HP Integrity NonStop X - 100% fault tolerance for standard architecture servers
At the end of 2011, we talked about the HP Odyssey project launched at that time to create business-critical systems based on standard architecture processors. One of the tasks of the Odyssey was to release HP Integrity NonStop servers on the x86 platform. The first such HP Integrity NonStop X NS7 X1 server using Xeon E5 processors was released this spring. Since the HP Integrity NonStop platform is much less well known than the main series of business-critical Unix servers, HP Integrity, you should briefly describe its development history and the features of these fault-tolerant servers.
The first NonStop server was released back in 1976 by Tandem, which was founded two years earlier by a team of former HP engineers who developed HP3000 minicomputers. The creators of NonStop wanted to market a server for the most critical tasks (primarily for banks and telecommunications), which would ensure maximum scalability of performance, data integrity and constant availability of applications.
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To do this, they used a massively parallel architecture (MPP), allowing the system to scale to 4080 processors and 255 computing nodes, various mechanisms for self-testing and error localization, disk mirroring and duplication of the main server hardware components. NonStop is distinguished from other server architectures, including business critical Unix servers, by the lack of shared resources and the system bus (share nothing), the use of a messaging mechanism, a high degree of software and hardware integration, and duplication at different levels. As a result, NonStop servers provide the highest level of availability of Availability Level 4 (AL4) server (IDC) (for more information about NonStop technologies, see here ).
HP NonStop Evolution
As mentioned above, the first generation of NonStop came out in 1976. These were microcomputers, which consisted entirely of proprietary components, including CISC processors, memory subsystem, I / O, interconnects, disks, power supplies and fans, and racks. To unite NonStop nodes into a single massively parallel system, NonStop used the specialized ServerNet network technology developed by Tandem, which allows you to build a switch fabric for linking nodes into a massively parallel system.
In the early 1990s, Tandem launched the second generation NonStop S-Series, which used MIPS RISC processors instead of CISC, and in 1997, Compaq bought this company. A year later, Compaq bought Digital Equipment (DEC) and then announced plans to convert NonStop to Alpha RISC processors that DEC developed. These plans were not implemented since Compaq made a bet on Itanium in 2001 and refused to further develop Alpha. In the same year, HP bought Compaq and, as a result, NonStop was included in the product portfolio of our company's critical business servers. In 2005, HP released the first HP Integrity NonStop, which used Itanium processors. The third generation of NonStop used standard processors and memory modules, but ServerNet switches, an I / O subsystem and interconnects remained proprietary. Finally, five years ago, HP Integrity NonStop BladeSystem, using the standard BladeSystem C7000 chassis and HP Integrity Blade BL860c blades, appeared along with the transfer of HP Integrity's main Unix server series to blade architecture. In this generation of HP Integrity NonStop based on Itanium 9300/9500, only ServerNet interconnects remained proprietary components, and all other hardware was taken from standard HP BladeSystem c-Class.
Introduced on March 30, 2015, the fifth generation of HP Integrity NonStop X uses the HP ProLiant BL460c dual-socket blades with quad-core Intel Xeon E5 2600 v2 processors and 64 - 192 GB of RAM as the hardware platform. Like the fourth-generation HP Integrity NonStop BladeSystem blades with Itanium processors, the HP Integrity NonStop X NS7 X1 blades are installed in the BladeSystem c7000, but they are half the size of the BL860c i4 in height, so the 16-processor configuration of the HP Integrity NonStop (with 32 physical processors) takes only one chassis, not two. To simplify the transition of NonStop users to the new architecture, HP has optimized for x86 the entire NonStop software stack, ranging from the NonStop OS operating system to the toolkits of the NonStop Development Environment for Eclipse (NSDEE) developers and middleware software.
HP NonStop X Network Architecture
In addition to changing the processor architecture, HP Integrity NonStop X differs from the previous generation of servers by replacing the original ServerNet interconnect with a standard Infiniband, which improved the interconnect bandwidth up to 56 Gbit / s almost 25 times and also significantly reduced delays in packet exchange between server nodes. Each blade in the HP Integrity NonStop X NS7 X1 is equipped with an InfiniBand mezzanine card, and the BladeSystem c7000 chassis has two InfiniBand 4X FDR switches that form a dual fault-tolerant switching fabric. It is worth noting that HP, along with the use of InfiniBand technology, continues to use HP Integrity NonStop X and a number of important functions previously implemented in previous generations of NonStop using ServerNet technologies such as Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), guaranteed package delivery, fault tolerance and scalability.
Also, I / O performance on sequential and random read operations in the new generation of HP Integrity NonStop increased by about 25% due to the use of a new generation of solid-state disks and disk interfaces. According to the results of the Order Entry test, when switching to x86, the performance of HP Integrity NonStop applications improves one and a half times.
For those customers who for some reason prefer to use HP Integrity NonStop on Itanium, HP will continue to release fourth-generation servers under the HP Integrity NonStop i brand and may equip them with the next Itanium generation, known under the code name Kittson (Gartner analysts say that Kittson, which is expected to be released next year, will be the latest generation of Itanium and Intel will not further develop this series of processors). However, in this HP Integrity NonStop series, ServerNet interconnect will continue to be used, rather than much faster InfiniBand.
Thus, the new generation of HP Integrity NonStop X servers provides the highest level of fault tolerance and scalability of business-critical applications among servers with x86 architecture, and also significantly improves the performance of NonStop applications.
The first NonStop server was released back in 1976 by Tandem, which was founded two years earlier by a team of former HP engineers who developed HP3000 minicomputers. The creators of NonStop wanted to market a server for the most critical tasks (primarily for banks and telecommunications), which would ensure maximum scalability of performance, data integrity and constant availability of applications.
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To do this, they used a massively parallel architecture (MPP), allowing the system to scale to 4080 processors and 255 computing nodes, various mechanisms for self-testing and error localization, disk mirroring and duplication of the main server hardware components. NonStop is distinguished from other server architectures, including business critical Unix servers, by the lack of shared resources and the system bus (share nothing), the use of a messaging mechanism, a high degree of software and hardware integration, and duplication at different levels. As a result, NonStop servers provide the highest level of availability of Availability Level 4 (AL4) server (IDC) (for more information about NonStop technologies, see here ).
HP NonStop Evolution
As mentioned above, the first generation of NonStop came out in 1976. These were microcomputers, which consisted entirely of proprietary components, including CISC processors, memory subsystem, I / O, interconnects, disks, power supplies and fans, and racks. To unite NonStop nodes into a single massively parallel system, NonStop used the specialized ServerNet network technology developed by Tandem, which allows you to build a switch fabric for linking nodes into a massively parallel system.
In the early 1990s, Tandem launched the second generation NonStop S-Series, which used MIPS RISC processors instead of CISC, and in 1997, Compaq bought this company. A year later, Compaq bought Digital Equipment (DEC) and then announced plans to convert NonStop to Alpha RISC processors that DEC developed. These plans were not implemented since Compaq made a bet on Itanium in 2001 and refused to further develop Alpha. In the same year, HP bought Compaq and, as a result, NonStop was included in the product portfolio of our company's critical business servers. In 2005, HP released the first HP Integrity NonStop, which used Itanium processors. The third generation of NonStop used standard processors and memory modules, but ServerNet switches, an I / O subsystem and interconnects remained proprietary. Finally, five years ago, HP Integrity NonStop BladeSystem, using the standard BladeSystem C7000 chassis and HP Integrity Blade BL860c blades, appeared along with the transfer of HP Integrity's main Unix server series to blade architecture. In this generation of HP Integrity NonStop based on Itanium 9300/9500, only ServerNet interconnects remained proprietary components, and all other hardware was taken from standard HP BladeSystem c-Class.
Introduced on March 30, 2015, the fifth generation of HP Integrity NonStop X uses the HP ProLiant BL460c dual-socket blades with quad-core Intel Xeon E5 2600 v2 processors and 64 - 192 GB of RAM as the hardware platform. Like the fourth-generation HP Integrity NonStop BladeSystem blades with Itanium processors, the HP Integrity NonStop X NS7 X1 blades are installed in the BladeSystem c7000, but they are half the size of the BL860c i4 in height, so the 16-processor configuration of the HP Integrity NonStop (with 32 physical processors) takes only one chassis, not two. To simplify the transition of NonStop users to the new architecture, HP has optimized for x86 the entire NonStop software stack, ranging from the NonStop OS operating system to the toolkits of the NonStop Development Environment for Eclipse (NSDEE) developers and middleware software.
HP NonStop X Network Architecture
In addition to changing the processor architecture, HP Integrity NonStop X differs from the previous generation of servers by replacing the original ServerNet interconnect with a standard Infiniband, which improved the interconnect bandwidth up to 56 Gbit / s almost 25 times and also significantly reduced delays in packet exchange between server nodes. Each blade in the HP Integrity NonStop X NS7 X1 is equipped with an InfiniBand mezzanine card, and the BladeSystem c7000 chassis has two InfiniBand 4X FDR switches that form a dual fault-tolerant switching fabric. It is worth noting that HP, along with the use of InfiniBand technology, continues to use HP Integrity NonStop X and a number of important functions previously implemented in previous generations of NonStop using ServerNet technologies such as Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), guaranteed package delivery, fault tolerance and scalability.
Also, I / O performance on sequential and random read operations in the new generation of HP Integrity NonStop increased by about 25% due to the use of a new generation of solid-state disks and disk interfaces. According to the results of the Order Entry test, when switching to x86, the performance of HP Integrity NonStop applications improves one and a half times.
For those customers who for some reason prefer to use HP Integrity NonStop on Itanium, HP will continue to release fourth-generation servers under the HP Integrity NonStop i brand and may equip them with the next Itanium generation, known under the code name Kittson (Gartner analysts say that Kittson, which is expected to be released next year, will be the latest generation of Itanium and Intel will not further develop this series of processors). However, in this HP Integrity NonStop series, ServerNet interconnect will continue to be used, rather than much faster InfiniBand.
Thus, the new generation of HP Integrity NonStop X servers provides the highest level of fault tolerance and scalability of business-critical applications among servers with x86 architecture, and also significantly improves the performance of NonStop applications.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/269559/
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