An Energy, Memory, and Performance Analysis Case Study on the IBM System z10 BC

Transcription

1 An Energy, Memory, and Performance Analysis Case Study on the IBM System z10 BC June 5, 2009 Elisabeth Stahl Michael Buechele John P. Rankin IBM Systems and Technology Group

2 Executive Overview As part of a dynamic infrastructure, the IBM System z10 is an excellent platform for the integration of energy efficiency and performance. Many organizations are reaching the limits of available space and power at their data centers. With server virtualization and consolidation capabilities and a green footprint, the IBM System z10 is well suited to address these requirements. This paper will discuss the IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) and energy efficiency, highlight the additional memory on the z10 BC, and present a case study which focuses on energy efficiency, memory, and performance analysis. Page 2

3 The IBM System z10 BC As part of a dynamic infrastructure, the IBM System z10 is an excellent platform for the integration of energy efficiency and performance. With server virtualization and consolidation capabilities and a green footprint, the IBM System z10 is well suited to address data center space and power needs. The IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) delivers innovative technologies for small and medium enterprises. The z10 BC extends the leadership of IBM System z by delivering expanded granularity and optimized scalability for growth, enriched virtualization technology for consolidation of distributed workloads, improved availability and security to help increase business resiliency, and just-in-time management of resources. The z10 BC continues the line of upward compatible mainframe processors and retains application compatibility since Processor chips are packaged in a single-chip module (SCM) and four SCMs are plugged into the processor board. The heart of the processor unit is the IBM z10 Enterprise Quad Core processor chip running at 3.5 GHz. The z10 BC offers 26 different sub-capacity level settings for the (up to five) configurable general purpose central processors (CP). With up to 130 capacity settings for running permanent and temporary workloads, the IBM z10 BC can give administrators an upgradeable system to manage business growth. The IBM z10 BC offers unique processors known as "specialty engines" that expand the use of the mainframe for SAP, Linux, Java, and other applications. An Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) is an example that can be used to run Linux or Linux guests on z/vm operating systems. Up to 10 processor units may be characterized as IFLs. The z10 BC, like its predecessors, supports 24, 31, and 64-bit addressing, as well as multiple arithmetic formats. High-performance logical partitioning via Logical Partitions (LPARs) and the Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM ) is achieved by industry-leading virtualization support. The z10 BC is Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 5 (EAL5) certified for the security of its logical partitions. Memory supports large (1 megabyte (MB)) pages, improving CPU utilization for exploiting applications. The IBM System z10 BC reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) is designed to reduce sources of outages by reducing unscheduled, scheduled and planned outages. Planned outages are further designed to be reduced with the introduction of concurrent I/O drawer add and eliminating pre-planning requirements. These features are designed to reduce the need for a Power-on-Reset (POR) and help eliminate the need to deactivate/activate/ipl a logical partition. From a performance standpoint, the IBM z10 BC is nearly 40% faster, has over 50% more total capacity and nearly four times the maximum memory compared to its predecessor, the largest IBM z9 BC. The z10 BC is more energy efficient than its predecessor. The energy consumption per unit of capacity in System z servers has decreased by a factor of sixteen since Over the same time period, the floorspace occupancy per unit of capacity has decreased by a factor of seventy-seven (based on comparing average energy consumption and space occupancy ranges of a G2 Model 9672-RX3 to a System z model ). In addition to these attributes, the z10 BC provides monitoring of energy consumption and tools for building energy consumption trends that can be utilized for in-depth analysis. The power system for the z10 BC features front-end bulk power supplies and Distributed Converter Assembly (DCA) technology. The z10 BC requires two power feeds; one feed connects to the front and the other to the rear of the frame. The z10 BC operates from two fully-redundant power supplies. This paper will highlight the additional memory on the z10 BC and present a consolidation case study focusing on energy efficiency and memory. Page 3

4 Memory on the IBM System z10 BC Initially the maximum physical memory size available on the IBM System z10 BC was 128 GB. 8 GB was reserved for the hardware systems area (HSA) and up to 120 GB of physical memory could be used. The maximum physical memory size of the z10 BC is now 256 GB. Since 8 GB is reserved for HSA, up to 248 GB of physical memory can be used. The z10 BC uses either 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8 GB dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs) to satisfy all physical memory sizes ranging from 16 GB to 256 GB. 2 GB DIMMs are used for up to 64 GB physical memory, 4 GB DIMMs are used for physical memory sizes up to 128 GB and 8 GB DIMMs are used for larger than 128 GB physical memory. Figure 1 shows the z10 BC physical memory sizes. Figure 2 shows how the 32 DIMM slots are organized in the drawer. There are two banks, each with 16 slots. The first row of each of the four groups of four DIMMs per bank is a master DIMM. The master DIMM is a buffered DIMM that redrives address, control, and data from DIMM to DIMM. In Figure 2 the master and subordinate DIMMs are shown. Physically, memory is organized as follows: The Central Processor Complex (CPC) drawer always contains a minimum of 8 DIMMs of 2 GB each (16 GB). The drawer may have more memory installed than enabled. The excess amount of memory can be installed by a Licensed Internal Code when required by the installation. Additional excess memory, called plan ahead memory, can be installed. With plan ahead memory it is possible to plan for non-disruptive permanent memory upgrades. This way physical memory will be installed before it is being used and it can be enabled when needed and ordered. For organizations that anticipate future memory growth, memory can be installed based on a target capacity. Memory upgrades are satisfied from already installed unused memory capacity until exhausted. When no more unused memory is available from the installed memory cards, one of the following is true depending on the actual configuration: Memory cards have to be upgraded to a higher capacity. Memory cards must be added. Memory upgrades are concurrent when it requires no change of the physical memory cards. If all or part of the additional memory is enabled for installation use, it becomes available to an active logical partition if this partition has reserved storage defined. Alternatively, it may be used by an already defined logical partition that is activated after the memory addition. Memory can be obtained in increments of 4 GB up to a total size of 32 GB. From 32 GB the increment size doubles to 8 GB until 120 GB. To accommodate workloads with higher memory demands, the memory size of the z10 BC can now be increased to 248 GB. From 120 GB to 248 GB the increment size is 32 GB. Pi Page 4

5 Figure 1.z10 BC Memory Configurations pe0 Figure 2.Physical DIMM Slot Layout in CPC Drawer Page 5

6 IBM System z10 BC Memory and Energy Analysis IBM System z delivers a wide variety of computing power to meet business needs. With IBM s System z10 BC and additional memory, there are greater options for increasing and consolidating computing capacity while increasing energy efficiency. The following example demonstrates how energy efficiency and memory can be factored into choice of a system. Consider an organization with 200 distributed servers running at very low utilization. Through a workload study, the organization has determined that they can consolidate 25 servers onto a single z10 BC IFL processor using 30G of real memory. This level of consolidation is consistent with that seen by IBM. In client studies, the z10 Business Class mainframe demonstrated the capacity of up to 232 x86 servers ( In fact, IBM itself is consolidating 3,900 computer servers onto approximately 30 System z mainframes ( expecting significant savings in energy, software and system support costs. As noted earlier, the z10 BC has up to 10 IFLs. By analyzing raw processing performance requirements, the organization described above could consolidate work onto a single z10 BC. However, the original z10 BC supported only 120G of real memory. Since the work running on each IFL requires 30G of real memory, the organization is limited to running only half of the work on one original z10 BC; two original z10 BCs would be needed to consolidate all the distributed systems. The recent enhancement to the z10 BC which allows up to 248G of real memory on a single system means that the entire workload will now fit on a single system. Moving from two systems down to one system, the number of processors used will remain the same. But as seen in earlier studies, turning processors on in a z10 requires little extra power ( Very little extra power is required to add additional workloads. Table 1 shows the results from the z10 BC Power estimator. The total memory configured is approximately the same overall in both examples. (Because of configuration granularity issues, the amount used when combining systems will often be different.) The number of I/O cards required on a single system will be no more than that required across two systems. Only one system infrastructure drawing power is required with a single system, instead of two. Page 6

7 Original z10 BC New z10 BC Model Active Processors 5 (4 IFLs + 1 SAP) 10 (8 IFLs + 2 SAPs) I/O Drawers 1 1 Memory 120 G 248 G Copper Fan out cards 1 2 MP Daughter cards 2 4 FICON Express4 4KM LX 4 8 OSA Express2 10GbE LR 1 1 Utility Input Power 3168 Watts 3609 Watts Systems Required 2 1 Total Power Required 6336 Watts 3609 Watts Table 1.IBM z10 BC Power Estimator Results As can be seen in Table 1, configuring the memory and I/O on a single system instead of spreading them across two systems reduces the overall power requirement from 6.3 kw to 3.6 kw, a 43% savings in power. Additionally, the space footprint would be reduced by 50%. Page 7

8 Conclusion Many organizations around the world are looking to reduce power consumption and many are facing data center power challenges. With the IBM System z10, IT managers can successfully integrate reduced power consumption with increased performance. IBM has led the technology industry in energy-smart innovation for over 40 years and is committed to climate protection. It is IBM's goal to sustain leadership in energy conservation and management by continuing to deliver power management and cooling technologies. With these technologies, systems use less power, generate less heat and use less energy to cool the system. This paper has described memory on the IBM System z10 BC and has highlighted a z10 BC consolidation, power and memory case study. With significant energy and space savings achieved, as shown in this analysis, the IBM System z10 will continue to be viewed as an outstanding platform for energy efficiency and performance. Page 8

9 References IBM System z10 Business Class Technical Overview IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) Reference Guide ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/rg/n/zso03021usen/zso03021usen.pdf IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) Reference Guide ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/rg/n/zso03018usen/zso03018usen.pdf IBM Launches Next-Generation Mainframe for Midsize Customers Power Estimation Tool A Consolidation, Virtualization and Power Study on the IBM System z10 IBM's Project Big Green Spurs Global Shift to Linux on Mainframe Thanks to Frank Bosco, System Architect: Packaging, Power, Cooling. Page 9

10 IBM Corporation 2008 IBM Corporation Systems and Technology Group Route 100 Somers, New York Produced in the United States of America June 2009 This document was developed for products and/or services offered in the United States. IBM may not offer the products, features, or services discussed in this document in other countries. The information may be subject to change without notice. Consult your local IBM business contact for information on the products, features and services available in your area. All statements regarding IBM future directions and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only. IBM, the IBM logo, System z, and System z10 are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both. A full list of U.S. trademarks owned by IBM may be found at: Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. IBM hardware products are manufactured from new parts, or new and used parts. In some cases, the hardware product may not be new and may have been previously installed. Regardless, our warranty terms apply. This equipment is subject to FCC rules. It will comply with the appropriate FCC rules before final delivery to the buyer. Information concerning non-ibm products was obtained from the suppliers of these products or other public sources. Questions on the capabilities of the non-ibm products should be addressed with those suppliers. All performance information was determined in a controlled environment. Actual results may vary. Performance information is provided AS IS and no warranties or guarantees are expressed or implied by IBM. Buyers should consult other sources of information, including system benchmarks, to evaluate the performance of a system they are considering buying. When referring to storage capacity, 1TB equals total GB divided by 1000; accessible capacity may be less. The IBM home page on the Internet can be found at: Page 10