Acceleration Performance Tests for IBM Rational ClearCase Remote Client (CCRC) Conducted by Certeon for IBM Ready for Rational CCRC Certification November 28 PAGE 1
Table of Contents Certeon Acceleration Performance Tests for IBM Rational ClearCase Remote Client (CCRC) Executive Summary...3 Introduction...3 The Impact of the WAN on Remote Application Access...4 acelera Virtual Appliance for Application Acceleration...4 Certeon CCRC Performance Tests...6 Conclusion...16 References...16 PAGE 2
Certeon Acceleration Performance Tests for IBM Rational ClearCase Remote Client (CCRC) Executive Summary IBM Rational ClearCase is an industry-leading software configuration management (SCM) solution that improves productivity by providing sophisticated version control, work space management, parallel development support and build auditing. It is typical for developers using IBM Rational ClearCase to be geographically distributed, working remotely either in small branch offices or from home. The IBM Rational ClearCase Remote Client (CCRC) allows remote developers to connect to distributed ClearCase databases and perform all SCM-related operations remotely; however, wide area network (WAN) latency can negatively impact application response time for operations that modify and transfer files across the WAN. This can result in lost productivity and higher development costs. For mission-critical applications such as IBM Rational ClearCase, alleviating the performance degradation of both unsecured and secure content over the WAN is imperative. This white paper discusses the demonstrable response time performance gains that can be achieved by the IBM Rational ClearCase application suite when used with Certeon s acelera Virtual Appliance for Application Acceleration software. The performance tests discussed in this document were conducted by Certeon for the Ready for Rational CCRC Certification effort. The testing scenarios illustrate an improvement of up to 93 percent in CCRC response time. This paper also provides an overview of Certeon s acelera software and its unique Application Acceleration Blueprint for IBM Rational ClearCase. It discusses Certeon s Secure Acceleration Technology (SAT), which allows Certeon to effectively accelerate encrypted SSL traffic over the WAN without compromising data integrity. Key findings from these performance tests: Certeon speeds CCRC performance up to 93 percent. CCRC performance with acelera improves as documents increase in size. CCRC performance with Certeon is consistent as the number of users increases. Introduction This technical white paper describes the impact of the WAN on the performance of centralized virtual applications, as experienced by remote office users. It also introduces Certeon s acelera Virtual Appliance (VA) for Application Acceleration software, the first and only true virtual appliance to improve remote application performance for encrypted and unencrypted WAN traffic. Specifically, the paper describes how acelera software improves remote application and file access response time using Application Acceleration Blueprints for IBM Rational CCRC. Actual results of testing were completed by Certeon using IBM Rational Performance Tester Agent to illustrate how acelera can improve CCRC remote response time by up to 93 percent. PAGE 3
The Impact of the WAN on Remote Application Access More and more enterprises are consolidating application and file resources and services at the data center in order to manage costs and maintain control of management and security. As consolidation moves data and applications away from remote office users, one of the largest groups of consumers of these resources, those users must carry out their daily work by accessing these services remotely over the WAN. The negative effect of the WAN on application performance has long been recognized. This negative effect has roots in the generally inferior characteristics of these long-range networks, as compared to the 1- or 1,-mbps LAN networks deployed locally within a corporate office or campus. These poor WAN characteristics include: Limited bandwidth: less than 1 to 1 s mbps Latency: 1 s to 1 s ms Depending on the protocol or application running between the remote office and the data center, the WAN can significantly impact performance. Some protocols, such as FTP or HTTP, suffer mainly from bandwidth limitations, especially when they are used to transfer large files. Chattier protocols such as CIFS, which provides file-sharing services, are sensitive to both limited bandwidth and high latency on the WAN, and suffer even poorer performance. Increasingly, IT managers are addressing WAN issues by adopting acceleration appliances. These appliances traditionally are repackaged server computers containing proprietary software for acceleration. Deployed both in the data center and in remote office locations, they work together to intercept traffic flows between remote office workers and data center servers and to perform operations that accelerate these flows. They typically perform some or all of the following operations: Data compression and de-duplication Protocol optimization TCP optimization Traffic prioritization or shaping If implemented correctly in the acceleration appliance, these techniques can mitigate the WAN effect and significantly improve the performance of consolidated applications accessed by remote office users. Certeon s acelera Virtual Appliance software is the first and only true virtual appliance to deliver these application acceleration techniques without the need for proprietary hardware. acelera Virtual Appliance for Application Acceleration Certeon s acelera is the first virtual appliance software to run natively within a virtual machine (VM) infrastructure and to provide true application acceleration across the WAN. acelera software delivers the same reduction in application response time as its proprietary hardware appliance counterparts do, with the added benefit of eliminating the hardware footprint and high cost of separately managed, single-purpose boxes. acelera Virtual Appliance software runs on industry-standard x86 system platforms and can be deployed easily in a data center and sent to remote sites within either virtualized or nonvirtualized environments. acelera supports Microsoft Windows Server 28 Hyper-V and VMware ESX and ESXi hypervisors. Users can request that Certeon preconfigure acelera software on a Dell server, enabling IT managers to deploy an out-of-the-box acelera Physical Appliance to remote users who currently do not have a server running in their branch office. PAGE 4
The acceleration, virtualization, and manageability benefits of acelera application acceleration enable IT managers to deploy virtualized applications to remote branch offices easier, faster, and at a lower cost, bringing greater productivity to all their users. Application Acceleration Blueprint for CCRC Certeon s Application Acceleration Blueprints, which are embedded in the acelera Virtual Appliance software, understand application protocols and semantics with greater accuracy than traditional packet compression and optimization solutions do. acelera accelerates all generic HTTP/HTTPS traffic and, with the help of the Blueprints, optimizes specific mission-critical applications such as IBM Rational CCRC, Microsoft Office, and SharePoint. A unique Object Differencing Engine works with the knowledge provided by the Blueprints to transmit only changes in the data, thus significantly reducing the amount of traffic that goes over the network. This reduction in network traffic over the WAN drastically cuts down application and file access response times, in some cases by more than 95 percent. Secure Application Technology (SAT) Enterprises today are increasingly concerned about the security of information, especially in remote-office locations where security is weaker and IT and security staffing is limited. For this reason, enterprises are adopting SSL to ensure privacy between authorized users and corporate servers. In Web-based portals and applications, this takes the form of HTTPS, a transport protocol between clients and servers. SSL presents a fundamental problem for products that accelerate application or file traffic between remote offices and data center servers. With SSL, all session-layer data is encrypted and is not compressible. Because SSL uses cryptographic keys that vary depending on time of day and individual user session, no two sessions traffic streams look the same; thus, differencing of this encrypted data is not possible. In order to overcome these problems, Certeon has implemented a patent-pending Secure Application Technology (SAT) within its acelera Virtual Appliances. The SAT achieves the following two key goals: Transparency acelera utilizes native server certificates for SSL session initialization, eliminating the cost and complexity of managing certificates on individual acceleration devices. Security Private server keys never leave the secure data center. By achieving these goals, acelera Virtual Appliances can inspect and accelerate SSL-encrypted traffic over the WAN securely and with neither additional management of certificates nor private keys. PAGE 5
Certeon CCRC Performance Tests The following tests demonstrate how acelera software dramatically improves CCRC performance over a WAN. The results collected using the IBM Rational Performance Tester Agent show the benefits of the performance improvements achieved before and after adding acelera software to the test configuration. Test Configuration The test configuration, (see Table 1 and Figure 1) was made up of a ClearCase Content Server, a Rational Performance Tester Agent simulating a CCRC client, and two acelera Physical Appliances, each residing on either side of the WAN. acelera software can be loaded on a industry standard server and configured with either VMware ESX or ESXi or Microsoft Windows Server 28 hypervisors. In this configuration, VMware ESXi was used. Unlike proprietary hardware WAN acceleration appliances, acelera-based physical appliances are not closed and can support other applications. The test configuration variables included file sizes and types. All but one of the test scenarios were configured for a single user. See test results for Test #9 for response times for the Rational Performance Tester CCRC multiuser load test. For all of the test configurations, the network bandwidth was limited to 1Mb/s speed with 2 ms of latency. Table 1 Test Configuration CCRC Client using Rational Performance acelera Physical Appliances ClearCase Content Server Tester Agent (SQA-CC/DC-SQA-CC) Server Class Pentium IV Pentium IV Pentium IV Number of CPUs 1 1 4 Virtual CPUs CPU Details 2.6 GHz 2.3 GHz 2.3 GHz Main Memory 2 GB 2 GB 2 GB Operating System Windows Server 23 SP2 Windows XP SP3 Certeon Proprietary Figure 1 Test Configuration CCRC Client running Rational Performance Tester Agent WAN ClearCase Server PAGE 6 Test Case Scenarios Certeon performance was examined in multiple tests with the following attributes: 1Mb/s link speed and 2 ms latency Multiple file types Test Results The tests results demonstrate the performance of the first pass of traffic over the WAN, where the acelera appliance has not learned about the CCRC traffic, compared to the performance of the second pass, where the acelera appliance has learned about the traffic and performed the optimization and differencing of the CCRC
traffic. Performance improvements in the certification tests varied depending on a number of factors (e.g. different file types, file size, utilization of the acelera by other applications). These tests resulted in Certeon receiving the IBM Ready for Rational certification for CCRC. Test 1 HTTP Check-in Response Time () Goal: Compare the effects of check-in files with different file sizes (1MB, 1MB) and types (Word and PPT), both with and without Certeon s acelera enabled. Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the check-in response time by as much as 92%. Response time improved as files sizes increased. Certeon Connection 1MB PPT 1MB PPT 1MB Doc Without Certeon 19 158 238 1st pass with Certeon 9 54 28 2nd pass with Certeon 5 19 2 Improvement % 74% 88% 92% HTTP Check-In 25 2 15 1 5 1MB PPT 1MB PPT 1MB Doc No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 7
Test 2 HTTP Check-Out Response Time () Goal: Compare check-out of files with different file sizes (1MB, 1MB, and 45MB) and types (Word and PPT), both with and without Certeon s acelera enabled. Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the check-out response time by as much as 86%. Response time improved as files sizes increased. Certeon Connection 1MB PPT 1MB Doc 1MB PPT 45MB Multi Without Certeon 11 68 15 825 1st pass with Certeon 9 19 59 224 2nd pass with Certeon 4 1 22 116 Improvement % 64% 85% 85% 86% HTTP Check-Out 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1MB Doc 1MB Doc 1MB PPT Multi Files 45MB No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 8
Test 3 HTTP Add File to Source Response Time () Goal: Compare response times when adding file to source with different file sizes (1MB and 1MB). Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the check-out response time by as much as 84%. Response time improved as files sizes increased. Certeon Connection 1MB Doc 1MB Doc Without Certeon 23 16 1st pass with Certeon 14 34 2nd pass with Certeon 8 26 Improvement % 65% 84% HTTP Add file to source 16 14 12 1 8 6 4 2 1MB Doc 1MB Doc No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 9
Test 4 HTTPS Check-in Response Time () Goal: Compare check-in of files with different file sizes (1MB, 1MB) and types (Word and PPT), both with and without Certeon s acelera enabled. Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the check-out response time by as much as 92%. Response time improved as files sizes increased. Certeon Connection 1MB PPT 1MB Doc Without Certeon 19 158 1st pass with Certeon 1 23 2nd pass with Certeon 5 13 Improvement % 74% 92% HTTPS Check-In 16 14 12 1 8 6 4 2 1MB PPT 1MB Doc No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 1
Test 5 HTTPS Check-Out Response Time () Goal: Compare check-out of files with different file sizes (1MB, 1MB) and types (Word and PPT), both with and without Certeon s acelera enabled. Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the check-out response time by as much as 93%. Response time improved as files sizes increased. Certeon Connection 1MB Doc 1MB Doc Without Certeon 13 112 1st pass with Certeon 11 18 2nd pass with Certeon 3 8 Improvement % 77% 93% HTTPS Check-Out 12 1 8 6 4 2 1MB Doc 1MB Doc No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 11
Test 6 HTTPS Add File to Source Response Time () Goal: Compare response times when adding file to source with different file sizes (1MB and 1MB). Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the add to source response time by as much as 9%. Response time improved as files sizes increased. Certeon Connection 1MB Doc 1MB Doc Without Certeon 21 161 1st pass with Certeon 1 25 2nd pass with Certeon 7 16 Improvement % 67% 9% HTTPS Add File to Source 16 14 12 1 8 6 4 2 1MB Doc 1MB Doc No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 12
Test 7 HTTP Performance of Changed Data Add Delta After Check-Out Response Time () Goal: Compare response times before and after changing data file: Add file to source, check-out, and check-in with different file sizes (1MB and 1.5MB). Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the response times by 63% for add file to source, 5% for check-out, and 77% for check-in. Certeon Connection Add to Source 1MB Check-Out 1MB +.5MB Check-In 1.5MB Without Certeon 21.2 9.8 25 1st pass with Certeon 12.7 7.6 14 2nd pass with Certeon 7.7 4.9 6.6 Improvement % 63% 5% 77% HTTP Performance of Changed Data Add Delta after Check-Out 25 2 15 1 5 Add to Source 1MB PPT Check-out 1MB PPT +.5MB Check-In 1.5MB Doc No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 13
Test 8 HTTP Binary Data Add, Check-Out, Check-In Response Time () Goal: Compare response times for: add file to source, check-out, and check-in for HTTP binary data. Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the responses time by 62% for Add to Source, 77% for check-out, and 7% for check-in. Certeon Connection Add to Source 1MB Check-Out 1MB Check-In 1MB Without Certeon 21.2 1.3 18 1st pass with Certeon 11 8.4 9.4 2nd pass with Certeon 8 2.5 5.5 Improvement % 62% 77% 7% HTTP Binary Data Add, Check-Out, Check-In 25 2 15 1 5 Add to Source 1MB Doc Check-out 1MB Doc Check-In 1MB Doc No Acceleration 1st Pass 2nd Pass PAGE 14
Test 9 HTTP RPT Data Multiple Transactions, Multiple Users Response Time () Goal: Compare response times for multiple transactions (ClearDiffPred, Check-in, MakeFile Elem, and SetConfigSpec/LoadView) and twenty-five (25) users. Results: Certeon acelera appliances reduced the responses time by 87% for ClearDiffPred, 77% for Check-In, 7% for MakeFileElem, 7% for SetConfigSpec/LoadView. Certeon Connection ClearDiffPred Check-In 1MB MakeFileElem 1MB SetConfigSpec/LoadView Without Certeon 7.7 18 19 178 With Certeon 1 4.2 5.7 55 Improvement % 87% 77% 7% 7% HTTP RPT Data Multiple Transactions, Multiple Users 18 16 14 12 1 8 6 4 2 ClearDiffPred Check-In 1MB File MakeFileElem 1MB File SetConfigSpec/ LoadView No Acceleration Acceleration On PAGE 15
Conclusion Certeon s acelera, with its embedded Application Acceleration Blueprint for IBM Rational CCRC, accelerates content transfer across the WAN for content formats employed by ClearCase Content Servers, without modification to client, server, or application software. In addition, this testing effort resulted in Certeon receiving IBM Ready for Rational certification for CCRC. acelera securely accelerates content transfer over the WAN to enable outstanding performance an improvement of up to 93 percent. Response time performance improves with larger file sizes. With Certeon acelera appliances, CCRC users can reduce the response time of remote transactions to mere seconds. The reduction in network bandwidth utilization and improvements in IBM Rational ClearCase application responsiveness cuts down on time-consuming delays. This results in increased productivity for developers in remote source control management environments. To learn more about Certeon s acelera, contact www.certeon.com. References acelera Virtual Appliance for Application Acceleration White Paper, July 28 Certeon acelera Data Sheet Certeon IBM Data Sheet Certeon Web Site: www.certeon.com To learn more about additional testing results on the Native ClearCase client, contact Certeon Sales at 877.221.6688. 28 Certeon Inc. The Certeon logo is a registered trademark of Certeon Inc. Secure Acceleration Technology, acelera, Application Acceleration Blueprints, and Secure Application Networking are trademarks of Certeon. All other company names and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. PAGE 16 4 Van de Graaff Drive Burlington, MA 183 USA: 781.425.52 Toll Free: 877.221.6688 EMEA: +33 ()1.79.97.48.66 info@certeon.com www.certeon.com