PowerEdge R7625 Rack Server & Emulex: Dell R7625 and 64GFC Combine to Accelerate Oracle Analytics Workloads
Fri, 29 Mar 2024 16:37:17 -0000
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Dell PowerEdge R7625 Rack Server & Emulex LPe36002 Host Bus Adapter
Dell R7625 and 64GFC Combine to Accelerate Oracle Analytics Workloads
Tolly Report #224106
Tolly test report demonstrating that Dell PowerEdge R7625 Rack Server outfitted with the Emulex LPe36002 64G Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter can improve application performance up to 4x vs older generation 32/16G FC technologies.
Executive Summary
New generation technology can be expected to improve performance. There are times, however, when multiple technology advances can combine to provide an outsized advantage. Such is the case when the Dell PowerEdge R7625 Rack Server with AMD EPYC processors is combined with the Broadcom Emulex LPe36002 64G Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter.
Dell commissioned Tolly to benchmark the analytics workload performance of the Broadcom Emulex LPe36002 64G Fibre Channel dual-port host bus adapter (HBA) running in the Dell PowerEdge R7625 Rack Server. Specifically, this report will focus on illustrating two points: 1) Improved database analytic performance due to the increased input/output (I/O) throughput of 64GFC, 2) Increased application performance when paired with PCIe 4.0/5.0 and the dual-port 64GFC HBA.
Tests showed that the new R7625 AMD EPYC platform's increased CPU power and PCIe 5.0 bus work in conjunction with the Broadcom 64GFC dual-port adapter to deliver line rate, 64G throughput that cannot be matched by earlier generation technology. See Figure 1.
The Bottom Line | |
Dell PowerEdge R7625 AMD EPYC processors & Emulex LPe36002 64G HBA benefits over older generation 16/32GFC PCIe 3.0 HBAs: | |
1 | R7625 with 64GFC HBA can achieve 4x the database analytics throughput of the16GFC HBA and 2x the throughput of the 32GFC HBA |
2 | 42% improvement in complex database ad hoc query processing time when running the dual-port 64GFC HBA on the PCIe 5.0-based R7625 server compared to the older generation R740 server |
Overview
The goal of these tests, as noted, was to illustrate, simply, that deploying a Dell PowerEdge R7625 Rack Server, powered by AMD EPYC processors, with the Emulex 64G Fibre Channel HBA can improve database analytic performance by providing double and quadruple the I/O throughput of the two prior generation HBAs respectively. Similarly, the tests were used to illustrate the key role of the newer-generation PCIe 5.0 server bus and PCIe 4.0 dual-port 64GFC HBA in increasing server I/O throughput.
All benchmarking was done using the open source TPROC-H analytics workload of HammerDB. The tests were run using the Oracle 19c database environment but the results are generally applicable to any database or other input/output intensive workload.
The TPROC-H workload measures how long it takes to run a series of 22 different types of decision support queries. This type of workload is “read only” with no database updates taking place. The Linux iostat utility was used to measure storage I/O throughput.
Test Background & Results
64GFC vs 16/32GFC
This test was run three times with the only variable being the link speed between the server’s FC HBA and the switch.
Figure 1 (main and inset), on the previous page, summarizes all three tests using two metrics: storage I/O throughput and query execution time as reported by the HammerDB database benchmark. What is important to note are the relative results across the three scenarios. The 16GFC HBA is clearly a bottleneck (blue dots) taking the longest to complete and delivering the lowest throughput. (Note: multiple colors in the inset bar chart represent the different transaction types used in the TPROC-H benchmark.)
Performance is improved, roughly by 2x, when the HBA is configured for 32GFC (gray dots) but, as will be seen, 32GFC still presented a transaction bottleneck.
When run using the 64GFC the database storage IO throughput is the highest and the query execution time is the shortest. Again, performance is improved roughly by a factor of two over the 32GFC results.
64GFC Dual-Port HBA Performance
The Emulex LPe36002 64GFC HBA is a PCIe 4.0 interface card and is the recommended HBA for the Dell R7625 server with AMD EPYC processors. The card’s total performance capacity is restricted by the bandwidth limitations of older generation servers that utilize PCIe 3.0.
As in the prior test, the TPROC-H benchmark was run on an Oracle 19c database multiple times using the same card but in servers that implement two different PCIe generation architectures.
Figure 2, on the previous page, illustrates the how the same dual-port 64GFC HBA delivers dramatically higher throughput and shorter database query times when deployed in a current generation server that implements PCIe 5.0 bus architecture.
Taking the same dual-port 64GFC HBA and deploying it in a PCIe 5.0 R7625 server improved transaction time by 33% simply by removing the limitations imposed by the maximum bandwidth of the R740 PCIe 3.0 bus.
Test Setup & Methodology
The HBA under test used current production drivers that are publicly available. Default settings were used. Details of the test environment and systems under test are found in Tables 1-6. Figure 3 shows a composite test environment.
Server systems were all VMware ESXi 8 hosts running ESXi-8.0U1. Storage volumes mapped to each VM were configured as thick provisioned, eagerly zeroed. PVSCSI controller was used.
Each VM was assigned 128GB of memory and 24 vCPUs. Each VM was running RHEL 8.9.
Details of the HammerDB tests are found in the “Overview” section above.
For the 16/32/64GFC comparisons the server’s HBA-to-switch connection was configured to each of the link speeds as required by each test scenario.
For the PCIe generation comparison test, the R7625 and R740 were not matched with respect to CPU and memory but as the test focused on I/O, the differences were acceptable.
Table 1. 64G HBA Under Test
Vendor | Product Name | Bus Architecture | Firmware | Driver |
Broadcom | Emulex LPe36002 | PCIe 4.0 | 14.0.539.26 | 14.0.0.21 |
Table 2. R7625 Server Configuration
Vendor/System | Dell PowerEdge R7625 |
CPU | 2 socket AMD EPYC 9374F 32-core processor @ 3.8 GHz |
Number of CPUs | 128 logical processors. Profile: Performance, Logical Processors: Enabled, Sub Numa Clustering: Disabled |
Memory (RAM) | 384 GB |
OS | Red Hat Ent. Linux 8.9 (RHEL8) |
Table 3. R740 Server Configuration
Vendor/System | Dell PowerEdge R740 |
CPU | 2 socket Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6146 @ 3.2 GHz |
Number of CPUs | 24 |
Memory (RAM) | 128GB |
OS | Red Hat Ent. Linux 8.9 (RHEL8) |
Table 4. Database Test Tool
Vendor | Open Source |
Application | HammerDB 4.9 |
TPROC-H settings | Degree of parallelism = 80 Scale factor = 100 Virtual users = 1 |
Table 5. Storage Configuration
Vendor/Device | Dell PowerStore 9200T v3.5.0.0 |
Ports | 8 x 32G FC |
Volumes | 1200GB volume each for NVMe & SCSI |
Performance Policy | High |
Namespace/LUN | 8 |
Network Fabric | Dell Connectrix DS7720B 64GFC Switch v9.0.1a
|
Table 6. Oracle Database Configuration
Database | Oracle Database 19c (19.3) |
Storage Type | ASM Disk group external redundancy |
Dataset Size | 150GB |
Database Settings | SGA = 12 GB |
About AMD
For over 50 years, AMD has been at the forefront of driving innovation in high-performance computing, graphics, and visualization technologies. Their products are relied upon by billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses, and cutting-edge scientific research institutions worldwide. AMD's mission is to build exceptional products that accelerate next-generation computing experiences and power solutions for the world's most important challenges. Visit http://www.amd.com for more information about AMD.
Broadcom Emulex LPe36002
The Broadcom Emulex LPe36000-series Gen 7 Fibre Channel HBAs are designed for demanding mission-critical workloads and emerging applications. The family of adapters features Silicon Root of Trust security, designed to thwart firmware attacks aimed at enterprises and governments.
Gen 7 64G provides seamless backward compatibility to 32G and 16G networks.
Dell sells the LPe36002 64G HBA for the same price as the 32G model.
About Tolly
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