Technical Community - Background Reading

Chat Transcript



Dell-ScottH Alright, we’ll kick it off in a second. First, a couple of ground rules for you.
Dell-ScottH 1. Be nice!
Dell-ScottH 2. I expect lots of links today, right click and you can avoid being booted from the chat.
Dell-ScottH 3. If you get booted, just use "action - recent room history" to catch up.
Dell-ScottH 4. The transcript will be available tomorrow on this same link.
Dell-ScottH 5. The chat is informal. Ask questions at anytime and they will be sorted out.
Dell-ScottH 6. Be nice!
Dell-ScottH 7. Have fun.
Dell-ScottH 8. Go see “Hot Tub Time Machine.” :-)
Dell-JeffS 9. Don't trust Scott for movie recommendations.
Dell-ScottH Alright, with that I'd like to welcome you to this week’s chat.
erson-chalet Nehalem-EX SKU’s: http://ark.intel.com/productcollection.aspx?codename=33164
Dell-ScottH Intel Xeon 7500!!! A.k.a Nehalem-EX!!!
Dell-ScottH Joining us today is Jeff from Intel, one of the field technical experts. Say howdy!
Jeff_Intel_FAE Hi all. Thanks for inviting me to the chat!
Dell-ScottH Today Intel only a few hours ago announced the latest Xeon processor. Jeff, can you provide a few details?
Dell-ScottH And I'm sure Erson will help with some links.
erson-chalet Intel’s site is slow as hell right now!
erson-chalet Are they updating maybe?
Dell-ScottH Erson, I wonder why? :-)
Jeff_Intel_FAE Yes, the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series of CPU’s and the platform code named Boxboro-EX were launched today.
erson-chalet And the Intel Xeon 6500?
Dell-ScottH Dell also announced the Dell PowerEdge R910, Dell PowerEdge M910, and Dell PowerEdge R810.
erson-chalet What’s the difference between Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6540 and Intel Xeon Processor E7540?
Jeff_Intel_FAE The Intel Xeon 6500 processor series of parts are for 2S-only configurations, where the Intel Xeon 7500 processor series is 4S and above capable.
Dell-ScottH And, unlike some of our competitors, you can actually order it right now at http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/rack_optimized?c=us&l=en&s=biz. The marketing guys really wanted me to point that out! :-)
Jeff_Intel_FAE Appreciate that post, Scott.
erson-chalet Can you use the Intel Xeon 7500 series in a 2S-server?
erson-chalet It’s just two more Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) on the Intel Xeon 7500 compared to Intel Xeon 6500 series?
Jeff_Intel_FAE Erson, yes you can.
erson-chalet Dell PowerEdge M910: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/poweredge-m910?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04
Jeff_Intel_FAE The way to think about it is you can use Intel Xeon 7500 series up to 4 way and 6500 up to 2 way.
erson-chalet Dell PowerEdge R810: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/poweredge-r810?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04
erson-chalet Dell PowerEdge R910: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/poweredge-r910?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04
erson-chalet You can use the Intel Xeon 7500 up to 4 way with Intel chipsets and even more with third-party chipsets, right?
Dell-ScottH We had the thermal and acoustics engineers in the lab last week. Our cooling design is much better than others. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/user/scotthan#p/a/u/0/b69Zb4Jo2V0.
steven.ignacz Are these new Intel Xeon processors running on Triple-Channel DDR3?
erson-chalet Intel Xeon 7500: http://www.intel.com/en_uk/business/itcenter/products/xeon/7500/?iid=search
Jeff_Intel_FAE Erson, third-party chipsets could connect more than 4 way on these parts.
erson-chalet I've heard of designs up to 16-way.
Dell-JeffS Does anyone else have the “bong........ bong bong.. bong bong” running through their head every time Jeff from Intel types?
Dell-ScottH :-) Oh yeah, I love those commercials! :-)
Jeff_Intel_FAE Jeff, now we all have to sing it in unison!!!
darthzen Can you talk about some of the virtualization features that are new with Nehalem-EX?
Dell-ScottH Who's going to order the Dell PowerEdge R910 with 1TB of memory?
chuck Not I!
WilliamStianche I would like 10 please. Too bad my budget stinks right now.
erson-chalet The product brief: http://www.intel.com/assets/en_us/pdf/prodbrief/323499.pdf
chuck Why the much lower GHz on these chips?
DavidCPS We currently have a server with 512 GB.
erson-chalet Intel Xeon 7500 specification update: http://www.intel.com/assets/en_us/pdf/specupdate/323344.pdf
DavidCPS We are running Itanium 2 processor on those.
DavidCPS We’re looking at possibly using the Dell PowerEdge M910 as a replacement.
Dell-ScottH Jeff, it’s probably a good time to talk about Turbo Boost features in relation to the lower GHz question.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Darthzen, along with more cores and larger caches than the Nehalem-EP (e5500 series) and Westmere-EP (e5600 series) parts, the Boxboro-EX platform also supports VT-d.
DavidCPS With the Intel Core 2 Duo E5600, how would you compare it to the Itanium 2 processors for pure processing power?
Jeff_Intel_FAE The Turbo Boost feature allows the CPU’s to enter a higher operating frequencing if the needs demand it. Similar to Speed Step technology which lowered the frequency to save power, Turbo Boost allows the part to increase frequency if the platform level conditions permit it, all while keeping under the rated power limits.
Dell-ScottH Are the performance reports out?
Dell-ScottH Yes, I think I would rather have 8 x 2Ghz cores, than 1 x 8 Ghz or 2 x 4 Ghz, or whatever you could design in the same thermal envelope, especially on a server.
Jeff_Intel_FAE There are performance postings coming out today. See the Transaction Processing Performance Council Web site: http://www.tpc.org/.
erson-chalet Performance: http://www.intel.com/performance/server/xeon_mp/summary.htm?iid=perf_server_lhn+mp_sum
erson-chalet Check the left menu to choose type of workload.
Dell-ScottH Now we just have to get all the application developers to write great code utilizing all the cores, but I guess that's why we really have virtualization platforms. :-)
Jeff_Intel_FAE Scott, regarding core count, the industry is really getting the ship turned on using all the cores and threads effectively, so your application development statement is right on.
erson-chalet Jeff, where can I find the information about the Turbo Boost bins? They are not listed in the specification update as they usually are. No information on ark.intel.com yet either.
Dell-ScottH 64 sockets - jeez, really - thanks for the performance link, Erson.
erson-chalet Intel Xeon Processor 7000 Sequence Virtualization: http://www.intel.com/performance/server/xeon_mp/virtualization.htm?iid=perf_server_lhn+mp_vt
Dell-ScottH I guess too much information had been leaked, there aren’t many questions! :-)
Jeff_Intel_FAE Let me check on the Turbo Bin information. That should be out there somewhere.
erson-chalet That's what I call a performance jump.
Dell-ScottH Oh yeah, the Intel Xeon 7350 to Intel Xeon 7460 was nice, but man oh man on the jump with the Intel Xeon 7560.
WilliamStianche Wow, I’ve got a lot of reading to do tonight on this.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Yes, I have seen various Dell BM results ranging up to 70 percent performance jump.
Dell-ScottH Pretty soon just one little server in the corner of the room will be running it all. :-) ... Well, maybe two, redundancy and all.
erson-chalet Jeff, Intel Xeon 5600 also supports VT-d.
Jeff_Intel_FAE I haven't been able to find a public link on the Turbo Boost bins. I’ll have to get back to the team on that one.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Erson, yes.
erson-chalet Your answer above seemed to indicate that Intel Xeon 5600 series processors didn't.
steven.ignacz Is the 7500 series on a 32nm silicon architecture?
erson-chalet 45nm
erson-chalet Nehalem is always 45nm.
steven.ignacz OK.
erson-chalet Westmere is 32nm.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Sorry, I meant to communicate it was in the Boxboro-EX platform, but not imply it was not on the -EP products.
steven.ignacz I guess you need all that room for the horsepower. :)
erson-chalet Steven, there looks to be a Westmere-EX on the roadmap which brings the Intel Xeon 6500/7500 to 32nm.
steven.ignacz OK, great
erson-chalet OK, so it’s the same chipset for both Intel Xeon 7500 series processors and the Intel Itanium 9300, right?
Jeff_Intel_FAE Erson, yes the two platforms share the IOH/ICH architecture.
DavidCPS That is sweet.
DavidCPS Does this mean we might be able to get rid of our Intel Itanium 2 processors?
Jeff_Intel_FAE Note that they are not socket compatible though. This is a sharing of the IOH/ICH architecture, and is not saying that the same platform will support either Xeon or Itanium in the same socket.
DavidCPS That’s understood but at least the horsepower is there.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Figured it was, but the paranoid side of me took over.
Dell-ScottH Yeah, it would be fun to see YouTube on that hack of shoehorning Xeon into Itanium. :-)
DavidCPS Currently running 16 core of Intel Itanium 2, would like to get rid of them and go to a Xeon architecture.
erson-chalet Intel Itanium processor with FC-LGA, 1248; Intel Xeon 6500/7500 FC-LGA, 1567.
chuck It’ll fit!
erson-chalet So, can you tell us about RAS improvements on the Intel Xeon 7500?
Jeff_Intel_FAE Daviecps, let us know how we can help there. To us it is all about finding the right technology for the application.
Dell-ScottH Chuck, yeah just a matter of duct tape and a soldering iron. :-)
DavidCPS Thanks. It’s about a single SQL application that is heavy memory and CPU loads on the first day of school.
Dell-ScottH Sounds like you need one-day leasing options.
DavidCPS LOL...yeah, but then we have report cards for 450,000 students.
DavidCPS That’s a no-win scenario.
chuck Scott, and ball bearings! It's all ball bearings these days.
erson-chalet It sounds like you need performance on demand, Amazon EC2 perhaps.
Dell-ScottH Chuck, nothing like a good “Fletch” reference. :-)
DavidCPS We will be looking at the Dell PowerEdge M910 here soon to see what we can pump through it.
Dell-ScottH I think you will be quite pleased. We’re ready to get ours in the lab.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Erson, in addition to the normal RAS implementations in this space, this move to the Intel Xeon 7500 series brings in the RAS improvements from the Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) architecture with point to point connections that have lane failover and link width reduction capability. Also, new with this 7500 series is a feature that we call MCA recovery, which allows the system to recover from certain conditions and maintain operation (greater uptime).
chuck If I'm doing a small 3 server vSphere deployment, is Dell PowerEdge R810 the way to go? 2 CPU’s? 4? 6? 8? Core?
erson-chalet http://www.intel.com/performance/server/xeon_mp/virtualization.htm?iid=perf_server_lhn+mp_vt
erson-chalet Looks like Intel Flexpriority is something new.
WilliamStianche Chuck, if you are only virtualizing three servers, then you could just about get by with an even smaller system than the Dell PowerEdge R610. It depends on what the workload on those three servers is though.
erson-chalet Intel Flexpriority optimizes virtualization by improving interrupt handling.
chuck William, I'm virtualizing about 50 servers, I was talking about a three-host deployment.
Dell-ScottH Chuck, yeah it really depends, get the right box. Dell PowerEdge R810 is a great virtualization box choice.
Dell-ScottH Especially using the Flexmem architecture to get access to all the memory if you aren't CPU bound.
WilliamStianche Chuck, then I would suggest 2-socket, 4-core systems so a Dell PowerEdge R610 would probably work just fine depending on I/O and memory requirements.
erson-chalet That was stupid of Intel to disable copy from their product brief.
Dell-KongY Chuck, what applications are you virtualizing if you don't mind sharing?
Jeff_Intel_FAE My two cents is you need to look at what core count and memory footprint you need for that implementation and then decide the optimal system to choose there. It could be Dell PowerEdge R810 or Dell PowerEdge R910.
chuck Kong, Microsoft Exchange, some light SQL, and light Oracle.
Dell-ScottH Yes, lots of choices. You should see some price drops on the Dell PowerEdge 710's and Dell PowerEdge 610's with the release of these new machines, so lots of "depends."
erson-chalet I would look at Westmere-EP.
chuck Yeah, we were pricing the Dell PowerEdge R710’s and Dell PowerEdge R610's. Let's see how much cheaper they get!
Dell-KongY Thanks for sharing, Chuck.
erson-chalet Jeff, where do I go if I want to read in more depth about the improved RAS features?
Dell-ScottH Yeah, Westmere-EP box is definitely a choice. You have to think about the future and what you might be giving up trying to get "cheap."
erson-chalet MCA Recovery and SMI Lane Failover and QPI self-healing.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Erson, that will be a Dell product document as I am not sure which exact features each platform is supporting at this time or will be in future releases.
Jeff_Intel_FAE Erson, I meant to also say is you should find it in our datasheets for the parts, but it is a Dell platform decision on what to support where.
erson-chalet "Upgrade to four Intel® Xeon® X7560 2.26GHz, 8C [add $10,799.00]."
chuck On which Dell models, the Westmere-EP?
erson-chalet Chuck, Dell PowerEdge R510/610/710 and Dell PowerEdge M610/710 if you're interested in blades.
erson-chalet At about four servers, the blade solution could be cheaper.
erson-chalet Jeff, thanks.
shanfont Chuck, we run Microsoft Exchange 2003 and SWL on Dell PowerEdge R600 blades with two processors with 4 cores. It runs great.
erson-chalet Jef, is Dell alone with the Flexmem?
reed I'll check you all next week. I just love where this space is heading. :)
Jeff_Intel_FAE Even if I knew, I should not say, but from my perspective you guys are in a good position there for a specific implementation. Nice to see Dell optimize for these specific needs.
Dell-ScottH I know that we have quite a lead on shipping the systems. We haven't seen anything from HP yet similar to Flexmem. I do know from working at IBM years ago that they had similar technology on the AMD boards, so it would make sense to me that they could bring it over to Intel space.
erson-chalet Nice: 1TB Memory (64x16gb), 1066mhz, Quad Ranked Rdimms for 4 Processors, Performance Optimized, Mirrored [add $92,741.00].
Dell-ScottH Yeah, I will probably buy an Audi R8 first, and wait for the price to drop. :-)
chuck This brings me back to the days of IRC.
Dell-ScottH Don't make me kick ban you. :-)
Jeff_Intel_FAE All, I am going to need to run off to my next meeting. It was a pleasure as always chatting with you. Thanks again for the opportunity!
chuck I'll nick collide you!
Dell-ScottH Thanks for joining us today, Jeff!
erson-chalet Ho ho, the Dell PowerEdge R910 has 2x10GBE and 6x1GBE onboard NICS.
chuck Thanks, Jeff.
erson-chalet Great work, Jeff!
Dell-KongY Thank you, Jeff.
DavidCPS Thanks, Jeff.
erson-chalet Dang: http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/networking/nic-intel-ethernet-x520-kx4/pd.aspx?refid=nic-intel-ethernet-x520-kx4&s=bsd&cs=04.
Dell-ScottH Thanks!
erson-chalet And dang again: http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/networking/hba-qlogic-qme8142/pd.aspx?refid=hba-qlogic-qme8142&s=bsd&cs=04.
Dell-d_glynn Everything is 10GB.
erson-chalet Yeah, I just wish that there was more "umph" on fabric “A” so that you could go 10GBE onboard on the blades.
Dell-d_glynn 40GB isn't enough for you or is it more to do with separation of traffic?
erson-chalet You don't have 40GBE on fabric “A,” only on “B” and “C.”
erson-chalet You should read the architecture white paper.
erson-chalet The backplane on M1000e actually supports 2x40 GBE on fabric “B” and “C” per server.
Dell-d_glynn Correct, on “B” and “C,” I wondering where you see the need for more.
Dell-d_glynn More is nice, but I was just wondering where you are using it.
erson-chalet I was only referring to the niceness of having 10 GBE LOMS (like the new Dell PowerEdge R910).
Dell-d_glynn I see. :)
Dell-d_glynn I'll have to a look at the new specifications.
Dell-d_glynn It’s time for me to go bottle some beer. Talk to you, or more correctly, listen, to you next week!
erson-chalet Dell PowerEdge R810 has a Quad 5709 onboard.
erson-chalet Well, time is almost up.
erson-chalet I'm guessing we are going to have some Dell PowerEdge R810/910 & M910 chats in the future.
erson-chalet I'm hoping Dell goes to work to update all their virtualization best practice documents with these new servers.
erson-chalet And while you're at it, you guys really need to update these with Hyper-V R2 information: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/hyperv/en/index.htm.
erson-chalet Hyper-V R2 was a big improvement and really brought Hyper-V up to the level where it really can be used for large-scale production virtualization.
erson-chalet Over and out!