QLogic 3200 Series is the Adapter of Choice for Virtualized Environments - Manual (Page 3)

hSG-WP11002 SN0330930-00 rev. a 02/12 3
White PaPer
Enabling Business Agility through CPU Efficiencies
as virtualization becomes prevalent in the enterprise data center, CPU
efficiency is emerging as a key factor in network consolidation initiatives.
Consolidation increases the density of server environments, and more dense
servers require higher throughput for business-critical applications. high
throughput with low CPU utilization is the key to scaling in next-generation
virtualized data centers, and without offloads significant overhead is added
to each operation, limiting the scalability of virtual servers. the QLogic
intelligent ethernet adapter is designed to provide high throughput for
enterprise applications while removing CPU overhead to enable near-native
OS performance for VMs. this creates higher server utilization and enables
support for more VMs per physical server, helping to contain server sprawl
and reduce overall costs.
the following charts highlight the advantages that the QLogic adapter holds
over the intel adapter. Figure 1 shows that the QLogic QLe3242 intelligent
ethernet adapter in a bi-directional, dual-port configuration requires 60
percent less CPU resources than the intel X520 Network Server adapter.
Consuming only a small portion of the CPU enables the QLogic adapter
to more efficiently scale. Figure 2 shows that the CPU efficiency of the
QLogic QLe3242 is 175 percent greater compared to the intel X520 at
12 workloads. to arrive at this result, total throughput for each adapter
was calculated through increasing workloads and then divided by the
percentage of the CPU required to drive the throughput. in virtualized
data centers, CPU efficiency has even greater importance because of the
additional overhead virtualization places on data center servers.
Figure 1. CPU Percentage
Figure 2. CPU Efficiency
The Added Overhead of Virtualization
Deploying 10Gb ethernet allows for the replacement of multiple 1Gb
connections with a single physical 10Gb ethernet connection, which is
a more cost-effective approach. 10Gbe’s advanced features offer more
flexibility than multiple 1Gb ethernet connections, while providing the
aggregate bandwidth needed to support new consolidated environments.
Consolidation of applications, servers, and networking resources is being
driven by virtualization and bladed servers. Both virtualization and bladed
servers have the potential to greatly enhance infrastructure flexibility,
enabling it to adapt to changing user requirements and transient workloads
while reducing capital expenditures.
the density of VMs per physical server is on the rise, with the number
of potential tCP/iP connections growing exponentially. When VMs are
implemented, their ethernet connections not only have to provide LaN
and WaN connectivity, but also leverage features such as VM heartbeats,
live migration, and resource allocation services to provide dynamic load
balancing and high availability within virtual operating environments.
this places stress on ethernet networking and the server CPUs that must
process the data.
high throughput with low CPU utilization, such as provided by QLogic’s
intelligent ethernet adapter, is the key to scaling within next-generation
data centers. the superior CPU efficiency combined with the full line-rate
performance of the QLogic 3200 Series is imperative to meeting application
throughput demands and virtualized server scalability requirements.
intel’s answer to this is to flaunt its multi-core processors and push
the need for more of these processors within virtual servers to process
network overhead. however, multi-core servers running virtual operating
environments are now hosting an average of 12 VMs, compounding the
work each processor must now handle. in the future, VM densities are
expected to rise.
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
1 2 4 8 12
CP
U
%
Workload
QLE3242
X520
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
1 2 4 8 12
M
bp
s/
CP
U
Workload
QLE3242
X520