Thursday, March 26, 2015
Dell Networking Z9500 performance validation whitepaper by Miercom
Dell Networking Z9500 Performance Validation by Miercom
Our testing of the Z9500 primarily addressed performance and energy efficiency. For performance testing, traffic was directed across the switching fabric. The results of the following performance tests are included here:
RFC 2544 Layer 2 throughput and latency operating in store-and-forward mode
RFC 2889 Layer 2 and 3 throughput and latency operating in both store-and forward mode and cut-through mode
RFC 3393 Layer 2 jitter (latency variance) operating in store-and-forward mode
Among the key test results:
-In store-and-forward mode, the Z9500 transmits Layer 2 packets of all sizes (64 to 9,216 bytes) at full line-rate on all 132 x 40GE ports, with zero loss and with low latency.
Operating in both store-and-forward and cut-through modes, the Z9500 readily transmits Layer 3 packets of all sizes (70 to 9,216 bytes) at full line-rate with zero loss and with low latency.
The Z9500 exhibits impressively low Layer 2 jitter (latency variance) while operating in store-and-forward mode.
-The switch consumes a comparatively respectful 15.65 watts per 40GE port, with all 132 x 40GE ports handling a random mix of Layer 2 packet sizes, 64 to 9,216 bytes, at 100 percent full load.
-Experienced zero loss of Layer 2 minimum-size (64-byte) packets during a 15- hour test that applied traffic across the switching fabric on all 132 x 40GE ports.
The review also verified these characteristics of the Z9500:
-The 3RU (three rack units, about 5 ¼ inches) chassis houses a switching fabric and 11 IO modules. Each IO module supports 12 x 40GE ports.
-The switching fabric includes six Broadcom Trident II chipsets while each IO module has one – a system total of 17 Trident II chipsets.
-Load balancing is achieved by dynamically directing traffic across the switching fabric.
-The switch functions perfectly with only two of its four load-balancing, hot-swappable power supplies in operation.
-Internal sensors monitor the temperature to ensure the switch stays within operating range, and dynamically vary the speed of the cooling fans to save energy.
Software defined what???
Historically there is silos of information: Compute, Network, and Storage.
Each had their own stack of technology to manage and teams to handshake for them to inter-operate.
Frankly, this is still the case in most medium and large business organizations.
There will be a reliance on obsolete hardware and software in small shops where you have a single IT guy wearing multiple hats for the foreseeable future. A new type of consultant will become mainstream though called the cloud admin. They can start out in the public cloud and then bring that same technology in house for economy of scale for a private cloud. They know how to create an abstraction layer between the hardware and software.
Cloud technology and starting with server (compute) virtualization there is major shifts happening in the IT industry. Cloud technology is in constant flux and therefore there are many different opinions of an exact definition of "Cloud." According to my definition (that has a Dell bias), it is using software on top of industry standard hardware to disaggregate the physical control plane from the data plane.
Most IT shops have done exactly this with virutalizing some or most of their servers to best optimize use the hardware and provide quick application recovery or migration. Web scale data centers are doing this with not only the server virtualization but also the storage and networking pieces as well.
On the storage side of things we are not managing the spindles anymore, we are managing the bits of data. The software managing the spindles can allow RAID 10 writes and RAID 5 reads on the same spindle. However it goes even further with hyper-converged solutions (openstack or nutanix) where the all the compute and storage can fit on any node within the datacenter.
The best description I have received for these sever node environments is that we need to stop treating servers as puppies and instead treat them like cattle. You cannot spend hours setting up the server just right, you know treating it like a puppy. You need software that automates the provisioning of the hardware to a few minutes and shoving as much hardware into a confined space, you know like corralling cattle for a stockyard.
The last piece I would like to write about is the software defined networking. Again using software to disaggregate the control plane from the data (forwarding) plane on industry standard hardware. There is three different paths to currently do this. First is with open source operating systems running on the switch that allows Linux automation tools to setup the hardware. Second is overlay solution that plugs into the management center of a hypervisor environment. Third would be a control plane solution requiring either a virutal or hardware controller that is the central brain of the entire fabric. All this choice is causing confusion since there is so many choices to make. Also the solutions are innovating at break neck speeds.
However isn't that the better business problem to have versus being stuck with a single vendor's hardware box as the only choice for deployment and innovation?
Each had their own stack of technology to manage and teams to handshake for them to inter-operate.
Frankly, this is still the case in most medium and large business organizations.
There will be a reliance on obsolete hardware and software in small shops where you have a single IT guy wearing multiple hats for the foreseeable future. A new type of consultant will become mainstream though called the cloud admin. They can start out in the public cloud and then bring that same technology in house for economy of scale for a private cloud. They know how to create an abstraction layer between the hardware and software.
Cloud technology and starting with server (compute) virtualization there is major shifts happening in the IT industry. Cloud technology is in constant flux and therefore there are many different opinions of an exact definition of "Cloud." According to my definition (that has a Dell bias), it is using software on top of industry standard hardware to disaggregate the physical control plane from the data plane.
Most IT shops have done exactly this with virutalizing some or most of their servers to best optimize use the hardware and provide quick application recovery or migration. Web scale data centers are doing this with not only the server virtualization but also the storage and networking pieces as well.
On the storage side of things we are not managing the spindles anymore, we are managing the bits of data. The software managing the spindles can allow RAID 10 writes and RAID 5 reads on the same spindle. However it goes even further with hyper-converged solutions (openstack or nutanix) where the all the compute and storage can fit on any node within the datacenter.
The best description I have received for these sever node environments is that we need to stop treating servers as puppies and instead treat them like cattle. You cannot spend hours setting up the server just right, you know treating it like a puppy. You need software that automates the provisioning of the hardware to a few minutes and shoving as much hardware into a confined space, you know like corralling cattle for a stockyard.
The last piece I would like to write about is the software defined networking. Again using software to disaggregate the control plane from the data (forwarding) plane on industry standard hardware. There is three different paths to currently do this. First is with open source operating systems running on the switch that allows Linux automation tools to setup the hardware. Second is overlay solution that plugs into the management center of a hypervisor environment. Third would be a control plane solution requiring either a virutal or hardware controller that is the central brain of the entire fabric. All this choice is causing confusion since there is so many choices to make. Also the solutions are innovating at break neck speeds.
However isn't that the better business problem to have versus being stuck with a single vendor's hardware box as the only choice for deployment and innovation?
Thursday, March 12, 2015
List of Dell Networking Campus links
Dell Virtual rack : http://dellnetworkingvr.dell.com/
Dell Networking Campus Switching Reference Architecture: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20439122
QRLDell Networking videos:
Dell Networking Guides: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/networking/p/guides
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)