With the Apache Web server, the Opterons showed a clear advantage. The HP Itanium system started producing long round-trip
times at a load of fewer than 300 clients, while the Opterons were able to sustain loads above 800 with reasonable round-trip
times. When running Apache, the Pogo Linux box performed the best among Opterons, followed by the Newisys and then the Appro,
in spite of the Newisys having faster processors and more RAM.
When running the Zeus Web server, the performance of the HP Itanium system was — while still slower — very close to the three
Opterons, an indication that Apache on Red Hat Linux was not as optimized for the Itanium as Apache on SuSE Linux was optimized
for the Opteron. (With more complex test suites, where each client was making multiple requests including large graphics,
the HP fell a little further behind.) The Opterons all had Apache 1.3.26-105 installed, while the HP Itanium ran Apache 1.3.27-2.
The table below shows the results running the Zeus Web server under 1,000 virtual clients.
The lesson for anyone looking to squeeze real 64-bit performance from an Opteron or Itanium system is to make sure your applications
are not only 64-bit capable, but optimized for 64-bit, as the Zeus Web server is. And of course, those planning to run Web
sites on Itanium clearly should do so on Zeus, rather than Apache.
Other conclusions? In general, the tests show the Opteron has a slight edge over Itanium, at least for now. Among all my tests,
the greatest difference between the highest-performing Opteron and the Itanium is about 20 percent. With the 1.3GHz and 1.5GHz
Itanium 2 processors due by the time you read this, the advantage should be moving to the Itanium. In addition to increasing
clock speed, the new chips double the L2 cache size to 6MB, compared to the 3MB in the HP Itanium system I tested.
Regardless of whether you choose Opteron or Itanium for Web serving, you’ll reap huge performance gains over 32-bit Xeon or
Athlon. Even Apache on Itanium showed a 40 percent improvement over the performance of the dual Xeon system I used as a baseline.
Web server requests don’t stress an entire system as much as some other tasks. Opteron and Itanium systems should demonstrate
even greater performance gains when handling very large databases, for example. Nevertheless, Web server performance is a
good general indicator of the kinds of gains possible with 64-bit hardware and 64-bit code.
We should all look forward to the day when the applications we’re running now are available and optimized for Opteron and
Itanium.
Bottom Line: The PerformanceWare 1264 offers excellent value from an established Linux server vendor. The system's case does require a
screwdriver to open, and drives are neither hot-swap nor easily removable, but craftsmanship and performance are good.
Bottom Line: The Newisys 2100 is not directly available from Newisys, but through resellers. It offers a substantial feature set, including
hot-swap SCSI drives, four Ethernet interfaces, two PCI slots rather than one, and a management blade that adds remote management
capabilities.
Bottom Line: HP’s Itanium-based rx2600 is an enterprise-oriented system with rock-solid engineering, redundant features throughout, lots
of expandability, and all parts geared for performance. With its hefty price tag, the rx2600 is more suitable for deploying
one or two higher-reliability systems than for clustering.
Bottom Line: The Appro 1122H produced the highest numbers in our performance testing. It also scored points with aneasy-entry case, the
inclusion of rack-mount rails, and the lowest price tag in our review. This system is ideal for clustered environments.
» Database vendors add Google's MapReduce
Greenplum and Aster Data Systems will support Google's programming technique, developed for parallel processing of large data sets across commodity hardware
» Network management: Tips for managing costs
New technologies, changing requirements, and ongoing equipment maintenance and upgrades cost money, but there are ways to manage expenses
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