Virtualization: To Be or Not to Be
Let there be no misunderstanding: how well a new Server CPU handles virtualization determines whether it is a wallflower or a blockbuster. Thanks to the superb feedback we got on our first attempt, we have continued to refine vApus Mark I. We are very happy that despite the insane timing, we managed to pull off both 4 VM and 8 VM on ESX 3.5 update 4 and ESX 4.0 (vSphere 4 build 164009). Since it is by far the most important market for the new six-core, we decided to spend most of our time and energy here.
We have two benchmarks for you: VMmark and vApus Mark I. VMmark – which we discussed in great detail here - tries to measure a typical consolidation workload: a combination of a light mailserver, database, fileserver, website with a somewhat heavier java application. One VM is just sitting idle, representative of workloads that have to be online but which perform very little work (for example, a domain controller). In short, VMmark goes for the scenario where you want to consolidate lots and lots of smaller apps on one physical server.
There are no official VMmark scores yet, but a backup slide of AMD’s presentation talked about 41% performance increase over the Opteron 2384, a “Shanghai” Opteron at 2.7 GHz. We can use that number to get a first, very unofficial idea where a dual six-core 2435 at 2.6 GHz will land. The best score for the quad-core Opteron is 11.28, so times 1.41 gives us 15.9.
A 2.6 GHz quad-core would, roughly estimated, get a score of 10.9, which means that adding two cores results in a performance increase of 46%. That is pretty much almost perfect scaling, and it underlines that it is not hard to make a virtualized server scale with more cores, as long as you have enough memory capacity. According to our sources at different OEMs, Hyperthreading is good for about 30%. So that means that, in contrast with our previous benchmarks, the approach of adding extra cores has paid off more than adding hyperthreading. The Xeon X5570 reigns supreme, however, when it comes to VMmark. The best Xeon is still a very significant 50% faster than the best Opteron.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
40 Comments
View All Comments
befair - Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - link
yeah, yeah, its always "more details review coming soon"smith1795 - Thursday, June 4, 2009 - link
http://cheap-conveyancing-online.blogspot.com
http://gadgets-gizmo.vox.com
http://solicitorwill.blogg.de/">http://solicitorwill.blogg.de/
http://www.blogigo.co.uk/conveyancing_solicitors">http://www.blogigo.co.uk/conveyancing_solicitors
genkk - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - link
ohhh I see, johan is only doing what his boss (anand) has told him so...aguilpa1 - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
As an AMD fanboy I skipped to the one metric that AMD shows competitive performance and focused on that ignoring all other.classy - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
That is laughable. Lets see I have only purchased all Intel servers in the last 7 years. But in the last 2 years anyone who does any system administration knows virtualization has just leaped to the forefront. Its that important. Even email is being virtualized. Databases are still physical and will probably be for some time to come. But make no mistake about it, how well it does at virtualizing is at the top of the list. Especially considering the recent recession. Virtualizing allows more to be done with less of everything. Next time maybe have some experience in something else besides reading the internet and maybe you might understand a thing or two.Natfly - Monday, June 1, 2009 - link
Virtualization isn't the be-all end-all of computing. It definitely can be a way to make more efficient use of your hardware, but the "virtualize everything" mentality isn't going to help you in the long run.solicitorsuk - Saturday, September 26, 2009 - link
This is the thing that i looking for from couple months ago.http://solicitorsuk.blogspot.com/">http://solicitorsuk.blogspot.com/
nycromes - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 - link
I don't think thats really what he/she was saying, they were saying that in terms of the IT world, Virtualization is now one of the (if not the) most important features. Right now, there are major pushes in the industry to make more efficient use of hardware, virtualization is one major part of doing that. I agree that a "virtualize everything" mentality is not good, but the OP makes a great point about the importance of virtualization in todays IT world.Jakey1999 - Thursday, May 6, 2010 - link
Dudes,What would you recommend for a SQL Server 2005 64bit database server? Hybrd, system OTLP and OLAP - 75% read. Thanks. Please respond to e-mail "jerry@tre.wa.gov". Thanks man.
AlexRot - Wednesday, October 7, 2020 - link
Компания Азия-Трейдинг оказывает весь комплекс вэд услуг по таможенному оформлению грузов экспортно-импортного направления. Мы контролируем каждый шаг для того, чтобы Ваши грузы оформлялись без задержек. Доскональное знание условий оформления и профессионализм сотрудников позволяет добиться значительного снижения издержек и максимальной скорости оформления грузов.