Dell PowerEdge R720: The ideal platform for demanding workloads, offering exceptional scalability, performance, and reliability. With its dual processor capability, up to 512GB of memory, and support for a wide range of storage options, the R720 is perfect for virtualization, database applications, and other memory-intensive tasks.
Dell PowerEdge R720: The ideal platform for demanding workloads, offering exceptional scalability, performance, and reliability. With its dual processor capability, up to 512GB of memory, and support for a wide range of storage options, the R720 is perfect for virtualization, database applications, and other memory-intensive tasks.
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720 Server
Luis Acosta
Solutions Performance Analysis
Group
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application
Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation
PowerEdge R720 Server
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720 Server
ii
This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and
technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any
kind.
© 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions
in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, PowerVault, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell
Inc. Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
Microsoft, SQL Server, Windows, and Windows Server are either trademarks or registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names
may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their
products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
May 2012| Rev 1.0
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720 Server
iii
Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................. 4
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 4
Test methodology ................................................................................................... 4
Test Results .......................................................................................................... 6
Consolidation Improvement factor ............................................................................. 7
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 8
Appendix - test configuration................................................................................... 9
Tables
Table 1. System Configuration ................................................................................... 9
Figures
Figure 1. Hardware Configuration ................................................................................ 5
Figure 2. RAID Configuration ...................................................................................... 5
Figure 3. Database Latency ....................................................................................... 6
Figure 4. CPU Utilization .......................................................................................... 7
Figure 5. Input/Output Operations Per Second ................................................................ 7
Figure 6. Consolidation Scenario ................................................................................. 8
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720
Server
4
Executive Summary
With the introduction of the Dell™ 12
th
generation server product line, customers have an
opportunity to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by consolidating their legacy database
application servers. Reasons to consolidate database servers include: system underutilization,
hardware/software end of life (EOL), reducing costs associated with power and cooling, or
improving overall performance.
Dell strives to reduce the complexity of migrating from legacy database production
environments to the latest generation hardware and software while maintaining application
performance needs. The purpose of this document is to evaluate and highlight the performance
benefits of consolidating legacy online transaction processing (OLTP) database applications
running on Dell’s 9
th
generation PowerEdge™ 2950 server onto Dell’s 12
th
generation PowerEdge
R720 server.
Introduction
OLTP database applications are characterized by processing a large numbers of concurrent
transactions at a given time. For example, today’s banking institutions provide online access to
their customers where they can access account information, transfer funds, and pay bills.
Online banking applications rely on processing thousands of transactions in a time-sensitive
manner. The database server hosts where these transactions are processed require sufficient
resources in terms of CPU, memory, and fast data access for results to be generated instantly.
Legacy servers with lower performing CPUs and slower storage are no longer capable of
servicing the increased demands within reasonable response time.
Dell’s Solutions Performance Analysis team simulated an OLTP database workload to measure
the performance of legacy and current generation PowerEdge server, storage, and software
stack. This white paper provides customers with a performance comparison of a Microsoft SQL
Server® database solution running on a legacy 9
th
generation Dell PowerEdge 2950 and
Microsoft SQL 2005 to the new 12
th
generation Dell PowerEdge R720 server and Microsoft SQL
2012 RC1.
Test methodology
Quest’s Benchmark Factory for Databases (BMF) is a database build and workload simulation
tool that measures database performance. To test the performance, a 200GB database
modeled after the industry-standard TPC-C benchmark was built on each of the solutions.
To characterize the legacy environment, we configured a PowerEdge 2950 connected to 2 Dell
PowerVault™ MD1120 storage arrays, running Microsoft Windows® 2003 Server R2 x64, and
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise x64. Using the Quest’s Benchmark Factory TPC-C workload
profile, we populated the database with a scale factor of 3000. BMF simulates users issuing
TPC-C like SQL transactions that exercise each database’s storage sub-system with a random
read and write I/O data access pattern in user increments of 250. During each database user
simulation, BMF collected the total number of I/Os per second (IOPS), Average Query Response
Time (AQRT), and CPU utilization. The test was stopped after the average query response time
reached 2 seconds.
To characterize the R720 Solution environment, we configured a PowerEdge R720 server
connected to 2 Dell PowerVault MD1220 storage arrays, running Microsoft Windows 2008 Server
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720
Server
5
R2 Enterprise, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 RC1. Figure 1shows the test configuration
topology for each of the tests.
Figure 1. Hardware Configuration
Figure 2 is a physical representation of the RAID configuration layout where the database was
built.
Figure 2. RAID Configuration
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720
Server
6
Test Results
Latency
Average Query Response Time (AQRT) is the time it takes for SQL Server to respond to the
query. This metric establishes the performance criteria for our Service Level Agreement (SLA)
of 2 seconds. At 14,750 concurrent users, the legacy environment met our maximum SLA of 2
seconds AQRT, while the R720 has an AQRT of just 508 milliseconds at the same user load. To
put this into perspective, the R720 is able to respond to the same query nearly 4 times faster
than the legacy environment. Figure 2 shows the AQRTs recorded during the tests.
Figure 3. Database Latency
System Performance - CPU Utilization
Figure 4 shows the CPU utilization on both solutions while simulating 14,750 concurrent users.
The R720 reached a maximum of 2.6 % CPU Utilization compared to the legacy environment, in
which 26.5% CPU was utilized.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
Average query response time
(seconds. lower is better)
Average query response time at 14,750 concurrent users
R720 PE2950
Maximum SLA 2 Secs.
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720
Server
7
Figure 4. CPU Utilization
Storage Performance - I/Os per second (IOPS)
When measuring a storage system’s performance, Input/Output operations per second (IOPS) is
the most commonly used metric. The legacy environment achieved an average of 6,760 IOPS
while the PowerEdge R720 was able to achieve 11,110 IOPS: a 60% improvement. Figure 5
illustrates these results.
Figure 5. Input/Output Operations Per Second
Consolidation Improvement factor
After reviewing the results, we can conclude that a PowerEdge R720 server running Microsoft
SQL Server 2012 can process OLTP queries nearly 4x faster when compared to a legacy server
running Microsoft SQL Server 2005 while maintaining an SLA of 2 seconds.
0
10
20
30
250
1000
1750
2500
3250
4000
4750
5500
6250
7000
7750
8500
9250
10000
10750
11500
12250
13000
13750
14500
% processor time (lower is better)
CPU Utilization at 14,750 concurrent users
R720 PE2950
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
250
1000
1750
2500
3250
4000
4750
5500
6250
7000
7750
8500
9250
10000
10750
11500
12250
13000
13750
14500
IOPs (higher is better)
IOPS at 14,750 concurrent users
R720 PE2950
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720
Server
8
The R720 at 26% utilization is able to handle the OLTP workload of 10 Legacy PowerEdge 2950
Servers, a 10:1 Consolidation at 26% Utilization.
The R720 paired with two PowerVault MD1220(s) can do 60% more IOPs than the legacy
PowerEdge 2950 / 2x PowerVault MD1120 solution.
Figure 6. Consolidation Scenario
Conclusion
A consolidation project is not a simple task. The customer needs careful planning to predict the
performance capacity requirements of the new platform. The focus of this white paper is to
encourage organizations to consolidate legacy database environments on Dell’s PowerEdge 12G
servers. Based on the results, we can conclude that a 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720 server
populated with two eight-core CPUs would be able to consolidate the workload of a ten-node
legacy environment, provided that the system is not constrained by the storage subsystem,
network bandwidth, or memory resources. Customers running Microsoft SQL environments on
legacy servers and storage can follow the guidelines and procedures outlined here to
consolidate or upgrade their existing solution into fewer, faster, and more energy efficient
solutions.
Consolidating Legacy OLTP Application Servers with the Dell 12
th
Generation PowerEdge R720
Server
9
Appendix - test configuration
Table 1 describes the software and hardware configuration that was used throughout testing on
both the simulated legacy production environment and the 12G test environment.
Table 1. System Configuration
Component
Legacy environment
PowerEdge R720 environment
System PowerEdge 2950 III PowerEdge R720
Processor
Two Intel Xeon X5460, 3.16 GHz quad
core
Two Intel Xeon E5-2670, 2.70 GHz
eight core
Memory 64 GB DDR2 (8 GB DIMMs) 64 GB DDR3 (8 GB DIMMs)
Internal Disks
Two 73 GB 2.5” 15K SAS
Two 300 GB 2.5" 15K SAS
Network
Broadcom BCM5708C NetXtreme II
Broadcom BCM5720 NetXtreme II
External
Storage
2x PowerVault MD1120 48 x 73 GB
2.5" 15K SAS
2x PowerVault MD1220 48 x 146 GB
2.5" 15K SAS
RAID
Controller
PERC 6/E PERC H810
OS
Windows 2003 R2 Ent. x64
Windows 2008 R2 SP1
Database
System
Microsoft SQL 2005 Ent. x64 Microsoft SQL 2012 Ent. x64 (RC1)
Workload
Quest Benchmark Factory TPCC workload
• Scale factor: 3000
• User connections: 250 – 18000
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Dell PowerEdge R720: The ideal platform for demanding workloads, offering exceptional scalability, performance, and reliability. With its dual processor capability, up to 512GB of memory, and support for a wide range of storage options, the R720 is perfect for virtualization, database applications, and other memory-intensive tasks.
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