This presentation is about servers virtualization applied to IBM Informix DBMS. It features comparisons between different virtualization technologies, including hardware benchmark and TPC-C benchmark
Optimizing AI for immediate response in Smart CCTV
IBM informix: compared performance efficiency between physical server and Virtualized serverr
1. VM technology Vs Physical
Servers: legends and facts
Eric Vercelletto
eric.vercelletto@begooden-it.com
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2. “Me” in a nutshell
– Started my first Informix project in 1986, been an employee of Informix
Software in France and Portugal for 11 years, as tech support, trainer and
Premium Accounts technical consultant
– I run Begooden IT Consulting , an IBM ISV company, exclusively focused on
Informix technology services.
– I do what an Informix customer would expect from an Informix expert, but I do
it with fun and passion. As of now in Europe and Northern Africa.
– I can also contribute to defend Informix positions in your company
– Actions include the revival of the BeNeLux Informix User Group
(www.informix-clubhouse.org) , and technical leadership for the Informix
division in the Infocura Group (Belgium)
– I run several blogs and websites:
http://www.vercelletto.com
http://levillageinformix.blogspot.com (in french)
– http://www.informix-swat.com : a community site (almost non-profit) where
you can upload your resume for free if you are looking for an Informix job,
assignments or technical missions, and search for a technician if you are an
Informix end user company, IBM BP or HR
– I collaborate with Querix Ltd to evangelize and distribute those beautiful
application tools in France and French speaking countries
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3. Agenda
What is virtualization
Who are the actors on the marketplace
Advantages of virtualization
Types of virtualization
Important questions to consider before boarding
Comparative benchmarks on x86 linux and
PowerLinux
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4. Virtualization for beginners
• Virtualization is software or firmware
• virtualization is the process of simulating virtual
instances of hardware resource within a physical server,
into multiple watertight compartments
– CPUs/cores,
– Memory,
– network components,
– operating systems,
– storage
• It is opposed to creating one physical instance of those
resources in a physical server, which we have been
calling “a server” for a number of years
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5. History of virtualization in 2 mn
• 1967: IBM Cambridge Scientific Center lab created the first
hypervisor named CP-40. It runs on a modified S/360-40
mainframe computer, running CP/CMS Operating System.
• The key new feature is the support of dynamic address
translation which finally allows multiple operation systems to
run simultaneously in separate contexts named virtual machines.
• 1967-1972: extension of this concept so that all the kernel tasks
can be virtualized, including interruptions and I/O
• This system is distributed to customers as a source code to be
compiled, with no technical support….
• 1972: IBM launches VM/370 ported on System/370, with
technical support
• 1985: IBM launches the PR/SM hypervisor for Logical
Partitions(LPAR)
• 1999: Vmware launches Vmware workstation 1.0 on x86
• 2001: Vmware launches ESX Server 1.0
• 2005: Microsoft launches Virtual Server 2005
• 2008: Red Hat acquires Qumranet, including KVM in the package
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7. Who owns the marketplace ?
Some names are on top:
– Vmware ESX on x86 hosts,
hosting Windows and Linux
– MS Hyper-V on x86 hosts,
hosting Windows only
– IBM PowerVM on PowerXXX,
hosting Linux, AIX, i5 OS
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– Oracle VMServer on x86, hosting Windows, Linux, Solaris
– Kvm on x86, PowerPC and PowerLinux hosting Linux
– Xen on x86, ARM, hosting Linux, Solaris, MiniOS
8. Why should I virtualize my systems?
(says the VM vendor)
– Many surveys show that physical servers use only
10 to 20% of the their system resources.
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77% waste
56% waste
85% waste
78% waste
54% waste
90% waste
9. Why should I virtualize my systems?
(says the VM vendor)
– Many surveys show that physical servers use only
10 to 20% of the their system resources.
– Except for servers hosting “some” Red RDBMS
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No waste
10. Why should I virtualize my systems?
• Consolidation of each system resource into
one global resource pool (hypervisor)
=> optimized resource usage
• no rack opening , just configure resource
=> faster, more versatile configuration and
reaction capacity
• Native cloning functionality
=> simpler and faster deployment
• Good at High Availability
=> better service level to users community
• Many independent servers in one box
=> centralized, simplified administration
• More control on hardware expenses
=> Consequent IT budget savings
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11. VM types: type 1,native or bare-metal
the physical server runs
under a special software
layer called a hypervisor (Not
a standard OS)
The hypervisor directly
addresses and manages the
hardware ressource in an
highly optimized way
On top of this OS runs one or
several Virtual Machines
Typical implementation of
bare-metal VMs are IBM
LPARs, Vmware ESXi, Oracle
VM Server, IBM PowerVM …
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12. VM types : type 2 or hosted
the physical server runs under a
« standard » OS like AIX, linux, Solaris,
Windows
The hypervisor is one of the regular
processes running in that OS
The hypervisor can run one or several
Virtual Machines
Each Virtual Machine runs its own OS.
OS’s can be different (Win,Linux …)
Hosted OS must be hardware compatible
with host hardware (No AIX VM on a x86
box)
Typical implementation of hosted VM are
VmWare Workstation, VmWare Player,
VirtualBox, Citrix/Xen, MS Hyper-V
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14. Before selecting a VM product:
the right questions to ask
– I have this or that hardware: which VM
product can run on this hardware ?
• Although many available hardware platforms can
run a hypervisor, I must identify which ones can
run on my hardware
• Some hardware platforms (x86 for instance), offer
more hypervisors brands choice than others
• Some hardware platforms are very specific: IBM
Power, Sun Sparc, etc.. And cannot run any
hypervisor brand.
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15. Before selecting a VM product:
the right questions to ask
– I want to run this or that OS, which hypervisor
can host that OS?
• Many hypervisors brands can host Linux
• Fewer hypervisors brands can host Windows
• Few hypervisors brands can host specific platforms
like IBM Power or Sun Sparc
• Very few hypervisors brands can host different OS
flavors
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16. Before selecting a VM product:
the right questions to ask
– Not all VM types are efficient to any application
• Bare metal VMs are more adapted to intensive
production applications because they work very close to
the hardware level, but they require a fully dedicated
hardware.
• Hosted VMs offer more flexibility than bare metal in the
sense that they do not need a dedicated hardware, but
they are also less powerful
– Do I need flexibility, do I need performance or both
?
– Must I/Should I/Can I virtualize application servers ?
– Must I/Should I/Can I virtualize database servers ?
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17. Virtualization and Application Servers
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• In most cases, application servers do not have
specific requirements in terms of hardware or
OS configuration
• In most cases, they are not very sensitive nor
demanding in terms of performance
• In most cases, the applications do not provide
any system to ensure high-availability
• => In most cases, application servers are good
candidates for virtualization for the above
listed reasons
18. Virtualization and Database Servers
• In most cases, database servers have specific
requirements in terms of hardware and OS
configuration
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• In most cases, they are very sensitive
and demanding in terms of
performance
19. Virtualization and Database Servers
• In most cases, database servers have specific
requirements in terms of hardware and OS
configuration
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• In most cases, they are very
sensitive and demanding in
terms of performance
• In all cases, we love and cherish
our database servers because
we are responsible for them
20. Virtualization and Database Servers
• In most cases, database servers have specific
requirements in terms of hardware and OS
configuration
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• In most cases, they are very
sensitive and demanding in
terms of performance
• In all cases, we love and cherish
our database servers because
we are responsible for them
• Because of these reasons, we are somewhat
reluctant to believe in the VM software sales
person speech
21. Virtualization and DB Servers
What cannot we forget about?
• Database servers generally do no like running on poor IO sub-
systems
• Database servers generally do not like sharing CPU power with
other unpredictable applications
• Database servers work most of the time in SHMEM, the memory
subsystem cannot suffer from consolidation side effects
• Database servers are generally greedy in terms of Network
performance
• These points are critical factors to consider before choosing a VM
technology and configuring it.
• Hypervisor configuration and administration can get more complex
than the vendor said
• The sold configuration may be undersized and performance issues
sub-estimated, even if virtualization is sold as a versatile miracle.
• Those basic requirements must NOT be sacrified on the altar of
the Virtualization
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22. What is the IBM Informix Hypervisor Edition ?
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Hypervisor Edition is packaged to be installed on private
cloud appliance
It has the full set of Ultimate or Enterprise editions
functionality, with no limitations
No limitation on scalability
No limitation on MACH11 nodes
It runs on IBM PureSystems
Flavors are AIX and RedHat Linux
Licensing works on a PVU metrics model
23. How does Informix failover ?
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Informix HDR replication mainly consists in replaying the logical logs on the other
side
HDR logs buffer contents is transported to the replicate on a private tcpip
connection
HDR knows about SQL transaction state
HDR can be integrated in a MACH11 cluster
24. How do VM’s failover ?
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At failure time, a clone image of the Primary server is started on the other server
This feature works quite well
Storage has to be constantly and thouroughly replicated, unless you want unique
storage
Storage replication is generally an expense technology
Storage replication is a high bandwidth consumer
Storage replication is blind about sql transactions
25. VM failover Vs Informix failover ?
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VM complete failover requires costly storage replication
VM Failover is totally blind about db activity
If you use VM failover, you won’t probably use MAC11 cluster
Informix replication replication is much more flexible in the sense that
replication levels can be mixed:
HDR,
ER
RSS
SDS
27. Define the benchmark
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Objective: obtain elements and figures that can help me to make a ponderate and
accurate decision about the choice of a Virtual technology
Evaluate VMWare vmplayer on a cheap linux X86_64
No Vmware ESX available on time for evaluation
Evaluate IBM PowerVM on P750 PowerLinux
(thanks to IBM Montpellier Client Center Benchmark Team)
Methodology: compare the efficiency of a physical (or nearly physical) server with the
same box used as a Virtual Machine
Compare raw hardware performance (CPU power, Storage, Memory…) between
physical and VM.
We will use the unixbench opensource benchmark for this
Fire a series of TPCC Benchmark runs to obtain the best possible tpmC and define
the inflexion point for physical and VM.
We will use our tpc-c for Informix benchmark for this., local esql/c
application talking on ipcshm
36. TPC-C on the Linux x86 physical server
tpcc for 100 users vmstat-wise
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
us
sy
id
wa
tpmC/1000
37. TPC-C on the CentOS x86 VM
tpcc for 100 users vmstat-wise
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
us
sy
id
wa
tpmC/1000
38. TPC-C on the Linux x86
comparison in tpmC
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0
5 000
10 000
15 000
20 000
25 000
30 000
35 000
40 000
45 000
1 user TPC/M 100 user TPC/M 200 user TPC/M 300 user TPC/M 400 user TPC/M
supergiga
vm05
39. Linux x86 Vmware ESX
reported missing
• We were supposed to have a Wmware ESX Server
• We did not have this server on time
• We are somewhat frustrated, but we’ll definately
run this benchmark on VMWare ESX
• Since Vmware ESX is bare-metal, we want to
believe that results will be much better than
vmplayer
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40. Net External
Client
HMC
10.3.70.100
Admin Network 10.7.22/24
VIOS2
1 CPU Dedicated
4 GB of memory
VIOS1
1 CPU Dedicated
4 GB of memory
Zone 1 Zone 2
Port1
FC adpt
Port2
Port1
FC adpt
Port2
Disks multipath
Node 3
SVC
IOgroup 0
SVC
IOgroup 1
D-BGOOD-IFX
16 CPU Dedicated -- 128 GB of memory
Node 4
Node 2
Node 1
Virtual
Eth
10.7.22.10
Mutualized
8 ranks of
8 disks 10krpm
Disks
Zone
Power 750 8408-E8D
YOb02R
32 P7+, 1 TB RAM
IBM
DS8000
Virtual
FC (npiv)
Virtual
FC (npiv)
Mutualized
SATA disks
(OpenVPN)
The IBM PowerLinux partition
Kindly provided by IBM Montpellier Client Center
47. TPC-C on the TPC-C on IBM PowerLinux
dedCPU+dedIO
tpcc for 800 users vmstat-wise
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0
20
40
60
80
100
120
us
sy
idle
wa
tpcM/1000
48. TPC-C on the TPC-C on IBM PowerLinux
Virt CPU +Virt/IO
tpcc for 800 users vmstat-wise
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0
20
40
60
80
100
120
us
sy
id
wa
tpmC/1000
49. TPC-C on the TPC-C on IBM PowerLinux
Ded/CPU +Virt/IO
tpcc for 800 users vmstat-wise
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0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
us
sy
idle
wa
tpmC/1000
50. TPC-C on IBM PowerLinux comparison
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0
20 000
40 000
60 000
80 000
100 000
120 000
1 user TPC/M 300 user TPC/M 400 user TPC/M 500 user TPC/M 600 user TPC/M 800 user TPC/M
D-BGOOD-DCPU,DIO
D-BGOOD-VCPU,VIO
D-BEGOOD-DCPU,VIO
51. Conclusions
• Vmplayer
– It is simple to use and very handy to quickly build
environments with few ressources
– Not tailored for performance
– Use for dev or unit or integrartion test environments
• powerVM
– Very close to the hardware level
– Very good performance
– A real solution for production environments
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52. Special thanks
• Art Kagel (@himself)
• Vladimir Kholobrodov (IBM,Kansas City)
• Fabrice Moyen & Sébastien Chabrolles(IBM, Montpellier)
• Laurent Revel (IBM, Montpellier)
• Gonçalo Ruivo (www.sumatra-surftrip.pt)
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53. VM technology Vs Physical Servers:
legends and facts
Questions?
Eric Vercelletto
eric.vercelletto@begooden-it.com
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