HP ProLiant Servers with AMD Processors Score High for Virtualization

fact sheet Vendor: Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com) Vendor's Information: About HP Servers & Virtualization About Hewlett-Packard vendor resources Measuring the Business Value of Green Datacenters IDC Whitepaper: IDC research indicates that companies reducing their metric tons of carbon per datacenter workload by a factor of 55 percent also incurred 35 percent less cost per user session on a server. Match Server Virtualization with Advanced Storage Virtualization Just as VMware Infrastructure 3 software provides a virtualized pool of servers, HP SAN/iQ Software provides a scalable, reliable, high-performance, virtual pool of storage to those servers. HP LeftHand SANs use patented clustering techniques to create a storage system that distributes incoming requests across servers in the cluster. HP ProLiant Servers: Family Guide HP ProLiant servers provide a complete server infrastructure that supports both your business objectives and your business growth. ProLiant servers are available with an extensive selection of management tools, virtualization software, storage and networking products, and services and support—along with close collaboration with world-class independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SIs). Next-Generation Management Software for Blade Environment The costs associated with deploying, monitoring, and managing servers have escalated to the point where IT organizations are actively seeking tools to help them manage costs by streamlining management and automating key server management tasks throughout the datacenter. Learn how HP can help.

"We work in the industry standard space," said Tad Walsh, ISS Americas Product Marketing Manager at HP. "All the vendors work with the same basic ingredients. The challenge for a server vendor is to differentiate itself in this world of common parts. HP has been successful in this by architecting servers for balanced high performance, sophisticated yet straightforward manageability, and low cost of ownership over time."

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An example of this are HP ProLiant servers with AMD processors, which are sitting atop VMware's VMmark benchmark ratings.

VMmark is the first virtualization benchmark in the industry. It measures the performance of virtualized servers on a system under test (SUT) so customers can compare different platforms for virtualization. VMmark represents the performance of virtual machines within a server running VMware ESX and a set combination of operating systems and specially tuned applications reflecting a typical datacenter environment.

HP's ProLiant DL785 G5, an eight-socket server, scored No. 1 overall on the VMmark benchmark. The DL585 G5 was the No. 1 four-socket server. The DL385 G5p was the No. 1 two-socket server. The BL685c G5 was the No. 1 performing four-socket blade server, while the BL495c G5 was the No. 1 two-socket blade. A distinguishing feature of each of these servers is that they are powered by AMD Opteron processors.

AMD Opteron Processors
Certain features of the AMD Opteron processors help make ProLiant servers an ideal platform for virtualization. One feature is hardware-assisted virtualization. The other is energy efficiency.

Opteron processors include AMD-V technology, a set of hardware extensions to the x86 system architecture that are designed to improve the efficiency and reduce the performance overhead of software-based virtualization. By moving some of the virtualization capabilities to the processor from the virtualization software, AMD-V simplifies existing software-only virtualization solutions by reducing and sometimes eliminating the burden of trapping and emulating instructions executed within a guest operating system. AMD-V technology also leverages the AMD Opteron processor with Direct Connect Architecture to provide fast and efficient memory handling, which is important for a memory-intensive application like virtualization.

AMD's emphasis on energy efficiency in its Opteron processors also helped ProLiant become a popular platform for virtualization.

"AMD has done a lot with their latest Shanghai processors to deliver higher performance in the same power and thermal envelope as their previous-generation processors," Walsh said. That means you can increase the processing power of the server without increasing the power draw, or throwing off more heat. The end result is higher performance without a higher energy bill, two value propositions that usually resonate with users, said Walsh.

Additional reasons for the success of the HP ProLiant servers on the VMMarks benchmark, Walsh said, are further under the hood. It's all about the components.

"Additional competitive differentiators under the cover allow us to deliver higher performance," Walsh said. "It's the other things in there like hardware controllers that also make the difference."

HP's Smart Array controllers that control the hard drives allow for higher performance and greater reliability. HP's SAN adapters are also built for higher performance than the competition.

These features mean that HP, in a world of common parts, is providing a differentiated server to the marketplace, one with greater value. Users can see the difference in an HP ProLiant server when it needs less time than the competition to complete a workload, when it can work with a larger workload, or when it can support more users.

Virtualization goes hand-in-hand with the idea of getting more for less in the datacenter. It helps administrators consolidate and makes management of servers easier to accomplish, reducing user errors.

HP's ProLiant DL785 G5, which scored No. 1 overall on the VMmark benchmark, can handle huge workloads and boil the datacenter down to one server running one operating system, for example. That means savings in terms of manageability and energy consumption.

Management Software
The third ingredient for running a virtualized infrastructure with ProLiant servers is HP's integrated, easy-to-use HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) software. Walsh said HP SIM looks deeper into the server, allowing users to view a richer set of information about the health and behavior of their servers, and it's more intuitive and straightforward than the competition.

It makes no difference if the server is remote or local, or whether the server is virtual or physical. Users of HP Systems Insight Manager software get the same look and feel as if they were standing next to the server, right down to the lack of lag time when controlling the cursor on a server on the other side of the world.

The combination of HP servers and management software with AMD processors can help users run a more efficient, powerful datacenter while keeping costs in check, and there are options available to suit almost any need.

"Regardless of the size of the business, or the size of the workload to be run, HP can provide the platform they need," Walsh said. "Whether you standardize on rack mount-, or tower, or blade form factor, you're going to find, in the HP server portfolio, the optimal server for your needs.”

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