Servers are at the heart of any IT infrastructure, because
they run all critical applications of the organization. The trouble is that one
size doesn't fit all. On one side, different organizations have different
requirements, and on the other, different applications also require different
configurations. So a system configuration that's good for a file server may
not be as good for a Web server. A database server would require different
specification than a mail server, and so on. To help you decide, this time,
while doing the server shootout, we address some of these questions. This time,
we received four servers for evaluation, out of which three were dual-CPU, and
one was dual-core. The difference is that dual-CPU means two CPUs, while
dual-core means a single CPU with two cores. It's supposed to be equivalent to
two CPUs. Both Intel and AMD have recently introduced dual-core processors for
both servers and desktops. We checked all of them for their performance,
features, and pricing. Here's what we looked for in each during the
evaluation.
Features
This can be divided into three parts in servers-manageability, reliability,
and
expandability. Lets look at each, one by one.
Manageability In order to give seamless server
management, servers come with some embedded sensors on the motherboard and the
chassis, which gather important server information, such as CPU temperature,
cooling fan RPM, and pass it to software agents running on the server. This is
then further passed on to a centralized remote management console. Servers can
be monitored in two ways; one is in-bound management and the other is
out-of-bound management. In-band management manages server activities, where
software agents can only work when the OS is running. A better way of management
is when you can monitor and manage the server even if the OS is not up or is in
the sleep state. Out-of-band management requires a separate Baseboard Management
Card (BMC) to be installed. The card comes integrated with some boards, whereas
some boards come with a special connector for adding the BMC. With the help of a
BMC card and remote network management software, system administrators can
monitor and control servers remotely even if the server goes to sleep. There is
another way to provide out-of-band manageability and it is called ASF (Alert
Standard Format). Then in manageability comes management software, number of
meaningful indicators, like error indicators, present on the server and tool
free access to the server cabinet. All these issues should be considered while
buying servers.
Reliability Servers are meant for keeping users'
data safe and provide services to them without any down time. However, hardware
failure may cause both data loss and server downtime, further leading to
business losses. In order to protect yourself from this, you should look for
redundancy features in servers, which will safeguard your data and continue to
run the server even if a component fails. For data protection, the best solution
is RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). RAID level 5 is most suited for
servers that store high value user data. A RAID 5 solution requires at least 5
disks. To have RAID on your system, you can buy a SCSI RAID card or some
motherboards also have on-board RAID integrated with the SCSI controller. But
while RAID can provide data protection against single disk failures, to replace
the faulty disk you still have to shut down the server, disrupting the services
it offers.
A hot plug HDD cage can help in replacing faulty disks
without shutting down the machine. You can add or remove disks while the machine
is hot (working). Just like hot plug HDD, hot plug, redundant power supply also
makes the server fault tolerant against power supply failures. With the
penetration of SATA disks in the market, server boards are also coming with
integrated SATA RAID and give you all the features of RAID that are similar to
SCSI RAID.
Expandability Future expansion should be kept in
mind while buying a server. It should have plenty of room for expansion should
the need arise in the future. When thinking of expansion, the first thing that
comes to mind is the CPU, and most people end up buying a dual socket machine,
but populate it with only a single CPU. The thought is that the second CPU will
be added in the future when the need arises. If it arises shortly, then it's
not a problem. However, more often than not, the need arises at least a year or
two later. By then, the processor may not even be available, and even if it is,
then it would cost a bomb because your vendor will charge you for holding the
CPU in his inventory for so long. It's therefore better to buy the second
processor right up front. Nowadays, the trend is moving towards dual-core
servers, which is like buying a dual-CPU machine. Even there, you'll find
servers with dual-sockets servers. Since they will take two dual-core CPUs, it
will be like having a four-CPU server. If you do buy a dual-socket server, then
again, you may want to buy the second dual-core CPU up front as well. Next comes
RAM. Most servers let you add up to 4GB of RAM, but going by the pace at which
applications are becoming memory hungry, look for a server that can support up
to 8 GB RAM.
Up next is storage capacity. How many disks does your
server let you add? A SCSI channel can accommodate up to 15 devices, but then
with more devices you will see a performance hit. So Ultra320 is even more
important than going for an Ultra160 SCSI card.
Unlike SCSI, SATA controllers provide limited expansion as
far as number of disks is concerned. An external SCSI connector lets you connect
external SCSI devices, like tape drives, easily without opening the server
cabinet for doing it otherwise. For adding extra cards, like fibre channel and
RAID cards, to your server, you need PCI-X (64-bit) slots, so you should have
enough free slots on your motherboard to accommodate add-on cards.
Performance
Since we looked at workgroup servers this time, our test load simulated that
environment. For our test load, we used 20 machines connected over a Gigabit
Ethernet switch. These were all P4 machines with 256 MB RAM and were running
Windows XP Professional. They all had a Gigabit Ethernet interface. Each machine
was capable of simulating the load equivalent of multiple machines. So our aim
was of course to see which server could be loaded by how much before its
performance came down.
We'd asked all server vendors to send their products
pre-configured with the OS, drivers, RAID, etc. This was to ensure that we got
properly configured and tuned servers from all vendors. All four servers came
pre-configured with an OS. One of them had SATA RAID and the remaining had SCSI
RAID-5. We didn't make any other changes to them, other than essential ones
like assigning the correct IP address for communication. Since these were
workgroup servers, we tested them for file and web serving performance. For file
serving, we used the industry standard NetBench 7.0.3 benchmark, and WebBench
5.0 for testing application performance. While the first benchmark stresses the
server's I/O capabilities, the latter puts pressure on its computing
capabilities. Both tests results were evaluated based on two
parameters-average throughput and response time. Here, higher throughput and
lower response time mean better performance.
Beyond performance tests
Once we'd finished the performance benchmarks, this time, we went a step
further to understand the performance differences due to variations in the
server configurations. We checked what was the difference in performance between
using a dual-core vs. a dual-CPU server. We also tried to see the performance
difference between SATA RAID and SCSI RAID. We even tried to see the performance
difference between single Xeon vs dual-
Xeon servers.
Lastly, all servers came with three years warranty, so we
could only compare their prices. We used the Brown-Gibson model to arrive at all
the weightages.
Connoiseur SkyRunner SR 7520 Tests and results Performance in the file serving benchmark was average. The Price: Rs 1,50,000 (3-yrs warranty) Bangalore . Tel: 51152203. |
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Edge 2550 In fact, this server got the second highest score in Since this server uses the same motherboard as the Sky In addition, the server comes with a IDE 52X CD writer so To provide physical security to the server box, it comes Price:Rs 138,900 Delhi . |
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Edge 2500 It gave the second Overall, it's a good Price: Rs 57,800 Key Specs: Single 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon with 2 MB L2 cache, 2 GB DDR Up to 8 GB registered ECC DDR 266/333 SDRAM supported, dual interleaved Contact: SG Systems, Delhi . Email: pankaj@sgsystems.net |
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Acer ALTOS —G320 It gave excellent file Price: Rs 88,999 Key Specs: Single dual-core Intel Pentium D processor 3.2 GHz, Contact: Acer India , Bangalore . Tel: 25219535. Email: ravi_hansdak@acer.co.in
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Anindya Roy and Sanjay Majumder with help from
Vijay
Chauhan