1. Manuals
  2. Brands
  3. Dell Manuals
  4. Server
  5. POWEREDGE DL385
  6. User manual

Dell POWEREDGE DL385 User Manual

Dell server user manual
Hide thumbs
Table of Contents

Quick Links

Executive summary
Dell Inc. (Dell) commissioned Principled Technologies (PT)
to estimate how many months it would take to recapture
initial investment costs when consolidating multiple 4-year-
old HP ProLiant DL385 server and storage solutions onto a
Dell™ PowerEdge™ R710 server and storage solution using
VMware ESX. In this report, we estimate both the number of
older solutions each Dell PowerEdge R710 solution can
replace and the payback period for replacing those older
solutions. We compare the following two solutions:
•
Intel® Xeon® Processor X5550-based Dell
PowerEdge R710 server with 96 GB of memory
using VMware ESX and Dell™ EqualLogic™
PS6000XV storage (Dell PowerEdge R710 solution)
•
AMD Opteron 254-based HP ProLiant DL385 G1
server with 4 GB of memory and HP StorageWorks
MSA30 storage (HP ProLiant DL385 solution)
Figure 1: A single Intel Xeon Processor X5550-based Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX allows you to consolidate
seven AMD Opteron 254-based HP ProLiant DL385 solutions, with an initial investment payback period of under 18 months. We base
this estimation on our specific database workload.
Our test case modeled a typical enterprise datacenter with multiple legacy HP ProLiant DL385 solutions running
high-demand database workloads. The legacy servers each used 4 GB of memory. The enterprise in this test
case seeks to consolidate several of these legacy workloads onto Dell PowerEdge R710 solutions using VMware
ESX and configured with sufficient processors, memory, and storage to handle these workloads.
We used benchmark results from the Dell DVD Store Version 2.0 (DS2) performance benchmark to determine the
number of older servers with accompanying storage that a Dell PowerEdge R710 solution could replace. To
define the replacement factor, we measured the number of orders per minute (OPM) that the HP ProLiant DL385
solution could perform when running a demanding DS2 workload. We then ran DS2 in virtual machines (VMs) on
the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution and measured how many VMs this newer solution could run, while obtaining
Initial investment payback analysis: Dell
PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs.
HP ProLiant DL385 solution
TEST REPORT
KEY FINDINGS
Each Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with
VMware® ESX™ can replace seven HP
ProLiant DL385 solutions, and could
yield a payback in under 18 months.
(See Figure 1.)
The Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with
VMware ESX delivered seven virtual
servers, each of which yielded
performance equivalent to or better than
the performance of one physical HP
ProLiant DL385
solution.
The Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with
VMware ESX used little more than 1/5th
of the power, about 4/5 of the software
costs, and 1/7th of the data center rack
space of the seven HP ProLiant DL385
solutions. (See Figures 3 and 7.)
MAY 2009
(See Figure 4.)
Table of Contents
loading

Related Manuals for Dell POWEREDGE DL385

Summary of Contents for Dell POWEREDGE DL385

  • Page 1 MSA30 storage (HP ProLiant DL385 solution) Figure 1: A single Intel Xeon Processor X5550-based Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX allows you to consolidate seven AMD Opteron 254-based HP ProLiant DL385 solutions, with an initial investment payback period of under 18 months. We base this estimation on our specific database workload.
  • Page 2 OPM in each VM equivalent to that of the HP ProLiant DL385 solution. The total number of VMs the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution could handle determines the replacement factor. Based on our specific workload, the replacement factor is seven. Figure 1 depicts this replacement factor for replacing seven AMD Opteron 254- based HP ProLiant DL385 solutions with a single Intel Xeon Processor X5550-based Dell PowerEdge R710 solution, as well as the initial investment payback time of under 18 months.
  • Page 3 Sof tware support agreements Total Figure 3: Estimated year-one and -two costs for the seven HP ProLiant DL385 solutions and the single Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX. Lower costs are better. Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs.
  • Page 4 25GB LUNs to be used for SQL Data volumes (2 for each of our 7 VMs). The replacement factor is the number of VMs that ran on the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution, where on average each VM was equivalent to or better than the performance of the HP ProLiant DL385 solution.
  • Page 5 For more details about the DS2 tool, see We ran this workload on the Dell PowerEdge R710 server and the HP ProLiant DL385 server for 30 minutes. Our test case modeled a typical enterprise datacenter with multiple legacy HP ProLiant DL385 solutions running high-demand database workloads.

  • Page 6: Test Results

    Dell PowerEdge R710 solution Figure 5: Minimum per database OPM performance results per server or virtual server for the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution and the HP ProLiant DL385 solution while running the DVD Store workload. Higher OPM numbers are better.
  • Page 7 Minimum OPM Figure 6: Individual VM scores and the minimum VM score for the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution. Higher OPM numbers are better. Figure 7 shows the specific power results during the median run of the Dell PowerEdge R710 server with the Dell EqualLogic PS6000 storage array and the HP ProLiant DL385 server with the HP StorageWorks MSA30 storage array.

  • Page 8: Test Methodology

    Dell PowerEdge R710 and Dell EqualLogic PS6000 storage configuration We installed four internal drives in the Dell PowerEdge R710 server. We attached the server to a Dell EqualLogic PS6000 containing 16 drives. We cabled the PS6000 to a Dell PowerConnect™ 6248 switch via its four available ports, and we cabled the server to the switch using three of the four on-board ports.
  • Page 9 # service sshd restart Installing vSphere on a management workstation 1. Configure your management workstation to be on the same subnet as your ESX server. In Internet Explorer, navigate to the IP address of your ESX Server. 2. Accept certificate warnings, and continue.
  • Page 10 We attached the database volumes on the Dell EqualLogic PS6000 storage to the Dell PowerEdge R710 server by connecting all four NICs available on the PS6000 array to a Dell PowerConnect 6248 switch. We used two physical NICs in the server dedicated to iSCSI traffic to connect the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator within each VM to their respective database volumes.
  • Page 11 27. Click Start, Control Panel, and double-click System. 28. Click Change Settings. 29. Click Change. 30. Enter the new computer name, and click OK. Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution...
  • Page 12 3. Right-click the NIC, and choose properties. 4. Select TCP/IP (v4), and choose properties. 5. Set the IP address, subnet, gateway, and DNS server for this NIC, which will handle outgoing server traffic (e.g., the public IP). Click OK, and click Close.
  • Page 13 21. On the Feature Selection screen, select Database Engine Services, Full-Text Search, Client Tools Connectivity, Client Tools Backward Compatibility, Management Tools –Basic, and Management Tools – Complete. Click Next. Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution...
  • Page 14 38. Double-click Perform Volume Maintenance Tasks, and add the System account. 39. Double-click Lock Pages in Memory, and add the System account. 40. Create a SQL Server login for the ds2user (see the DVD Store setup section below for the specific script to use).
  • Page 15 Cloning the VMs We used a shell script on the ESX Server to copy the Virtual Disks, and to clone the VMs. This shell script copied the VM definition and virtual disks, and registered the new VM in ESX, using the vmware-cmd utility. Using these automated cloning scripts saved time and let us confirm that we configured all VMs similarly.
  • Page 16 4. In the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties screen, select the Use the following IP address radio button. 5. Enter a valid static IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. 6. Select the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button, and enter at least one valid DNS server address.
  • Page 17 Security Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB924667) • Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB927891) • Security Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB932168) Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution...
  • Page 18 Connecting the storage to the host We attached the database volume on the MSA30 storage to the HP ProLiant DL385 server by using a SCSI cable connected from the Smart Array 6400 Controller in the server to the SCSI connector on the back of the MSA30.
  • Page 19 24. Click Processors, and select the Boost SQL Server Priority checkbox. Click OK. 25. Restart the SQL Server by right-clicking the instance and choosing restart. 26. Create a SQL Server login for the ds2user (see DVD Store setup section below for the specific script to use).
  • Page 20 10GB database version for SQL Server 2005 and for SQL Server 2008, and then used those master copies to restore our test database to the HP ProLiant DL385 solution and Dell PowerEdge R710 solution between each test run. We stored the backup file on the C: drive of each server for quick access.
  • Page 21 • We followed Microsoft’s recommendation of having 0.25 to 1 file per filegroup per core. We used two files per filegroup on the HP ProLiant DL385 server and in the virtual machines on the Dell PowerEdge R710 server. •...

  • Page 22: Conducting The Test

    To perform the test, we used a series of batch files. We stored batch files either under the C:\ServerShare folder on each server or under the C:\ClientShare folder on the clients, and we used the PsExec utility to coordinate the test procedures amongst the client machines, server machines, and controller.

  • Page 23: Appendix A - Test Server Information

    Memory modules Total RAM in system (GB) Number of types of memory modules Vendor and model number Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution Dell PowerEdge R710 17.0 27.0 2.5”...
  • Page 24 USB ports Number Type Figure 8: Detailed system configuration information for the two test servers. Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution Dell PowerEdge R710 PC3-8500 DDR3 1,066...

  • Page 25: Appendix B - Test Storage Information

    Switch type/model/firmware revision Figure 9: Detailed system configuration information for the test storage. Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution Dell EqualLogic PS6000XV 5.25 19.0...

  • Page 26: Appendix C - Payback Period Calculation

    Figure 10: Payback calculation for the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution and the seven HP ProLiant DL385 solutions. The server and storage hardware costs for the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution included the list price of the Dell PowerEdge R710 server and the list price of the Dell EqualLogic PS6000 storage solution multiplied by the 50 percent of that solution that the test databases require.
  • Page 27 Therefore, for the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution, we included the costs for 3 Year ProSupport for IT and Mission Critical 4HR 7x24 Onsite Pack in our cost estimates and divided those costs by 3 to show the year-one cost.

  • Page 28: About Principled Technologies

    AMOUNTS PAID IN CONNECTION WITH PRINCIPLED TECHNOLOGIES, INC.’S TESTING. CUSTOMER’S SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDIES ARE AS SET FORTH HEREIN. Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution Principled Technologies, Inc.

This manual is also suitable for:

Dell poweredge r710Hp proliant dl385

Table of Contents