Dell 5160- User Manual

www.dell.com/powersolutions

Preprinted from

Dell Power Solutions,

February 2007. Copyright © 2006 Dell Inc. All rights reserved

.

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS

1

DELL SCALABLE ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY CENTER SERIES

W

hen deciding how to implement a virtualized envi-

ronment with industry-standard components such

as Dell PowerEdge servers and VMware Virtual Infrastruc-

ture 3 software, two key factors are how many virtual

machines (VMs) a single server can run and what level of

performance these VMs can provide. Although the answer

depends on many different factors, testing with common

applications and workloads can provide a starting point

for enterprises planning such an environment.

In September and October 2006, Dell engineers tested

virtualized environments based on VMware Virtual Infra-

structure 3 on two differently configured PowerEdge 2950

servers and one previous-generation PowerEdge 2850

server. Using three different workloads, the test team

assessed the number of VMs that each server could host

and the overall system performance, and found that the

PowerEdge 2950 servers offered significant gains in both

regards compared to the PowerEdge 2850. These tests

are intended to provide an example of the scalability and

performance increases possible when migrating to a new

enterprise IT environment.

Hardware configuration for test environment

The PowerEdge 2950 is a dual-socket server that sup-

ports Intel Xeon 5000, 5100, and 5300 series processors.

The Dell test team configured one PowerEdge 2950 with

two dual-core Intel Xeon 5160 processors at 3.0 GHz, and

another with two quad-core Intel Xeon X5355 processors at

2.66 GHz. The Intel Xeon 5160 has a 4 MB processor cache

that is shared between the two cores and a 1,333 MHz

frontside bus. The Intel Xeon X5355 is essentially two dual-

core Intel Xeon 5160 processors combined, and so has an

8 MB level 2 (L2) cache (4 MB shared by each set of two

cores) and a 1,333 MHz frontside bus.

An additional benefit of Intel Xeon 5160 processors is

lower power consumption compared to previous-generation

Intel Xeon processors. A previous study found that ninth-

generation PowerEdge servers with Intel Xeon 5100 series

BY TODD MUIRHEAD

Performance Scaling

with Dell PowerEdge 2950 Servers and VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3

To assess virtualization scalability and performance, Dell engineers tested two Dell

™

PowerEdge

™

2950 servers with dual-core Intel

®

Xeon

®

5160 and quad-core Intel Xeon

X5355 processors alongside a previous-generation PowerEdge 2850 server with dual-

core Intel Xeon processors in a virtualized environment based on VMware

®

Virtual

Infrastructure 3. The results show that the PowerEdge 2950 servers can provide

enhanced performance and host more virtual machines than the PowerEdge 2850.

Related Categories:

Dell PowerEdge servers

Dell Scalable Enterprise

Technology Center

Intel

Scalable enterprise

Virtualization

VMware

Visit www.dell.com/powersolutions

for the complete category index.