In markets long dominated by closed-architecture UNIX servers, customers have been bugged by issues such as system and vendor lock-ins, let alone the slow pace of technology update, slow response to markets, and the high costs entailed. So, now it is time for a change of mind — also a change of systems. This article will allow you to take a closer look at the x86 ecosystem and the x86-based servers.
UNIX servers are typical of midrange computers, which are high-performance, 64-bit computers based on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) and belong to a category somewhere between servers and mainframes with regard to performance and price. Midrange computers are more often known as UNIX servers, and they run on proprietary, enclosed UNIX operating systems and dedicated hardware architecture. For example, IBM used the Power processor and AIX OS for its UNIX servers, Sun and Fujitsu used the SPARC processor architecture and Solaris OS, while HP used the Itanium processor and HP-UX OS. In addition, different UNIX servers have vastly varying I/O buses. For example, Fujitsu used Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), and Sun used SBus. This in turn means that UNIX servers of different brands use dedicated I/O devices, and also dedicated network interface cards (NICs), graphics cards, and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) cards. In this way, the closed hardware architecture and OS will be tuned by each vendor to optimum and deliver the most stable performance. Combined with assurance measures such as redundancy, a complete, highly responsive service system is established to ensure high levels of Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS) for UNIX servers. Well, this might be a little bit too complicated to digest, just as it always is with UNIX servers.
UNIX servers are often used in finance, electric power, and telecom industries. Customers in these industries value the RAS features, scale-up capability, and excellent high-concurrency processing performance of the UNIX OS and dedicated servers. These virtues used to bar common x86 servers out of the game. Therefore, industry customers most usually will opt for the high-end, high-performing, and also expensive UNIX server solutions for running their mission-critical applications.
The whole industry chain of the UNIX servers is enclosed, from R&D, production, sales, to service. As a result, the development of UNIX servers is slow and lacks competition. Compared with the open-source x86 ecosystem, which welcomes various participants, the closed UNIX system no longer commands a competitive edge in terms of technology and price. Just like a double-bladed sword, the closed architecture has contributed to the success of UNIX servers in earlier days, but also leads to the dwindling market share of UNIX servers in the data-rich Internet era.
x86 follows quite a different path from the one trodden by UNIX servers. The path of x86 servers highly resembles that of the Internet, and the development of x86 fully coincides with the advancement of the Internet. The core spirit of the Internet is openness. It advocates sharing and common development. It values the merits of the crowds. In the Internet playground, everyone is equal, and there is no such thing as “dedicated”. There are many vendors that can produce x86 servers, but none of them is entirely all-inclusive. There are a variety of options for each component. The marketplace is highly competitive, and only the most excellent player will survive. Therefore, x86 servers are able to constantly advance and adapt. x86 servers nowadays are close to UNIX servers in terms of performance. Some x86 server models, such as the 8-socket and below, have surpassed Power systems, which epitomize the UNIX servers, by delivering superior performance.
The most commonly used OS of x86 servers is Linux. Linux inherits the mindset of UNIX and is also a stably-performing, multi-user network OS, with many open-source versions. Countless developers from around the world participate in the modification and coding of Linux. The programmers can supplement and adapt the Linux system based on their interests, inspiration, and the real-world needs. This allows Linux to absorb the very essence of numerous programmers and constantly grow, meanwhile lowering the entry requirements, attracting an increasingly larger number of users, and become what it is today. Now most server applications run on the Linux OS, and Linux has become the most popular OS.
The Xeon® 7500 processors released in 2010 by Intel based on the Nehalem-EX architecture empower the x86 platform with the real strength to rival the mainstream UNIX server system of the same period. The Xeon series processors come with a set of technologies, such as Turbo Boost, Hyper Threading, virtualization, and intelligent energy saving. These unique technologies position x86 servers on a par with the RISC architecture-based UNIX servers with parallel performance but much lower costs. The new-generation Intel® Xeon® E7 processors have gained a leap forward in system availability and data integrity. The RAS features are perfecting, with more reliability designs introduced, such as the improved memory reliability design and enhanced Machine Check Architecture (eMCA 2.0). These advancements have enabled x86 servers to deliver up to 99.999% stability.
Figure 1: Intel® Xeon® E7 processors with enhanced RAS features
As the systems of Internet enterprises are much more complex than other companies, with a far larger number of users, larger by orders of magnitudes. The Internet applications also have stringent requirements on server performance and stability and, to their surprise, such applications have successfully run on the x86 servers that replace the UNIX servers. At the same time, the disadvantages of the closed-architecture UNIX servers begin to show. Just to name a few:
1. Longstanding high purchase costs
2. Complex management, as well as lack of automated O&M and unified management
3. Lack of alternative component options, high maintenance costs, and long downtime in case of equipment faults
4. High requirements on personnel skills
5. High application development costs
6. High total cost of ownership (TCO)
Due to the preceding reasons, traditional infrastructure providers feel more and more imperative to replace UNIX servers with the high-RAS x86 servers. However, it is difficult to select the most suitable x86 servers.
The Huawei KunLun Mission Critical Servers are a series of high-end servers running on the latest Intel Xeon processors and draw on the strength of cutting-edge technologies. The system of KunLun has been architected to achieve the ultimate reliability, availability, performance, ease of maintenance, and scalability. It boasts the highest reliability, blazing-fast speeds, a most advanced elastic architecture, and an open and easy-to-use centralized management platform. These qualities set KunLun apart from its counterparts and enable KunLun to meet the requirements of the most demanding mission-critical workloads, such as hyper-scale databases, in-memory databases, virtualization, and high-performance computing (HPC). Compared with common x86 servers, KunLun delivers superior performance and reliability as it incorporates RAS 2.0 features and Node Controller (NC) interconnect chip technology, and outperforms other x86 servers as well as rivaling UNIX servers, allowing customers to rest at ease with system migration. KunLun is renowned for the following highlights.
1. High reliability: Based on the RAS 2.0 features, KunLun uses fully redundant components, eliminating single points of failure and delivering up to 99.9996% reliability. KunLun supports fault analysis, alarm reporting, and fault isolation. KunLun is the first of its kind in the industry to support hot swap of CPUs and DIMMs, ensuring zero service interruption even in case of faults. KunLun achieves reliability parallel to that of traditional UNIX servers, and supports smooth capacity expansion.
2. High performance: KunLun supports 4- to 32-socket smooth scale-up, delivering up to 12 million tpmC, meeting customers’ service requirements in the next five years.
3. Lower TCO: KunLun uses the x86 open architecture and embraces the mainstream ecosystem, allowing customers to save 30% purchase and O&M costs.
Figure 2: Leverage innovative RAS 2.0 technology to deliver the highest reliability for x86 platforms
The core idea of cloud computing is on-demand provisioning. Cloud computing resource pools do not require only VM services, but also high-performance computing services for its core applications. Such services will be carried by physical servers. Software-defined VMs provide more functions such as migration and image management than physical servers, and facilitate management, configuration, and operation. After the Huawei KunLun servers are deployed on the cloud, they can perform unified management and automated provisioning just like VMs. Therefore, customers no longer need to manually install the OS and software for physical servers, nor manually configure networks and storage devices. In other words, on KunLun, customers can enjoy the same ease and convenience as VMs. In this way, resource pool administrators can centrally manage all computing, network, and storage resources including physical bare-metal servers in the cloud.
Figure 3 Huawei KunLun server
When services on UNIX servers are migrated to KunLun servers, a rigorous application and data migration methodology is required due to the changes in the server architecture and OS. KunLun servers prove a success in scenarios such as database migration and consolidation and mission-critical service platform migration across multiple industries, and boast a deposit of success practice and experience. In addition, Huawei has summarized four phases covering information collection and evaluation, planning and design, implementation, confirmation, and system optimization, including 17 steps and 30 standard actions, for application and data migration in different scenarios. The rich experience ensures smooth service migration and business continuity for each user and scenario.
To sum up, Huawei KunLun servers are where brain and brawn perfectly meet.
(Contributed by Gu Jiong)
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Source: Huawei Enterprise Blog
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