jetnexus ALB-X on IBM BladeCenter

Transcription

1 jetnexus ALB-X on IBM BladeCenter Performance and scalability test results jetnexus IBM Systems and Technology Group ISV Enablement November 2012 Copyright IBM Corporation, 2012

2 Table of contents Abstract...1 Introduction...1 Summarized results... 1 Proof-of-concept test setup...1 Lab equipment... 2 Network layout and IP addressing... 4 Test results... 6 Appendix A: IBM iflow switch configuration...12 Appendix B: Sample deployment scenario...16 Resources...17 Trademarks and special notices...18

3 Abstract The intent of this paper is to report the performance and scalability characteristics of jetnexus ALB-X when running on IBM BladeCenter with the integrated IBM iflow Director. This paper explains the proof-of-concept setup, and the network and switch configuration details. Introduction jetnexus has teamed with IBM to develop a scalable, high-capacity application delivery controller (ADC) (also known as Layer 4-7 load-balancer) solution on IBM BladeCenter integrated with IBM iflow Director (a 10 Gbps Ethernet Switch with enhanced traffic distribution firmware). In order to benchmark the performance of such an ADC, IBM and jetnexus jointly conducted a proof-of-concept performance testing at the IBM Innovation Center in Hursley, UK. This paper outlines the test methodology, lab setup, and results from the proof-of-concept tests. Summarized results The tests have demonstrated the following results: IBM iflow Director load balancing to jetnexus ALB-X running on IBM BladeCenter HS23 blades has achieved a linear capacity/throughput scaling Approximately 1.73 million transactions per second (TPS) of Layer 7 (HTTP content) capacity with six jetnexus ALB-X HS23 blades. This extrapolates to over 4 million TPS with a fully configured IBM BladeCenter H consisting of 14 blades. Approximately 60 Gbps throughput (Layer 7 HTTP content) with six jetnexus ALB-X HS23 blades. This extrapolates to approximately 140 Gbps throughput with a fully configured BladeCenter H consisting of 14 blades. Resilience and stability Proof-of-concept test setup This section provides an overview of the test bed. For the purpose of this proof-of-concept, IPv4 traffic generated by clients (traffic generator software) was load-balanced by iflow2 (configured in Layer 3 mode) switch across multiple IBM BladeCenter HS23 blades running the jetnexus ALB-X software. The web application servers (content servers) were used at the back end by the jetnexus ALB-X blades. 1

4 Figure 1: iflow2 jetnexus proof-of-concept test setup (logical view) Lab equipment The table below lists the major components used for the performance tests. Component Quantity Comments IBM BladeCenter H 1 Four power supplies BNT 10G iflow switches 2 Firmware (Active/Standby) IBM BladeCenter HS23 (7875) dual-processor with 10G network interface card (NIC), 32GB RAM, 300GB HDD 6 jetnexus ALB-X blades IBM BladeCenter HS22 dual-processor with 10G NICs 6 Traffic generator clients IBM BladeCenter HS22 dual-cpu with 10G NICs 2 Content servers BNT 1G 6-port Layer 2/3 switch 2 For the management of chassis using Secure Shell (SSH) Table 1: IBM BladeCenter H chassis components 2

5 Figure 2: The actual test BladeCenter H during the tests Figure 3: The back side of the rack during the tests 3

6 Network layout and IP addressing Figure 4 shows a sample logical network layout and IP addressing of the test lab environment. A large number of clients were simulated on the BladeCenter HS22 traffic generation blades. Traffic from the clients was addressed to the cluster virtual IP. The iflow switch was configured to load balance client traffic across the jetnexus ALB-X blades using hash of Source IP (that is SIP = Client IP). This ensures that traffic from a particular client always goes to the same jetnexus ALB-X blade for persistency. The jetnexus ALB-X software uses more intelligent Layer 4-7 criteria on the back-end towards the content servers R iflow hash(sip) y jetnexus ALB-X Cluster Figure 4: Proof-of-concept network layout R x.x Clients R 100.y.x.x 4

7 Figure 5: jetnexus virtual IP / content server setup 5

8 Test results This section illustrates the test results. 1. Layer 7 (HTTP) TPS and resilience Figure 6: Test results graph showing Layer 7 (HTTP) TPS and Resilience During the test, the team used content of 64 bytes, a level that is generally accepted and used for TPS benchmarking (about 500 bytes with the entire HTTP wrapper): On the available 10 Gbps bandwidth, the same amount of TPS was sustained with content of up to 5 KB to 8 KB, similar to a GIF image (for example, logo.gif is 4.7 KB): Figure 7: jetnexus logo 6

9 2. Layer 7 (HTTP) throughput (Gbps) and resilience Figure 8: Test results graph showing Layer 7 (HTTP) throughput and Resilience To demonstrate a real-life high content throughput with considerable processing at more than 100k TPS, the test team used the 10 KB content for the high throughput tests, equivalent to a smaller web page. The graph shows just a narrow range of 160 Mbps to magnify the variance of the traffic on a longer term 24 hour test. Despite a few 80 to 100 Mb spikes, most of the variance stays in the limits of 40 to 50 Mbps. The maximum variance at Gbps traffic is less than 100 Mbps, representing less than 0.2% of the band. During the test, the system performed logging, configuration updates, and other scheduled verification (cron jobs) tasks. The fully integrated BladeCenter H solution with IBM iflow Director Switches and BladeCenter HS23 blades running jetnexus Layer 4 to Layer 7 load balancer software did a continuous resilient performance, demonstrating a strong and stable platform. 7

10 3. Layer 7 (HTTP) TPS availability and scaling Figure 9: Test results graph showing Layer 7 (HTTP) TPS availability and scaling To test the iflow Layer 3 mode load balancing to jetnexus ALB-X HS23 blades under a heavy transaction rate, the test team started to switch off the blades connectivity, simulating a real-life possible hardware fault or maintenance removal of a blade. To test the scaling both ways, the team reconnected the blades one by one at 3 minute intervals, simulating a fault recovery, hardware upgrade, or redeployment after maintenance. The load-balancing configuration used a single virtual IP during the entire test, using IBM iflow switch capability to distribute incoming requests to ALB-X blades. As shown on the graph, the transaction numbers are scaling with linear stepping of about 280 to 290 k TPS. After the initial test, the team ran a successful 24-hour resilience test described in test results 1, without any drops or relevant variance in transaction performance. 8

11 4. Layer 7 (HTTP) throughput (Gbps) availability and scaling Figure 10: Test results graph showing Layer 7 (HTTP) throughput (Gbps) availability and scaling To test the iflow Layer 3 mode load balancing to jetnexus ALB-X running on HS23 blades under heavy throughput, the team started to switch off the blades connectivity, simulating a real-life possible hardware fault or maintenance removal of a blade. The procedure of the test was similar to the procedure described in test result 3. As shown in the graph, the throughput is scaling with the stepping of the maximum performance of the network interfaces. After the initial test, the team ran a successful 24-hour resilience test, described in test result 2, without any drops or relevant variance in transaction performance. 9

12 5. Maximum performance Layer 7 (HTTP) TPS on a full BladeCenter H blade server Figure 11: Test results graph showing maximum performance Layer 7 (HTTP) TPS on a full BladeCenter H blade server Based on the test results described, the test team extrapolated the results to a fully loaded 14-blade chassis. The maximum configuration of one chassis, with a fully equipped BladeCenter H blade server behaves similar to one standalone appliance, with the advantage of linear and transparent scalability. The transactional performance, with smaller HTTP objects can be achieved by using just one external 10 Gbps uplink to the next hop router. 10

13 6. Maximum performance Layer 7 (HTTP) throughput (Gbps) on a full BladeCenter H blade server Figure 12: Test results graph showing maximum Layer 7 (HTTP) throughput (Gbps) on a full BladeCenter H blade server The maximum configuration, with a fully equipped BladeCenter H blade server behaves similar to one standalone appliance with the advantage of linear and transparent scalability up to 140 Gbps throughput. This requires four iflow switches for a fully redundant configuration. 11

14 Appendix A: IBM iflow switch configuration IBM iflow2 proof-of-concept switch configuration: Sample iflow configuration consisting of a load-balancing group with six jetnexus ALB-X blades script start "IBM Networking OS 10-port 10Gb Ethernet Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter" 7 /**** DO NOT EDIT THIS LINE! /* Configuration dump taken 0:36:20 Sun Jan 15, 2000 /* Version , Base MAC address 34:40:b5:71:c5:00 /c/sys idle 45 /c/port INT1 /c/port INT1/gig /c/port INT2 /c/port INT2/gig /c/port INT3 /c/port INT3/gig /c/port INT4 /c/port INT4/gig /c/port INT5 /c/port INT5/gig /c/port INT6 /c/port INT6/gig /c/port INT7 12

15 /c/port INT7/gig /c/port INT8 /c/port INT8/gig /c/port INT9 /c/port INT9/gig /c/port INT10 /c/port INT10/gig /c/port INT11 /c/port INT11/gig /c/port INT12 /c/port INT12/gig /c/port INT13 /c/port INT13/gig /c/port INT14 /c/port INT14/gig /c/slb on /c/slb/real 1 ena 13

16 rip /c/slb/real 2 ena rip /c/slb/real 3 ena rip /c/slb/real 4 ena rip /c/slb/real 5 ena rip /c/slb/real 6 ena rip /c/slb/group 1 health ping add 1 add 2 add 3 add 4 add 5 add 6 /c/slb/app 1 group 1 /c/acl/acl 10/target/dest slbapp /c/acl/acl 10/target/slbapp 1 /c/acl/acl 10/action redirect /c/acl/acl 10/stats ena /c/acl/group 1 add 10 /c/port INT7/acl/add grp 1 /c/port INT8/acl/add grp 1 /c/port INT9/acl/add grp 1 /c/port INT10/acl/add grp 1 /c/port INT11/acl/add grp 1 /c/port INT12/acl/add grp 1 /c/port INT13/acl/add grp 1 /c/port INT14/acl/add grp 1 /c/l3/if 11 ena addr /c/l3/if 124 ena addr /c/l3/if 125 ena addr /c/l3/if

17 ena addr /c/l3/route add add add add add add add add / script end /**** DO NOT EDIT THIS LINE! 15

18 Appendix B: Sample deployment scenario Figure 13 illustrates the jetnexus ALB-X deployment scenario. Figure 13: Deployment scenario 16

19 Resources The following websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper: IBM Systems on PartnerWorld ibm.com/partnerworld/systems jetnexus ALB-X Solution Brief ibm.com/partnerworld/page/stg_ast_sys_jetnexus_alb_x_load_balancing_application IBM Redbooks ibm.com/redbooks IBM Publications Center jetnexus 17

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21 Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in production models. Any references in this information to non-ibm websites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites. The materials at those websites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk. 19