Dell Power Solutions

More documents

Recommendations

Info

SCALABLE ENTERPRISEAs engineers increased the load being applied to the test environment,users were added in groups of 40. Because each group of40 users had the profile described in Figure 3, the overall characteristicof the workload remained constant regardless of the numberof users added to the test. In other words, the same ratio of AR,FA, Inv, OE, PO, and QP transactions was applied regardless of thetotal number of users.Data collection and analysisThe project team conducted each test cycle by applying a user loadto the configuration under test, measuring the results, increasing theuser load, measuring again, and continuing in this manner until thehardware was demonstrably unable to handle the user load. Thisapproach enabled engineers to establish the maximum possiblenumber of concurrent users for each hardware configuration.Engineers gathered data using the Linux sar command and theOracle statspack utility. Mercury Interactive LoadRunner verified thatthe run completed with no failures and also gathered the followingdata during each test:• Overall average response time• The 90th percentile response time• Total number of transactions completedThe 90th percentile response time was the time by which 90 percentof all transactions had completed. If nine out of ten transactionscompleted within one second, and the tenth took eight seconds, the90th percentile response time would still be one second.At the end of each run, the project team analyzed the dataand decided whether the workload had passed or failed by establishingwhether the hardware had been able to support the workload.Before a workload was deemed to have passed, it had to meetthe following criteria; if a workload failed on any one of thesecriteria, it was deemed to have failed overall:Base user Iterations TransactionTransaction count per user totalAccounts AR enter customer 2 10 20Receivable (AR)AR enter invoice 3 10 30Figure 3. Workload detailsAR enter invoice credit memo 1 11 11AR enter invoice adjustment 1 9 9AR enter receipt 1 10 10AR to GL* transfer request 1 4 4AR print invoice submittal 1 4 4AR print statement submittal 1 4 4AR total 11 62 92Fixed Assets (FA) FA assets inquiry 4 10 40FA total 4 10 40Inventory (Inv) Inv create an item 4 12 48Inv view an item 3 11 33Inv total 7 23 81Order Entry (OE) OE insert an order 3 14 42OE view an order 2 13 26OE total 5 27 68Purchasing (PO) PO create a supplier 1 10 10PO create a purchase order 2 12 24PO view a purchase order 2 10 20PO create a requisition 2 9 18PO view a requisition 2 9 18PO total 9 50 90Pricing (QP) QP price list setup 1 11 11QP adjust price list 1 9 9QP add items to price list 1 10 10QP copy a price list 1 10 10QP total 4 40 40Totals 40 212 411*General Ledger• The 90th percentile response time did not exceed two seconds• Overall average response time was less than the 90th percentileresponse time (to ensure that the values of theexcluded 10 percent of transactions were not excessive)• All business transactions completed successfullyTest cycles and resultsThe tests were carried out in seven distinct cycles. The goal of eachcycle was to establish the maximum number of users that could besupported for one particular hardware configuration. For example,in cycle 2, the project team set out to establish how many userscould be supported when the application software and the databasesoftware were each running on a separate PowerEdge 2650. In subsequentcycles, the project team added progressively more hardwareuntil, in cycle 7, the configuration had reached 15 applicationservers, seven load generators, and three database servers. Themaximum number of users supported and the hardware configurationtested for each cycle are shown in Figure 4. Note that themaximum user counts are always divisible by 40 because userswere added in groups of 40 as the workload increased.Figure 4 shows that the average response times and the 90thpercentile response times for all cycles are comparable with theresponse times measured from a 40-user workload. (This 40-userworkload is described as the reference workload in Figure 4.) Forexample, cycle 7 processed almost a hundred times as many transactionsas the reference workload. Despite this, the response timeswere only marginally greater and were well within the acceptableparameters that defined a successful test.Of all the cycles, cycle 2 was of particular importance becauseit established the maximum number of Oracle E-Business Suiteusers that could be supported on a single PowerEdge 2650 server.46POWER SOLUTIONS June 2004
SCALABLE ENTERPRISETopologyPowerEdge server(s) PowerEdge server(s) 70 percent of Transactions Overall average 90th percentileCycle number used in database layer used in application layer Maximum users maximum users per hour response time response timeReferenceworkloadOne PowerEdge 2650 server N/A 40 28 280 0.47 0.521 One PowerEdge 2650 server N/A 160 112 1,138 0.58 0.732 One PowerEdge 2650 server One PowerEdge 2650 server 280 200 2,024 0.50 0.633 One PowerEdge 2650 server Two PowerEdge 2650 servers 560 400 3,790 0.61 0.844 One PowerEdge 6650 server Three PowerEdge 2650 servers 840 600 5,268 0.45 0.515 One PowerEdge 6650 server Five PowerEdge 2650 servers 1,400 1,000 9,778 0.47 0.566 Two PowerEdge 6650 servers Ten PowerEdge 2650 servers 2,800 2,000 19,168 0.56 0.697 Three PowerEdge 6650 servers Fifteen PowerEdge 2650 servers 3,920 2,750 26,910 0.66 0.83ResultsFigure 4. Overall resultsThis enabled engineers to determine the minimum number ofservers required in the application layer to support a particularnumber of users, apart from any database considerations. Atthe end of cycle 2, the test team had identified that a singlePowerEdge 2650 server could support a maximum of 280 concurrentusers.Figure 4 contains two user columns: maximum users and70 percent of maximum users. The maximum users for each cycleis precisely that: the absolute maximum number of users that aparticular configuration will support. However, the project team’srecommendation is to allow some leeway and consider 70 percentof the maximum as the number of users that a particular configurationwill support.With this guideline in mind, the following are key findings fromthe Dell and Oracle joint project:• In cycle 1, a single PowerEdge 2650 server running bothE-Business Suite 11i and the Oracle9i database supported amaximum of 160 users during the test.• In cycle 2, a single PowerEdge 2650 server runningE-Business Suite 11i supported a maximum of 280 userswhen the database was running on another server.• In cycle 3, a single PowerEdge 2650 server running theOracle9i database supported a total of two application serverswith 280 users each, giving a maximum of 560 users for aconfiguration that uses a PowerEdge 2650 with 6 GB ofmemory to run the database software.• In cycle 4, by switching the database to a PowerEdge 6650server with 8 GB of memory instead of a PowerEdge 2650server, the maximum number of supported users rose to 840using three application servers supporting 280 users each.• In cycle 5, by increasing the memory in the PowerEdge 6650server from 8 GB to 16 GB, a maximum of 1,400 users was supportedusing five application servers supporting 280 users each.• In cycle 6, by adding a second PowerEdge 6650 server into aRAC cluster along with the first PowerEdge 6650 server, themaximum number of supported users doubled to 2,800—a scalability factor of 1.0.• In cycle 7, by adding a third PowerEdge 6650 server to theRAC cluster, the maximum number of supported usersincreased to 3,920—a scalability factor of 0.8.• The user counts reported for all cycles are maximum usercounts. Dell recommends using the “70 percent” column inFigure 4 as the number of users actually supported. This willhelp guarantee that a particular configuration will be able tosupport transient increases in load without the need to purchaseadditional hardware.Scale-out capabilities for Oracle E-Business Suiteon Dell hardwareThe results of this Dell and Oracle project strongly support a scaleoutstrategy for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i deployed on standardsbasedservers. Having established that a single PowerEdge 2650server can support a maximum of 280 concurrent users in theapplication layer, the test team was easily able to support moreusers simply by adding more servers. Ten servers in the applicationlayer supported a maximum of 2,800 users. Beyond this,the scalability factor dropped off somewhat, but engineers werestill able to support a maximum of 3,920 users with 15 applicationservers and three database nodes deployed on the back end.These findings indicate that an enterprise application that hadpreviously run on large, proprietary servers could now runextremely well on several smaller, industry-standard servers suchas Dell PowerEdge servers.John Page (john_page@dell.com) is a systems consultant at the Dell Application Solution Centrein Limerick, Ireland. He has an M.S. in Engineering Science and a B.A. in Electrical Engineering fromUniversity College Cork and is a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA).www.dell.com/powersolutions POWER SOLUTIONS 47
Page 1 and 2: DELL POWER SOLUTIONS • JUNE 2004
Page 5: Emulex HBAs. Proven choice of the w
Page 10 and 11: EXECUTIVE INSIGHTSPlanning for the
Page 12 and 13: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEVirtualization a
Page 14 and 15: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEhardware layer.
Page 16 and 17: DELL KNOBuild a scalable enterprise
Page 18 and 19: GET ANSWERSNOW.WE’LL PROVIDE:Cost
Page 20 and 21: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEUsersGlobaldataA
Page 22 and 23: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEAcross entiredat
Page 24 and 25: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEUsing Virtual Ma
Page 26 and 27: SCALABLE ENTERPRISE1.1.10.*1.1.20.*
Page 28 and 29: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEComparison crite
Page 30 and 31: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEEach Dell PowerE
Page 32: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEOperating system
Page 35 and 36: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEBoot server toDe
Page 37 and 38: More data? Less time?No problem.Del
Page 39 and 40: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEEnabling a Highl
Page 41 and 42: Choose Dell coupled with Microsoft
Page 43 and 44: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEto an equal numb
Page 45 and 46: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEFigure C. Select
Page 47: SCALABLE ENTERPRISELoad-generation
Page 51 and 52: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEIn December 2003
Page 53 and 54: They’re looking to you to solve t
Page 55 and 56: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEBuilding a Highl
Page 57 and 58: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEthe database eng
Page 59 and 60: SCALABLE ENTERPRISEIT staff may cho
Page 61 and 62: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTFigure 3. Command
Page 63 and 64: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTMaintaining Netwo
Page 65 and 66: Dave is on vacation.He’s been not
Page 67 and 68: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTaccess to key net
Page 69 and 70: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTWMI consumersWMI
Page 71 and 72: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTstrComputer = WSc
Page 73 and 74: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTUnattended Server
Page 75 and 76: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTCreate aRAM drive
Page 77 and 78: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTTo deploy the IT
Page 79: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTDell OpenManage S
Page 82 and 83: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENTAssistant 8.x OS
Page 84 and 85: SYSTEM ARCHITECTURENumber of memory
Page 86 and 87: SYSTEM ARCHITECTUREspace, large cac
Page 88 and 89: SYSTEM ARCHITECTUREIntelligent Chas
Page 90 and 91: SYSTEM ARCHITECTUREUnderstandingPer
Page 92 and 93: SYSTEM ARCHITECTUREis to avoid opti
Page 94 and 95: SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE• Low frequenc
Page 96 and 97: STORAGEDesigning and OptimizingDell
Page 98 and 99:
STORAGEDell/EMC CX series arrays Ba
Page 100 and 101:
STORAGEconstant prefetching. Depend
Page 102 and 103:
STORAGELTO-2 tape drives. 3 Archite
Page 104 and 105:
STORAGEMoving TowardStorage Virtual
Page 106 and 107:
STORAGE5-disk RAID-5RAID group 64-d
Page 108 and 109:
STORAGEDeriving Maximum Performance
Page 110 and 111:
STORAGEResponse time (ms)2.01.51.00
Page 112 and 113:
STORAGEAchieving ComprehensiveEnter
Page 114 and 115:
STORAGE.doc fileDesktop at headquar
Page 116 and 117:
MAILSTOP 8456DELL INCONE DELL WAYRO
Page 118 and 119:
LINUXSatellite Server and the serve
Page 120 and 121:
LINUXthe most recent Navisphere Age
Page 122 and 123:
LINUXmemory and processors, andsets
Page 124 and 125:
LINUXuser to choose a boot image,an
Page 126 and 127:
LINUXChannel storage device, or eve
Page 128 and 129:
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGIndustry
Page 130 and 131:
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGapplicati
Page 132 and 133:
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGsuch as m
Page 134 and 135:
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGengineers
Page 136 and 137:
HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTINGAs in the
Page 138 and 139:
SECURITYDefending Networks withIntr
Page 140 and 141:
SECURITYTarget server(HTTP server)I
Page 142 and 143:
There are tech reasons to love Linu
Page 144 and 145:
CREATE TABLE ORDERLINES(ORDERLINEID
Page 146 and 147:
DROP PROCEDURE BROWSE_BY_ACTORGOUSE
Page 148 and 149:
ONLINE-EXTRA CONTENTUsing WMI Scrip
Page 150 and 151:
ONLINE-EXTRA CONTENTUsing Dell Open
Page 152 and 153:
ONLINE-EXTRA CONTENTInstalling the
Page 154:
[**] [1:524:6] BAD-TRAFFIC tcp port
show all

Dell Power Solutions

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?