Dell Breaks Virtualization Performance Records with PowerEdge Servers Based on New Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processors

The new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are now available in two- and four-socket Dell PowerEdge servers, including three blade servers (M905, M805, M605), four rack servers (R905, R805, 2970, SC1435) and one tower server (T605).
The latest PowerEdge servers offer superior performance and value.

Improved Performance: Dell’s Dual HT link designs, which doubles the available bandwidth between two processors for an AMD estimated 12% performance improvement.
Better Power Efficiency: Increased performance while using about the same amount of power as previous server generations.

Investment Protection: Third generation PIN compatible for simple chip swap.
PowerEdge servers and blades with new Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors lead the industry in virtualization performance.
PowerEdge R905 & R805 servers based on Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor hold no. 1 VMmark Scores for two- and four-socket systems.2
New systems offer flexibility AMD estimates will provide 25 percent faster VM-to-VM switch time and the ability to VMotion across servers using prior generations AMD Opteron processors.

Dell PowerEdge systems are optimized for customer-preferred virtualization solutions from key partners like Microsoft, VMware and Citrix.
Dell PowerEdge M-series blades offer unbeatable power efficiency, performance for virtualization and a low total cost of ownership.
PowerEdge M905 uses up to 8 percent less power than comparable HP blades and up to 18 percent less power than comparable IBM blades.3
PowerEdge M905 achieved the No. 1 VMmark score for blades.1

source: http://newsticker.welt.de/index.php?channel=fin&module=smarthouse&id=809639

1 Based on SPECjbb2005 benchmark results by Dell Labs comparing PowerEdge R805 servers with 65nm and 45nm Opteron processors. For the latest SPECjbb2005 benchmark results, visit http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spec.org%2Fosg%2Fjbb2005&esheet=5830195&lan=en_US&anchor=www.spec.org%2Fosg%2Fjbb2005&index=1.
2 Based on R905, R805, and M905 VMmark results as compared to published benchmark scores as of November 12, 2008. VMware® VMmark™ is a product of VMware, Inc. VMmark utilizes SPECjbb2005® and SPECweb2005®, which are available from the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC). See http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vmmark.com&esheet=5830195&lan=en_US&anchor=www.vmmark.com&index=1 for current results.
3 Source: Principled Technologies, "SPECjbb performance and power consumption on multi-processor Intel- and AMD-based blade servers,” an August 2008 report commissioned by Dell.

Hype vs. Hope: 10 Things You Should Know About Buying Blade Servers by Ken Hess

As an IT Manager, you are likely inundated by positive-spin marketing and vendors touting that their solution is “better, more cost-effective, cheaper, more efficient” and so on. Blade Servers are the latest technology to fall prey to the hype, over-selling and marketing blitzes that follow any new or up and coming technology or product. What happens, though, if we dump the glossy marketing hype and boil-down the facts? Will a distilled overview of what blade servers can really do for you measure up to the claims? Let’s find out

1. Blade Servers Use Less Power
2. Blade Servers Require Less Cooling
3. Blade Servers Lower Your TCO
4. Virtualization
5. Vendor Tie-in/Buy-in
6. Less Space/High Density
7. Less Time to Deploy and Provision
8. Built-in Redundancy
9. Less Cabling
10. Same Horsepower, Smaller Footprint

Full article by Linux evangelist Ken Hess on http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7166/

SSD disks available on M600 and M605

Now available: Solid State Disks!

Dell unveils next generation hard disks for servers on the blade PowerEdge M600 and M605 (AMD) with a capacity of 25GB and 50 GB.

Here below the hard disk selection on dell.com

Hard Drives:

2.5" SAS (10K rpm): 36GB, 73GB, or 146GB

2.5" SAS (15K rpm): 36GB or 73GB

2.5” SATA (7.2k rpm): 80GB, 120GB, 160GB or 250GB

25GB, 50 GB Solid State Drive (SSD)

Dell M600 product site:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_m600?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

Dell nearly breaking the 200GB barreer with his AMD blade

Who ever dreamed of a blade server with 24 DIMM slots?

Now at Dell with the new PowerEdge M905 blade server, nearly breaking the 200GB barreer!

Simple calculation:
24 slots x 8GB= 192GB

The blade M905 features 4 sockets and is fully equipped for virtualisation.

Wow!

New dell 4-socket Blade - PowerEdge M905

The new PowerEdge M905 blade server offers four sockets and goes up to 192 gigabytes.
Used with a M1000e chassis with increased bandwidth and performance (10Gb Ethernet and 8Gb Fibre Channel switches), the PowerEdge M905 is the perfect server for virtualisation!

Product website: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/server-poweredge-m905?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

Dynamic PSU engagement with the Dell blade chassis M1000e

Conscious about not wasting to much energy, companies shall look into the Dell dynamic PSU engagement possibilities on the M1000e. This will not only save a huge energy bill but be friendly with the environment.

The basics of the dynamic PSU engagement is very simple. When a chassis is fully loaded with 16 blades, one assumes that all PSUs need to be online to ensure uptime. Now if the chassis is half loaded, it is as waste of energy to have the 6 PSUs run the entire time.

How does the dynamic PSU engagement work?
The chassis administrator can set a power threshold. If power required is under the threshold, under-utilised power supplies will be put in standby. They can quickly be brought back online if power needs change.

Which configuration with which redundancy policy?

• AC redundancy: PSU 1 and 4 are always online. PSU 3 and 6 go standby first. Then PSU 2 and 5.
• Power Supply redundancy: PSU 1 and 4 are always online. PSU 3 goes standby first, then PSU 4. PSU 5 and 6 are always standby

With a non-redundant power policy PSU 1 and 2 are always online. PSU 3 goes standby first. The remaining PSUs are always standby.

Between 30 to 120W can be saved by using the dynamic PSU engagement depending on the configuration.

From a durability perspective, using dynamic PSU engagement ensures that not all power supplies have the amounts of hours running. This could help avoid situation when 2 or more supplies break down nearly at the same time.

PDU options for M1000e blade chassis

On a single phase, there are 3 PDU options to setup a Dell blade chassis M1000e:

• 20A: 6x 20A per chassis, i.e. 1 circuit per PSU
• 30A: 2x 30A per chassis
• 60A: 2x 60A per chassis

The chassis features 3+3 power suppy units (PSU). The 30A and 60A solutions connects the first PDU to 3 PSUs; and the second PDU to the 3 remaining ones. By connecting each of the PSU to a different power grid, one assumes that full power redundancy can be given.

The 6x 20A solution is bearly possible for companies hosting many chassis in a rack as there will be a lack of space to host so many PDUs.

Dell simplifies blade server management with I/O virtualisation

Dell is releasing an I/O virtualization tool for its blade servers, making it easier for IT managers to install new blades and swap out servers.

Without I/O virtualization, IT shops have to manually assign Media Access Control (MAC) addresses and World Wide Name (WWN) identifiers each time they put in a new blade server. Dell's FlexAddress, announced Tuesday, abstracts the MAC and WWN addresses from the blade hardware, instead tying the identifiers to slots within Dell's PowerEdge M-Series blade chassis.

Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/070108-dell-blade-server-management.html