Presentation to annual Progress user conference comparing price and performance of x86-based Linux servers with proprietary Unix servers from HP, Sun and IBM

1. Moving On Up –
Smaller Servers and Bigger Performance
Doug Lucy
Allegro Consultants

2. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Who…
• Programming since 1978
• OpenEdge v3.2A and Unix since 1986
• Certified in AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, etc.
• 35 programmers and DBAs
• Contract programming and consulting

3. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Customer history
• Chose Progress vertical app
• Bought Unix for multiple users
• Added on to grow
• Kept machine forever

4. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Results after 10, 15, 20 years
• Locked-in proprietary platform
• Rarely upgrade to new model
• Very expensive
– Training
– Add-on hardware
– software

5. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Need to grow
• More users, demands
• More data to crunch
• Ageing hardware
• Increasing support cost

6. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Moving on up
• Upgrade servers
• Modern platforms
• 50% of cost of proprietary
• Reach new features

7. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Your direction
• How many will buy new or add?
• Want fast, cheap, supported
• Must be safe, risk-free
• How do you decide?

8. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Previously supported OSes
• DEC VMS
• DEC Unix
• MS-DOS
• Novell Netware
• CTOS/BTOS
• Sequent Dynix/ptx
• Data General DG-UX
• SCO Xenix & Unix
• SCO Unixware
• AT&T/NCR Unix
• Unisys Unix
• IBM AIX
• HP-UX
• Sun SunOS & Solaris
• MS Windows NT
• RedHat & SUSE
Linux
• AS/400

9. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Current OSes and CPUs
• IBM AIX on Power
• Linux
– x86
– Power
• HP-UX
– PA-RISC
– Itanium
• Sun Solaris
– SPARC
– x86
• Windows Server
– x86
• Tru64 on Alpha

10. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
OS and CPU trends
• x86 – Intel Pentium AMD
• Linux or Windows on x86
– Reduce costs
– Shift most R&D costs to external
– Focus on software and services
– Standards rather than proprietary

11. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Benefits of x86-based
• Lower initial costs
• Lower support costs
• Increased selection
– Hardware
– OS
– Add-ons
– Vendors
– Resources
• Better performance
• Newer features
sooner
• Virtualization
• More timely
upgrades
• Budget for other
options

12. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Cons of x86-based
• More vendors “in the mix”
• Limited support for 3rd
party
• HW and OS support not as deep yet
• Servers not always as cool looking

13. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Costs of new platform
• New hardware
• New OS
• HW, OS, and SW annual support
• Porting costs (consulting or in-house)
• Platform change fees

14. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Solution comparisons

15. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
5-year costs and savings

16. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Excellent cluster config

17. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Question:
• Ok, so it’s cheaper…
• But is it faster?

18. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
CPU SPECint_rate2000
“performance measurements that can be used to compare compute-intensive
workloads on different computer systems, SPEC CPU2000 CINT2000 for
measuring and comparing compute-intensive integer performance.”
-www.spec.org

19. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
TPC-C
• Transaction Processing Council
– www.tpc.org
• TPC-C benchmark for OLTP

20. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Today’s TPC-C results
• Old days – big iron
• Today - top fifty!

21. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Important performance notes
• Database apps need I/O and memory
speed, not so much compute speed
– Memory and I/O bus speed
– L2 and L3 cache size
– Memory size
– I/O speed and spread
• OpenEdge uses INT ops, not FP ops
• Keep context switching to a minimum

22. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Change: What’s important?
• Vendor selection
• Vendor support
• Planning the migration

23. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Vendor selection
• Choose vendor you trust
• Nearby parts and service
• Solid Linux/Windows history and
investments
• Enterprise relationship

24. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Vendors and support
• 24x7 enterprise support is critical
• Top-tier vendor
– HP, IBM, Sun, Dell
• Align for Windows or Linux

25. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
What is migrating?
Database
QAD MFG/pro
OpenEdge
OS
Model 1000

26. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Migrating to a new machine
Database
QAD MFG/pro
OpenEdge
OS 1.0
Model 1000
OS 2.3
Model 2000

27. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Migrating to a new machine
Database
QAD MFG/pro
OpenEdge
OS 1.0
Model 1000
Database
QAD MFG/pro
OpenEdge
OS 2.0
Model 2000

28. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Porting to a new platform
Database
QAD MFG/pro
OpenEdge
OS 1.0
Model 1000
Database
QAD MFG/pro
OpenEdge
Different OS 2.3
Model XYZ

29. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Porting plan
• Licensing issues – discover early
• Validate portable code base, no orphans
• Catalog all services and products
• Purchase and install HW and OS
• Create bare-metal restore
• Test new support contacts and contracts

30. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Porting plan (cont’d)
• Install software, recompile and basic test
• Migrate users, printers, devices, data
• User testing of functionality, external
interfaces
• Nightly refresh
• DR test
• Parallel testing
• Switchover and reverse refresh

31. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Porting issues
• UIDS and Passwords
• Profiles
• Printers
• Locations and paths
• Data
– Tar and untar
– Dump&Load
• Scripts
– Crontab vs.
Windows
– Bourne shell vs.
bash vs. CMD.EXE
– Windows
equivalents
• Rosetta stone
bhami.com/rosetta.html

32. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Pitfalls to watch out for
• /dev/null
• Serial ports
• No Windows telnet
• Windows swap
• Console messages
vs. Event Manager
• Online or LVM
under Windows
• Search for “UNIX” or
“OP-SYS”
• Sending email
• Spaces in filenames
and paths
• Proprietary backup
• RAID 5
• Not enough disks

33. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Progress issues
• Dump and load – endian-ness
• .R OK with endian-ness, not 32 vs 64
• Moving database
– Cannot use probkup
– Binary dump and load OK
– Character code conversion
• Disk layout and performance

34. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
End state

35. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Virtualization
• One physical machine
– Multiple OSes
– Movable OSes
• Like partitioning
• Dramatic trend towards virtualization

36. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Harlow’s “Fun with Virtualization”
• Why Virtualize?
– Maximize utilization of server resources
– Provide higher availability
– Simplify the testing of upgrades/changes
– Ease migration to new servers
– Increase security
– Reduce administrative workload

37. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Recommendations
• Project support and upgrade costs
• Consider move to x86
• Consolidate platforms and storage
• Plan your architecture
• Vendors with knowledge and support
• Test, test, test

38. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Slides and handouts
• Slides and handouts available
• Questions via phone or email
– Doug Lucy
– dlucy@allegroconsultants.com
– (804) 553-1130

39. DB-7 Moving On Up - Smaller Servers and Big
Any questions?
www.AllegroConsultants.com