Software Announcement IBM Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit for AIX, V1.1 accelerates development of data warehouse and business intelligence infrastructures Overview The Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit (BCU) revolutionizes the implementation of IBM DB2 Universal Database Data Warehouse Edition (DWE), IBM servers, and IBM TotalStorage storage products for business intelligence (BI) solutions by introducing a modular building-block methodology to constructing data warehouses using open components. In the design and testing of data warehouse solutions with DB2, the concept of balance has always played a key role. Balance ensures that each of the components of the solution is configured in such a way that all components combine across the infrastructure to optimize workload performance. However, without careful planning, this initial design can often become unbalanced when workload or loading requirements change over time. The BCU provides a holistic and simplified approach to ensure high performance as the solution scales and changes over time. Nodes in the data warehouse are each based on a similar configuration of operating system, server, software, and storage. This modular design is able to achieve optimized performance by taking full advantage of a DB2 massively parallel system across each of the components. The BCU originated from the IBM BI Best Practices Team, a group that is grounded in years of experience designing and configuring data warehouse solutions. Using their knowledge and expertise, IBM has created a simplified solution design for customers to properly size, build, and grow their data warehouse with more predictability and less risk, while reducing their time to market. Business needs for the warehouse are mapped to a pool of resources (the nodes), and as needs increase, you simply add additional blocks to scale. The modular scaling is a significant advantage. Not only does it allow the BCU to maintain balance with the initial build, but as planned (and unplanned) inevitable changes and more demands occur over time in the data warehouse workloads, the BCU provides a predictable and scalable plan for growth. By choosing the BCU, you gain the security of knowing that your existing infrastructure is based on best practices principles, and that you have a prescriptive, scalable approach to grow the data warehouse while maintaining total system balance that is optimized for its size and workload. Key prerequisites Refer to Hardware requirements and Software requirements sections. Availability date At a glance Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit (BCU) is a methodology that provides a prescriptive approach for building successful data warehouse infrastructures. The BCU provides these key benefits, which were validated in several large customer deployments: Industry-standard components Ease of installation and implementation Balanced performance Scalability Fault tolerance High availability The BCU for AIX applies the BCU best practices principles to IBM pseries running the AIX operating system with DB2 software, and TotalStorage DS4500. The recommended components are individually optimized for high performance, and together are tested end-to-end to help provide optimal, predictable performance and scalability. By providing a prescriptive, prevalidated solution, the BCU for AIX can significantly help achieve: Reduced implementation times for BI infrastructure, providing faster time to market Lower total cost of ownership For ordering, contact: Your IBM representative, an IBM Business Partner, or the Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL Reference: YE001 This announcement is provided for your information only. For additional information, contact your IBM representative, call 800-IBM-4YOU, or visit the IBM home page at: http://www.ibm.com. IBM United States IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. 205-138
Description The Balanced Configuration Unit (BCU) is a complete solution for building a BI infrastructure using a modular ( building block ) design with a focus on data warehousing. By utilizing the power of the shared nothing architecture of DB2, coupled with the business intelligence (BI) tools of Data Warehouse Edition (DWE), you can create stand-alone building blocks that can be scaled to suit the needs and size of your data warehouse. The BCU building blocks are constructed of server, storage, and operating system components that have been chosen for optimal performance, and balance each other s characteristics. Balance is a key factor when designing a warehouse. Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit achieves its aim by creating a virtual entity called a Balanced Partition Unit (BPU) that is considered to be the smallest building block in the design. A BPU consists of a collection of virtual resources that serve the functions of computing power, memory, I/O capabilities, software, and operating system. There are several types: Data BPU A DB2 database partition dedicated to storing partitioned database data. Coordinator BPU The DB2 coordinator partition that manages user connections and coordinates a query. Catalog BPU The database partition where the DB2 catalog resides. Although a single DB2 database partition can service all these types and usages, it is good practice in database design to separate data BPUs from administration-related BPUs. ETL BPU A conceptual partition where the ETL processing occurs. It has all the resources that the ETL requires. This partition may or may not also contain a database partition. APP BPU A conceptual partition where the application processing occurs. It has all the resources that the application requires. One or more BPUs make up a BCU. There are four types of BCUs: 1. Data BCU A collection of DB2 database partitions or Data BPUs that is dedicated to managing and processing a part of the user data within the database. (That is, the data BCU contains the tables that reside in multiple-partition database partition groups. A database partition group is a named set of database partitions, and can consist of one or more database partitions.) 2. Administration BCU One or more DB2 database partitions encompassing the DB2 catalog and coordinator partitions. The administration BCU may also contain nonpartitioned table data (that is, tables that are stored in single-partition database partition groups). Hence, the Administration BCU consists of all the non-data BPUs. 3. ETL BCU A BCU that is responsible for processing all (or an element) of the extract, transformation, and load work for the data warehouse. This typically infers use of a third-party export/transform/load (ETL) tool or your own ETL programs. 4. APP BCU A BCU that is responsible for the application processing of the data warehouse. Each BCU contains the appropriate amount of processing power, memory, I/O bandwidth, storage, and software to create a scalable unit. In addition to physical configuration, the appropriate software configurations (OS, DB2, and DWE) are included to ensure that a balanced configuration is created. At a high level, each Data BCU consists of: p5-575 (8-way 1.9 GHz) 32 GB memory DS4500 storage (amount will vary depending upon workload requirements) AIX 5L V5.3 DB2 UDB Data Warehouse Enterprise Edition, or DB2 UDB Data Warehouse Base Edition with DB2 Query Patroller and Cube Views Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit for AIX, V1.1 is capable as of, when used in accordance with IBM s associated documentation, of satisfying the applicable requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, provided that any assistive technology used with the product properly interoperates with it. Product positioning Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit for AIX, V1.1 is ideal for small, medium, or large enterprise data warehouses that require best-of-breed components to create an infrastructure optimized for scalability, manageability, fault-tolerance, and performance. BCU for AIX saves time, money, and effort by applying a balanced, prescriptive building block approach to providing a high-performing business intelligence data warehouse infrastructure that can grow as the needs of the business grow. Statement of general direction IBM plans to extend the Balanced Configuration Unit (BCU) to the Linux operating system in upcoming releases. Reference information For DB2 UDB Data Warehouse Edition V8.2.1 and Alphablox V8.2.1, refer to Software Announcement 205-017, dated February 1, 2005 For DB2 Universal Database V8.2, refer to Software Announcement 204-185, dated August 14, 2004 For p5 Model 575 (9118-575), refer to Hardware Announcement 105-057, dated February 8, 2005 For TotalStorage DS4500, refer to http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/storage/disk /ds4000/ds4500/index.html 205-138 -2-
Business Partner information If you are a Direct Reseller - System Reseller acquiring products from IBM, you may link directly to Business Partner information for this announcement. A PartnerWorld ID and password are required (use IBM ID). BP Attachment for Announcement Letter 205-138 https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/ mem/sla.jsp?num=205-138 Trademarks DB2 Universal Database, TotalStorage, DB2, AIX, and pseries are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both. 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. -3-205-138
IBM US Announcement Supplemental Information Configuration 1 Hardware requirements The server configuration of the Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit configuration 1 is: One p5-575 Eight x 1.9 GHz CPUs providing 10.4 RBI of performance 32 GB of memory (32 x 1 GB DDR1) Two x 73 GB @ 15K RPM drives for paging space and rootvg Four Fibre Channel adapters in the four integrated PCI-X slots for storage Two of the four integrated Gb Ethernet ports for the corporate network Two integrated HMC ports for the HMC console One or two Remote I/O drawers (feature #5794) with 10 PCI-X slots Two Fibre Channel Adapters for backup and restore located in slot 1 and slot 5 2 Gb Ethernet adapters for DB2 FCM located in slot 6 and slot 8 If HACMP is implemented, one asynchronous adapter for an HACMP heartbeat in slot 9 One DS4500 Storage Controller Six EXP710 fully populated expansion drawers Configuration 2 The server configuration of the Data Warehousing Balanced Configuration Unit configuration 2 is: One p5-575 Eight x 1.9 GHz CPUs providing 10.4 RBI of performance 32 GB of memory (32 x 1 GB DDR1) Two x 73 GB @ 15K RPM drives for paging space and rootvg Four Fibre Channel adapters in the four integrated PCI-X slots for storage Two of the four integrated Gb Ethernet ports for the corporate network Two integrated HMC ports for the HMC console One or two Remote I/O drawers (#5794) with 10 PCI-X slots Four Fibre Channel Adapters for storage in slot 2, slot 3, slot 7, and slot 10 Two Fibre Channel Adapters for backup and restore located in slot 1 and slot 5 2 Gb Ethernet adapters for DB2 FCM located in slot 6 and slot 8 If HACMP is implemented, one asynchronous adapter for an HACMP heartbeat in slot 9 Two DS4500 Storage Controllers 12 EXP710 fully populated expansion drawers Software requirements DB2 UDB Data Warehouse Enterprise Edition, or DB2 UDB Data Warehouse Base Edition with DB2 Query Patroller and Cube Views Lab services To make the most of the BCU solution, it is important to get it up and running quickly with minimal disruption to your organization. IBM DB2 Information Management Services specialists have the skills and in-depth knowledge to help you reap fast rewards and return on investment. These highly skilled consultants can help you architect, design, and build your solutions quickly and efficiently. These technical experts work with a wide variety of customers around the world, and you can take advantage of this experience to enhance the success of your project. Managing the project from hardware delivery and setup through database installation and configuration, these consultants partner with your team to ensure efficient knowledge transfer and a smooth transition at the end of the engagement. To learn more contact your Services Sales Specialist http://www.ibm.com/software/data/services /contacts.html This announcement is provided for your information only. For additional information, contact your IBM representative, call 800-IBM-4YOU, or visit the IBM home page at: http://www.ibm.com. IBM United States IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. 205-138
Order now To order, contact the Americas Call Centers, your local IBM representative, or your IBM Business Partner. To identify your local IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, call 800-IBM-4YOU (426-4968). Phone: 800-IBM-CALL (426-2255) Fax: 800-2IBM-FAX (242-6329) Internet: ibm direct@vnet.ibm.com Mail: IBM Americas Call Centers Dept: IBM CALL, 11th Floor 105 Moatfield Drive North York, Ontario Canada M3B 3R1 Reference: YE001 The Americas Call Centers, our national direct marketing organization, can add your name to the mailing list for catalogs of IBM products. Note: Shipments will begin after the planned availability date. Trademarks HACMP is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both. DB2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. 205-138 -2-