Dell PowerEdge R740 User Manual

PowerEdge Product Group

Direct from
Development

Boosting Performance with the PowerEdge R740 and
2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors

Tech Note by:

Todd Mottershead
Tad Walsh

SUMMARY

Performance benefits of the
latest server technologies can
help IT decision makers
accommodate increasingly large
and complex workloads, deliver
faster response times necessary
to satisfy users and customers,
and gain or maintain competitive
advantage.

Independent testing found that
the PowerEdge R740 with 2nd
Generation Intel Xeon Scalable
Processors delivered more than

2.6 times the performance of an
HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen 9.

This significantly higher
performance, combined with the
benefits of the latest systems
management capabilities and
the potential for server
consolidation and power
savings, make upgrading to

PowerEdge R740’s a prudent

move worth considering.

Driving workloads faster is paramount for IT organizations tasked with
supporting the success of their businesses. Exponentially-growing databases
driven by rapidly expanding numbers of external customers and internal users,
all of whom expect faster and faster response times, makes it incumbent upon

IT DM’s/org’s to periodically refresh their infrastructures with new resources

capable of meeting workload requirements and user demands.
In this light, we were interested in evaluating the performance of one of our

most popular server models, the 2-socket PowerEdge R740 rack server,
configured with the latest 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors. The
R740 is a general-purpose server with configuration flexibility allowing it to be
tailored to specific requirements for demanding workloads including data
analytics, web tech, VDI, cloud applications, HPC and OLTP.

We chose OLTP as the environment to test, and in particular chose the OLTP
workload from the Hammer DB suite of benchmarks. This benchmark reports
results in two metrics – Transactions Per Minute (TPM) and New Orders Per
Minute (NOPM), both of which give an indication of the ability of the server to
accomplish heavy workloads. The database selected for these tests was
Oracle.

In selecting the server to which the R740 would be compared, we wanted the
base point to reflect what users might already have installed. In other words,
we wanted to be able to provide users with insight along the lines of,

“compared to your installed server, the R740 with 2nd Generation Xeon

Scalable Processors can give you X% greater performance.” Of all the server

models installed out there in IT infrastructures worldwide, we chose the HPE
ProLiant DL380 Gen 9 configured with previous-generation Intel Xeon
processors.

Image 1: The 2-socket, 2u, PowerEdge R740 rack server

Since we were comparing to a non-Dell EMC server, and we wanted to ensure
that the comparison would be valid, neutral and fair, we chose an outside
vendor to do the testing. The vendor chosen was Principled Technologies.
(Readers can learn more about Principled Technologies at

www.principledtechnologies.com). Testing and evaluation were performed in

June 2019.

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Direct from
Development

PowerEdge Product Group

The results

The results were highly meaningful and important for any user wondering about the timing of their server upgrades, or
about how to maintain or gain greater competitive advantage. As shown in Image 2 below, the PowerEdge R740
cranked out more than 2.6 times the Transactions Per Minute (TPM) delivered by the HPE DL380 Gen 9. Similarly, as
illustrated in Image 3, the R740 surpassed the capabilities of the HPE DL380 Gen 9 on New Orders Per Minute (NOPM)
by more than 2.6 times.

Image 2: The PowerEdge R740 vastly outperformed the HPE
ProLiant DL380 Gen 9, delivering more than 2.6 times the
transactions per minute (TPM) on the HammerDB benchmark.
Source: Principled Technologies.

Image 3: Testing the HammerDB New Orders Per Minute
(NOPM) benchmark found that the PowerEdge R740
outperformed the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen 9 by more than 2.6
times. Source: Principled Technologies.

Implications

Getting long life out of installed IT equipment is of course an important variable for businesses, enterprises and public
organizations to consider. At the same time, as these entities wrestle with ever-increasing numbers of users and
customers, who demand faster and faster responses, IT decision makers should plan timely server upgrades in order to
keep their users satisfied and to help their businesses maintain or gain competitive advantage. Moving to platforms that
can deliver 2.6 times the work as installed systems would seem to be a prudent move worth considering.

In addition to the clear performance advantages of the PowerEdge R740, moving to new R740 technology also allows IT
Administrators to take advantage of the latest systems management capabilities, including simplification and unification
of tools and consoles, and automation of tasks. All of this helps IT Admins save time, save money, and reduce potential
for error.

Moreover, the significantly higher performance of the R740 can enable users to consolidate multiple older servers onto a
single R740. This can greatly simplify back-of-the-rack cabling, free up rack space for better airflow, and potentially
reduce energy costs for power and cooling.

© 2017 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries

Conclusion

Accommodating rapidly growing workloads, satisfying user demands for faster response times, and maintaining or
gaining competitive advantage are crucial objectives for IT decision makers. The PowerEdge R740 2-socket rack server
can assist with each of these goals by driving significantly higher performance compared to installed systems. The
R740 configured with 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors can deliver up to 2.6 times the OLTP performance
of an HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen 9. This superior performance, along with the latest systems management capabilities
and the potential for server consolidation, can bring significant benefits to IT organizations and the businesses that they
support.

Notes:

• More information about the Dell EMC PowerEdge R740 rack server can be found at https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/povw/poweredge-r740

• For more information about the HammerDB suite of benchmarks, visit www.hammerdb.com .

• See the Principled Technologies summary report of the testing covered in this tech note at

https://www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/PowerEdge-R740-2nd-Gen-Intel-Xeon-Scalable-0619.pdf .

Proactive HA and OMIVV enable policy-driven preventive action in case an issue in the underlying hardware layer is detected.
Via the policy settings, automated actions can be taken to move VMs off an affected host or prevent any new VMs to be started

there.
The his automatically, without human intervention, helps to improve uptime for services deployed in the virtual environment while

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