Home > Workload Solutions > Oracle > Best Practices > Intel-Based Oracle Best Practices on Dell PowerEdge R740 and PowerMax 2000 > CPU Best Practices > Day Three Best Practices > PowerEdge R740: Enabling Processor x2APIC Support
By default, the x2APIC BIOS setting is disabled on the PowerEdge R740 server. In this best practice, we enabled the x2APIC setting to evaluate the impact on performance.
Category | PowerEdge |
Product | PowerEdge R740 server |
Type of best practice | Performance Optimization |
Day and value | Day 3, Fine-Tuning |
Overview
The x2APIC is Intel’s Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller design to improve efficiency in multiprocessor computer systems. An interrupt is a request by the software for the processor to respond to an event. For example, an operating system requests that the processor suspend current activities – if accepted by the processor, the state of the current activities is saved and the new request is processed.
The x2APIC is Intel’s most recent Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller. Enhancements to x2APIC include support for more processors and improved performance. The PowerEdge R740 we used for testing best practices had two Intel Xeon Gold 6254 processors each with 18 cores for a total of 36 cores in the server. In addition, we used VMware vSphere 7.0 to virtualize the Oracle database. Enabling x2APIC should create efficiencies for the PowerEdge multi-processor system and optimize the interrupt management of virtual machines.
Recommendation
Results from validating the best practice of adding additional storage groups showed a minor performance improvement. These performance metrics increased slightly, indicating better performance:
NOPM and TPM are metrics from the TPC-C benchmark that indicate performance. If NOPM and TPM increase when compared to the prior test this suggests that the best practice improved performance.
Greater processor efficiencies can improve overall system performance, including storage. In the case of overall Input-output Operations Per Second (IOPS) our test findings showed a slight increase.
The most direct impact in enabling x2APIC was expected in processor metrics like server CPU utilization and Percent of DB CPU time. Overall, there was a slight increase in CPU utilization and the percentage of DB CPU time. An increase in the percentage of DB CPU time indicates that the Oracle database spent more time executing database instructions. As all the validation tests for best practices used the same amount of time, an increase in both server CPU utilization and Percent of DB CPU time indicate greater CPU efficiency.
Overall, the best practice of enabling x2APIC in BIOS can provide a minor improvement in system performance. Enabling x2APIC is a Day 3, Fine-Tuning recommendation with these considerations:
Implementation Steps
To enable the x2APIC BIOS setting, log in to iDRAC and do the following:
Additional Resources
Setting up BIOS on 14th Generation (14G) Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers