Eight Core Servers: Opteron 880 (Egypt) vs. Xeon MP 3.0 GHz (Paxville)
by Jason Clark on April 24, 2006 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
Software Configuration
Hardware Configuration
Benchmark Configuration
Many of you will notice that we've finally transitioned our benchmark platform to 64-bit. It's been a long road getting there; we were constantly trying out builds of SQL 2005 64-bit as it was in development, and had mixed results. The final build produced viable numbers, and we've fully transitioned to SQL 2005 for all future benchmarks.
Our goal throughout the tests was a constant CPU usage of 80-90%; we didn't want to reach the point of system saturation, nor did we want the systems to have too many idle cycles. Each test was first verified and then run 3 times. The standard deviation for the tests is 3-4%. We then averaged the set of three runs to produce the final result.
Linux MySQL Tests
SysBench 0.4.3 was used for the MySQL tests. We ran 4 different tests for each platform. The first two tests consisted of accessing 1M rows in a read-write scenario, and 1M rows in a read-only scenario. The second tests were the same only with 10M rows.
MSSQL Forum Test
The forum benchmark is a standard mid-tier OLTP test, which was made by replicating live query data from our forum database during peak hours. We took those queries and then record them in an XML file, with random row ID generators to handle keeping the test as real-world as possible. We wrote a C# application which takes the test and plays it back using several threads to stress the database to a desired level.
Dell DVD Store
The DVD Store Version 2 (DS2) is a complete online e-commerce test application, with a backend database component, a web application layer, and driver programs. The goal in designing the database component as well as the mid-tier application was to utilize many advanced database features (transactions, stored procedures, triggers, referential integrity) while keeping the database easy to install and understand. The DS2 workload may be used to test databases or as a stress tool for any purpose. The test is maintained by Dave Jaffe and Todd Muirhead from Dell. We configured the test to hit the database directly, instead of using a web-tier; we're testing database performance, and that removes any unneeded complexity and possible discrepancies.
Windows Tests
Windows 2003 Enterprise 64-bit was used for the tests along with SQL Server 2005 64-bit.
Linux Tests
CentOS 4.2 x86_64 was used along with MySQL 5.0.18 x86_64.
Hardware Configuration
Intel Paxville System
Quad 3.0 GHz Paxville Dual Core Processors (667Mhz FSB / 2x2MB L2)
E8500 (Twin Castle 4S) Xeon MP Truland Platform
16GB DDR2
8 x 18GB 15,000RPM Ultra320 SCSI drives in RAID-0
LSI Logic 320-2 SCSI Raid Controller
HP DL585 Opteron System
HP Proliant DL585 System
Quad Opteron 880 Dual Core Processors
16GB DDR
8 x 18GB 15,000RPM Ultra320 SCSI drives in RAID-0
LSI Logic 320-2 SCSI Raid Controller
Benchmark Configuration
Many of you will notice that we've finally transitioned our benchmark platform to 64-bit. It's been a long road getting there; we were constantly trying out builds of SQL 2005 64-bit as it was in development, and had mixed results. The final build produced viable numbers, and we've fully transitioned to SQL 2005 for all future benchmarks.
Our goal throughout the tests was a constant CPU usage of 80-90%; we didn't want to reach the point of system saturation, nor did we want the systems to have too many idle cycles. Each test was first verified and then run 3 times. The standard deviation for the tests is 3-4%. We then averaged the set of three runs to produce the final result.
Linux MySQL Tests
SysBench 0.4.3 was used for the MySQL tests. We ran 4 different tests for each platform. The first two tests consisted of accessing 1M rows in a read-write scenario, and 1M rows in a read-only scenario. The second tests were the same only with 10M rows.
MSSQL Forum Test
The forum benchmark is a standard mid-tier OLTP test, which was made by replicating live query data from our forum database during peak hours. We took those queries and then record them in an XML file, with random row ID generators to handle keeping the test as real-world as possible. We wrote a C# application which takes the test and plays it back using several threads to stress the database to a desired level.
Dell DVD Store
The DVD Store Version 2 (DS2) is a complete online e-commerce test application, with a backend database component, a web application layer, and driver programs. The goal in designing the database component as well as the mid-tier application was to utilize many advanced database features (transactions, stored procedures, triggers, referential integrity) while keeping the database easy to install and understand. The DS2 workload may be used to test databases or as a stress tool for any purpose. The test is maintained by Dave Jaffe and Todd Muirhead from Dell. We configured the test to hit the database directly, instead of using a web-tier; we're testing database performance, and that removes any unneeded complexity and possible discrepancies.
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35 Comments
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coldpower27 - Monday, April 24, 2006 - link
Xeon MP will take some time to transistion to Core Architecture, were looking at Q1 2007 at the earliest, with the introduction of Tigerton hopefully.In the meantime Intel will update this platform with Tulsa, which still wouldn't be that competitive, but a step in the right direction.
Jason Clark - Monday, April 24, 2006 - link
I agree, it is getting a bit old discussing the older platforms, but this is a fairly new platform. Things will get more interesting later this year.Furen - Monday, April 24, 2006 - link
The 2.8GHz Paxville DP is the chip that came out on Q4, 2005Ozenmacher - Monday, April 24, 2006 - link
I think the title should be Eight Core Servers ;)JarredWalton - Monday, April 24, 2006 - link
Yup. Fixed. My error, not Jason's.