storage SC9000 array with large-scale storage, high-
end workloads, and distributed enterprise environments in mind. This array gives your
SQL Server applications a boost with 16Gb Fibre Channel, 12Gb SAS, and hardware
redundancy—all of which speed and protect the movement of data.
We set out to compare two solutions: (1) SQL Server 2005 workloads on a
[2012] Dell PowerEdge R820 with HDD storage and (2) SQL Server 2016 on the modern
PowerEdge R830-SC9000 platform. We set up virtual machines in both environments
and ran an online transaction processing (OLTP) workload. Figure 1 illustrates our test
environment.
Figure 1: Our testbed.
3. A Principled Technologies test report 3SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
Our legacy environment, the Dell PowerEdge R820 using HDD-based storage,
ran 12 VMs, each handling an average of 10,180.17 orders per minute in our test
configuration. We configured the modern Dell environment to run 24 VMs, each
handling an average of 28,539.71 orders per minute. That’s twice as many VMs, each
doing more than twice the work of the original VMs. As Figure 2 illustrates, that
translates to over five times the database work that the Dell PowerEdge R830 and Dell
Storage SC9000 array could accomplish together.
Figure 2: The 24 SQL Server 2016 VMs running on the Dell modern environment performed more than five times
the work of the 12 SQL Server 2005 VMs running on the Dell PowerEdge R820 environment.
For more information on components used in our testing, see Appendix A. For
detailed hardware configuration information, see Appendix B. For details on our test
procedure, see Appendix C.
OUR RESULTS IN DETAIL
On both the Dell PowerEdge R830 and legacy R820 environments, we allocated
8 GB of RAM to the hypervisor and then sized our VMs to utilize the full remaining
amount of RAM each server offered. Each VM on the older Dell PowerEdge R820 had
four vCPUs, 9,728 MB of RAM, and a 20GB SQL Server 2005 database. Each of the VMs
on the new PowerEdge R830 had four vCPUs, 9,216 MB of RAM, and a 20GB SQL Server
2016 database. The Dell PowerEdge R830 environment could support 24 VMs while the
legacy environment could support only 12 VMs in this configuration.
4. A Principled Technologies test report 4SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
Figure 3 shows the median orders per minute that the two solutions were able
to process in our testing. Each of the 24 VMs on the Dell PowerEdge R830 solution
processed more than twice as many orders per minute than each of the 12 VMs on the
legacy R820 did. The Dell PowerEdge R830 solution delivered an overall difference of
five times the output.
Dell PowerEdge R830 with Dell
Storage SC9000 array (SQL Server 2016)
Dell PowerEdge R820
with legacy HDD storage (SQL Server 2005)
VM 1 27,470 10,140
VM 2 29,137 10,172
VM 3 28,305 10,119
VM 4 27,920 10,132
VM 5 29,024 10,257
VM 6 28,202 10,294
VM 7 28,353 10,227
VM 8 28,462 10,185
VM 9 28,961 10,161
VM 10 28,987 10,110
VM 11 28,700 10,104
VM 12 29,106 10,261
VM 13 28,203
VM 14 28,647
VM 15 27,750
VM 16 27,671
VM 17 28,208
VM 18 29,496
VM 19 28,287
VM 20 28,971
VM 21 28,639
VM 22 28,270
VM 23 28,431
VM 24 29,753
Total 684,953 122,162
Figure 3: The 24 SQL Server 2016 VMs running on the Dell modern environment delivered over five times the work of the 12
SQL Server 2005 VMs running on the legacy PowerEdge R820 environment.
Latency, or response time, is a critical factor in determining consistent, fast
database performance. In our tests, the applications running on the SC9000 all-flash
storage array were able to support over 680,000 orders per minute due, in part, to the
fast response times at the disk level. According to the esxtop data captured during the
run, the device latency on the SC9000 stayed below 1ms for the duration of the run.
5. A Principled Technologies test report 5SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
VMware guidelines recommend that device latency be less than 20ms for best
performance.
CONCLUSION
Nothing lasts forever. When software manufacturers discontinue support for
aging programs, as Microsoft has done for SQL Server 2005, businesses using these
applications must take the step of migrating to new, updated versions. Coupling this
upgrade with an upgrade to the hardware on which the applications run can take
performance improvements to an even higher level.
In our testing, the modern four-socket Dell PowerEdge R830 powered by Intel
Xeon processors E5-4650 v4 working with the powerful Dell Storage SC9000 array and
running SQL Server 2016 delivered over five times the database performance of a legacy
PowerEdge R820 solution running SQL Server 2005. The modern PowerEdge solution
also delivered a faster response time.
Running modern, fully featured database software on four-year-old servers is
possible, but far from optimal. Consolidating your SQL Server workloads from legacy
servers onto Dell PowerEdge R830 servers powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600
v4 product family is a way to streamline and modernize your datacenter.
6. A Principled Technologies test report 6SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
APPENDIX A – ABOUT THE COMPONENTS
About the Dell PowerEdge R830
The Dell PowerEdge R830 is a 2U, four-socket server that features the latest from the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-
4600 v4 series. Dell designed the R830 to optimize application performance for dense virtualization or scale out four-
socket workloads using resources including the following:
48 DIMM slots—The ample number of slots help leverage cost with performance and capacity needs. It
accommodates a larger memory footprint which can be configured with smaller-capacity DIMMs for
potential cost-efficiency, or can support up to 3 TB for more memory- intensive use cases.
16 drive bays, configurable with a mix of SAS/SATA HDDs and SSDs as well as optional NVMe PCIe® SSDs
for expanded storage capabilities. Two chassis configurations—one with eight HDD/SSD drive bays, and
one with 16 HDD/SSD drive bays—allow you to configure the PowerEdge R830 however your business
needs.
Optional NVMe PCIe SSD drives for data that requires the fastest- available I/O throughput.
To learn more about the Dell PowerEdge R830, visit www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-R830/pd.
About the new Intel Xeon E5 v4 processor family
The latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 family contain up to 22 cores at that run at 2.2 GHz – a 20 percent
increase compared to previous generations. The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 family offers features to enhance
virtualization, orchestration, and security, including cache monitoring and allocation technologies, memory bandwidth
monitoring, and enhanced key security.
To learn more about the Intel Xeon E5 processor product family, read the product brief at
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-briefs/xeon-e5-brief.pdf
About the Dell SC9000 storage array
Dell designed the SC9000 as an ideal solution for large-scale storage, high-end workloads, and distributed
enterprise environments. According to Dell, this latest flagship array offers all the capabilities of the SC Series line in a
fully upgraded, more scalable system leveraging the Dell 13G server platform.
16Gb Fibre Channel capability provides a massive network pipe for achieving the throughput needed to
take full advantage of the all-flash performance.
Quick, modular expansion to over 3PB raw SAN and/or NAS storage capacity per array, and the ability to
be interconnected with other SC Series arrays in larger federated systems under unified management.
Superior flash and hybrid performance. Comprehensive SSD integration plus a wide range of HDDs and
ultra-dense enclosures provide flexible performance.
Always available storage with automated cost savings. Ideal for private cloud deployments, the SC Series
Live Volume feature now offers seamless disaster recovery with transparent auto-failover to fully
synchronized backup volumes on another SC series array.
Live Volume with auto-failover keeps workloads running continuously during unplanned outages and
repairs your high-availability environment automatically when an array comes back online. No extra
hardware or software is required.
7. A Principled Technologies test report 7SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
Application Protection Manager Suite ensures server-side data integrity in Oracle, VMware and
Microsoft database environments. Optional FIPS-certified self-encrypting SSDs and HDDs protect against
data theft, loss or unauthorized access.
Built-in efficiencies include new block-level compression on all-flash arrays and pervasive “thin”
methods. Patented auto-tiering leverages the best attributes of diverse drive types to optimize your
data throughout its lifecycle.
Redundant, hot-swappable components make the SC9000 a resilient, easy-to-deploy and highly
available solution. Add capacity quickly with any of five supported expansion enclosures. Customize I/O
connections to multiprotocol SANs (FC, iSCSI and FCoE) and support file storage from the same pool via
the optional FS8600 NAS appliance.
Learn more at www.dell.com/us/business/p/storage-sc9000/pd
About the QLogic QLE269X series of FC adapters
QLogic provides Dell customers with future-ready I/O connectivity. According to QLogic, the QLE269x single- and
dual-port 16Gb Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) boast industry-leading native FC performance with extremely
low CPU usage with full hardware offloads, and include the following advanced features:
Enhanced reliability, diagnostics, and accelerated deployment powered by StorFusion technology
Up to 1.3 million IOPS to fuel high performance in all-flash arrays and high-density virtualized
environments
Port isolation design that offers deterministic and scalable performance on each port
Learn more at www.qlogic.com/go/dell
About Microsoft SQL Server 2016
SQL Server 2016 delivers performance and security features built-in for mission-critical transactional systems
and data warehouses, along with an integrated business intelligence and advanced analytics solution for building data
analytics applications. High-performance features are key to ensuring your applications can deliver a smooth
transactional experience and also potentially support demanding real-time operational analytics.
You can experience the full features of SQL Server 2016 through the free developer edition. Visit the SQL Server
2016 webpage to learn more about new features and download the SQL Server 2016 e-book.
About DVD Store Version 2.1
To create our real-world ecommerce workload, we used the DVD Store Version 2.1 benchmarking tool. DS2
models an online DVD store, where customers log in, search for movies, and make purchases. DS2 reports these actions
in orders per minute that the system could handle, to show what kind of performance you could expect for your
customers. The DS2 workload also performs other actions, such as adding new customers, to exercise the wide range of
database functions you would need to run your ecommerce environment.
For more details about the DS2 tool, see www.delltechcenter.com/page/DVD+Store.
8. A Principled Technologies test report 8SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
APPENDIX B – SYSTEM CONFIGURATION INFORMATION
Figures 4 and 5 provide detailed configuration information for the test systems. Figures 6 and 7 provide detailed
configuration information for the storage array.
System Dell PowerEdge R830
General
Number of processor packages 4
Number of cores per processor 14
Number of hardware threads per core 2
System power management policy Performance
CPU
Vendor Intel
Name Xeon
Model number E5-4650 v4
Socket type LGA2011-3
Core frequency (GHz) 2.20
Bus frequency 9.6 GT/s
L1 cache 32KB + 32KB (per core)
L2 cache 256KB (per core)
L3 cache 36MB
Platform
Vendor and model number Dell PowerEdge R830
Motherboard model number 0CWF69X02
BIOS version 1.1.0 6/7/2016
Integrated LOM Intel Ethernet X540-AT2
Memory module(s)
Total RAM in system (GB) 256
Vendor and model number Samsung® M393A2K43BB1-CRC
Type PC4-19200
Speed (MHz) 2,400
Speed running in the system (MHz) 2,400
Size (GB) 16GB
Number of RAM module(s) 16
Chip organization Double-sided
Rank Dual
Fibre Channel adapter
Vendor and model number QLogic QLE2692 FC Adapter with StorFusion Technology
Number of ports 2
Speed 16G
RAID controller
Vendor and model number PERC H730
Firmware version 25.4.0.0015
9. A Principled Technologies test report 9SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
System Dell PowerEdge R830
Firmware
Lifecycle Controller / iDRAC 2.35.35.30
Driver Pack 16.01.08
Figure 4: Configuration information for the Dell PowerEdge R830.
System Dell PowerEdge R820
General
Number of processor packages 4
Number of cores per processor 8
Number of hardware threads per core 2
System power management policy Performance
CPU
Vendor Intel
Name Xeon
Model number E5-4650
Socket type LGA2011
Core frequency (GHz) 2.70
Bus frequency 8.0 GT/s
L1 cache 32KB + 32KB (per core)
L2 cache 256KB (per core)
L3 cache 20MB
Platform
Vendor and model number Dell PowerEdge R820
Motherboard model number 0X437FX03
BIOS version 2.3.4 1/22/2016
Integrated LOM Intel Gigabit I350-t
Memory module(s)
Total RAM in system (GB) 128
Vendor and model number Hynix HMT31GR7CFR4C
Type PC3-12800
Speed (MHz) 1,600
Speed running in the system (MHz) 1,600
Size (GB) 8GB
Number of RAM module(s) 16
Chip organization Double-sided
Rank Dual
RAID controller
Vendor and model number PERC H710
Firmware version 21.3.2-0005
Figure 5: Configuration information for the legacy server.
10. A Principled Technologies test report 10SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
Storage array Dell Storage SC9000
Vendor and model number Dell Storage SC9000
OS version Storage Center 6.7.5
Connection type Fibre Channel 16Gb
Number of Fibre Channel cards 1 per controller (2 total)
Fibre Channel card model QLogic® QLE2662 16G Fibre Channel Adapter
Number of SAS cards 1 per controller (2 total)
SAS card model SAS9300-8E 12G SAS Dual-Ext Port Adapter
Number of expansion enclosures 1
Expansion enclosure model number SC420
Number of disks per shelf 24
Type of disk SSD
Disk capacity 400 GB
Volumes 1
Disks per volume 24
RAID type RAID 10
Figure 6: Configuration information for the Dell Storage SC9000 storage array.
Storage array Legacy SAN
Connection type Fibre Channel 8Gb
Number of Fibre Channel cards 1
Number of SAS cards 1 per controller (2 total)
Number of expansion enclosures 2
Number of disks per shelf 24
Type of disk HDD 15k
Disk capacity 600 GB
Aggregates 2
Disks per aggregate 24
Volumes 3 (OS, data, and logs)
RAID type RAID-DP
Figure 7: Configuration information for the legacy storage system.
11. A Principled Technologies test report 11SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
APPENDIX C – HOW WE TESTED
Note: On May 30, 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 July 11, 2016.
Installing VMware vSphere onto the servers
Before installing VMware vSphere, we set the System Profile to Performance on both servers. We installed the
VMware vSphere 6.0 U2 hypervisor onto the servers’ local hard drives, which we placed in a RAID1 pair.
1. Insert the VMware vSphere 6.0 U2 installation media into the optical drive.
2. Boot the server to the VMware vSphere installer.
3. To begin the installation wizard, press F11.
4. As the installation location, select the RAID1 pair.
5. As the keyboard type and language, select US English.
6. Enter the root password for the host.
7. To start the installation, press Enter.
8. When the installation completes, to reboot the host, press Enter.
9. After the host reboots, set the management network IP address.
10. Add the host to vCenter, and enable SSH and ESXi shell.
Configuring the Fibre Channel networking
We used a Brocade 6505 16Gb Fibre Channel top-of-rack switch for the storage network. We left the switch
ports at factory settings and created zones for traffic isolation.
Configuring zoning on the Brocade M6505 switch
1. In a web browser, connect to the Brocade M6505 switch, and log in as the admin user.
2. Click Configure→Zone Admin.
3. In the Zone tab, create the following zones:
a. All visible physical ports on the SC9000
b. All visible virtual ports on the SC9000
c. Server Port 1 and all four visible virtual ports
i. Repeat Step C for remaining server ports.
4. In the Zone Config tab, click New Zone Config, and give it a name.
5. Add the newly created Zones to the Zone Config.
6. Click Save Config.
7. Click Enable Config.
8. Repeat the zoning process for the legacy server, creating one zone for all Fibre Channel ports associated
with the legacy environment.
12. A Principled Technologies test report 12SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
Configuring the storage
After initial cabling and configuration of the Dell Storage SC9000, we disabled the read and write caches and
then created a single large volume, using all 24 disks. On the legacy storage, we created a first RAID aggregate using 24
disks, and within that aggregate, we created a single volume for OS and Data VMDKs. We then created a second RAID
aggregate using the remaining 24 disks, and within that aggregate, we created a single volume for Log VMDKs.
Creating a server cluster and connecting the volumes
1. In a web browser, connect to the Storage Center virtual IP address, and log in as the Admin user.
2. Click Storage Management→Servers→Create Server. Select the four HBA WWNs that correspond to the Dell
PowerEdge R830. Give the server a name, and click Continue.
3. Click Storage Management→Servers→Create Server Cluster. Click Add Existing Servers to Cluster. Select all
servers, and click Continue.
4. Click Storage Management→Volumes→Create Volume. When prompted to specify a size for the volume,
select Use All Space.
5. Click Storage Management→Volume→Map volume to server. Select the volume, and click Continue. Select
the server cluster, and click Continue.
6. Using VMware vCenter, ensure that the volume is showing as connected to the server. Rebooting the
servers and chassis may be necessary to propagate all changes.
Creating the workload virtual machines
We created and cloned out 12 Windows Server 2008 R2 VMs on the legacy environment, and 24 Windows
Server 2012 R2 VMs on the Dell PowerEdge R830 environment. We installed SQL Server 2005 on the legacy VMs and SQL
Server 2016 on the Dell PowerEdge R830 VMs. All VMs had the same virtual hardware specifications, with the exception
of VM memory. The legacy VMs had slightly more memory assigned to each VM to use the host memory fully.
Creating the base VM
1. In VMware vCenter, navigate to Virtual Machines.
2. Click the icon to create a new VM.
3. Leave Create a new virtual machine selected, and click Next.
4. Enter a name for the virtual machine, and click Next.
5. Place the VM on a host with available CPUs, and click Next.
6. Select the Dell Storage SC9000 datastore for the 60GB OS VMDK, and click next.
7. Click Next.
8. Select the guest OS as Windows Server 2012 R2 for the Dell PowerEdge R830 environment, and Windows
Server 2008 R2 for the legacy environment, and click Next.
9. In the Customize Hardware section, make the following changes:
a. Increase the vCPUs to 4.
b. Increase the VM memory to 9,216 MB on the Dell PowerEdge R830 environment, and to 9,728 MB
on the legacy environment, in order to fully utilize the host memory.
c. Add a 100GB VMDK for SQL data, and select the VMware Paravirtual controller and Thick
Provisioned Eager Zeroed.
13. A Principled Technologies test report 13SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
d. Add a 20GB VMDK for SQL logs, and select the VMware Paravirtual controller and Thick Provisioned
Eager Zeroed. Place the VMDK in the LOGS datastore.
10. Connect the VM to the test network.
11. Click Next.
12. Click Finish.
13. Follow the instructions below to install the guest OS.
Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 onto the Dell PowerEdge R830 VMs
1. Attach the Windows Server 2012 R2 ISO to the virtual machine.
2. Open the VM console, and start the VM.
3. When prompted to boot from DVD, press any key.
4. When the installation screen appears, leave language, time/currency format, and input method as default,
and click Next.
5. Click Install now.
6. When the installation prompts you, enter the product key.
7. Select Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition (Server with a GUI), and click Next.
8. Check I accept the license terms, and click Next.
9. Click Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).
10. Select Drive 0 Unallocated Space, and click Next. This starts Windows automatically, and Windows will
restart automatically after completing.
11. When the Settings page appears, fill in the Password and Reenter Password fields with the same password.
12. Log in with the password you set up previously.
Installing .NET Framework 3.5
1. In the VM, open Server Manager.
2. Click Manage→Add Roles and Features.
3. Select Role-based or feature-based installation, and click Next.
4. Under Server pool, select the local server, and click Next. Click Next.
5. Under Features, select .NET Framework 3.5 Features, and click Next.
6. Click Install.
7. Upon completion, click Close.
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. To accept the license terms, click the checkbox, and click Next.
6. Click Use Microsoft Update to check for updates, and click Next.
14. A Principled Technologies test report 14SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
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 Next.
17. At the Error and usage reporting screen, click Next.
18. At the Installation Configuration Rules screen, check that there are no failures or relevant warnings, and click
Next.
19. At the Ready to Install screen, click Install.
20. Close the installation window.
Installing Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition on the legacy VMs
1. Attach the installation media ISO to the VM.
2. Open the VM console, and boot to the DVD.
3. At the Language Selection Screen, click Next.
4. Click Install Now.
5. Select Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (Full Installation), and click Next.
6. Click the I accept the license terms check box, and click Next.
7. Click Custom.
8. Click Drive options (advanced).
9. Delete all partitions, if they exist.
10. Click New.
11. Click Apply.
12. Click Next.
13. At the User’s password must be changed before logging on warning screen, click OK.
14. As the new password in both fields, type Password1. To continue, click the arrow.
15. At the Your password has been changed screen, click OK.
Installing SQL Server 2005
1. Attach the installation media ISO to the VM.
2. Inside the VM, if AutoPlay does not begin the installation, navigate to the SQL Server 2005 DVD, and double-
click Autorun.
15. A Principled Technologies test report 15SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
3. If prompted with a .NET installation prompt, to enable the .NET Framework Core role, click Yes.
4. At the SQL Server Installation Center screen, click Installation.
5. Click New installation or add features to an existing installation.
6. At the Setup Support Rules screen, click OK.
7. At the Product Key screen, specify the free Enterprise edition evaluation, and click Next.
8. At the License Terms screen, accept the license terms, and click Next.
9. At the Setup Support Files screen, click Install.
10. At the Setup Support Rules screen, click Next.
11. At the Setup Role screen, choose SQL Server Feature Installation, and click Next.
12. At the SQL Server 2005 Feature Selection screen, select the following features: Database Engine Services,
Full-Text Search, Client Tools Connectivity, Client Tools Backwards Compatibility, Management Tools – Basic,
Management Tools – Complete. Click Next.
13. At the Installation Rules screen, click Next.
14. At the Instance Configuration screen, leave the defaults, and click Next.
15. At the Disk Space Requirements screen, click Next.
16. At the Server Configuration screen, choose the service account, fill in a password if necessary, and click Next.
17. At the Database Engine Configuration screen, select Mixed Mode, fill in a password for the system
administrator (sa) account, click Add Current User, and click Next.
18. At the Error Reporting screen, click Next.
19. At the Installation Configuration Rules screen, click Next.
20. At the Installation screen, click Install.
21. At the Complete screen, click Close.
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 Configuration→Windows Settings→Security
Settings→Local 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.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 for the legacy base VM.
Configuring the DVD Store 2 benchmark
Data generation overview
We generated the data using the Install.pl script included with DVD Store version 2.1 (DS2), providing the
parameters for our 20GB database size and the Microsoft SQL Server 2016 platform. We ran the Install.pl script on a
utility system running Linux®. The Install.pl script also generated the database schema.
After processing the data generation, we transferred the data files and schema creation files to a Windows-
based system running SQL Server 2005. We built the 20GB database in SQL Server 2005, then performed a full backup,
16. A Principled Technologies test report 16SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
storing the backup file on the C: drive for quick access. We used that backup file to restore the server between test runs.
In the SQL Server 2005 database build, we did not include the WITH(FORCESEEK) clause in the BROWSE_BY_ACTOR and
BROWSE_BY_TITLE stored procedures, as the feature did not exist in SQL Server 2005. When we restored the backups
for use in SQL Server 2016, we added those clauses back to the stored procedures.
The only modification we made to the schema creation scripts were the specified file sizes for our database. We
explicitly set the file sizes higher than necessary to ensure that no file-growth activity would affect the outputs of the
test. Apart from this file size modification, we created and loaded the database schema according to the DVD Store
documentation. Specifically, we followed the steps below:
1. Generate the data and create the database and file structure using database creation scripts in the DS2
download. Make size modifications specific to 20GB database and the appropriate changes to drive letters.
2. Transfer the files from the Linux data generation system to a Windows system running SQL Server 2005.
3. Create database tables, stored procedures, and objects using the provided DVD Store scripts.
4. Set the database recovery model to bulk-logged to prevent excess logging.
5. Load the data you generated into the database. For data loading, use the import wizard in SQL Server
Management Studio. Where necessary, retain options from the original scripts, such as Enable Identity
Insert.
6. Create indices, full-text catalogs, primary keys, and foreign keys using the database-creation scripts.
7. Update statistics on each table according to database-creation scripts, which sample 18 percent of the table
data.
8. On the SQL Server instance, create a ds2user SQL Server login using the following Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
script:
USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [ds2user] WITH PASSWORD=N’’,
DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master],
DEFAULT_LANGUAGE=[us_english],
CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF,
CHECK_POLICY=OFF
GO
9. Set the database recovery model back to full.
10. Create the necessary full text index using SQL Server Management Studio.
11. Create a database user and mapped this user to the SQL Server login.
12. Perform a full backup of the database. Note: This backup allowed us to restore the databases to a pristine
state relatively quickly between tests.
13. We used the backup created in Step 12 in the legacy environment, as SQL Server 2005 does not support
FORCESEEK. To enable FORCESEEK on the database used in the Dell PowerEdge R830 environment, we
restored the backup from Step 12 in a SQL Server 2016 instance. We then edited the stored procedures
17. A Principled Technologies test report 17SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
BROWSE_BY_ACTOR and BROWSE_BY_TITLE to use FORCESEEK. We then made a new backup of the
database in SQL Server 2016.
Figure 8 shows our initial file size modifications.
Logical name Filegroup Initial size (MB)
Database files
primary PRIMARY 4
cust1 DS_CUST_FG 8,500
cust2 DS_CUST_FG 8,500
ind1 DS_IND_FG 5,120
ind2 DS_IND_FG 5,120
ds_misc DS_MISC_FG 500
orders1 DS_ORDERS 4,015
orders2 DS_ORDERS 4,015
Log files
ds_log Not applicable 16,384
Figure 8: Our initial file size modifications.
Configuring the database workload client
For our testing, we used a virtual client for the Microsoft SQL Server client. To create this client, we installed
Windows Server 2008 R2, assigned a static IP address, and installed .NET 3.5.
Running the DVD Store tests
We created a series of batch files, SQL scripts, and shell scripts to automate the complete test cycle. DVD Store
outputs an orders-per-minute metric, which is a running average calculated through the test. In this report, we report
the last OPM that each client/target pair reported.
Each complete test cycle consisted of general steps:
1. Clean up prior outputs from the target system and the client driver system.
2. Drop the database from the target.
3. Restore the database on the target.
4. Shut down the target.
5. Reboot the host and client system.
6. Wait for a ping response from the server under test and the client system.
7. Let the test server idle for 10 minutes.
8. Start the DVD Store driver on the client.
We used the following DVD Store parameters for testing:
ds2sqlserverdriver.exe --target=<target_IP> --ramp_rate=10 --run_time=30 --
n_threads=24 --db_size=20GB --think_time=0 --detailed_view=Y --warmup_time=15 --
report_rate=1 --csv_output=<drive path>
18. A Principled Technologies test report 18SQL Server 2016 database performance on the Dell PowerEdge R830
with QLogic 16G Fibre Channel with StorFusion Technology and Dell
Storage SC9000 all-flash array
ABOUT PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES
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