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Disk subsystem performance, Enterprise Storage Server ESS

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Enterprise Storage Server (ESS) ESS provides integrated caching and RAID support for the attached disk devices. ESS can be configured in a variety of ways to provide scalability in capacity and performance. One ESS can support in excess of 28 TB and can utilize 2 Gbps Fibre Channel connectivity. Redundancy within ESS provides continuous availability. It is packaged in one or more enclosures, each with dual line cords and redundant power. The redundant power system allows ESS to continue normal operation when one of the line cords is deactivated. ESS provides an image of a set of logical disk devices to attached servers. The logical devices are configured to emulate disk device types that are compatible with the attached servers. The logical devices access a logical volume that is implemented using multiple disk drives. This allows ESS to connect to all IBM servers, from zSeries to iSeries, pSeries and xSeries, directly or thorough a SAN, thus helping the x440 fit into a heterogeneous environment containing a variety of server architectures. ESS offers several choices of host I/O interface attachment methods, including SCSI and Fibre Channel for xSeries. For more information on the ESS go to: http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/index.html 3.3.2 Disk subsystem performance Because of the processing capacity of the x440, a poorly designed storage subsystem could become a bottleneck, seriously impacting overall system performance. You should implement a disk subsystem that is able to efficiently process the potentially massive number of disk I/O requests generated by the processor subsystem. Assuming that you will be implementing a RAID storage configuration, the rule of thumb is that more physical disks will improve the throughput of your disk subsystem and consequently overall system performance. In almost all applications, adding disks to your RAID configuration will continue to improve performance until another system component becomes a bottleneck. A storage solution with too few physical disks will become a bottleneck for the entire system. You will need to carefully analyze your storage capacity requirements, your application requirements, and your host requirements before you finalize your storage solution. 88 IBM ^ xSeries 440 Planning and Installation Guide

Section	Page
Front cover	1
Contents	5
Notices	9
Trademarks	10
Preface	11
The team that wrote this redbook	11
Become a published author	14
Comments welcome	14
Chapter 1. Technical description	15
1.1 The x440 product line	16
1.2 System partitioning	20
1.3 IBM XA-32 chipset	21
1.4 Processors	26
1.4.1 Intel Xeon Processor MP	27
1.4.2 Intel Xeon Processor DP	30
1.5 SMP Expansion Module	31
1.6 IBM XceL4 Server Accelerator Cache	33
1.7 System memory	33
1.8 PCI subsystem	37
1.9 Redundancy	38
1.10 Light Path Diagnostics	39
1.11 Remote Supervisor Adapter	41
1.12 Operating system support	42
1.13 IBM Director	44
Chapter 2. Positioning	49
2.1 xSeries 440 application solutions	50
2.1.1 Server consolidation	50
2.1.2 Enterprise applications	52
2.1.3 Infrastructure applications	54
2.1.4 Clustering	55
2.2 Why choose the x440	57
2.2.1 IBM XA-32 chipset	57
2.2.2 Intel Xeon MP and DP processors	58
2.2.3 XceL4 Server Accelerator Cache	60
2.2.4 High-performance memory subsystem	60
2.2.5 Active PCI-X	61
2.2.6 XpandOnDemand scalability	61
2.2.7 System Partition Manager	62
2.3 The benefits of system partitioning	63
2.4 Server consolidation	65
2.4.1 Types of server consolidation	65
2.4.2 Why consolidate servers	71
2.4.3 Benefits from server consolidation	71
Chapter 3. Planning	77
3.1 System hardware	78
3.1.1 Processors	78
3.1.2 Memory	79
3.1.3 PCI slot configuration	82
3.1.4 Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet controller	86
3.2 Cabling and connectivity	88
3.2.1 SMP Expansion Module connectivity	88
3.2.2 Remote Supervisor Adapter connectivity	91
3.2.3 Remote Expansion Enclosure	92
3.2.4 Serial connections	97
3.3 Storage considerations	97
3.3.1 xSeries storage solutions	98
3.3.2 Disk subsystem performance	102
3.3.3 Tape backup	103
3.4 Server partitioning and consolidation	104
3.5 Operating system considerations	104
3.5.1 Windows 2000 Datacenter Server	106
3.5.2 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Enterprise Edition	109
3.5.3 Microsoft Windows 2000 Server	110
3.5.4 Microsoft Windows .NET Server	111
3.5.5 Novell NetWare	111
3.5.6 Red Hat/SuSE Linux	111
3.5.7 VMware ESX Server	112
3.6 Application considerations	114
3.6.1 Scalability and performance considerations	114
3.6.2 SMP and server types	115
3.7 Rack installation	116
3.8 Power considerations	117
3.9 Solution Assurance Review	118
Chapter 4. Installation	121
4.1 System BIOS settings	122
4.1.1 Updating BIOS and firmware	122
4.1.2 Enabling memory mirroring	122
4.1.3 Enabling Hyper-Threading	123
4.2 Device drivers	125
4.3 Operating system installation	125
4.3.1 Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server	126
4.3.2 Red Hat Linux installation	133
4.3.3 NetWare installation	135
4.3.4 VMware ESX Server	142
4.4 Additional Information	142
Chapter 5. Management	143
5.1 Active PCI Manager	144
5.1.1 Using Active PCI Manager	146
5.1.2 Adding adapters to the system	150
5.1.3 Analyzing an existing configuration	158
5.2 System Partition Manager	164
5.3 Process Control	169
5.3.1 Process alias rules	170
5.3.2 Process execution rules	174
5.3.3 Group process execution rules	175
Abbreviations and acronyms	187
Related publications	189
IBM Redbooks	189
Referenced Web sites	189
How to get IBM Redbooks	192
IBM Redbooks collections	192
Index	193

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IBM

xSeries 440 Planning and Installation Guide

Enterprise Storage Server (ESS)

ESS provides integrated caching and RAID support for the attached disk devices.

ESS can be configured in a variety of ways to provide scalability in capacity and

performance. One ESS can support in excess of 28 TB and can utilize 2 Gbps

Fibre Channel connectivity.

Redundancy within ESS provides continuous availability. It is packaged in one or

more enclosures, each with dual line cords and redundant power. The redundant

power system allows ESS to continue normal operation when one of the line

cords is deactivated.

ESS provides an image of a set of logical disk devices to attached servers. The

logical devices are configured to emulate disk device types that are compatible

with the attached servers. The logical devices access a logical volume that is

implemented using multiple disk drives. This allows ESS to connect to all IBM

servers, from zSeries to iSeries, pSeries and xSeries, directly or thorough a

SAN, thus helping the x440 fit into a heterogeneous environment containing a

variety of server architectures. ESS offers several choices of host I/O interface

attachment methods, including SCSI and Fibre Channel for xSeries.

For more information on the ESS go to:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/index.html

3.3.2

Disk subsystem performance

Because of the processing capacity of the x440, a poorly designed storage

subsystem could become a bottleneck, seriously impacting overall system

performance. You should implement a disk subsystem that is able to efficiently

process the potentially massive number of disk I/O requests generated by the

processor subsystem.

Assuming that you will be implementing a RAID storage configuration, the rule of

thumb is that more physical disks will improve the throughput of your disk

subsystem and consequently overall system performance. In almost all

applications, adding disks to your RAID configuration will continue to improve

performance until another system component becomes a bottleneck. A storage

solution with too few physical disks will become a bottleneck for the entire

system.

You will need to carefully analyze your storage capacity requirements, your

application requirements, and your host requirements before you finalize your

storage solution.