HP 5992-4755 User Manual

HP OSMS: MySQL Sizing Guide for HP ProLiant c-Class Blade Servers

HP Part Number: 5992-4755
Published: March 2008
Edition: 1.0

© Copyright 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

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Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................................9

Executive Summary...........................................................................................................................9

Intended Audience............................................................................................................................9

Scope and Purpose............................................................................................................................9

HP Services........................................................................................................................................9

Typographic Conventions...............................................................................................................11

Publishing History...........................................................................................................................11

HP Encourages Your Comments.....................................................................................................11

Benchmark Software.............................................................................................................................12

Hardware Test Environment................................................................................................................12

SysBench Configuration.......................................................................................................................13

MySQL Installation...............................................................................................................................14

MySQL Configuration..........................................................................................................................14

Benchmark Results................................................................................................................................15

Interpreting the Data.......................................................................................................................16

HP Proliant BL460c Server..............................................................................................................16

HP Proliant BL465c Server..............................................................................................................17

HP Proliant BL480c Server..............................................................................................................18

HP Proliant BL685c Server..............................................................................................................19

Summary...............................................................................................................................................20

Resources..............................................................................................................................................20

Table of Contents 3

4

List of Figures

1 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL460c Server...................................................................17

2 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL465c Server...................................................................18

3 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL480c Server ..................................................................19

4 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL685c Server...................................................................20

5 Benchmark Test Results.................................................................................................................20

5

6

List of Tables

1 Test Software Environment...........................................................................................................12

2 Test Hardware Environment.........................................................................................................12

3 SQL Queries...................................................................................................................................13

4 SysBench Options..........................................................................................................................14

5 MySQL Installation Packages........................................................................................................14

6 MySQL Test Configuration ...........................................................................................................14

7 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL460c Server...................................................................16

8 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL465c Server...................................................................17

9 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL480c Server ..................................................................18

10 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL685c Server...................................................................19

7

8

Introduction

HP Open Source Middleware Stacks (OSMS) offer building block applications, such as the Web
Server; technical blueprints, and documents such as this MySQL Sizing Guide which describes
the maximum MySQL workload that HP ProLiant c-Class Blade Servers are capable of supporting;
and consulting services to speed the successful implementation of an open source strategy.

Executive Summary

The HP Open Source Integrated Portfolio (HP OSIP) comprises a range of products and services
designed to verify that customers can successfully realize the cost and feature benefits of adopting
open source software in their IT environments. HP Open Source foundation components include
the base components of an open source-based ecosystem. HP servers and storage are validated
to run the Linux operating system together with the supported commercial Linux distribution.

This results published in this document were achieved using the SysBench benchmark for each
of the HP ProLiant c-Class Blade Servers. Various test configurations and test environments were
used and documented to provide readers an opportunity to understand the testing methodology.

Intended Audience

The intended audience for this document is anyone who is interested in determining the number
of database workload that can be supported on a given HP ProLiant c-Class Blade Server and
details for deploying a hardware environment based on the database requirements of certain
applications.

Scope and Purpose

This document presents the results of a series of benchmark tests performed using the SysBench
software test suite. The tests were conducted running a MySQL database server to evaluate
system performance when running a database under a heavy load. The following HP ProLiant
servers were used in this test: BL460c, BL480c, BL465c, and BL685c. The benchmark data provided
in this sizing guide can assist customers in determining which HP Proliant c-Class Blade Server
meets their MySQL database requirements along with how-to information for configuring the
HP Proliant c-Class Blade Server and storage in a specific production environment.

HP provides quality assurance from extensive integration testing with open source software and
HP hardware so that you can confidently deploy the complete stack. Once you have completed
a successful evaluation, you have the flexibility to “do it yourself” or get assistance from HP to
incorporate open source stacks into your existing IT infrastructure.

HP Services

HP Open Source Consulting Services can help you build and integrate open source and commercial
software across multiple operating system (OS) environments. Additionally, HP Open Source
Support Services provide industry leading technical support for all the products HP sells,
including hardware, operating systems, and open source middleware.

To learn more about HP Open Source Consulting and Support Services, contact your local HP
sales representative or visit the HP Business and IT Services website at:

http://www.hp.com/hps

For the location of the nearest sales office, call:

• In the United States: [phone]

• In Canada: [phone]

• In Japan: [phone]

• In Latin America: [phone]

• In Australia/New Zealand: [phone]

Introduction 9

• In Asia Pacific: [phone]

• In Europe/Africa/Middle East: [phone]

10

Typographic Conventions

This document uses the following typographic conventions.

Command
ComputerOut

Ctrl-x A key sequence. A sequence such as Ctrl-x indicates that

ENVIRONVAR The name of an environment variable, for example, PATH.
[ERRORNAME]

Key The name of a keyboard key. Return and Enter both refer

Term The defined use of an important word or phrase.

UserInput

VARIABLE

\ (continuation character)

... The preceding element can be repeated an arbitrary number

| Separates items in a list of choices.

A command name or qualified command phrase.
Text displayed by the computer.

you must hold down the key labeled Ctrl while you press
another key or button.

The name of an error, usually returned in the errno
variable.

to the same key.

Commands and other text that you type.
The name of a placeholder in a command, function, or

other syntax display that you replace with an actual value.
A backslash (\) at the end of a line of code (such as a

command) indicates that the following line of code is
contiguous, and you must not insert a line break. This
convention facilitates the typesetting of long lines of code
examples on a printed page. If you cut and paste sample
code from this publication, ensure that you remove
backslash characters at line endings.

of times.

Publishing History

The document publishing date and part number indicate the current edition of the document.
The publishing date changes when a new edition is printed. Minor changes might be made
without changing the publishing date. The document part number changes only when extensive
changes are made. Document updates might be issued between editions to correct errors or
document product changes. For the latest version of this document online, see the HP Technical
Documentation website at:

http://www.docs.hp.com

Supported OSManufacturing Part

Number

5992-4755

(RHEL5ASu1)

HP Encourages Your Comments

HP encourages your comments concerning this document. We are committed to providing
documentation that meets your needs. Send any errors found, suggestions for improvement, or
compliments to:

[e-mail]

Include the document title, manufacturing part number, and any comment, error found, or
suggestion for improvement you have concerning this document.

Publication DateEdition

Number

March 20081Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 AS Update 1

Introduction 11

Benchmark Software

The SysBench test suite is an open source, cross-platform, multi-threaded benchmark tool for
evaluating system performance when running a database under a heavy load. Depending on
the options used, SysBench can be used to test the following system components:

• File I/O performance

• Scheduler performance

• Memory allocation and transfer speed

• POSIX threads implementation performance

• Database server performance (OLTP benchmark)

The results documented in this document were obtained using the SysBench test suite to generate
results in an environment using the MySQL database server on Proliant systems (x86_64) running
RHEL. Table 1 lists the software versions used for the benchmark tests.

Table 1 Test Software Environment

MySQL database server version 5.0.46 (for an x86_64
system)

WebsiteSoftware

http://sysbench.sourceforge.net/SysBench version 0.4.8

N/ARed Hat Enterprise Linux 5 AS Update 1 (RHEL5 AS u1)

This paper describes the results of overall database server performance based on the OLTP
benchmark. Because this represents a transactional workload, the InnoDB storage engine was
used for the MySQL database server. Four different servers from the HP ProLiant family were
used for each of the OLTP tests. Each test was performed using read-only queries and then with
read/write queries and a varied number of connections. Additionally, each of the tests were
performed when the MySQL data files were located on the local attached storage (SAS), as well
as Fibre Channel attached Storage Area Network (SAN) on an HP StorageWorks 1500 Modular
Smart Array (MSA1500).

Hardware Test Environment

This benchmark was performed within an HP BladeSystem c-Class blade enclosure with enhanced
backplane using C-GbE2 Network interconnect switches. Table 2 lists the specifications of the
hardware test environment.

Table 2 Test Hardware Environment

CPU

Memory

(2) Quad-Core Intel®
Xeon® processor X5365
(3.0 GHz/4MB L2 cache
per core)

16GB (8x2GB PC2-5300
DDR2)

(2) Dual-Core AMD
Opteron™ processor
2218 (2.6 GHz/1MB L2
cache per core)

14GB (6x2GB+ 2x1GB
PC2-5300 DDR2)

(2) Quad-Core Intel®
Xeon® processor X5365
(3.0 GHz/4MB L2 cache
per core)

24GB (12x2GB
PC2-5300 DDR2)

BL685cBL480cBL465cBL460cHardware

(2) Dual-Core AMD
Opteron processor
Model 8218 (2.6
GHz/1MB L2 cache per
core)

12GB (6x2GB PC2-5300
DDR2)

12

Disk Storage

2 x 73GB SAS Smart
Array E200i controller
with Battery Backed
Write Cache (BBWC)
and Fibre Channel
attached MSA1500

2 x 73GB SAS Smart
Array E200i controller
with Battery Backed
Write Cache (BBWC)
and Fibre Channel
attached MSA1500

4 x 73GB SAS Smart
Array P400i controller
with Battery Backed
Write Cache (BBWC)
and Fibre Channel
attached MSA1500

2 x 73GB SAS Smart
Array E200i controller
with Battery Backed
Write Cache (BBWC)
and Fibre Channel
attached MSA1500

Table 2 Test Hardware Environment (continued)

BL685cBL480cBL465cBL460cHardware

File System
Partitioning

Operating
System

(ext3 – no LVM):
Disk0: /, /boot, swap

Disk1: FC attach – 7
36GB disks 10k RPM,
RAID 0

RHEL5 AS u1 SMP
kernel (2.6.18-53.el5)
with errata updates

SysBench Configuration

The OLTP test mode emulates real database usage by issuing common SQL queries on typical
table structures. SysBench populates the following table with oltp-table-size rows at the beginning
of the test.

CREATE TABLE `sbtest` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`k` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
`c` char(120) NOT NULL default '',
`pad` char(60) NOT NULL default '',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `k` (`k`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1

To test general purpose database performance, the complex test mode was used. The InnoDB
storage engine supports ACID compliant transactions; therefore, the SysBench uses
BEGIN/COMMIT statements around each of the transactions. Table 3 lists the SQL queries used
in testing.

(ext3 – no LVM):
Disk0: /, /boot, swap

Disk1: FC attach – 7
36GB disks 10k RPM,
RAID 0

RHEL5 AS u1 SMP
kernel (2.6.18-53.el5)
with errata updates

(ext3 – no LVM):
Disk0: /, /boot, swap

Disk1: FC attach – 7
36GB disks 10k RPM,
RAID 0

RHEL5 AS u1 SMP
kernel (2.6.18-53.el5)
with errata updates

(ext3 – no LVM):
Disk0: /, /boot, swap

Disk1: FC attach – 7
36GB disks 10k RPM,
RAID 0

RHEL5 AS u1 SMP
kernel (2.6.18-53.el5)
with errata updates

Table 3 SQL Queries

SQL Query SyntaxType of Query

Point queries

Range queries

Range SUM()
queries

Ordered range
queries

Distinct range
queries

Updates on
indexed column

Updates on
non-index column

Delete queries

Insert queries

SELECT c FROM sbtest WHERE id=N

SELECT c FROM sbtest WHERE id BETWEEN N and M

SELECT SUM(c) FROM sbtest WHERE id BETWEEN N AND M

SELECT c FROM sbtest WHERE id BETWEEN N AND M ORDER BY c

SELECT DISTINCT c FROM sbtest WHERE id BETWEEN N AND M ORDER BY c

UPDATE sbtest SET k=k+1 WHERE id=N

UPDATE sbtest SET c=N WHERE id=N

DELETE FROM sbtest WHERE id=N

INSERT INTO sbtest VALUES (...)

Table 4 lists the configuration options that were used for SysBench.

SysBench Configuration 13

Table 4 SysBench Options

DescriptionValueSysBench option

MySQL Installation

The MySQL Certified Software, downloaded from the MySQL Network, provides the
mysql-enterprise-gpl-5.0.46-0.rhel5.x86_64.tar file for RHEL5 on x86_64 servers.

Table 5 lists the components contained in the tar file.

oltp--test

complex--oltp-test-mode

on/off--oltp-read-only .

0--max-requests

OLTP emulates operations that a read database would perform. Other
options are CPU, threads, mutex, memory, and fileio.

Sets the number of rows in the test table.1000000--oltp-table-size

Sets the value for whether the storage engine used is transactional.yes--mysql-engine-trx

Determines how transactions are performed. Options are simple (very
simple SELECTs),complex (transactional), and nontrx (non-transactional).

Sets whether the UPDATE/DELETE/INSERT queries are used. Both cases
were run for these tests.

Allows for the ditribution of random numbersspecial--oltp-dist-type

Sets the total number of requests allowed. The value “0” indicates
unlimited requests are allowed.

Sets the number of worker threads.varied from 1 to 128--num-threads

Initializes the random number generator.on--init-rng

Sets the limit for total execution time in seconds.180--max-time

Table 5 MySQL Installation Packages

MySQL-server-enterprise-gpl-5.0.46-0.rhel5.x86_64.rpm

MySQL-client-enterprise-gpl-5.0.46-0.rhel5.x86_64.rpm

MySQL-devel-enterprise-gpl-5.0.46-0.rhel5.x86_64.rpm

MySQL Configuration

The example configuration file (my-large.cnf) that is provided with the MySQL database
server, was used as the basis of the my.cnf test file. Table 6 lists the changes that were made to
the mysqld configuration.

Table 6 MySQL Test Configuration

DescriptionRPM Package

MySQL database server (mysqld, etc)

MySQL client programs (mysql,
mysqladmin, etc)

MySQL header files and libraries
(needed to build SysBench )

DescriptionValuemysqld Option

Maximum number of connections. The default is 100.1600max_connections

10max_connect_errors

Number of interrupted connections from a host after which
connections are blocked.

Number of open tables for all threads. The default is 512.2048table_cache

14

512Ksort_buffer_size

1Mbinlog_cache_size

Buffer size for each thread that needs to sort results. Increase
for faster ORDER BY and GROUP BY operations.

Size of cache to hold SQL statements for the binary log
during a transaction. Increase for large, multiple-statement
transactions.

Table 6 MySQL Test Configuration (continued)

DescriptionValuemysqld Option

innodb_data_file_path

1Mjoin_buffer_size

0query_cache_size

4ft_min_word_len

64Mtmp_table_size

ibdata1:100M\
:autoextend

1900Minnodb_buffer_pool_size

20Minnodb_additional_mem_pool_size

2innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit

Buffer size for joins that do not use indices and require a
full table scan.

Number of server threads to cache for reuse.16thread_cache_size

Per-thread stack size. The default is 192K.192Kthread_stack

Amount of memory allocated for caching query results. The
value “0” disables query cache.

Minimum length of the word to be included in a full-text
index.

Maximum size of in-memory temp tables. Increase for
GROUP BY.

Path to innodb data files and sizes. Increase size from 10MB
to 100MB.

Number of bytes of the memory buffer to cache data and
indices.

Number of bytes of memory pool used to store the data
dictionary information and data structures. The default is
1M.

Size of each log file in log group. The default is 5MB.900Minnodb_log_file_size

Determines how the log buffer is written to the disk. The
value “2” means data is flushed on every commit, but no
disk flush occurs. The default is 1.

Benchmark Results

1innodb_locks_unsafe_for_binlog

1000innodb_thread_concurrency

500innodb_concurrency_tickets

8MInnodb_log_buffer_size

0innodb_table_locks

0innodb_support_xa

skip-innodb-doublewriteinnodb_doublewrite

skip-innodb-checksumsinnodb_checksums

Controls next-key locking in search and index scans. The
default is 0 (disabled).

Number of threads currently inside the innodb engine. The
default varies with the MySQL version.

Number of 'free tickets' to allow re-entry into the innodb
engine.

The size of buffer InnoDB used in the memory to write the
log files. Ranges from 1MB to 8MB. Large log buffer saves
disk I/O operations.

Specifies whether InnoDB locks a table internally. The
default is 1 (enabled).

Specifies whether InnoDB supports XA transactions. The
default is 1 (supported).

InnoDB stores all data twice by default. Disable it by using
the --skip-innodb-doublewrite parameter when starting the
MySQL server.

Checksum validation is used on all data pages by default.
Disable it by using the --skip-innodb-checksums parameter
when starting the MySQL server.

For each read-only or read/write test, SysBench was run with a varying number of thread
connections to determine the maximum transactions per second (tps). The tests were conducted
on both the internal storage with the battery backed write cache option (BBWC) and the Fibre
Channel attached Storage Area Network.

Benchmark Results 15

Depending on whether the application requires many read/write queries, it may help to set the
database connection pool to the number of processing cores. For read-only testing, all HP Proliant
c-Class Blade Servers in the test can still handle almost the same number of transactions even
though the number of concurrent threads is double the number of processing cores. Therefore,
more database connections than the number of processing cores for read-only applications can
be used.

NOTE: For read/write testing, the maximum performance (shown in bold in the following
result tables) was achieved when the number of concurrent threads was the same as the total
number of processing cores in the system.

Interpreting the Data

The results of the testing are presented in the following sections and show the maximum number
of tps that each of the systems can handle, depending on the number of threads. The precise
database query load and mix of queries that an application generates vary greatly between
applications. Another important consideration in the benchmark testing was how many concurrent
connections the application had with the database server. The results in the data tables show
that having more connections can negatively impact the throughput.

If an application requires 1200 read/write tps from 16 database connections, all of the HP Proliant
c-Class Blade Servers used in these tests are suitable because all of the test servers can handle at
least 1245 tps. For read-only applications that require 2000 tps using eight database connections,
both the HP ProLiant BL465c and BL685c servers, configured with 2 Dual-Core Opteron
processors, are suitable having a capacity of 2500 tps. The ProLiant BL460c server and BL480c
server, configured with 2 Quad-Core Xeon processors, can handle a maximum of 4500 read-only
tps and 3000 read/write tps. For an application that requires more than 4500 read-only or more
than 3000 read/write tps, consideration should be given to using MySQL Replication and spreading
the load across multiple ProLiant servers.

HP Proliant BL460c Server

The HP ProLiant BL460c server has features that are equal to standard 1U rack-mount servers.
The two-processor, dual-core or quad-core ProLiant BL460c combines power-efficient compute
power, and high density with expanded memory and I/O for maximum performance. The
ProLiant c7000 enclosure supports up to 16 BL460c server blades, two more servers than the IBM
BladeCenter, and each BL460c supports double the memory capacity of the HS21 server without
an expansion blade. The Proliant BL460c now comes with dual-core and quad-core Intel® Xeon®
processors, DDR2 fully buffered DIMMs, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or Serial ATA (SATA), hard
drives, and support of multi-function NICs and multiple I/O cards. The BL460c provides a
performance system ideal for the full range of scale-out applications. In this small form factor,
the BL460c includes more features to enable high-availability, such as hot plug hard drives,
mirrored memory, online spare memory, memory interleaving, embedded RAID capability, and
enhanced remote Lights-Out management. Table 7 provides the benchmark results that were
obtained using a ProLiant BL460c server configured with two Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors
running at 3.0GHz.

NOTE: Maximum performance appears in bold.

Table 7 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL460c Server

Read/Write (tps)
Internal SASConnections

Read Only (tps)
Internal SAS

Read/Write (tps) Fibre
Channel SAN

Read Only (tps) Fibre
Channel SAN

8096107946241

16

13301029145410572

Table 7 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL460c Server (continued)

Read/Write (tps)
Internal SASConnections

Read Only (tps)
Internal SAS

Read/Write (tps) Fibre
Channel SAN

Figure 1 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL460c Server

Read Only (tps) Fibre
Channel SAN

25931910261518934

42973145430130888

435326904374260416

427124234148238232

399022714006222064

3722162636411478128

HP Proliant BL465c Server

The HP ProLiant BL465c server is a two-way server blade designed for maximum compute
density and power efficiencies. The small form factor accommodates two blades in each slot
allowing for 16 servers in a standard 6u enclosure. Each CPU is a 95 Watt version of the Dual-Core
AMD Opteron 2000 series processor, which gives the equivalent of four processing units per
server. Up to 32GB of PC2-5300 DIMMs running at 667MHz is supported. Internal storage consists
of two small form factor disk drives, either SAS or SATA attached to the integrated Smart Array
E200i RAID controller with 64MB cache supporting RAID 0, 1. An optional StorageWorks SB40c
storage blade provides connectivity to additional storage, supporting RAID 5, and ADG. The
benchmark results in Table 8 were obtained with a ProLiant BL465c server configured with two
Dual-Core Opteron processors running at 2.6 GHz.

Table 8 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL465c Server

Read/Write (tps),
Internal SASConnections

Read Only (tps), Internal
SAS

Read/Write (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

Read Only (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

7465146644971

141597313409312

25681692234116654

26401523245514678

262112982437124516

244510482302101432

Benchmark Results 17

Table 8 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL465c Server (continued)

Read/Write (tps),
Internal SASConnections

Figure 2 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL465c Server

HP Proliant BL480c Server

Read Only (tps), Internal
SAS

Read/Write (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

Read Only (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

2148911209788564

20496301962621128

The HP ProLiant BL480c server is a 2-way server blade designed for maximum performance and
scalability. The ProLiant BL480c server can support two Quad-Core Inter Xeon processors, which
gives the equivalent of eight processing units per server. Up to 48GB (PC2-5300 DDR2, 667 MHz)
of memory is supported. Each full-height blade has a Smart Array P400i Controller that supports
four hot-swap SCSI disks in a RAID configuration. An optional dual-port Fiber Channel adapter
provides connectivity to HP and third-party storage area networks (SANs). The benchmark
results in Table 9 were obtained with a BL480c server configured with two Quad-Core Inter Xeon
processors running at 3.0 GHz.

Table 9 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL480c Server

Read/Write (tps),
Internal SASConnections

Read Only (tps), Internal
SAS

Read/Write (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

Read Only (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

9446508176281

15731070149410602

29871951293919224

45883177454431258

468226554635266316

455124354533241132

433322514260226164

18

3986163439261604128

Figure 3 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL480c Server

HP Proliant BL685c Server

The HP ProLiant BL685c server blade delivers no-compromise performance and expansion in
the densest four processor server blade form factor available. With up to four AMD Opteron™
8000 Series processors, 64GB of DDR2 memory, two hot-plug Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or Serial
ATA (SATA) hard-drives, four embedded Gigabit NICs, and three I/O expansion slots, the HP
ProLiant BL685c delivers the density you want with the performance you need to handle the
most demanding enterprise class applications. Each blade server has a Smart Array E200i
Controller that supports two hot-swap SCSI disks in a RAID configuration. Optional dual-port
Fiber Channel adapter provides connectivity to HP and third-party storage area networks (SANs).
The benchmark results are listed in Table 10, and were obtained using a ProLiant BL685c server
configured with two Dual-Core Opteron processors running at 2.6 GHz.

Table 10 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL685c Server

Read/Write (tps),
Internal SASConnections

Read Only (tps), Internal
SAS

Read/Write (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

Read Only (tps), Fibre
Channel SAN

6644976704701

132398413079512

24261770232716504

24271655241915408

241315482400146316

234714682312138532

213913192094124764

1975105019711034128

Benchmark Results 19

Figure 4 SysBench Results for the HP ProLiant BL685c Server

Summary

The results of the SysBench testing indicated that the HP Proliant c-Class Blade Servers provide
a solid platform for the MySQL database server. Along with the integrated Smart Array controller
these servers provide the security of RAID storage to the host operating system and database
files, while also offering excellent performance for many applications.

The results of the benchmarks tests are provided in Figure 5 and indicate that the HP ProLiant
BL465c server is a good choice for an entry-level database server with scalability to SAN, as the
size of the database grows. When higher performance levels are required from a single server,
both the HP ProLiant BL460c and HP ProLiant BL480c servers (when configured with two
Quad-Core processors) provided a good option for scalability.

Figure 5 Benchmark Test Results

The test results indicated that optimum price and performance could be achieved using a MySQL
Replication configuration with a pair of HP ProLiant BL460c or BL480c servers with 8 cores in a
high-availability cluster where HP Proliant c-Class Blade Servers acted as the MySQL master
database server. This, combined with a number of ProLiant BL465c servers acting as the MySQL
slave database servers, provided a robust, scalable database environment within a single HP
BladeSystem enclosure.

Resources

20

For additional information on the hardware and software used in the MySQL sizing tests, see
the following websites:

HP and MySQL http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/77721-0-0-0-121.html

MySQL http://www.mysql.com

HP BladeSystem http://www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/bladeservers.html

HP ActiveAnswers for MySQL Database Server

http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/cache/81882-0-0-0-121.html

SysBench Benchmark Software http://sysbench.sourceforge.net/

Resources 21