Administrators can spend a great deal of time deploying and managing computing resources, especially when dealing with ROBO environments. The Dell PowerEdge VRTX, powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 v2 product family and running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, gives administrators centralized management tools to help them provide time saving benefits and integrated toolsets.
In our hands-on testing, we found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX greatly simplified deployment through an easy, wizard-based setup of Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clusters across server nodes with the Dell OpenManage Cluster Configurator. It also provided versatile hardware resource reassignment through a shared PCIe bus and efficient centralized management through CMC and scripting. Finally, we found that the Dell System Update Utility worked seamlessly with Microsoft Cluster-Aware Updating to update server nodes while keeping the failover cluster online and minimizing downtime. These advantages make the Dell PowerEdge VRTX an attractive choice for those who seek to reduce the management overhead of their ROBO environments.
Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 vs. VMware View 5: User experience and bandwidth consum...Principled Technologies
The experience that virtual desktops provide for workers is critical. If a user’s desktop is sluggish, or worse, choppy and difficult to navigate, working becomes difficult. Choosing a virtual desktop solution that provides sluggish, choppy desktops to remote end-users in branch offices defeats the purpose of implementing such a solution in the first place.
In both the small and medium-sized branch office scenarios we tested, we found that Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 provided a better desktop experience for remote users than VMware View 5, and used as much as 37.1 percent less bandwidth delivering it. Using Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 with Citrix Branch Repeater provided an even better experience for remote users by optimizing bandwidth over the WAN and delivering local-like virtual desktop sessions in both our 10-and 100-user tests. When selecting a VDI solution to deploy virtual desktops over the WAN to users in remote offices, determining the type of user experience the solution provides is paramount.
Database performance: Dell PowerEdge R730xd vs. Lenovo ThinkServer RD650Principled Technologies
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 users, take note. In our datacenter, we found that the Dell PowerEdge R730xd server based on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family with the Intel SSD DC S3610 Series handled up to 27.9 percent more orders per minute than the Lenovo ThinkServer RD650 did. With three times the SSDs, the PowerEdge R730xd delivered better response times—up to 24.6 percent for application latency and up to 93.1 percent for disk latency—than the ThinkServer RD650. Getting more performance per server and better response times means you can give customers a better, faster ecommerce experience. This can allow you to buy, store, and power fewer servers, helping stretch your IT budget further.
Nimboxx HCI AU-110x: A scalable, easy-to-use solution for hyperconverged infr...Principled Technologies
Hyperconvergence is a fresh way of looking at your data center. For small- and medium-sized businesses especially, it could be well worth your time to invest in a hyperconverged infrastructure. The MeshOS-operated Nimboxx HCI AU-110x offered scalability and great performance in our hands-on tests and was simple and straightforward to use, which could help your business meet user demands and potentially save money by avoiding things such as hiring expensive IT staff to maintain your data center.
Managing clients with Dell Client Integration Pack 3.0 and Microsoft System C...Principled Technologies
Client management is an important part of any enterprise. Employees have workstations in their offices or notebooks that travel with them around the globe, and efficient updates and remote management capabilities keep an organization’s IT assets ordered and secure. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 can provide a robust, efficient, management system for your IT infrastructure. Selecting clients that not only operate within your IT framework, but that have built-in software to integrate with it seamlessly to make client management tasks even easier is an intelligent strategy for your IT department.
In our tests, we found that Dell client management tools (Dell Client Integration Pack, Dell Client Configuration Toolkit, and Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation) integrated in a typical SCCM 2012 environment reduced the steps it took to complete client management tasks by as much as 77 percent, and included a number of features that weren’t available with clients from HP and Lenovo.
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is an all-inclusive platform, suitable for rapid deployment of a virtual environment, such as Citrix XenDesktop 7.5. The integrated components of the VRTX means your business has a centralized management console for the necessary data center components that support VDI environments. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX and XenDesktop set up, configured, and deployed VDI users easily. The addition of Dell Wyse terminals demonstrates how your end-users can access your XenDesktop VDI environment with efficient hardware and little administrative effort. The combination of Dell PowerEdge VRTX and Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 can offer a unified, efficient, and simple enterprise-value VDI solution for your business, but without the resources and commitment need for supporting an enterprise data center.
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations: High available and scalable performance ...Principled Technologies
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations consisting of Dell PowerEdge R720 servers, Dell Force10 S4810P switches, and Dell EqualLogic PS6110XV storage provide a range of configuration options so that you can select the one that is right for your business needs. Additionally, each configuration is easily scalable to accommodate for business growth.
The 3-2-1 base configuration provides a robust solution for any business needing to support up to 500 users on multiple business applications. Our tests demonstrate this solution supporting 500 users per VM for four VMs including two database VMs, one email VM, and one collaboration application VM.
If the number of users you need to support exceeds the user count the base configuration provides, adding another Dell PowerEdge R720 server to make a 4-2-1 configuration can support up to 1,000 users on multiple business applications while maintaining high availability. Our tests demonstrate this solution supporting 1,000 users per VM in the same four VMs as the 3-2-1 solution. Additionally, these configurations are so easy to scale upward that you can complete the process of adding a server in a matter of two hours or less from start to finish.
If you require support for an even higher number of users, adding a server and storage array to the base configuration, to make a 4-2-2 configuration allows for up to 1,500 users on multiple business applications. Our tests demonstrated this when we ran 1,500 users against each of the four VMs. Better yet, adding a Dell EqualLogic PS6110XV storage array to an existing 4-2-1 configuration is a cinch, taking under 30 minutes start to finish.
All of these Dell Reference Configurations give your business the reliability of highly available hardware configurations, greatly reducing downtime resulting from any hardware malfunctions.
By choosing proven Dell architecture, you avoid the hassles of putting your infrastructure together piece by piece, reducing the potential for error and providing you with a sturdy solution that is easily scalable to fit your present and future needs.
Performance per dollar comparison: Dell PowerEdge R715 vs. HP ProLiant DL380p...Principled Technologies
Servers that deliver high performance at lower costs are a smart choice for any IT department building or refreshing a data center. In our tests, we found that the AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor -powered Dell PowerEdge R715 increased performance per dollar by as much as 23.27 percent in our real-world 70 percent processor utilization scenario, and as much as 26.84 percent at maximum processor utilization.
Comparing performance and cost: Dell PowerEdge VRTX with one Dell PowerEdge M...Principled Technologies
Keeping a legacy disparate hardware solution composed of nine older servers instead of choosing the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3 family may cost more than one would expect. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could do the work of nine legacy servers running email, database, and file/print server workloads. The VRTX ran all nine workloads in VMs, achieving a slight performance boost on the database and file/print workloads while using much less datacenter space and reducing power consumption by 38.4 percent.
The VRTX achieved these savings using 88.6 percent less rack-equivalent space than the legacy disparate hardware solution and with one-third as many cables, to reduce complexity and reduce the burden of space in small offices.
Despite a larger initial investment, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could actually lower the total cost of ownership over five years by as much as 48.5 percent, delivering a solid return on investment in less than two years.
As our test results show, investing in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 v3 family could provide a compact solution to optimize application performance and reduce complexity at a lower lifetime cost than a legacy solution composed of nine older servers.
Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 vs. VMware View 5: User experience and bandwidth consum...Principled Technologies
The experience that virtual desktops provide for workers is critical. If a user’s desktop is sluggish, or worse, choppy and difficult to navigate, working becomes difficult. Choosing a virtual desktop solution that provides sluggish, choppy desktops to remote end-users in branch offices defeats the purpose of implementing such a solution in the first place.
In both the small and medium-sized branch office scenarios we tested, we found that Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 provided a better desktop experience for remote users than VMware View 5, and used as much as 37.1 percent less bandwidth delivering it. Using Citrix XenDesktop 5.5 with Citrix Branch Repeater provided an even better experience for remote users by optimizing bandwidth over the WAN and delivering local-like virtual desktop sessions in both our 10-and 100-user tests. When selecting a VDI solution to deploy virtual desktops over the WAN to users in remote offices, determining the type of user experience the solution provides is paramount.
Database performance: Dell PowerEdge R730xd vs. Lenovo ThinkServer RD650Principled Technologies
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 users, take note. In our datacenter, we found that the Dell PowerEdge R730xd server based on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family with the Intel SSD DC S3610 Series handled up to 27.9 percent more orders per minute than the Lenovo ThinkServer RD650 did. With three times the SSDs, the PowerEdge R730xd delivered better response times—up to 24.6 percent for application latency and up to 93.1 percent for disk latency—than the ThinkServer RD650. Getting more performance per server and better response times means you can give customers a better, faster ecommerce experience. This can allow you to buy, store, and power fewer servers, helping stretch your IT budget further.
Nimboxx HCI AU-110x: A scalable, easy-to-use solution for hyperconverged infr...Principled Technologies
Hyperconvergence is a fresh way of looking at your data center. For small- and medium-sized businesses especially, it could be well worth your time to invest in a hyperconverged infrastructure. The MeshOS-operated Nimboxx HCI AU-110x offered scalability and great performance in our hands-on tests and was simple and straightforward to use, which could help your business meet user demands and potentially save money by avoiding things such as hiring expensive IT staff to maintain your data center.
Managing clients with Dell Client Integration Pack 3.0 and Microsoft System C...Principled Technologies
Client management is an important part of any enterprise. Employees have workstations in their offices or notebooks that travel with them around the globe, and efficient updates and remote management capabilities keep an organization’s IT assets ordered and secure. Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 can provide a robust, efficient, management system for your IT infrastructure. Selecting clients that not only operate within your IT framework, but that have built-in software to integrate with it seamlessly to make client management tasks even easier is an intelligent strategy for your IT department.
In our tests, we found that Dell client management tools (Dell Client Integration Pack, Dell Client Configuration Toolkit, and Dell OpenManage Client Instrumentation) integrated in a typical SCCM 2012 environment reduced the steps it took to complete client management tasks by as much as 77 percent, and included a number of features that weren’t available with clients from HP and Lenovo.
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is an all-inclusive platform, suitable for rapid deployment of a virtual environment, such as Citrix XenDesktop 7.5. The integrated components of the VRTX means your business has a centralized management console for the necessary data center components that support VDI environments. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX and XenDesktop set up, configured, and deployed VDI users easily. The addition of Dell Wyse terminals demonstrates how your end-users can access your XenDesktop VDI environment with efficient hardware and little administrative effort. The combination of Dell PowerEdge VRTX and Citrix XenDesktop 7.5 can offer a unified, efficient, and simple enterprise-value VDI solution for your business, but without the resources and commitment need for supporting an enterprise data center.
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations: High available and scalable performance ...Principled Technologies
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations consisting of Dell PowerEdge R720 servers, Dell Force10 S4810P switches, and Dell EqualLogic PS6110XV storage provide a range of configuration options so that you can select the one that is right for your business needs. Additionally, each configuration is easily scalable to accommodate for business growth.
The 3-2-1 base configuration provides a robust solution for any business needing to support up to 500 users on multiple business applications. Our tests demonstrate this solution supporting 500 users per VM for four VMs including two database VMs, one email VM, and one collaboration application VM.
If the number of users you need to support exceeds the user count the base configuration provides, adding another Dell PowerEdge R720 server to make a 4-2-1 configuration can support up to 1,000 users on multiple business applications while maintaining high availability. Our tests demonstrate this solution supporting 1,000 users per VM in the same four VMs as the 3-2-1 solution. Additionally, these configurations are so easy to scale upward that you can complete the process of adding a server in a matter of two hours or less from start to finish.
If you require support for an even higher number of users, adding a server and storage array to the base configuration, to make a 4-2-2 configuration allows for up to 1,500 users on multiple business applications. Our tests demonstrated this when we ran 1,500 users against each of the four VMs. Better yet, adding a Dell EqualLogic PS6110XV storage array to an existing 4-2-1 configuration is a cinch, taking under 30 minutes start to finish.
All of these Dell Reference Configurations give your business the reliability of highly available hardware configurations, greatly reducing downtime resulting from any hardware malfunctions.
By choosing proven Dell architecture, you avoid the hassles of putting your infrastructure together piece by piece, reducing the potential for error and providing you with a sturdy solution that is easily scalable to fit your present and future needs.
Performance per dollar comparison: Dell PowerEdge R715 vs. HP ProLiant DL380p...Principled Technologies
Servers that deliver high performance at lower costs are a smart choice for any IT department building or refreshing a data center. In our tests, we found that the AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor -powered Dell PowerEdge R715 increased performance per dollar by as much as 23.27 percent in our real-world 70 percent processor utilization scenario, and as much as 26.84 percent at maximum processor utilization.
Comparing performance and cost: Dell PowerEdge VRTX with one Dell PowerEdge M...Principled Technologies
Keeping a legacy disparate hardware solution composed of nine older servers instead of choosing the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3 family may cost more than one would expect. We found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could do the work of nine legacy servers running email, database, and file/print server workloads. The VRTX ran all nine workloads in VMs, achieving a slight performance boost on the database and file/print workloads while using much less datacenter space and reducing power consumption by 38.4 percent.
The VRTX achieved these savings using 88.6 percent less rack-equivalent space than the legacy disparate hardware solution and with one-third as many cables, to reduce complexity and reduce the burden of space in small offices.
Despite a larger initial investment, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with an Intel Xeon processor E5-4650 v3-powered Dell PowerEdge M830 server could actually lower the total cost of ownership over five years by as much as 48.5 percent, delivering a solid return on investment in less than two years.
As our test results show, investing in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 v3 family could provide a compact solution to optimize application performance and reduce complexity at a lower lifetime cost than a legacy solution composed of nine older servers.
Resource balancing comparison: VMware vSphere 6 vs. Red Hat Enterprise Virtua...Principled Technologies
Having ample resources to handle user requests is a necessity of modern virtualization solutions. Allocating and distributing those resources evenly, however, is imperative to the success of your business’s virtualized environment. In our tests, after powering on the other two servers in our three-node cluster and adding resource management features, VMware vSphere 6 improved performance by 183 percent over its baseline configuration of one active server and no resource management features. RHEV 3.5, in contrast, delivered only a 79 percent increase over its baseline. As you design your business’s infrastructure and applications, improvements such as those offered by VMware vSphere 6 DRS and Storage DRS can play a critical role by offering your users better application experiences. Optimized and modern resource management provided by VMware DRS can also help to lower your IT purchase and maintenance costs by reducing the number of servers necessary to run your applications.
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations: Scalable performance and simplicity in s...Principled Technologies
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations provide a range of virtualized infrastructure solutions to meet your business’s needs today and in the future. Easy to deploy, manage, and upgrade, these robust solutions can grow as your business does, all the while reducing the likelihood of extended downtime due to their highly available architecture.
The switching method you choose for your SBC environment can help determine performance and the experience that end-users have. We found that unifying switching with Cisco VM-FEX resulted in up to 29 percent lower latency than a solution using a traditional vSwitch when running a Citrix XenApp hosted shared desktop farm. Furthermore, the Cisco VM-FEX solution used up to 53 percent less CPU than the vSwitch solution did under extreme network conditions. In addition to these performance advantages, Cisco UCS Manager provides a central point of management and a simplified method to add vSphere hosts to the VM-FEX-enabled vSwitch, which can reduce management time and costs.
As our results show, switching to Cisco VM-FEX can provide your users with a more responsive environment.
Database performance and memory capacity with the Intel Xeon processor E5-266...Principled Technologies
The Dell PowerEdge M620 offers 24 memory slots, 50 percent more than the 16 slots offered by the HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8, which enables the Dell solution to provide greater performance while delivering memory error protection. We found that the Dell PowerEdge M620 solution, built on the new Intel Xeon processor E5-2600v2 Series, delivered 182.2 percent more database performance and 92.0 percent faster response times than the previous version Intel Xeon E5-2640 processor-based HP ProLiant BL460c Gen 8 solution, while providing 12.5 percent more available memory and error protection. The additional memory capacity of the Dell solution allowed us to engage FRM technologies and still have more overall RAM capacity compared to the 16-slot HP server. The Dell PowerEdge M620 offered maximum memory capacity and protection with Fault Resilient Memory to keep your database workloads running strong and available for your business needs.
IT admins can spend considerable time managing employee notebooks. The Dell Client Integration Pack 3.1 for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 can greatly streamline the management process and allow admins to remotely perform management tasks under a much broader range of conditions.
In our labs at Principled Technologies, we performed a series of remote management tasks on Dell Latitude 7240 notebooks managed with DCIP and on Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks managed only through SCCM. Executing these tasks on a single system with DCIP was quicker and simpler than doing so with only SCCM. The time savings was even more pronounced when we performed the scenarios on two systems because DCIP lets you apply the same changes to multiple systems without taking any additional time. For an organization with large numbers of notebook systems, the economies of scale that DCIP provides would translate to the greatest savings.
Minimizing licensing costs for enterprise applications is vital to organizations looking to keep costs down. When your applications use per-core licensing, choosing higher-performance servers with fewer cores dramatically reduces your software-related spending. The Dell PowerEdge M820 blade solution with Compellent storage could deliver up to $96,236 in savings as compared to a single HP ProLiant BL680c G7 solution, and if consolidating multiple workloads, could deliver even more savings in licensing costs when running Microsoft SQL Server in a virtualized scenario – all while maintaining or exceeding previous performance levels.
In our tests, we found that the HP Z8 tower with Intel Xeon Gold 6226R processors completed three sample media and entertainment tasks in up to 44 percent less time than the Apple Mac Pro with Intel Xeon W-3275M processor, while adding only 11 percent to the purchase price.
VMmark virtualization performance of Micron Enterprise PCIe SSD-based SANPrincipled Technologies
The storage you use for your virtualization solution can be a significant factor in its performance and effectiveness. Two Dell PowerEdge R720 servers, paired with Micron Enterprise PCIe SSD-based SAN, ran 10 VMmark tiles for a total of 80 running VMs and achieved a score of 12.05@10 tiles, making it the top score running VMware ESXi 5.5 of the 32-core server configurations. For enterprises that need excellent virtualization performance, this makes Micron Enterprise PCIe SSD-based SAN a wise investment.
Database performance comparison of VMware vCloud Air, Amazon Web Services, an...Principled Technologies
Business computing is making its way to the cloud in a dramatic fashion. Selecting the correct cloud service provider is a pivotal decision that could have a significant effect on how much your company benefits from this move.
In our database testing, we found that our VMware vCloud Air instance performed dramatically better than the Azure instance, delivering more than 12 times as many orders per minute. The vCloud Air solution also delivered 3.9 percent greater performance than the AWS solution.
Choosing a cloud service that can deliver better database performance can allow you to make the most of your investment in the cloud platform.
Fusion-io Virtualization Reference Architecture: Deploying Server and Desktop...Principled Technologies
In our testing, Fusion ioControl, Cisco UCS, and VMware technologies created a high-performance, easy-to-configure and manage solution that could handle a demanding mixed application environment consisting of common virtualized business applications and VDI. By prioritizing performance resources with ioControl QoS service levels and policies, we demonstrated that mission-critical and business-critical applications will run at optimum performance levels in a 600 virtual desktop boot storm, or an OLTP heavy-workload use case. By adding Fusion ioTurbine software and Cisco Fusion ioDrive2 into the UCS Blade Server, we further extended OLTP performance with no additional solution footprint. With the Fusion ioControl UI and ioSphere UI integration with vCenter Server, you can manage all aspects of storage, both ioControl and UCS-side Fusion ioDrive flash, from within vCenter console. Fusion ioControl Hybrid Storage and Cisco UCS is a strong solution to meet today’s demanding mixed workloads in your VMware virtualized data center.
Dell PowerEdge R720 rack server solutions for virtual desktop infrastructures Principled Technologies
Getting more value out of your servers is a smart way to reduce datacenter and VDI costs. In our tests, the Dell PowerEdge R720 server not only cost up to 5.4 percent less per user than the HP server, it also consumed 3.8 percent less power per virtual desktop user than the HP server when running workloads. When extrapolated over an entire rack of servers and with datacenters full of these racks, the potential savings both in hardware costs and in power costs could be dramatic.
MT58 High performance graphics for VDI: A technical discussionDell EMC World
Hyper-converged infrastructure appliances can enable high end virtualized graphics for all of your users. With proper planning and configuring, the VxRail and Virtual SAN Ready Nodes with Horizon and GPU technology from NVIDIA provide enhanced user experiences. Even the most demanding CAD/CAM “power users” can realize multiple benefits from a virtualized desktop experience. Wyse endpoints complete the end-to-end environment with improved security and rich, rewarding user experiences. Learn best practices, planning, configuration and deployment recommendations to avoid implementation trials and tribulations in this technical session.
Faster, easier deployment of Dell PowerEdge servers helps it and your businessPrincipled Technologies
Saving IT deployment time has a number of benefits, including reducing setup hassle and complexities, freeing up time of administrators, and reducing costs. By choosing Dell PowerEdge servers with pre-installed OEM software, specifically Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and Hyper-V, you’re saving time and effort compared to buying the server without the software. We found you could save over 3.5 hours by purchasing the server with pre-installed software. Deploying more servers can save time too, as our findings can scale up to meet IT resource needs of your business. What’s more, choosing the Dell server with pre-installed software can save you 24 percent of additional licensing costs per server.
Meet database performance needs while reducing TCO with the Dell PowerEdge VR...Principled Technologies
Cloud WAN services can seem convenient for small businesses and remote offices, but they remove local control and can be more expensive over time. In our tests, the all-in-one Dell PowerEdge VRTX provided the necessary transactional database performance while saving up to 63.9 percent in costs over five years. When you’re looking for a reliable solution to run workloads in remote offices, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX has the potential to cost less than running databases from the cloud.
Laptop drive performance comparison: Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive vs. har...Principled Technologies
Across the three laptop systems we tested, the Seagate SSHD configuration outperformed both hard drive configurations. It booted and launched applications as much as 31.8 percent more quickly and delivered general performance increases of up to 503.3 percent.
By speeding up the tasks that users perform day in and day out, the Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive can boost productivity and let you spend more of your day working and less of it waiting.
Microsoft System Center virtual environment comparison: Dell PowerEdge server...Principled Technologies
When repetitive and admin-intensive management tasks are quicker and easier to complete, that’s a win for your datacenter and IT administrators. We found that using Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration for SCVMM took 74.6 percent less time to complete four key server management use cases on a single server, compared to performing the same use cases with HP OneView for System Center. When managing many servers, data extrapolated to 100 servers from testing on a second server shows the Dell solution would take 95.8 percent fewer steps and 96.5 percent less time than the HP solution. Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager also enabled IT admins to perform all of the server management operations through a single console—and staged firmware updates without necessitating a server power-down. Easier to use and less time-intensive, the results of our testing showed that the DLCI for SCVMM and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager can be a more efficient and effective combination for your virtualized datacenter.
Dell EMC validates your virtualized Genetec video management system before it...Principled Technologies
The right digital surveillance infrastructure may put your organization in a good position to handle the security
issues of today and tomorrow. But reliability in surveillance infrastructure should be confirmed—you’re protecting your customers, employees, and inventory, among other vital elements. The Dell EMC Surveillance Validation Labs can help your organization choose tested and validated solutions that meet your needs. We worked with engineers at the labs to validate a Genetec Security Center VMS on a Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 server. The solution proved to be reliable by meeting verification requirements in two use cases, demonstrating its reliability by handling the tests with no dropped frames. This validation shows that your organization can be confident running these Genetec Security Center VMS configurations on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 servers for a dependable digital infrastructure.
Compared to aging desktops, new Dell OptiPlex desktops can allow employees to be more productive with faster and more reliable hardware while providing significantly lower power costs. Improved management technology with the new desktops can support the efforts of your IT staff and can reduce costly deskside visits. Upgrading your aging desktops with the Dell OptiPlex 9030 All-in-One or the Dell OptiPlex 9020 Micro desktops brings important improvements to your business through both hardware and software.
Resource balancing comparison: VMware vSphere 6 vs. Red Hat Enterprise Virtua...Principled Technologies
Having ample resources to handle user requests is a necessity of modern virtualization solutions. Allocating and distributing those resources evenly, however, is imperative to the success of your business’s virtualized environment. In our tests, after powering on the other two servers in our three-node cluster and adding resource management features, VMware vSphere 6 improved performance by 183 percent over its baseline configuration of one active server and no resource management features. RHEV 3.5, in contrast, delivered only a 79 percent increase over its baseline. As you design your business’s infrastructure and applications, improvements such as those offered by VMware vSphere 6 DRS and Storage DRS can play a critical role by offering your users better application experiences. Optimized and modern resource management provided by VMware DRS can also help to lower your IT purchase and maintenance costs by reducing the number of servers necessary to run your applications.
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations: Scalable performance and simplicity in s...Principled Technologies
Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations provide a range of virtualized infrastructure solutions to meet your business’s needs today and in the future. Easy to deploy, manage, and upgrade, these robust solutions can grow as your business does, all the while reducing the likelihood of extended downtime due to their highly available architecture.
The switching method you choose for your SBC environment can help determine performance and the experience that end-users have. We found that unifying switching with Cisco VM-FEX resulted in up to 29 percent lower latency than a solution using a traditional vSwitch when running a Citrix XenApp hosted shared desktop farm. Furthermore, the Cisco VM-FEX solution used up to 53 percent less CPU than the vSwitch solution did under extreme network conditions. In addition to these performance advantages, Cisco UCS Manager provides a central point of management and a simplified method to add vSphere hosts to the VM-FEX-enabled vSwitch, which can reduce management time and costs.
As our results show, switching to Cisco VM-FEX can provide your users with a more responsive environment.
Database performance and memory capacity with the Intel Xeon processor E5-266...Principled Technologies
The Dell PowerEdge M620 offers 24 memory slots, 50 percent more than the 16 slots offered by the HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8, which enables the Dell solution to provide greater performance while delivering memory error protection. We found that the Dell PowerEdge M620 solution, built on the new Intel Xeon processor E5-2600v2 Series, delivered 182.2 percent more database performance and 92.0 percent faster response times than the previous version Intel Xeon E5-2640 processor-based HP ProLiant BL460c Gen 8 solution, while providing 12.5 percent more available memory and error protection. The additional memory capacity of the Dell solution allowed us to engage FRM technologies and still have more overall RAM capacity compared to the 16-slot HP server. The Dell PowerEdge M620 offered maximum memory capacity and protection with Fault Resilient Memory to keep your database workloads running strong and available for your business needs.
IT admins can spend considerable time managing employee notebooks. The Dell Client Integration Pack 3.1 for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 can greatly streamline the management process and allow admins to remotely perform management tasks under a much broader range of conditions.
In our labs at Principled Technologies, we performed a series of remote management tasks on Dell Latitude 7240 notebooks managed with DCIP and on Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks managed only through SCCM. Executing these tasks on a single system with DCIP was quicker and simpler than doing so with only SCCM. The time savings was even more pronounced when we performed the scenarios on two systems because DCIP lets you apply the same changes to multiple systems without taking any additional time. For an organization with large numbers of notebook systems, the economies of scale that DCIP provides would translate to the greatest savings.
Minimizing licensing costs for enterprise applications is vital to organizations looking to keep costs down. When your applications use per-core licensing, choosing higher-performance servers with fewer cores dramatically reduces your software-related spending. The Dell PowerEdge M820 blade solution with Compellent storage could deliver up to $96,236 in savings as compared to a single HP ProLiant BL680c G7 solution, and if consolidating multiple workloads, could deliver even more savings in licensing costs when running Microsoft SQL Server in a virtualized scenario – all while maintaining or exceeding previous performance levels.
In our tests, we found that the HP Z8 tower with Intel Xeon Gold 6226R processors completed three sample media and entertainment tasks in up to 44 percent less time than the Apple Mac Pro with Intel Xeon W-3275M processor, while adding only 11 percent to the purchase price.
VMmark virtualization performance of Micron Enterprise PCIe SSD-based SANPrincipled Technologies
The storage you use for your virtualization solution can be a significant factor in its performance and effectiveness. Two Dell PowerEdge R720 servers, paired with Micron Enterprise PCIe SSD-based SAN, ran 10 VMmark tiles for a total of 80 running VMs and achieved a score of 12.05@10 tiles, making it the top score running VMware ESXi 5.5 of the 32-core server configurations. For enterprises that need excellent virtualization performance, this makes Micron Enterprise PCIe SSD-based SAN a wise investment.
Database performance comparison of VMware vCloud Air, Amazon Web Services, an...Principled Technologies
Business computing is making its way to the cloud in a dramatic fashion. Selecting the correct cloud service provider is a pivotal decision that could have a significant effect on how much your company benefits from this move.
In our database testing, we found that our VMware vCloud Air instance performed dramatically better than the Azure instance, delivering more than 12 times as many orders per minute. The vCloud Air solution also delivered 3.9 percent greater performance than the AWS solution.
Choosing a cloud service that can deliver better database performance can allow you to make the most of your investment in the cloud platform.
Fusion-io Virtualization Reference Architecture: Deploying Server and Desktop...Principled Technologies
In our testing, Fusion ioControl, Cisco UCS, and VMware technologies created a high-performance, easy-to-configure and manage solution that could handle a demanding mixed application environment consisting of common virtualized business applications and VDI. By prioritizing performance resources with ioControl QoS service levels and policies, we demonstrated that mission-critical and business-critical applications will run at optimum performance levels in a 600 virtual desktop boot storm, or an OLTP heavy-workload use case. By adding Fusion ioTurbine software and Cisco Fusion ioDrive2 into the UCS Blade Server, we further extended OLTP performance with no additional solution footprint. With the Fusion ioControl UI and ioSphere UI integration with vCenter Server, you can manage all aspects of storage, both ioControl and UCS-side Fusion ioDrive flash, from within vCenter console. Fusion ioControl Hybrid Storage and Cisco UCS is a strong solution to meet today’s demanding mixed workloads in your VMware virtualized data center.
Dell PowerEdge R720 rack server solutions for virtual desktop infrastructures Principled Technologies
Getting more value out of your servers is a smart way to reduce datacenter and VDI costs. In our tests, the Dell PowerEdge R720 server not only cost up to 5.4 percent less per user than the HP server, it also consumed 3.8 percent less power per virtual desktop user than the HP server when running workloads. When extrapolated over an entire rack of servers and with datacenters full of these racks, the potential savings both in hardware costs and in power costs could be dramatic.
MT58 High performance graphics for VDI: A technical discussionDell EMC World
Hyper-converged infrastructure appliances can enable high end virtualized graphics for all of your users. With proper planning and configuring, the VxRail and Virtual SAN Ready Nodes with Horizon and GPU technology from NVIDIA provide enhanced user experiences. Even the most demanding CAD/CAM “power users” can realize multiple benefits from a virtualized desktop experience. Wyse endpoints complete the end-to-end environment with improved security and rich, rewarding user experiences. Learn best practices, planning, configuration and deployment recommendations to avoid implementation trials and tribulations in this technical session.
Faster, easier deployment of Dell PowerEdge servers helps it and your businessPrincipled Technologies
Saving IT deployment time has a number of benefits, including reducing setup hassle and complexities, freeing up time of administrators, and reducing costs. By choosing Dell PowerEdge servers with pre-installed OEM software, specifically Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and Hyper-V, you’re saving time and effort compared to buying the server without the software. We found you could save over 3.5 hours by purchasing the server with pre-installed software. Deploying more servers can save time too, as our findings can scale up to meet IT resource needs of your business. What’s more, choosing the Dell server with pre-installed software can save you 24 percent of additional licensing costs per server.
Meet database performance needs while reducing TCO with the Dell PowerEdge VR...Principled Technologies
Cloud WAN services can seem convenient for small businesses and remote offices, but they remove local control and can be more expensive over time. In our tests, the all-in-one Dell PowerEdge VRTX provided the necessary transactional database performance while saving up to 63.9 percent in costs over five years. When you’re looking for a reliable solution to run workloads in remote offices, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX has the potential to cost less than running databases from the cloud.
Laptop drive performance comparison: Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive vs. har...Principled Technologies
Across the three laptop systems we tested, the Seagate SSHD configuration outperformed both hard drive configurations. It booted and launched applications as much as 31.8 percent more quickly and delivered general performance increases of up to 503.3 percent.
By speeding up the tasks that users perform day in and day out, the Seagate Solid State Hybrid Drive can boost productivity and let you spend more of your day working and less of it waiting.
Microsoft System Center virtual environment comparison: Dell PowerEdge server...Principled Technologies
When repetitive and admin-intensive management tasks are quicker and easier to complete, that’s a win for your datacenter and IT administrators. We found that using Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration for SCVMM took 74.6 percent less time to complete four key server management use cases on a single server, compared to performing the same use cases with HP OneView for System Center. When managing many servers, data extrapolated to 100 servers from testing on a second server shows the Dell solution would take 95.8 percent fewer steps and 96.5 percent less time than the HP solution. Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager also enabled IT admins to perform all of the server management operations through a single console—and staged firmware updates without necessitating a server power-down. Easier to use and less time-intensive, the results of our testing showed that the DLCI for SCVMM and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager can be a more efficient and effective combination for your virtualized datacenter.
Dell EMC validates your virtualized Genetec video management system before it...Principled Technologies
The right digital surveillance infrastructure may put your organization in a good position to handle the security
issues of today and tomorrow. But reliability in surveillance infrastructure should be confirmed—you’re protecting your customers, employees, and inventory, among other vital elements. The Dell EMC Surveillance Validation Labs can help your organization choose tested and validated solutions that meet your needs. We worked with engineers at the labs to validate a Genetec Security Center VMS on a Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 server. The solution proved to be reliable by meeting verification requirements in two use cases, demonstrating its reliability by handling the tests with no dropped frames. This validation shows that your organization can be confident running these Genetec Security Center VMS configurations on Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 servers for a dependable digital infrastructure.
Compared to aging desktops, new Dell OptiPlex desktops can allow employees to be more productive with faster and more reliable hardware while providing significantly lower power costs. Improved management technology with the new desktops can support the efforts of your IT staff and can reduce costly deskside visits. Upgrading your aging desktops with the Dell OptiPlex 9030 All-in-One or the Dell OptiPlex 9020 Micro desktops brings important improvements to your business through both hardware and software.
I/O performance comparison of VMware vCloud Hybrid Service and Amazon Web Ser...Principled Technologies
Business computing is making its way to the cloud in a dramatic fashion. Selecting the right cloud service provider is a pivotal decision that could have a significant effect on how much your company benefits from this move.
Throughout our I/O tests, we found that VMware vCloud Hybrid Service instances performed dramatically better than the AWS instances, earning consistently higher Fio scores. On a 4K random workload, vCHS delivered performance that averaged 7 times that of the AWS solution, and on a 1M sequential workload, it delivered on average 9 times times the performance of AWS. Across all scenarios, vCHS delivered at least 3 times greater performance than AWS.
By choosing a cloud service that can deliver greater throughput, you can boost the performance of your disk-intensive applications, which can help you make the most of your investment in the cloud platform.
VDI performance and price comparison: AMD-based Open Compute 3.0 server vs. H...Principled Technologies
Any organization using virtual desktop infrastructure can benefit by investing in servers that deliver high performance at a reasonable price. In our test, the AMD-based Open Compute 3.0 server hosted a few more virtual desktop sessions that the HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 server did, while costing less than half as much.
When considering whether to upgrade to the new Dell PowerEdge VRTX or repurpose older hardware, the advantages of new hardware are clear. Not only do you get newer hardware that is faster and is better-equipped to handle the increasing demands of today’s business applications and workloads, but you also benefit from advances that make deployment and management easier than ever.
In our labs, we compared the Dell PowerEdge VRTX with four server nodes and shared storage and networking to a similar infrastructure using four legacy tower servers, external network switches, and an external SAN. Our testing revealed the following:
· PowerEdge VRTX took 78.5 percent less time and 150 fewer steps to configure and deploy out of the box compared to the legacy solution.
· PowerEdge VRTX It took less than 1 hour to unbox and configure into a highly available VMware vSphere cluster compared to over 4 hours on the legacy solution.
· Deploying the Dell PowerEdge VRTX used just a single management tool, the integrated Chassis Management Controller, whereas the tower solution required six separate management tools.
Choosing such a complete solution during your next server refresh can simplify infrastructure setup and configuration, boost performance through built-in high availability features, and potentially save your organization space and operating costs over the life of the hardware.
A Dell PowerEdge MX environment using OpenManage Enterprise and OpenManage En...Principled Technologies
Compared to a Cisco UCS-X environment using Intersight, the Dell environment streamlined making changes to VLANs and helped avoid interventions during scheduled firmware updates
Conclusion
We executed two management scenarios in a Dell PowerEdge MX environment with Dell OpenManage Enterprise and OpenManage Enterprise Modular and a Cisco UCS X-Series chassis environment with Cisco Intersight. We learned that the Dell solution’s single-part profile modification for performing VLAN updates was quicker and simpler than the Cisco solution’s two-part profile deployment, requiring 40 percent less time and two-thirds as many steps. We also compared the firmware updating process on the solutions. Being able to schedule these updates to occur automatically from the online Dell repository offered an advantage over having to manually execute the same tasks from the Cisco Intersight repositories. Namely, administrators do not need to take action during maintenance windows but can instead schedule them ahead of time. Saving time on routine tasks frees administrators to pursue innovation, and being able to avoid middle-of-the-night duties helps companies provide a better work experience for admins. Together, these advantages help make Dell PowerEdge MX servers a good candidate for companies considering upgrading the older Cisco UCS servers in their data centers.
Setting up a failover cluster on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a straightforward process. In very little time, you can deploy Dell PowerEdge VRTX with up to four M-series servers, switches, and storage in a redundant configuration using Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. By setting up a failover cluster on your compact Dell PowerEdge VRTX, you can maximize server uptime to keep your business moving.
Implementing and managing large and distributed enterprise solutions presents unique administrative challenges. Anything that can streamline the process to minimize error and save administrator time and effort can have a strong, positive effect on your company’s bottom line. We found that the Dell Chassis Management Controller made deploying Dell PowerEdge M620 blades in a Dell PowerEdge M1000e chassis much quicker and easier by allowing you to import existing server profiles in just a few clicks. In our test case to configure for a common mission critical application, Citrix XenDesktop, manually deploying a full 16-blade chassis required 800 steps; but only 59 steps with Dell Chassis Management Controller, transforming a multi-hour task to one that took just minutes. Certain demanding applications can require even greater hardware configuration — these would benefit even more from the “all settings” profile capture and replication features of the Dell Chassis Management Controller.
The ability to pre-provision empty slots and export profiles for redeployment on other chassis further increases the value of the Dell Chassis Management Controller in bigger environments by largely eliminating tedious, redundant tasks and decreasing the opportunities for human error, while freeing administrators to perform other mission-critical or innovative activities. Choosing a solution that automates much of the deployment process is an asset to managing your infrastructure and your business.
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.
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.
Simplifying systems management with Dell OpenManage on 13G Dell PowerEdge ser...Principled Technologies
Automated systems management and additional connectivity solutions can reduce the number of administrators you need to run your datacenter or simply free up administrators to innovate rather than tying them up with routine management tasks. We found that the Dell OpenManage suite provides several new features for 13G Dell PowerEdge server solutions to streamline management tasks in both time and steps. Other new features let us easily connect to iDRAC right from the server. Updating firmware with Dell OpenManage features was also easier—eliminating 213 steps for updating a single server compared to updating manually.
The latest versions of the Dell OpenManage suite of system management tools and the power of iDRAC 8 contained within Dell 13G servers gives administrators increased flexibility and powerful new options for managing their data centers that translate to demonstrable savings in time and administrative effort. These automated enhancements and new technologies enable administrators to manage increasingly larger workloads while reducing the amount of hands-on work required for each system, bringing real value to systems management and datacenter operations.
Dell OpenManage Enterprise Integration for VMware vCenter 1.0 streamlined firmware updates vs. completing the task manually
If you are using VMware-based Dell PowerEdge servers, the OpenManage Enterprise Integration for VMware vCenter can help you complete firmware updates faster and more easily than using manual
processes with iDRAC. This integrated, cluster-aware automation also allowed us to scale out the node count from four to eight clusters without adding time and effort to the task.
VMmark 2.5.2 virtualization performance of the Dell Storage SC4020 arrayPrincipled Technologies
The Dell Storage SC4020 array, paired with a cluster of Dell PowerEdge M620 servers, ran 30 VMmark tiles totaling 240 running VMs, and achieved a score of 31.35@30 tiles. This performance, along with its value and ease of management, make the Dell Storage SC4020 array an excellent investment.
Configuring a highly available Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 environment on ...Principled Technologies
Setting up a highly available Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 environment on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a straightforward process. In very little time, you can deploy Dell PowerEdge VRTX with up to four M-series nodes, switches, and storage in a redundant configuration using Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, and setup your Exchange Server infrastructure. By setting up a highly available Exchange Server 2013 environment on your compact PowerEdge VRTX, you can ensure your Exchange workloads stay running to keep your business moving.
Reduce complexity and save money with Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EV...Principled Technologies
Companies like ManuCorp have seemingly contradictory goals for their virtualized infrastructure: They want a solution that eases the deployment and management burden for generalized IT staff while simultaneously saving money over the long term. According to our analysis, ManuCorp would do well to choose Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL, saving up to 63.9 percent in costs over three years compared to a solution with Cisco UCS blades and NetApp storage.
Less experienced administrators like ManuCorp already has in house would be able to plug in the Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL and use its single, easy-to-use interface to deploy end-to-end virtual infrastructure and complete updates without any additional training or instruction. The Cisco UCS and NetApp solution required extra tools and a wider skillset, which can mean adding a more experienced person and inviting the chance for human error. In addition, the hyper-converged Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO:RAIL appliance reduced power consumption compared to the do-it-yourself environment with Cisco UCS blades and NetApp, which can contribute to big operating cost savings.
The Dell EMC PowerEdge MX solution required 89.4 percent less admin time to deploy multiple server nodes and 15 fewer steps to update firmware on multiple systems
Dell Open Server Manager built on OpenBMC for security, lifecycle management,...Principled Technologies
A Principled Technologies research report based on publicly available information
Conclusion
With OpenBMC, it is possible to deploy BMC software that can work across a variety of vendors. Admins can create or purchase tools that use IPMI, Redfish, or SSH to perform industry-standard operations on hundreds or thousands of servers at once.
Dell Open Server Manager adds critical features to the OpenBMC firmware stack. The software providesthe safety of silicon-based root of trust, Dell lifecycle updates for easy firmware and BIOS management, and SupportAssist log bundles for expert Dell support.
Dell offers several Intel Xeon processor-powered server platforms with Open Server Manager capability, with a variety of configuration options to fit the needs of CSPs at any scale. The Dell PowerEdge HS5620 andPowerEdge HS5610 cloud scale servers build on the Dell and Intel commitment to working with other vendors to foster open standards.
Open Server Manager is a strong step towards allowing CSPs to manage hyperscale environments with products from many different vendors, especially as the adoption of OpenBMC and other open standards increases.
VMmark 2.5.2 virtualization performance of the Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS stora...Principled Technologies
Virtualization is a critical part of data center computing. For your virtualization solution to succeed, it is essential that you have a storage platform capable of delivering the performance and capacity needed for a virtualized environment in a cost effective way. The Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS array, paired with a cluster of Dell PowerEdge M620 servers, ran 12 VMmark tiles for a total of 96 running VMs, and achieved a score of 14.80@12. This performance, along with its value and ease of management, make the Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS array an excellent investment.
Systems management savings with Dell OpenManage on 13G Dell PowerEdge servers Principled Technologies
Administrators can spend their time doing routine tasks such as firmware updates, or they can spend their time on other initiatives to make your data center and your business more successful. Older servers keep admins focused on routine tasks instead of innovation because they just don’t have the capabilities to streamline management in a meaningful way to lessen the burden of routine management tasks.
In our hands-on tests, we found that Dell PowerEdge R730 servers with Dell OpenManage dramatically reduced the time it took to deploy, update, monitor, and maintain servers compared to completing the tasks manually on older systems. We estimate that you could save as much as 91.3 percent of administrator time—nearly 800 hours—over two years for a 200-server deployment.
Don’t let your older servers continue to be a time sink for administrators. By upgrading to new Dell PowerEdge R730 servers with new systems management features to handle routine tasks, you can potentially redirect those resources to innovation in other areas.
With new automation tools, tying up your administrator’s time with repetitive processes can become a thing of the past. Our tests showed how Dell ASM, with the ability to build deployment templates, can save significant administrator time and steps compared to a solution that lacks these features. In an age where business IT demands grow rapidly, providing administrators with the right tools to manage their virtualized infrastructure is critical for keeping your datacenter running efficiently.
Dell PowerEdge R920 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.
Save IT admin time with the Dell EMC PowerEdge MX platform and OpenManage En...Principled Technologies
The Dell EMC PowerEdge MX solution required 86.8 percent less admin time to implement VMware vSAN and 19 fewer steps to update firmware on a single system versus a Cisco UCS solution
Similar to Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX (20)
Investing in GenAI: Cost‑benefit analysis of Dell on‑premises deployments vs....Principled Technologies
Conclusion
Diving into the world of GenAI has the potential to yield a great many benefits for your organization, but it first requires consideration for how best to implement those GenAI workloads. Whether your AI goals are to create a chatbot for online visitors, generate marketing materials, aid troubleshooting, or something else, implementing an AI solution requires careful planning and decision-making. A major decision is whether to host GenAI in the cloud or keep your data on premises. Traditional on-premises solutions can provide superior security and control, a substantial concern when dealing with large amounts of potentially sensitive data. But will supporting a GenAI solution on site be a drain on an organization’s IT budget?
In our research, we found that the value proposition is just the opposite: Hosting GenAI workloads on premises, either in a traditional Dell solution or using a managed Dell APEX pay-per-use solution, could significantly lower your GenAI costs over 3 years compared to hosting these workloads in the cloud. In fact, we found that a comparable AWS SageMaker solution would cost up to 3.8 times as much and an Azure ML solution would cost up to 3.6 times as much as GenAI on a Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. These results show that organizations looking to implement GenAI and reap the business benefits to come can find many advantages in an on-premises Dell solution, whether they opt to purchase and manage it themselves or choose a subscription-based Dell APEX pay-per-use solution. Choosing an on-premises Dell solution could save your organization significantly over hosting GenAI in the cloud, while giving you control over the security and privacy of your data as well as any updates and changes to the environment, and while ensuring your environment is managed consistently.
Workstations powered by Intel can play a vital role in CPU-intensive AI devel...Principled Technologies
In three AI development workflows, Intel processor-powered workstations delivered strong performance, without using their GPUs, making them a good choice for this part of the AI process
Conclusion
We executed three AI development workflows on tower workstations and mobile workstations from three vendors, with each workflow utilizing only the Intel CPU cores, and found that these platforms were suitable for carrying out various AI tasks. For two of the workflows, we learned that completing the tasks on the tower workstations took roughly half as much time as on the mobile workstations. This supports the idea that the tower workstations would be appropriate for a development environment for more complex models with a greater volume of data and that the mobile workstations would be well-suited for data scientists fine-tuning simpler models. In the third workflow, we explored tower workstation performance with different precision levels and learned that using 16-bit floating point precision allowed the workstations to execute the workflow in less time and also reduced memory usage dramatically. For all three AI workflows we executed, we consider the time the workstations needed to complete the tasks to be acceptable, and believe that these workstations can be appropriate, cost-effective choices for these kinds of activities.
Enable security features with no impact to OLTP performance with Dell PowerEd...Principled Technologies
Get comparable online transaction processing (OLTP) performance with or without enabling AMD Secure Memory Encryption and AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization - Encrypted State
Conclusion
You’ve likely already implemented many security measures for your servers, which may include physical security for the data center, hardware-level security, and software-level security. With the cost of data breaches high and still growing, however, wise IT teams will consider what additional security measures they may be able to implement.
AMD SME and SEV-ES are technologies that are already available within your AMD processor-powered 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers—and in our testing, we saw that they can offer extra layers of security without affecting performance. We compared the online transaction processing performance of a Dell PowerEdge R7625 server, powered by AMD EPYC 9274F processors, with and without these two security features enabled. We found that enabling AMD Secure Memory Encryption and Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Encrypted State did not impact performance at all.
If your team is assessing areas where you might be able to enhance security—without paying a large performance cost—consider enabling AME SME and AMD SEV-ES in your Dell PowerEdge servers.
Improving energy efficiency in the data center: Endure higher temperatures wi...Principled Technologies
In high-temperature test scenarios, a Dell PowerEdge HS5620 server continued running an intensive workload without component warnings or failures, while a Supermicro SYS‑621C-TN12R server failed
Conclusion: Remain resilient in high temperatures with the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 to help increase efficiency
Increasing your data center’s temperature can help your organization make strides in energy efficiency and cooling cost savings. With servers that can hold up to these higher everyday temperatures—as well as high temperatures due to unforeseen circumstances—your business can continue to deliver the performance your apps and clients require.
When we ran an intensive floating-point workload on a Dell PowerEdge HS5620 and a Supermicro SYS-621CTN12R in three scenario types simulating typical operations at 25°C, a fan failure, and an HVAC malfunction, the Dell server experienced no component warnings or failures. In contrast, the Supermicro server experienced warnings in all three scenario types and experienced component failures in the latter two tests, rendering the system unusable. When we inspected and analyzed each system, we found that the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 server’s motherboard layout, fans, and chassis offered cooling design advantages.
For businesses aiming to meet sustainability goals by running hotter data centers, as well as those concerned with server cooling design, the Dell PowerEdge HS5620 is a strong contender to take on higher temperatures during day-to-day operations and unexpected malfunctions.
Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift: An easily deployable and powe...Principled Technologies
The 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor‑powered solution deployed in less than two hours and ran a Kubernetes container-based generative AI workload effectively
Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift: An easily deployable and powe...Principled Technologies
The 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor‑powered solution deployed in less than two hours and ran a generative AI workload effectively
Conclusion
The appeal of incorporating GenAI into your organization’s operations is likely great. Getting started with an efficient solution for your next LLM workload or application can seem daunting because of the changing hardware and software landscape, but Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift powered by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors could provide the solution you need. We started with a Dell Validated Design as a reference, and then went on to modify the deployment as necessary for our Llama 2 workload. The Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Red Hat OpenShift solution worked well for our LLM, and by using this deployment guide in conjunction with numerous Dell documents and some flexibility, you could be well on your way to innovating your next GenAI breakthrough.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
For organizations running clusters of moderately configured, older Dell PowerEdge servers with a previous version of VCF, upgrading to better-configured modern servers can provide a significant performance boost and more.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5
If your company is struggling with underperforming infrastructure, upgrading to 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers running VCF 5.1 could be just what you need to handle more database throughput and reduce vSAN latencies. As an additional benefit to IT admins, we also found that the embedded VMware Aria Operation adapter provided useful infrastructure insights.
Realize 2.1X the performance with 20% less power with AMD EPYC processor-back...Principled Technologies
Three AMD EPYC processor-based two-processor solutions outshined comparable Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based solutions by handling more Redis workload transactions and requests while consuming less power
Conclusion
Performance and energy efficiency are significant factors in processor selection for servers running data-intensive workloads, such as Redis. We compared the Redis performance and energy consumption of a server cluster in three AMD EPYC two-processor configurations against that of a server cluster in two Intel Xeon Scalable two-processor configurations. In each of our three test scenarios, the server cluster backed by AMD EPYC processors outperformed the server cluster backed by Intel Xeon Scalable processors. In addition, one of the AMD EPYC processor-based clusters consumed 20 percent less power than its Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based counterpart. Combining these measurements gave us power efficiency metrics that demonstrate how valuable AMD EPYC processor-based servers could be—you could see better performance per watt with these AMD EPYC processor-based server clusters and potentially get more from your Redis or other data intensive applications and workloads while reducing data center power costs.
Improve performance and gain room to grow by easily migrating to a modern Ope...Principled Technologies
We deployed this modern environment, then migrated database VMs from legacy servers and saw performance improvements that support consolidation
Conclusion
If your organization’s transactional databases are running on gear that is several years old, you have much to gain by upgrading to modern servers with new processors and networking components and an OpenShift environment. In our testing, a modern OpenShift environment with a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7615 servers with 4th Generation AMD EPYC processors and high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs outperformed a legacy environment with MySQL VMs running on a cluster of three Dell PowerEdge R7515 servers with 3rd Generation AMD EPYC processors and 25Gb Broadcom NICs. We also easily migrated a VM from the legacy environment to the modern environment, with only a few steps required to set up and less than ten minutes of hands-on time. The performance advantage of the modern servers would allow a company to reduce the number of servers necessary to perform a given amount of database work, thus lowering operational expenditures such as power and cooling and IT staff time for maintenance. The high-speed 100Gb Broadcom NICs in this solution also give companies better network performance and networking capacity to grow as they embrace emerging technologies such as AI that put great demands on networks.
Boost PC performance: How more available memory can improve productivityPrincipled Technologies
With more memory available, system performance of three Dell devices increased, which can translate to a better user experience
Conclusion
When your system has plenty of RAM to meet your needs, you can efficiently access the applications and data you need to finish projects and to-do lists without sacrificing time and focus. Our test results show that with more memory available, three Dell PCs delivered better performance and took less time to complete the Procyon Office Productivity benchmark. These advantages translate to users being able to complete workflows more quickly and multitask more easily. Whether you need the mobility of the Latitude 5440, the creative capabilities of the Precision 3470, or the high performance of the OptiPlex Tower Plus 7010, configuring your system with more RAM can help keep processes running smoothly, enabling you to do more without compromising performance.
Upgrade your cloud infrastructure with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers and VMware...Principled Technologies
Compared to a cluster of PowerEdge R750 servers running VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5
Conclusion
If your company is struggling with underperforming infrastructure, upgrading to 16th Generation Dell PowerEdge servers running VCF 5.1 could be just what you need to handle more database throughput and reduce vSAN latencies. We found that a Dell PowerEdge R760 server cluster running VCF 5.1 processed over 78 percent more TPM and 79 percent more NOPM than a Dell PowerEdge R750 server cluster running VCF 4.5. It’s also worth noting that the PowerEdge R750 cluster bottlenecked on vSAN storage, with max write latency at 8.9ms. For reference, the PowerEdge R760 cluster clocked in at 3.8ms max write latency. This higher latency is due in part to the single disk group per host on the moderately configured PowerEdge R750 cluster, while the better-configured PowerEdge R760 cluster supported four disk groups per host. As an additional benefit to IT admins, we also found that the embedded VMware Aria Operation adapter provided useful infrastructure insights.
Based on our research using publicly available materials, it appears that Dell supports nine of the ten PC security features we investigated, HP supports six of them, and Lenovo supports three features.
Increase security, sustainability, and efficiency with robust Dell server man...Principled Technologies
Compared to the Supermicro management portfolio
Conclusion
Choosing a vendor for server purchases is about more than just the hardware platform. Decision-makers must also consider more long-term concerns, including system/data security, energy efficiency, and ease of management. These concerns make the systems management tools a vendor offers as important as the hardware.
We investigated the features and capabilities of server management tools from Dell and Supermicro, comparing Dell iDRAC9 against Supermicro IPMI for embedded server management and Dell OpenManage Enterprise and CloudIQ against Supermicro Server Manager for one-to-many device and console management and monitoring. We found that the Dell management tools provided more comprehensive security, sustainability, and management/monitoring features and capabilities than Supermicro servers did. In addition, Dell tools automated more tasks to ease server management, resulting in significant time savings for administrators versus having to do the same tasks manually with Supermicro tools.
When making a server purchase, a vendor’s associated management products are critical to protect data, support a more sustainable environment, and to ease the maintenance of systems. Our tests and research showed that the Dell management portfolio for PowerEdge servers offered more features to help organizations meet these goals than the comparable Supermicro management products.
Increase security, sustainability, and efficiency with robust Dell server man...Principled Technologies
Compared to the Supermicro management portfolio
Conclusion
Choosing a vendor for server purchases is about more than just the hardware platform. Decision-makers must also consider more long-term concerns, including system/data security, energy efficiency, and ease of management. These concerns make the systems management tools a vendor offers as important as the hardware.
We investigated the features and capabilities of server management tools from Dell and Supermicro, comparing Dell iDRAC9 against Supermicro IPMI for embedded server management and Dell OpenManage Enterprise and CloudIQ against Supermicro Server Manager for one-to-many device and console management and monitoring. We found that the Dell management tools provided more comprehensive security, sustainability, and management/monitoring features and capabilities than Supermicro servers did. In addition, Dell tools automated more tasks to ease server management, resulting in significant time savings for administrators versus having to do the same tasks manually with Supermicro tools.
When making a server purchase, a vendor’s associated management products are critical to protect data, support a more sustainable environment, and to ease the maintenance of systems. Our tests and research showed that the Dell management portfolio for PowerEdge servers offered more features to help organizations meet these goals than the comparable Supermicro management products.
Scale up your storage with higher-performing Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS ...Principled Technologies
In our tests, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS outperformed similarly configured solutions from Vendor A, achieving more IOPS, better throughput, and more consistent performance on both NVMe-supported configurations and configurations backed by Elastic Block Store (EBS) alone.
Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS supports a full NVMe backed configuration, but Vendor A doesn’t—its solution uses EBS for storage capacity and NVMe as an extended read cache—which means APEX Block Storage for AWS can deliver faster storage performance.
Scale up your storage with higher-performing Dell APEX Block Storage for AWSPrincipled Technologies
Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered stronger and more consistent storage performance for better business agility than a Vendor A solution
Conclusion
Enterprises desiring the flexibility and convenience of the cloud for their block storage workloads can find fast-performing solutions with the enterprise storage features they’re used to in on-premises infrastructure by selecting Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS.
Our hands-on tests showed that compared to the Vendor A solution, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered stronger, more consistent storage performance in both NVMe-supported and EBS-backed configurations. Using NVMe-supported configurations, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS achieved 4.7x the random read IOPS and 5.1x the throughput on sequential read operations per node vs. Vendor A. In our EBS-backed comparison, Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS offered 2.2x the throughput per node on sequential read operations vs. Vendor A.
Plus, the ability to scale beyond three nodes—up to 512 storage nodes with capacity of up to 8 PBs—enables Dell APEX Block Storage for AWS to help ensure performance and capacity as your team plans for the future.
Get in and stay in the productivity zone with the HP Z2 G9 Tower WorkstationPrincipled Technologies
We compared CPU performance and noise output of an HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation in High Performance Mode to Dell Precision 3660 and 5860 tower workstations in optimized performance modes
Conclusion
HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation users can change the BIOS settings to dial in the performance mode that best suits their needs: High Performance Mode, Performance Mode, or Quiet Mode. In good
news for both creative and technical professionals, we found that an Intel Core i9-13900 processor-powered HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation set to High Performance mode received higher CPU-based benchmark scores than both a similarly configured Dell Precision 3660 and a Dell Precision 5860 equipped with an Intel Xeon w5-2455x processor. Plus, the HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation was quieter while running CPU-intensive Cinebench 2024 and SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 workloads than both Dell Precision tower workstations. This means HP Z2 G9 Tower Workstation users who prize performance over everything else can do so without sacrificing a quiet workspace.
Open up new possibilities with higher transactional database performance from...Principled Technologies
In our PostgreSQL tests, R7i instances boosted performance over R6i instances with previous-gen processors
If you use the open-source PostgreSQL database to run your critical business operations, you have many cloud options from which to choose. While many of these instances can do the job, some can deliver stronger performance, which can mean getting a greater return on your cloud investment.
We conducted hands-on testing with the HammerDB TPROC-C benchmark to see how the PostgreSQL performance of Amazon EC2 R7i instances, enabled by 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, stacked up to that of R6i instances with previous-generation processors. We learned that small, medium-sized, and large R7i instances with the newer processors delivered better OLTP performance, with improvements as high as 13.8 percent. By choosing the R7i instances, your organization has the potential to support more users, deliver a better experience to those users, and even lower your cloud operating expenditures by requiring fewer instances to get the job done.
Improving database performance and value with an easy migration to Azure Data...Principled Technologies
Migrating from Azure Database for MySQL – Single Server to a Flexible Server solution was quick and provided performance and cost benefits
Don’t put off migrating your databases from Azure Database for MySQL – Single Server until the last minute—which is September 2024, when the service will end. Our hands-on testing shows that moving to Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server is a simple process that can actually improve your overall database performance and offer better value. With as much as 117 percent better OLTP performance on sysbench and up to 266 percent better performance per dollar, migrating your database to Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server with AMD EPYC processors can help you serve more database users and potentially improve your operating budget compared to the expiring Single Server option.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Let's dive deeper into the world of ODC! Ricardo Alves (OutSystems) will join us to tell all about the new Data Fabric. After that, Sezen de Bruijn (OutSystems) will get into the details on how to best design a sturdy architecture within ODC.
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Search and Society: Reimagining Information Access for Radical FuturesBhaskar Mitra
The field of Information retrieval (IR) is currently undergoing a transformative shift, at least partly due to the emerging applications of generative AI to information access. In this talk, we will deliberate on the sociotechnical implications of generative AI for information access. We will argue that there is both a critical necessity and an exciting opportunity for the IR community to re-center our research agendas on societal needs while dismantling the artificial separation between the work on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in IR and the rest of IR research. Instead of adopting a reactionary strategy of trying to mitigate potential social harms from emerging technologies, the community should aim to proactively set the research agenda for the kinds of systems we should build inspired by diverse explicitly stated sociotechnical imaginaries. The sociotechnical imaginaries that underpin the design and development of information access technologies needs to be explicitly articulated, and we need to develop theories of change in context of these diverse perspectives. Our guiding future imaginaries must be informed by other academic fields, such as democratic theory and critical theory, and should be co-developed with social science scholars, legal scholars, civil rights and social justice activists, and artists, among others.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...
Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
1. EFFICIENT AND VERSATILE HARDWARE MANAGEMENT
WITH DELL POWEREDGE VRTX
FEBRUARY 2014
A PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES TEST REPORT
Commissioned by Dell Inc.
Businesses with remote offices or branch offices (ROBOs) can benefit from the
automation and streamlining of management tasks with the products they integrate
into their environment. With simplicity, efficiency, and versatility in mind, Dell designed
the new PowerEdge VRTX, powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 v2 product
family and running Microsoft® Windows® Server 2012 R2, so that administrators can
maximize their ability to provide these automation and streamlining benefits to remote
offices in a straightforward manner using established methods and toolsets.
In this report, we focus on the efficiency and versatility of the Dell PowerEdge
VRTX by looking specifically at automation, deployment, monitoring, and management
features. In the Principled Technologies labs, we found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX
offers IT administrators simplified cluster setup with the Dell OpenManage® Cluster
Configurator, versatile hardware resource reassignment through shared PCIe slots, and
efficient centralized management through Dell management tools. Additionally, we
found that the Dell System Update Utility works seamlessly with Microsoft Cluster-
Aware Updating to update your server nodes while keeping the failover cluster online
and minimizing downtime.
*For performance and consolidation highlights, see the companion report, “Save space, increase efficiency, and boost
performance in your remote office with Dell PowerEdge VRTX,” at
www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/VRTX_performance_0314.pdf.
2. A Principled Technologies test report 2Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
ENHANCED MANAGEMENT TOOLS WITH DELL POWEREDGE VRTX
When administrators must manually deploy a clustered solution to remote
offices, and maintain that solution over time, the processes can become time-
consuming, error-prone, and costly. The Dell PowerEdge VRTX addresses administrators’
needs for efficiency by offering options that automate some of these management
processes, and provides flexibility through its highly available infrastructure.
In the sections below, we show how the Dell PowerEdge VRTX offers automated
approaches to complete the following management tasks:
Deployment
o Deploying and configuring a Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Failover
Cluster using Dell OpenManage Cluster Configurator
Maintenance
o Performing activities typical of situations requiring replacement servers
or server maintenance, which include the following:
Using the system board replacement feature
Reassigning high-performance PCIe SSDs between server nodes
through a common PCIe bus
Migrating critical VMs across server nodes with no downtime
through live migration and storage migration
Performing updates that are cluster-aware through the Dell
Server Update Utility
Centralizing and automating management through Dell Chassis
Management Controller (CMC) or scripting
As a part of the functional demonstration of the PCIe device reassignment, we
ran a light to moderate database workload to exercise the solution during the
management tasks, as this would be typical in an actual environment.
SIMPLIFIED DEPLOYMENT WITH DELL OPENMANAGE CLUSTER
CONFIGURATOR
When configuring multiple servers manually, an IT administrator has to
configure each server node with the same settings. This can be a repetitive, detail-
oriented chore in which it is easy to overlook a setting. Failover clustering, which
requires additional tuning and configuration so that all server nodes, networking
components, and any shared storage is configured correctly and complies with the
clustering requirement checks, further complicates this manual configuration process.
The Dell OpenManage Cluster Configurator is a tool that facilitates deploying a
Microsoft Failover Cluster using the PowerEdge VRTX straight out of the box. The
software comes pre-installed on each server node and is ready to implement into your
3. A Principled Technologies test report 3Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
existing infrastructure once the system powers on. Rather than manually configuring
each server node individually with the Windows Failover Cluster prerequisites, the
OpenManage Cluster Configurator communicates with all four server nodes inside the
Dell PowerEdge VRTX and lets you complete the work through a simple wizard,
accessible through a single server node. You need only to enter the requested
information one time; in a few steps, the Dell tool automates most of the Microsoft
Windows Server Failover Cluster deployment process, including Hyper-V® and Cluster
Shared Volumes (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: The Cluster Validation and Setup Wizard within OpenManage Cluster Configurator for Windows Server
2012 R2 v2.0.
In our tests, we found the Dell OpenManage Cluster Configurator allowed us to
set up our cluster out of the box easily. Once we turned on the nodes, we saw the
Cluster Configurator screen and all four nodes were detected automatically. Going
through the list of wizards, we configured prerequisites for the cluster, shared storage
options, and Microsoft Hyper-V settings across all nodes, from just one screen.
4. A Principled Technologies test report 4Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
BUILT-IN VERSATILITY AND EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT IN DELL
POWEREDGE VRTX HARDWARE
When troubleshooting hardware, administrators must carefully weigh the
options and, when limited by inflexible hardware environments, must plan for service
outages to repair a malfunctioning server. In some cases, the server may go offline,
causing unplanned outages until the administrator can travel to the site to perform the
repair. The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is designed with flexibility and management efficiency
in mind. Shared storage and a shared PCIe bus, along with Windows Server failover
clustering, provide a highly flexible hardware infrastructure that allows administrators
to migrate files and virtual disks, and transfer storage and PCIe-based resources when a
server node needs to go offline for repairs. The Dell PowerEdge VRTX also provides an
embedded alerting tool, allowing administrators to troubleshoot remotely.
In our tests, we simulated a server node issue where the first of four server
nodes needed to be replaced. This server node was hosting a high-performance VM and
had an allocated PCIe SSD where the VM data resided. In the sections below, we show
how Dell features simplified the management process at each step of this scenario.
Monitor and receive alerts centrally through Dell OpenManage Essentials
Dell OpenManage Essentials (OME) is a tool to monitor the health of your
cluster. This Dell-provided software works by communicating directly to your systems
through iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller, monitoring everything from temperature to
hardware faults. Dell OME allows for efficient management by enabling administrators
to view on a single interface any issues across the entire datacenter that need attention
rather than having to monitor server nodes individually.
In our test scenario, Dell iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller on the Dell PowerEdge
VRTX sent an alert to a remote-monitoring OME server indicating that a server node in
our failover cluster had a failing network card that needed to be replaced. The
administrator was able to see the issue quickly through the OME console and could take
steps to remotely mediate the issue and prevent downtime.
Reliable remote parts replacement with Dell iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller
If a server component should need replacing, Dell iDRAC7 with Lifecycle
Controller makes this easy by providing a feature that will automatically update a new
part to the firmware version or the configuration of the replaced part, or both. The
update occurs automatically when you reboot your system after replacing the part. It is
activated through a license, and can be disabled remotely using Lifecycle Controller-
Remote Services, or through the Lifecycle Controller.
Dell iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller also provides a feature to save a server
profile backup of all of a server’s settings. An administrator only has to take this saved
5. A Principled Technologies test report 5Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
profile and load it onto the server; it is then configured identically to the state at which
the backup was taken. In case of a catastrophic failure, the backup can be used to easily
roll back a server’s hardware configurations to a previous state. All of this can be done
remotely, saving valuable travel and labor time for servers located in remote offices.
In our testing, Dell OME alerted the administrator of an issue with a server
node. Using Dell’s built-in iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller, our administrator’s first
course of action was to save the settings of the failing server node remotely in case of a
more serious failure (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Backup and Export Server Profile screen in iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller.
Migrate highly available virtual machines with no downtime
Dell PowerEdge VRTX, when configured in a Windows Server failover cluster
running Hyper-V, allows VMs to be migrated from one server node to another without
any downtime through live migration. This means administrators can reduce the
maintenance window when business applications may need to be offline.
In our test scenario with the server node in need of repair, using Hyper-V, we
migrated a critical VM from the server node reporting issues to a secondary node. This
6. A Principled Technologies test report 6Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
allowed the VM to stay online while the administrator reallocated the high-performance
hardware, in this case the PCIe SSD from the failing node, to a third node. With a
PowerShell script, the migration was done quickly and without any downtime (see
Migrate VM to Shared Storage on Node2 in Appendix D).
Reassign shared PCIe resources to restore high performance remotely
Using traditional hardware in a clustered environment, an administrator would
need to physically move PCIe-based hardware components from one server to another.
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX provides shared PCIe slots, allowing an administrator to
remotely reassign PCIe devices from one server node to another via the VRTX Chassis
Management Center Web interface, requiring only a power cycle of the nodes involved.
This provides enhanced hardware versatility where a common failover cluster cannot,
simplifying the movement of PCIe devices.
For our test scenario, the administrator migrated a high-performance VM and
its virtual hard drives from the failing server node with two Micron® PCIe SSDs to a
secondary node on the VRTX without PCIe SSDs to prevent application downtime. The
administrator then used the shared PCIe bus feature to transfer the two PCIe SSDs from
the failing node to a third server node on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX using a PowerShell
script, with each node being offline only long enough to complete the transfer via CMC.
To restore the high performance functionality of the Micron SSDs to the VM, the final
step was to live migrate the VM from the secondary node to the third server node. The
administrator completed all of these tasks remotely and, from an end-user perspective,
the VM stayed online the entire time.
Replace the server node at your convenience
With the critical VM now running safely on another server node, the
administrator can then plan for the repair of the failing server node. Dell maximizes
efficiency of deploying replacement parts by allowing the administrator to use Dell
iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller to automate most of the process.
In our test scenario, the administrator arranged for an on-site employee to
replace the failed mezzanine card in our failing node, now safely offline, with a new one.
Once the repaired server node was physically re-installed, Dell iDRAC7 with Lifecycle
Controller automatically initialized the new part with the correct firmware versions to
match the original mezzanine card. We then used iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller to
deploy a Windows Server 2012 R2 image stored on a file share. With a Windows
PowerShell script, we added the necessary roles and features, modified the operating
system settings (See Initial VM Setup in Appendix D), and connected to the existing
cluster (See Adding Replacement Node1 to Cluster in Appendix D). Other than the
physical replacement of the server node’s component, none of these steps required any
7. A Principled Technologies test report 7Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
external media or manual intervention that would have forced the administrator to be
physically present.
AUTOMATED CLUSTER-AWARE UPDATES
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution integrates with Microsoft Cluster-Aware
Updating to simplify the update process in a Windows clustered environment. In an
environment without this streamlined integration, an administrator must take
additional precautions to keep critical business applications online and proper hardware
resources available, which can be a hassle. Performing updates on clustered servers
means moving these applications from node to node while individual nodes are updated
and rebooted. Performing these maintenance tasks manually requires significant
planning and accuracy to avoid accidental downtime.
With Microsoft Cluster-Aware Updating, an administrator can apply critical
updates and the latest hotfixes from Windows Update to all of the compute nodes in
the VRTX, rather than having to waste time performing manual repetitive update
sequences on each server node individually. When used alongside Dell’s Server Update
Utility, the administrator can set driver and firmware updates to apply automatically as
they are needed, a crucial timesaving feature for servers in remote offices.
During our testing, we set up Cluster-Aware Updating to update the firmware
and drivers on all four nodes once the cluster was created using the latest Dell Server
Update Utility. When our first node needed to be replaced, we were able to run Cluster-
Aware Updating to update the replacement blade’s drivers to the same versions as the
other nodes (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: The Cluster-Aware Updating window.
8. A Principled Technologies test report 8Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
ALL-IN-ONE SHARED INFRASTRUCTURE
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution with M-series compute nodes is an all-in-one
solution designed to handle the performance needs of your small-to medium-business
or remote office. Here, we provide information about each of the components we used
as part of this solution.
About the Dell PowerEdge VRTX
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is a compact, all-in-one solution in a 5U rack-able
tower chassis. Designed to be quiet under normal operating conditions, the Dell
PowerEdge VRTX can be stowed under a desk in a small office. Its four bays house M520
or M620 compute nodes, providing a space-saving alternative to four separate tower or
rack servers. In addition to space savings, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX provides
administrators with a unified interface, the Chassis Management Controller, for
performing routine systems management tasks. The Dell PowerEdge VRTX chassis
supports up to 48 TB of shared internal storage that is presentable as virtual drives to
single or multiple compute nodes, and provides optional pass-through and eight PCIe
slots for additional device connectivity. The chassis integrated storage can be configured
with 25 bays for 2.5-inch drives or with 12 bays for 3.5-inch drives. The Dell PowerEdge
VRTX integrated switch contains multiple external network ports for easy expansion or
integration into any computing environment.
For more information about the Dell PowerEdge VRTX, visit
www.Dell.com/PowerEdge/VRTX.
About the Dell PowerEdge M520 compute nodes
The Dell PowerEdge M520, a half-height compute node, has features optimized
for performance, density, and energy efficiency.
Processors. The Dell PowerEdge M520 is powered by two processors from the
Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 v2 product family, which incorporate the latest in
processor technology from Intel. The powerful processors provide the
performance you need for your essential mainstream tasks. The Intel Xeon
processor E5-2400 v2 product family gives you up to 10 cores per processor, or
up to 20 cores per server.
Memory. The Dell PowerEdge M520 holds up to 384GB DDR3 RAM (up to 1,600
MHz) across 12 DIMM slots per compute node.
Management. The Dell PowerEdge M520, like all late-model Dell servers,
includes the iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller Technology. This tool simplifies
server management by providing a single interface for management functions
and by storing critical system information in the system itself. There are no CDs
or USB keys to keep track of for drivers or firmware.
9. A Principled Technologies test report 9Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
About the Intel Xeon processor E5 family
The new Intel Xeon processor E5 family, which comes standard in new Dell
PowerEdge servers, incorporates new technology and features to meet the computing
demands of the present and future. The Intel Xeon processor E5 family delivers
intelligent and adaptive performance using such features as Intel Turbo Boost
Technology 2.0, Intel Advanced Vector Extension, Intel Integrated I/O, and Intel Data
Direct I/O Technology. These new processors also feature Intel Trusted Execution
Technology (Intel TXT) and utilize Intel Advance Encryption Standard New Instructions
(Intel AES-NI) to help keep your data safe.
For more information about the Intel Xeon processor E5 family, visit
www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon-processor-5000-
sequence.html.
About Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2012 R2, the latest release of this server OS from Microsoft,
includes many new features and enhancements. According to Microsoft, Windows
Server 2012 R2 focuses on four core areas:
Beyond virtualization. Windows Server 2012 R2 provides a robust and dynamic
virtualization platform through Hyper-V™, and includes new features that
provide flexible options for delivering cloud services.
The power of many servers, the simplicity of one. Windows Server 2012 R2
offers improvements in its features that allow for better-than-ever high
availability and ease of management for multiple-server infrastructures.
Every app, any cloud. Windows Server 2012 R2 delivers a scalable and flexible
Web and application platform by providing a consistent and open set of tools
and frameworks that apply to applications on-premises, in the cloud, or in a
hybrid environment.
Modern work style, enabled. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 empowers
users and IT staff with remote access to data, applications, and simpler
management tools while strengthening security and compliance.
10. A Principled Technologies test report 10Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
IN CONCLUSION
Administrators can spend a great deal of time deploying and managing
computing resources, especially when dealing with ROBO environments. The Dell
PowerEdge VRTX, powered by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 v2 product family and
running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, gives administrators centralized
management tools to help them provide time saving benefits and integrated toolsets.
In our hands-on testing, we found that the Dell PowerEdge VRTX greatly
simplified deployment through an easy, wizard-based setup of Microsoft Windows
Server Failover Clusters across server nodes with the Dell OpenManage Cluster
Configurator. It also provided versatile hardware resource reassignment through a
shared PCIe bus and efficient centralized management through CMC and scripting.
Finally, we found that the Dell System Update Utility worked seamlessly with Microsoft
Cluster-Aware Updating to update server nodes while keeping the failover cluster online
and minimizing downtime. These advantages make the Dell PowerEdge VRTX an
attractive choice for those who seek to reduce the management overhead of their
ROBO environments.
11. A Principled Technologies test report 11Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
APPENDIX A – DETAILED CONFIGURATION INFORMATION
Figure 4 provides detailed configuration information about the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution we set up.
System Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution
Enclosure
Compute node enclosure Dell PowerEdge VRTX
General dimensions of compute node enclosure
Height (inches) 8
Width (inches) 19
Depth (inches) 29.5
U size in server rack (U) 5
Power supplies
Total number 4
Vendor and model number Dell 80 Plus Platinum E1100E-S0 (P/N 0YT39Y)
Wattage of each (W) 1,100
Cooling fans
Total number 6
Vendor and model number Delta Electronics, Inc.
Dimensions (h × w) of each 60mm × 60mm
Volts 12
Chassis RAID controller
Vendor and model number Dell Shared PERC8
Firmware version 23.8.2-0005
Cache size (GB) 1
Chassis shared hard drives
Vendor and model number SEAGATE ST3000NM0023
Number of drives 5
Size (TB) 3
RPM 7.2K
Chassis USB ports
Number 2
Type 2.0
Platform
Vendor and model number Dell PowerEdge M520
Motherboard model number 0NRG83X03
BIOS name and version Dell BIOS 2.0.23
BIOS settings Performance
General
Number of processor packages 2
Number of cores per processor 10
Number of hardware threads per core 2
System power management policy Performance
12. A Principled Technologies test report 12Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
System Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution
CPU
Vendor Intel
Name Xeon E5-2430L
Stepping C1
Socket type Socket 1356 / LGA1356
Core frequency (GHz) 2.00
L1 cache 32 KB (per core)
L2 cache 256 KB (per core)
L3 cache 15 MB (shared)
Memory modules (per node)
Total RAM in system (GB) 16
Vendor and model number Samsung M393B5270DH0-YH9
Type PC3-10600
Speed (MHz) 1,333
Speed in the system currently running @ (MHz) 1,333
Timing/latency (tCL-tRCD-iRP-tRASmin) 9-9-9-36
Size (GB) 4
Number of RAM modules 4
Chip organization Double-sided
RAID controller
Vendor and model number Dell PERC H310 mini
Firmware version 20.12.0-0004
Cache size (GB) 0
Hard drive
Vendor and model number TOSHIBA AL13SEB300
Number of drives 2
Size (GB) 300
RPM 10K
Type SAS
Network adapter
Vendor and model number Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
Type Embedded
Number of ports 2
USB ports (per node)
Number 2 External, 1 Internal
Type 2.0
Figure 4: Detailed configuration information for the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution.
13. A Principled Technologies test report 13Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
APPENDIX B – SETUP METHODOLOGY
Setting up the infrastructure
We detail our Dell PowerEdge VRTX configuration steps below. Perform the following steps on each Dell
PowerEdge server.
Setting up and configuring an Active Directory and OpenManage VM
We configured two virtual machines as an OpenManage server and an Active Directory server for authentication
on a separate utility hypervisor.
Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 on the VMs
1. Create a VM on a separate hypervisor host; choose 4GB RAM and 30GB virtual disk size.
2. Install the operating system on the VM.
3. Copy the installation DVD image for Windows Server 2012 R2 into the local machine storage. Mount the DVD
ISO to the guest VM.
4. Choose the language, time and currency, and keyboard input. Click Next.
5. Click Install Now.
6. Enter product key, and click Next.
7. Choose Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter (Server with a GUI), and click Next.
8. Accept the license terms, and click Next.
9. Click Custom, and select Install Windows Only.
10. Click the Disk, and click Drive options (advanced).
11. Click NewApplyFormat, and click Next.
12. After the installation completes, click OK to set the administrator password.
13. Enter the administrator password twice, and click OK.
14. Connect the machine to the Internet and install all available Windows updates. Restart as necessary.
15. Clone the VM to create an OpenManage VM.
16. Run the Initial AD Setup script located in Appendix D on the AD VM.
17. Run the Initial VM Setup script located in Appendix D on the OpenManage VM.
18. After the VMs restart, log into the domain using the administrator account.
19. Create Computer accounts for each server to be used in the domain in the Active Directory Manager on the AD
VM.
Setting up OpenManage Essentials on the OpenManage VM
1. Run the setup file for OpenManage Essentials.
2. On the window that appears, click Extract.
3. Once the file is finished extracting, click OK.
4. In the Dell OpenManage Install window, select Dell OpenManage Essentials, and click Install.
5. On the Prerequisites scan page, click Install Essentials.
6. On the Welcome page, click Next.
7. Click Next, and then click Install.
8. When the installation is finished, click Finish.
14. A Principled Technologies test report 14Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
Setting up the VRTX
Configuring the VRTX shared storage
1. Open a Web browser, and enter the address listed for the CMC IP on the front LCD panel.
2. Log in with the appropriate credentials.
3. Expand Storage.
4. Click Storage.
5. Click the Setup tab.
a. Under Assignment Mode, select the radio button for Multiple Assignment, and click Apply.
b. Click OK to confirm the message box indicating Operation Successful.
Configuring the virtual disks
1. Click StorageVirtual Disks.
2. On the Virtual Disks tab, click Create.
a. For Choose a virtual disk type, select RAID 10.
b. Select the first four disks, and click Create Virtual Disk.
c. Click OK to confirm the message box indicating Operation Successful.
3. On the Virtual Disks tab, click Manage.
a. Select the Virtual Disks Action pull-down menu for Virtual Disk 0, and initialize the drives.
b. Click Apply.
c. Click OK to confirm the message box indicating Operation Successful once the initialization completes.
4. Configure the remaining physical disk as a global hot spare.
5. In this step, we will allow shared LUN access to all compute nodes. On the Virtual Disks tab, click Assign.
a. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-01, and select Full Access.
b. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-02, and select Full Access.
c. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-03, and select Full Access.
d. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-04, and select Full Access.
e. Click Apply.
f. Click OK to confirm the message box indicating that the operation was successful.
Setting up the Dell PowerEdge M520s
Perform the following steps on each Dell PowerEdge server.
Configuring boot properties
1. Open a Web browser, and enter the address listed for the CMC IP on the front LCD panel.
2. Log in with the appropriate credentials.
3. Expand Server Overview, and select a blade slot.
4. Click the Setup tab. Perform the following steps in the iDRAC settings:
a. Check the box for Enable LAN.
b. Check the box for Enable IPv4.
c. Check the box for DHCP.
d. Check the box for IPMI Over LAN.
e. Click Apply iDRAC Network Settings.
f. To confirm changes to the iDRAC network settings, click OK.
15. A Principled Technologies test report 15Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
5. Power on the server.
a. Click the Power tab.
b. Select Power On Server.
c. Click Apply.
d. To confirm the server control action, click OK.
e. To confirm that the operation was successful, click OK.
6. Click the Properties tab.
7. Click Launch Remote Console.
8. On new browser page, click Continue to website (not recommended) if prompted.
a. If a message appears indicating a pop-up was blocked, select Always allow pop-ups from this site.
b. Close the browser tab for the iDRAC.
c. Click Launch Remote Console.
d. If a message appears indicating the Web page wants to run an add-on called “Virtual Console from Dell
Inc.,” select Allow for all websites.
9. A new window appears showing the console for the server to configure. Select PowerReset System.
Installing Windows Server 2012
We used a pre-installed image provided by Dell for all compute nodes in the Dell PowerEdge VRTX.
Deploying a cluster with Dell OpenManage Cluster Configurator v2
1. Power on all four Dell PowerEdge M520 blades.
2. Choose a language, and click Next.
3. Accept the license agreement, and click Next.
4. If the initial cluster search does not locate all the nodes, click Cancel, and click OK.
5. At the OpenManage Cluster Configurator for Windows Server 2012 R2 v2.0, click Connect to remote nodes.
6. Log in to the other three nodes, and write down their IP addresses.
7. Enter the IP addresses for the other three nodes into the box, and click OK.
8. Scroll to Configure Settings, and click Create virtual switches for Hyper-V.
9. Select Create Virtual Switches, and click Next.
10. Verify the nodes are correct, and click Create.
11. Click Provide cluster name and domain.
12. For the domain, type test.local. Enter the administrator account details, and click Next.
13. For the Cluster management name, type VRTX1, and click Next.
14. At the Add Accounts to the Local Admininstrators Group screen, click Next.
15. At the Change the Local Administrator Password screen, enter the new password twice, and click Next.
16. Verify the details are correct, and click Create.
17. Click OK to restart all nodes.
18. Log in to the first node using the domain administrator account.
19. Scroll to Provision Cluster Storage, and click Provision Storage via CMC.
20. Log in with the appropriate credentials.
21. Expand Storage.
22. Click Storage.
23. Click the Setup tab.
16. A Principled Technologies test report 16Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
24. Under Assignment Mode, select Multiple Assignment, and click Apply.
25. To confirm that the operation was successful, click OK.
26. Click StorageVirtual Disks.
27. On the Virtual Disks tab, click Create.
a. For Choose a virtual disk type, select RAID 10.
b. Select the first four disks, and click Create Virtual Disk.
c. To confirm that the operation was successful, click OK.
28. On the Virtual Disks tab, click Manage.
a. Select the Virtual Disks Action pull-down menu for Virtual Disk 0, and initialize the drives.
b. Click Apply.
c. To confirm that the operation was successful once the initialization completes, click OK.
29. Configure the remaining physical disk as a global hot spare.
30. In this step, we will allow shared LUN access to all compute nodes. On the Virtual Disks tab, click Assign.
a. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-01, and select Full Access.
b. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-02, and select Full Access.
c. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-03, and select Full Access.
d. Use the pull-down menu for all virtual disks and SLOT-04, and select Full Access.
e. Click Apply.
f. To confirm that the operation was successful, click OK.
31. Click Prepare Disks for Cluster, and when it is finished, click OK.
32. Click Create Volumes, and click Next.
33. Under Disk, select Disk 1, and click Next.
34. For the Volume size, type 1 GB, and click Next.
35. With the drop-down list, assign the letter Q, and click Next.
36. Change the Volume label to Quorum, and click Next.
37. Verify the settings, and click Create.
38. When complete, click Close.
39. Click Create Volumes, and click Next.
40. Under Disk, select Disk 1, and click Next.
41. Leave the default Volume size, and click Next.
42. With the drop-down list, assign the letter D, and click Next.
43. Leave the default Volume label, and click Next.
44. Verify the settings, and click Create.
45. Scroll to Deploy the Cluster, and click Validate and create the cluster.
46. At the Validate Failover Cluster Configuration screen, click Validate.
47. When the validation completes, click Next.
48. For the Cluster management name, type VRTX1, and click Next.
49. Verify the settings, and click Create.
50. Once the cluster is created, click Close.
17. A Principled Technologies test report 17Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
Cluster-Aware Updating
1. Create a shared folder that is accessible to all nodes in the cluster.
2. Copy the Dell SUU XML configuration file DELL_UPDATE_SUU.xml to the shared folder.
3. Rename the XML configuration file to DefaultHotfixConfig.xml.
4. In the shared folder, create a folder named CAUHotFix_All.
5. Extract all files from the Dell SUU DVD to the new folder.
6. Run both of the Update SMB settings scripts located in Appendix D.
7. Run the Set up Cluster-Aware Updating with Dell SUU script located in Appendix D.
8. Run the Run Cluster-Aware Updates script located in Appendix D.
Creating a VM
1. Log into Node 1.
2. Run the Create Clustered VM Role script located in Appendix D.
Installing the VM operating system on the VM
1. Connect to the ISO image of the installation DVD for Windows Server 2012 R2 from the VM console. If the ISO
image is not stored on the host, start the VM first and then connect to the ISO image.
2. Start the VM.
3. At the Language Selection screen, click Next.
4. Click Install Now.
5. Select Windows Server 2012 R2 (Full Installation), and click Next.
6. Click the I accept the license terms check box, and click Next.
7. Click Custom.
8. Click Next.
9. At the User’s password must be changed before logging on warning screen, click OK.
10. Enter the desired password for the administrator in both fields, and click the arrow to continue.
11. At the Your password has been changed screen, click OK.
12. Connect the machine to the Internet, and install all available Windows updates. Restart as necessary.
13. Run the Initial VM Setup script located in Appendix D.
Microsoft SQL Server installation and workload configuration
We installed Microsoft SQL Server 2012 R2 on the VM residing on the Dell PowerEdge M520s.
Configuring the SQL Server VM on the VMs
Modify the SQL VMs to contain the following settings:
Memory: 12GB
Virtual Processors: 12
Additional virtual disks:
o 1 x 30GB virtual disk for SQL database data
In the VM, configure the VM storage:
o Click the Server Manager icon in the taskbar.
o In the left pane, expand Storage, and click Disk Management.
o Right-click the uninitialized volume, and choose Initialize Disk.
o In the right pane, right-click the volume, and choose New Simple VoIume…
18. A Principled Technologies test report 18Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
o At the welcome window, click Next.
o At the Specify Volume Size window, leave the default selection, and click Next.
o At the Assign Drive Letter or Path window, choose a drive letter, and click Next.
o At the Format Partition window, choose NTFS, and click Next.
o At the Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard window, click Finish.
Installing SQL Server 2012 on the VM
1. Open the console for the VM or connect to the VM with RDP.
2. Mount the installation ISO to the VM.
3. Click Run SETUP.EXE. If Autoplay does not begin the installation, navigate to the SQL Server 2012 DVD, and
double-click.
4. If the installer prompts you with a .NET installation prompt, click Yes to enable the .NET Framework Core role.
5. In the left pane, click Installation.
6. Click New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation.
7. At the Setup Support Rules screen, wait for the rule check to complete. If there are no failures or relevant
warnings, click OK.
8. Select the Specify a free edition and select Evaluation from the drop-down menu. Click Next.
9. Click the checkbox to accept the license terms, and click Next.
10. If no failures are displayed after the setup support files are installed, click Next.
11. At the Setup Role screen, choose SQL Server Feature Installation.
12. 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. Click Next.
13. At the Installation Rules screen, click Next after the check completes.
14. At the Instance configuration screen, leave the default selection of default instance, and click Next.
15. At the Disk Space Requirements screen, click Next.
16. At the Server Configuration screen, check that NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM is selected for SQL Server Agent and SQL
Server Database Engine. Click Next.
17. Assuming there are no failures, click Next.
18. At the Database Engine Configuration screen, select Mixed Mode.
19. Enter and confirm a password for the system administrator account.
20. Click Add Current user. This may take several seconds.
21. Click the Data Directories tab and enter the appropriate drive and folders for database and logs.
22. Click Next.
23. At the Error and usage reporting screen, click Next.
24. At the Installation Configuration Rules screen, check that there are no failures or relevant warnings, and click
Next.
25. At the Ready to Install screen, click Install.
26. After the installation completes, click Close.
27. Create a SQL Server login for the ds2user (see the Configuring the database (Data generation overview) section
for the specific script to use).
28. Copy the pre-created DVD Store backup to the specified backup volume.
19. A Principled Technologies test report 19Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
29. Download and install any available updates for Microsoft SQL Server 2012.
Configuring the database workload client
For each test VM on the host machines there must be a corresponding client VM to generate the workload to
stress the database under test. To do this, we configured a virtual machine with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 on a
separate utility hypervisor. To create this client, we installed Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, assigned a static IP address,
and installed .NET 3.5.
Configuring the database
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 10GB database size and the database platform on which we ran Microsoft SQL Server. We ran the
Install.pl script on a utility system running Linux. The database schema was also generated by the Install.pl script.
After processing the data generation, we transferred the data files and schema creation files to a Windows-
based system running SQL Server 2012. We built the 10GB database in SQL Server 2012 and then performed a full
backup, storing the backup file on the C: drive for quick access. We used that backup file to restore the server between
test runs.
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. Besides this file size modification, the database schema was created and loaded according to the DVD Store
documentation. Specifically, we followed the steps below:
1. We generated the data and created the database and file structure using database creation scripts in the DS2
download. We made size modifications specific to our 10GB database and the appropriate changes to drive
letters.
2. We transferred the files from our Linux data generation system to a Windows system running SQL Server.
3. We created database tables, stored procedures, and objects using the provided DVD Store scripts.
4. We set the database recovery model to bulk-logged to prevent excess logging.
5. We loaded the data we generated into the database. For data loading, we used the import wizard in SQL Server
Management Studio. Where necessary, we retained options from the original scripts, such as Enable Identity
Insert.
6. We created indices, full-text catalogs, primary keys, and foreign keys using the database-creation scripts.
7. We updated statistics on each table according to database-creation scripts, which sampled 18 percent of the
table data.
8. On the SQL Server instance, we created a ds2user SQL Server login using the following Transact SQL (TSQL)
script:
USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [ds2user] WITH PASSWORD=N’’,
DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master],
DEFAULT_LANGUAGE=[us_english],
CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF,
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CHECK_POLICY=OFF
GO
9. We set the database recovery model back to full.
10. We created the necessary full text index using SQL Server Management Studio.
11. We created a database user and mapped this user to the SQL Server login.
12. We then performed a full backup of the database. This backup allowed us to restore the databases to a pristine
state relatively quickly between tests.
Figure 5 shows our initial file size modifications.
Logical name Filegroup Initial size (MB)
Database files
primary PRIMARY 3.25
cust1 DS_CUST_FG 5,767
cust2 DS_CUST_FG 5,767
ind1 DS_IND_FG 2,621
ind2 DS_IND_FG 2,621
ds_misc DS_MISC_FG 2,621
orders1 DS_ORDERS 2,621
orders2 DS_ORDERS 2,621
Log files
ds_log Not Applicable 20,480
Figure 5: Our initial file size modifications.
Running the test
Test start and run times
We ran all workloads concurrently in order to start and record all performance counters for this report. The
specific testing parameters we used are included in the setup section, and specifics for launching these tests are
described below.
About 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 reported by each client/target pair.
Each complete test cycle consisted of the general steps listed below.
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 (the hypervisor system), the client system, and the target.
7. Let the test server idle for 20 minutes.
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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=12 --db_size=10GB --think_time=0.3 --detailed_view=Y --warmup_time=15
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APPENDIX C – SCENARIO METHODOLOGY
Moving the VM and SSD storage to another node
1. Run the Migrate VM to Shared Storage on Node2 script in Appendix D.
2. Run the Shutdown Nodes 1 & 3 and Remove Node1 from Cluster script in Appendix D.
3. Run the Reassign PCIe Cards to Node3 script in Appendix D.
4. Log in to Node3 using the domain administrator account.
5. On the server, click the Tools Computer Management option in the Server Manager.
6. In the left pane, expand Storage, and click Disk Management.
7. Right-click one of the newly added SSD volumes, and choose Import Foreign Disks.
8. Select the set of two drives listed and click OK.
9. Run the Migrate VM to PCIe SSD Storage on Node3 script in Appendix D.
Backing up and exporting the Server Profile of the old blade
1. Log into iDRAC.
2. Click iDRAC Settings Server Profile.
3. Enter a filename for the backup profile image.
4. Enter the IP address of the remote fileshare.
5. Enter the share name.
6. Enter the domain name of the file server. Leave this blank if you are using a fileshare without a domain.
7. Enter a username and password with permission to access the fileshare.
8. Click Test network connection to validate connection.
9. Click OK.
10. Click Backup Now.
11. Click OK. The status of the job can be viewed by clicking OverviewServerJob Queue.
12. Wait for the Backup and Export job to complete, then remove the old blade and replace it with a new blade.
Importing the Server Profile of the blade
1. After the blade is re-installed, log into iDRAC.
2. Click iDRAC Settings Server Profile.
3. Enter the filename of the backup profile image that was created earlier.
4. Enter the IP address of the remote fileshare.
5. Enter the share name.
6. Enter the domain name of the file server. Leave this blank if you are using a fileshare without a domain.
7. Enter a username and password with permission to access the fileshare.
8. Click Test network connection to validate connection.
9. Click OK.
10. Select whether you want to keep the existing virtual disk configuration (Preserve) or to replace with the settings
in the backup file (Delete and Replace).
11. Click Import.
12. Click OK. The status of the job can be viewed by clicking Overview Server Job Queue.
13. Wait for the import job to complete, power on the blade, and continue to deploying the operating system.
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Re-deploying the operating system to the blade
1. Select Server Attached Media.
2. In the section for Remote File Share, enter the path to your OS image.
3. Enter the username and password for a user with access to the share.
4. Click Connect.
5. Click Overview.
6. Click Launch on the Virtual Console Preview panel.
7. Reboot the server.
8. Press F10 to enter Lifecycle Controller.
9. Select OS Deployment.
10. Click Deploy OS.
11. Select Configure RAID First. Click Next.
12. Select the RAID controller, and click Next.
13. Select the RAID level for the virtual disk (RAID 1), and click Next.
14. Click the box for Select All, and click Next.
15. Enter a Virtual Disk Name (default), and click Next.
16. Click Finish.
17. Click Yes to confirm changes to the disk array.
18. Click OK to confirm the RAID operation.
19. Select the operating system to deploy (Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2), and click Next.
20. Select Unattended Install, and click next.
21. Select Network Share.
22. Change the type to NFS.
23. Enter the share name where the answer file is hosted.
24. Enter the full name of the answer file (.xml) in the File Path.
25. Click Test Network Connection.
26. Click OK.
27. Click Next.
28. Click OK to confirm answer file verification is complete.
29. Accept BIOS as the boot mode and click Next.
30. At the Insert OS Media screen, click Next.
31. Click Finish.
32. Once the installation is complete, log in to Windows.
33. Connect to the Internet, and install all available Windows updates. Restart as necessary.
34. Run the Initial System Setup script located in Appendix D.
a. Use Node1 as the Node name in the script.
35. Run the Adding Replacement Node1 to Cluster script located in Appendix D.
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APPENDIX D – POWERSHELL SCRIPTS USED
The following Powershell scripts denote where they need to be edited with specific information with <angled
brackets>. An accent (`) character indicates that the code continues to the next line; this will be automatically
parsed by Powershell if the code is copied as written and run from a script file.
Initial AD Setup (run locally on VM)
Rename-Computer Test_AD -Force;
Enable-PSRemoting –force;
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned –force;
Set-Item wsman:localhostclienttrustedhosts *.test.local –force;
Set-ItemProperty`
-Path 'HKLM:SystemCurrentControlSetControlTerminal Server'`
-name "fDenyTSConnections" -Value 0;
Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop";
Set-ItemProperty`
-Path 'HKLM:SystemCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStationsRDP-Tcp'`
-name "UserAuthentication" -Value 1;
New-NetIPAddress –InterfaceIndex 14 -IPAddress 192.168.200.110 -Prefixlength 24`
-defaultgateway 192.168.200.110;
Install-ADDSForest -DomainName test.local –CreateDnsDelegation –InstallDns`
–NoDnsOnNetwork;
Restart-Computer –force;
Initial System Setup (run locally on each node)
Add-Computer -DomainName test.local -NewName <Node1, Node2, Node3, or Node4> -Force;
Enable-PSRemoting –force;
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned –force;
Set-Item wsman:localhostclienttrustedhosts *.test.local –force;
Install-WindowsFeature Failover-Clustering -IncludeManagementTools –Confirm;
Install-WindowsFeature Hyper-V -IncludeManagementTools –Confirm;
$TestSwitchNIC = Get-NetAdapter NIC1_Private;
$HVSwitch = New-VMSwitch -Name TEST -NetAdapterName $TestSwitchNIC`
-AllowManagementOS True -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue;
New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:SYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesClusDiskParameters`
-Name 'AllowBusTypeRAID' -Value 1 -PropertyType 'DWord' -Force;
Set-ItemProperty`
-Path 'HKLM:SystemCurrentControlSetControlTerminal Server'`
-name "fDenyTSConnections" -Value 0;
Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop";
Set-ItemProperty`
-Path 'HKLM:SystemCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStationsRDP-Tcp'`
-name "UserAuthentication" -Value 1;
New-NetIPAddress –InterfaceIndex 14 -IPAddress 192.168.200.`
<Node=21, Node2=22, Node3=23, or Node4=24> -Prefixlength 24`
-defaultgateway 192.168.200.110;
$NodeName = "<Node1, Node2, Node3, or Node4>";
$admin = [adsi]("WinNT://" + $strComputer + "/administrator, user");
28. A Principled Technologies test report 28Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
Adding Replacement Node1 to Cluster (run from new Node 1)
Add-ClusterNode -Name Node1.test.local -Cluster VRTX
Update SMB settings (run from File Server)
Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-AD-PowerShell;
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EncryptData $True -RejectUnencryptedAccess $False`
-EnableSecuritySignature $True -RequireSecuritySignature $True –Force;
Enable-SmbDelegation –SmbServer <File Server> –SmbClient <CAU Created Account>;
Update SMB settings (run from all nodes)
Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableSecuritySignature $True`
-RequireSecuritySignature $True –Force;
Set up Cluster-Aware Updating with Dell SUU (run from any node)
Add-CauClusterRole -ClusterName VRTX1 -Force -CauPluginName Microsoft.HotfixPlugin`
-CauPluginArguments @{ 'HotfixRootFolderPath' = '<CAU share:serverCAUshare>';`
'DisableAclChecks' = 'True'; 'HotfixConfigFileName' = 'DefaultHotfixConfig.xml';`
'RequireSmbEncryption' = 'False' } -MaxRetriesPerNode 3`
-StartDate "1/1/2099 12:00:00 AM" -DaysOfWeek 32 -WeeksOfMonth @(5)`
-EnableFirewallRules;
Enable-CauClusterRole -ClusterName VRTX1 -Force;
Run Cluster-Aware Updates (run from any node)
Set-CauClusterRole -ClusterName VRTX1 -UpdateNow –Force;
Script references
1. Dell PowerEdge VRTX Chassis PCIe Management using Windows PowerShell
en.community.dell.com/techcenter/b/techcenter/archive/2013/12/04/dell-poweredge-vrtx-chassis-pcie-
management-using-windows-powershell.aspx
2. Microsoft TechNet Library: Scripting with Windows PowerShell
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb978526.aspx
3. Windows and Windows Server Automation with Windows PowerShell
technet.microsoft.com/library/dn249523.aspx
29. A Principled Technologies test report 29Efficient and versatile hardware management with Dell PowerEdge VRTX
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