WHITE PAPER New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability

Transcription

1 WHITE PAPER New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability July 2006 PREPARED FOR Fujitsu TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary... 1 Introduction... 2 Fujitsu Technology-Based High Availability Overview... 3 System Mirror Operations for High Availability... 3 System Management for High Availability... 4 Hot Plug... 5 Cluster Capability... 6 Additional High Availability Features... 7 The IDEAS Bottom Line... 7 Endnotes... 8 TO DIG DEEPER This white paper prepared by Ideas International (IDEAS) offers an in-depth examination of the high availability offerings of Fujitsu s PRIMEQUEST servers. Three companion white papers provide similar detail on: operating systems, system architecture, and system management. An overview white paper provides a summary of the capabilities of the PRIMEQUEST offerings. For additional details, see Executive Summary Fujitsu s recently announced PRIMEQUEST Series 500 mission-critical enterprise servers based on Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processor (Montecito) are available in three models: the 520 (8 CPUs/16 cores), the 540 (16 CPUs/32 cores), and the 580 (32 CPUs/64 cores). All PRIMEQUEST servers run the current versions of Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 4 [RHEL4] and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Version 9 [SLES9]) and Windows (Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium and Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for Itanium). They will also run the next available Linux versions (RHEL5 and SLES10) and Microsoft s Vista once those operating systems are released. In addition, the Series 500 servers will be able to accommodate the Itanium Montvale microprocessor upon its availability. Described by Fujitsu as its mission-critical line of Intel Architecture servers, these high-end platforms target customers seeking a highly reliable enterprise-class server that benefits from the economies of industry-standard hardware and software. What differentiates Fujitsu s PRIMEQUEST servers from other Intel IPF-based platforms is the careful attention paid to mission-critical design. Fujitsu has leveraged its proven mainframe and PRIMEPOWER (for Solaris and SPARC) design experience to create an Itanium-based family that satisfies customer desires for running mission-critical workloads on industry-standard servers. It is well accepted in the industry that firms with a mainframe heritage such as Fujitsu, IBM, and Unisys can leverage this experience to other machine types for great benefit. Fujitsu is outstanding in this regard and has incorporated a number of mainframe-like capabilities for high availability in its PRIMEQUEST server offerings. These capabilities include the industry-unique System Mirror architecture, redundant system management, multiple hot-plug facilities, clustering, and a variety of other features and functions. The System Mirror architecture offers two modes: Standard Mirror and Extended Mirror. Each of these options provides different capabilities. Adopted from Fujitsu mainframe technology, System Mirror operations (depending on the option chosen) allow partition resources (crossbar, memory, etc.) to be duplicated (hardware redundancy) and operate in lock step. As a result, failure of any of these components does not cause a partition to fail. This document is copyrighted by Ideas International, Inc. (IDEAS) and is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws and conventions. This document may not be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form, posted on a public or private website or bulletin board, or sublicensed to a third party without the written consent of IDEAS. No copyright may be obscured or removed from the paper. All trademarks and registered marks of products and companies referred to in this paper are protected. This document was developed on the basis of information and sources believed to be reliable. This document is to be used as is. IDEAS makes no guarantees or representations regarding, and shall have no liability for the accuracy of, data, subject matter, quality, or timeliness of the content. The data contained in this document are subject to change. IDEAS accepts no responsibility to inform the reader of changes in the data. In addition, IDEAS may change its view of the products, services, and companies described in this document. IDEAS accepts no responsibility for decisions made on the basis of information contained herein, nor from the reader s attempts to duplicate performance results or other outcomes. Nor can the paper be used to predict future values or performance levels. This document may not be used to create an endorsement for products and services discussed in the paper or for other products and services offered by the vendors discussed.

2 New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability July 2006 COLLABORATION WITH INDUSTRY LEADERS FOR HIGH AVAILABILITY To ensure that its PRIMEQUEST servers are industry leading as far as high availability is concerned, Fujitsu has established, in addition to its own efforts based on its long mainframe heritage, various partnerships with key players such as Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, Novell, and the Open Software Development Laboratory (OSDL). Highlights of these efforts, which will result in ongoing improvements as Fujitsu technology suggestions are accepted and implemented by all concerned parties, include: Fujitsu has proposed Itanium enhancements that Intel will own. In particular, Fujitsu is working with Intel on a mainframe-like machine check architecture for Itanium that will enhance server system availability. Fujitsu is working with the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL); all high availability and other improvements developed will become open source. Fujitsu is working with Red Hat and Novell so that their distributions will include Fujitsu high availability and other enhancements. Fujitsu is working with Microsoft to ensure that Windows Vista can take advantage of PRIMEQUEST server high availability and other features. Hot plug capabilities directly contribute to a PRIMEQUEST server s availability. Many of the components in the PRIMEQUEST platform are, by design, hot pluggable. These components include, for example, most I/O devices, the fans and fan trays, the power supplies, the System Management Boards, the operator panel, the keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) unit, and certain other system components. PRIMEQUEST s Dynamic Reconfiguration ability further bolsters this capability. A host of other PRIMEQUEST server high availability features is discussed in this white paper. These features include the redundant System Management Boards, clustering (either between two or more PRIMEQUEST servers, or within a PRIMEQUEST server), and more. In addition, Fujitsu is working with the open source community and Microsoft to develop even more high availability features and functions for Linux and Windows respectively. This white paper probes, in more detail, the high availability offerings available on PRIMEQUEST servers. Companion papers in this series focus on other PRIMEQUEST attributes, such as system architecture design, system management capabilities, and operating system support. A PRIMEQUEST Overview white paper is also available. Introduction Working in close collaboration with Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Novell, Fujitsu now offers its high-end PRIMEQUEST servers based on the Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processor (Series 500) in 8-CPU/16-core, 16-CPU/32-core, and 32-CPU/64-core versions (Models 520, 540, and 580 respectively). These servers run the latest and forthcoming (i.e., Montvale) Itanium CPUs, as well as the latest Linux and Microsoft operating system offerings. In addition, they are capable of SMP or scale-out operation with multiple partitions and domains. Fujitsu s industry-leading high availability technology ties all these capabilities together in a robust package. PRIMEQUEST servers can run high-end applications on the two operating systems that will dominate the market in the coming years. According to most industry analysts, Linux and Windows will constitute over 60% of the market. These servers form a key piece of the complete Fujitsu server product line alongside PRIMEPOWER for UNIX (Solaris operating system on the SPARC microprocessor) and PRIMERGY for industry-standard 32-bit/64-bit (EM64T) Intel processors and Windows/Linux. PRIMEQUEST servers will, going forward, offer unique Fujitsu-originated or suggested extensions to Itanium, Windows, and Linux to further improve performance and availability. The sidebar Collaboration with Industry Leaders for High Availability provides an overview of these efforts as far as high availability is concerned. PRIMEQUEST servers, built with the benefit of Fujitsu s long mainframe, vector processor, and UNIX heritage, will directly compete in the worldwide marketplace with machines from Bull, HP, SGI, IBM, NEC, and Unisys. Applications targeted include OLTP, decision support/data warehouse, legacy modernization, and server/database consolidation. 2 White Paper 2006 Ideas International, Inc.

3 July 2006 New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability Key Fujitsu Differentiator: No other vendor can differentiate its server partitions with mainframelike System Mirror capability so that Windows/Linux partitions continue to operate in the face of failure. Fujitsu Technology-Based High Availability Overview It is well accepted in the industry that firms with a mainframe heritage such as Fujitsu, IBM, and Unisys can leverage this experience to other machine types for great benefit to the customer. Fujitsu is outstanding in this regard and has incorporated a number of mainframe-like capabilities for high availability in its PRIMEQUEST server offerings. These capabilities include the industry-unique System Mirror architecture, redundant system management, multiple hot-plug facilities, clustering, dynamic reconfiguration, and a variety of other features and functions. System Mirror Operations for High Availability Overview. Adopted from Fujitsu mainframe technology, System Mirror operations allow PRIMEQUEST partition resources (crossbar, memory) to be duplicated (hardware redundancy) and operate in lock step. As a result, failure of any of these components does not cause a partition to fail. 1 The 16- and 32-CPU PRIMEQUEST servers (Models 540 and 580) offer System Mirror operation. The System Mirror can be either disabled or enabled in two different operating modes Standard or Extended. In the disabled condition, all partitions are in non-system Mirror operation. To change the PRIMEQUEST chassis to a System Mirror (mirror enabled), the chassis must be rebooted. In the enabled System Mirror condition, each partition can be selected to be in either of the two modes (Standard or Extended). The key point to remember about the Fujitsu System Mirror is that when a System Mirror is used, depending on the mode selected, neither a crossbar nor a memory failure will cause a system partition to fail or bounce on an error (not even temporarily pending recovery). No other hardware vendor including HP, IBM, and Unisys has this mainframe-like capability in its Windows/Linux offerings. It is a key differentiator for PRIMEQUEST servers. When the System Mirror is enabled, the default mirror mode for each PRIMEQUEST server partition is the Standard Mirror. The Extended Mirror mode requires further enablement. As mentioned above, under System Mirror enablement, all partitions can be separately set as Standard or Extended. Inside the Modes. The Standard Mirror provides hardware redundancy only for the dual PRIMEQUEST server address crossbar units. Redundancy is also provided for the address interface circuits in the PRIMEQUEST server s redundant Fujitsu chipset (new for the PRIMEQUEST Series 500). With the Extended Mirror, hardware redundancy is provided for the address crossbar units (synchronous operation), quad data crossbar units (synchronous operation), all main memory (duplicated memory read/write access), and the main components in the PRIMEQUEST server Fujitsu chipset. Standard Mirror capabilities (e.g., address crossbar) are subsumed within the Extended Mirror. Table 1 (below) provides a high-level overview of the Fujitsu System Mirror capabilities for hardware redundancy. White Paper 2006 Ideas International, Inc. 3

4 New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability July 2006 With PRIMEQUEST System Mirror, users can tradeoff performance with availability depending on their application needs. Table 1. High-Level Overview of PRIMEQUEST Series 500 System Mirror Capabilities System Mirror Non-Mirror Mode Standard Extended Local Data Crossbar and Memory Non-Mirror Non-Mirror Mirror Data Crossbar Non-Mirror Non-Mirror Mirror Address Crossbar Non-Mirror Mirror Mirror Table 2 (below) shows the effect of the Standard Mirror and Extended Mirror on PRIMEQUEST server performance. Since performance and System Mirror choices are related, it is important to correctly size the performance and availability tradeoffs for all PRIMEQUEST partitions as a function of the applications they are running. When the Extended Mirror is enabled, effective memory capacity per partition is reduced by about one-half. (In the Extended Mirror, the memory slots are divided into two memory mirror groups and mirroring is performed between these groups. The logical memory capacity becomes half of the physical capacity.) Similarly, the crossbar bandwidths of both the system boards and the I/O boards in a PRIMEQUEST partition are reduced as shown in Figure 2. Any reduced partition performance caused by System Mirror is made up for by the fact that the system continues to operate and the business unit managers and end users will likely suffer little or no revenue loss should a failure occur. Should more application capacity be needed while preserving the utmost in high availability from System Mirror operations, the partition can be grown by adding more resources. Table 2. System Mirror Hardware Redundancy Coverage and PRIMEQUEST Series 500 Server Effect System Mirror Item Disable Standard Mirror Enable Extended Mirror Global Address Bus Single Duplicated Global Data Bus Single Duplicated Memory Single Duplicated Effective MEM Capacity 100% 50% Effective Performance 100% >99% >95% Xbar B.W. (SB) 17.06GB/sec GB/sec. Xbar B.W. (IOU) 4.26 GB/sec GB/sec. System Management for High Availability Superior system management is key to superior high availability, as a system whose state cannot be known and modified (e.g., repaired) as needed is not a trustworthy system as far as high availability is concerned. Understanding this fact of practical system operation, Fujitsu s PRIMEQUEST servers offer an integrated 4 White Paper 2006 Ideas International, Inc.

5 July 2006 New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability System Management Board. It is available in a redundant configuration in the Models 540 and 580 so that it is not a single point of failure. Moreover, many System Management Board components are redundant for further high availability. With its System Management Board, a Fujitsu PRIMEQUEST server offers consolidated management of multiple partitions. This capability further ensures that the system administrator can optimize PRIMEQUEST server uptime for PRIMEQUEST users. As part of this consolidated management, it is possible to dynamically change partitions and perform concurrent maintenance should maintenance be necessary. Complete implementation of this capability awaits the next versions of Red Hat (RHEL5 and 6) and Novell SUSE (SLES11), which are expected in late 2006 or Dynamic reconfiguration availability also awaits Microsoft s Vista operating system. See the companion white paper on Operating Systems for further information on this subject. 2 Dynamic reconfiguration is also further discussed later in this document. Further information concerning the System Management Board is available in the companion white paper in this series on System Management. 3 However, it is important to note here that the System Management Board provides a host of features that enhance PRIMEQUEST s high availability. The System Management Board: Facilitates autonomous fault recovery so that downtime is minimized or avoided. Facilitates system monitoring through use of over a hundred GUI screens that are available on the web browser-connected System Management Board Console. This console provides data on the state of all PRIMEQUEST server partition components and other system-level information (down to the chassis component temperature level). Such fine-grained monitoring ensures that downtime is minimized or avoided. Facilitates control of PRIMEQUEST s Flexible I/O switch. With Flexible I/O, I/O resources can be independently and flexibly connected to CPU and associated memory resources as needed. Among other advantages, this ability enables rapid recovery from system board or I/O failure and further increases system high availability. Hot Plug Hot plug capabilities directly contribute to a PRIMEQUEST server s availability. Many of the components in PRIMEQUEST are, by design, hot pluggable. These components include, for example, most I/O devices, the fans and fan trays, the power supplies, the System Management Board, the operator panel, the KVM unit, and certain other system components. The exact breakdown of which components are fundamentally hot pluggable depends on the PRIMEQUEST Series 500 Model, on which redundancy options have been chosen by the PRIMEQUEST customer, and on which operating system is being used. Table 3 provides a top-level view of which PRIMEQUEST components are redundant and/or hot pluggable in the Series 500. White Paper 2006 Ideas International, Inc. 5

6 New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability July 2006 Table 3. Redundant and Hot-Pluggable PRIMEQUEST Components Redundancy SB, PSU, FAN Hot-Plug Model 520 Model 540 Model 580 SB, IO, IOX, PSU, FAN, PCI Card, HD SB, GSWB, MMB, PSU, FAN SB, GSWB, MMB, PSU, FAN SB, IO, GSBW, MMB, PSU, FAN, PCI Card, HD SB, IO, GSBW, MMB, PSU, FAN, PCI Card, HD SB=System Board; PSU=Power Supply Unit; GSWB=Gigabit Switch Board; MMB=Management Board; IO=Input/Output Unit; IOX=Input/Output Express Unit; HD=Hard Drive Many major components are not fundamentally hot pluggable unless they are in a non-operating partition. If dynamic reconfiguration is available, depending on the operating system in question, these major components may be hot pluggable in a running partition. Of course, system boards and I/O units outside a running partition can be replaced without effecting running partitions. Individual system board CPUs and DIMMS can only be replaced in a system board removed from the PRIMEQUEST server chassis. Dynamic Reconfiguration Improvement. The presence of dynamic reconfiguration capabilities changes the above picture for the better. With dynamic reconfiguration, for example, the system and I/O units can be hot swapped, as can certain crossbars (e.g., the data crossbar in a running partition). Depending on the component in question or the operating system used, a partition reboot may be necessary. Moreover, dynamic reconfiguration may depend on the presence of redundant paths (e.g., for I/O). There are many variables to consider. The list below provides an overview of the current Fujitsu PRIMEQUEST plans in this area (best case estimate). PCI-X Device Hot Add/Remove PCI-EX Device Hot Add/Remove System Board Hot Add System Board Hot Remove I/O Unit Hot Add/Remove Further details regarding which components can be hot-swapped, which need dynamic reconfiguration for hot swapping, and whether a reboot is needed, etc. are beyond the scope of this white paper. Such information changes rapidly as new Windows and Linux versions become available. The most current details are available from Fujitsu. Finally, with regard to dynamic reconfiguration, it is important to remember that dynamic reconfiguration enables PRIMEQUEST system administrators and users to enjoy the benefits of concurrent maintenance when it is required. This benefit means that system resources can be moved in and out of, and around the system, as required, without the loss of the system to the application. Cluster Capability PRIMEQUEST servers may be clustered for additional high availability for missioncritical environments. Such clustering can be accomplished within a partitioned PRIMEQUEST server, or between two (or more) physically separate PRIMEQUEST 6 White Paper 2006 Ideas International, Inc.

7 July 2006 New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability PRIMEQUEST Series 500 Servers provide a powerful, high availability value proposition for Windows and Linux on Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 microprocessors. server units. In both cases, existing PRIMEQUEST LAN connections provide the needed heartbeat signals, System Management Board information, user information, etc. It must be emphasized that the PRIMEQUEST server s System Mirror is not equivalent to, or a replacement for, clusters. There are many distinctions and the architectures meet different needs that are not discussed here in detail. For example, clusters accommodate application failures and failover, and require failover time. Mirrors do not accommodate application failures and have no failover time. The Fujitsu PRIMECLUSTER product provides the needed cluster software for PRIMEQUEST Series 500 servers. PRIMECLUSTER is a well-established product with a long history on Solaris, and has been ported to Linux. Microsoft s MCS software applies when Windows is the PRIMEQUEST operating system. Additional High Availability Features Although they are not discussed in detail here, PRIMEQUEST servers enjoy the services of other high availability features and functions to ensure minimal downtime. These features include (among many others): Fujitsu chipset high availability including redundant control circuits Use of a virtual LAN (VLAN) inside the server to eliminate cable jungles between system and I/O boards and external interfaces Extensive use of error checking and correction (ECC) and parity checks wherever possible throughout PRIMEQUEST (including in PRIMEQUEST Fujitsu ASICs) Protocol checking to ensure correct internal communications CPU and memory fault prediction to remove failing components PCI bus failure detection Built-in high availability features of Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processor (Montecito) 4 The IDEAS Bottom Line Fujitsu s PRIMEQUEST Series 500 high-end, mission-critical server line is based on Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processor (Montecito) and is dedicated solely to Windows and the two major distributions of Linux. The PRIMEQUEST server offering allows a diverse set of vertical industries and applications to enjoy the services of industry-standard hardware (Intel) and operating system software (Windows and Linux) on a highly available, mission-critical platform. Windows and Linux can be used, unmodified, in PRIMEQUEST. These operating systems already enable PRIMEQUEST to offer a wide variety of high availability features. However, Fujitsu is working with both Microsoft and the open source community to create additional features that will make these operating systems even more functional for PRIMEQUEST servers (and other computer systems). In particular, for high availability, Fujitsu is working with Microsoft and the Linux community to develop dump software, dynamic reconfiguration capabilities, enhanced high availability clustering, a machine check architecture, and additional White Paper 2006 Ideas International, Inc. 7

8 New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer the Utmost in High Availability July 2006 RAS capabilities (e.g., hot plug). Fujitsu is also developing its own unique PRIMEQUEST management capabilities and highly available chipsets. Americas Ideas International, Inc. 800 Westchester Avenue Suite S620 Rye Brook, NY USA Tel Fax Asia/Pacific and Worldwide Headquarters Ideas International Limited Level 3 20 George Street Hornsby, NSW, 2077 Australia Tel Fax Europe, Middle East, Africa Ideas International Europe 1 Deanes Close Steventon Oxon OX13 6SZ United Kingdom Tel +44 (0) Fax +44 (0) In addition to all the high availability features and functions mentioned in this white paper, Fujitsu has worked to improve the PRIMEQUEST Series 500 in other ways. Not discussed in detail here for space reasons, these improvements include: Further development of a no-single-point-of-failure architecture Ability to use a floating system board to replace a failed board (based on flexible I/O capability) A 90% reduction in MTTR compared to earlier PRIMEQUEST models as shown by Fujitsu field test data Increased reliability and lower cost of ownership (COO) as a result of a cableless design using midplanes instead of cables Low overall system power consumption compared to the competition, which minimizes component deterioration caused by heat Mainframe-like machine check architecture for Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processor in PRIMEQUEST When all of the high availability features and functions discussed in detail in this white paper are combined with those just mentioned, it is clear that PRIMEQUEST servers will take market share in a variety of applications. These applications will exist in the high-end, mission-critical server environment for Linux or Windows (or both) for which high availability is a major factor. Because of its architecture and the consequent high availability, Fujitsu expects PRIMEQUEST servers to provide superior COO and return-on-investment (ROI) figures compared to other vendors Itanium-based offerings. Such figures combined with the PRIMEQUEST server s high availability features and functions, and its other strong attributes (highlighted in this white paper series) ensure interest in PRIMEQUEST servers from customers worldwide as they come to understand PRIMEQUEST s unique position and value proposition. Endnotes 1 For a deeper understanding of the material in this section, consult the companion white paper, PRIMEQUEST System Architecture, Ideas International, July See the companion white paper, New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Offer Mission-Critical Hosting for Linux and Windows Applications, Ideas International, July See the companion white paper, New Fujitsu High-End Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2-Based PRIMEQUEST Servers Continue Industry-Leading System Management, Ideas International, July See Montecito Error Protection and Mitigation, available from Intel. 8 White Paper 2006 Ideas International, Inc.