Scalability of 64-bit Terminal Server Platforms

Posted by Benny Tritsch on April 24, 2007 – updated on July 17, 2007

[Introduction] [Test Environment] [Tools and Scripts] [Methodology] [Results] [Conclusions]
[Appendix 1: Performance Counters Used] [Appendix 2: Step-by-Step Description]

Test Environment

The test environment consisted of both hardware and software components. The hardware components communicated through a dedicated Local Area Network (LAN). This configuration avoids interference with network traffic not associated with the test environment.

One testing laboratory environment provided a simple setup using two types of servers:

• 2 Dell PowerEdge 850 Servers; 1 x Intel XEON 3.0 GHz Dual-Core CPU, 2 megabyte second-level cache, 4 gigabytes of memory
• 10 Fujitsu Siemens Computers BX600 Blade Servers used as clients creating user load; 2 x Intel 2.8 GHz CPUs, 2 gigabytes of memory
• 1 IBM T43 Notebook used for test sequence control and monitoring

Another testing laboratory environment ¾ provided by Fujitsu Siemens Computers in Augsburg, Germany ¾ provided the following test setup:

• 1 Fujitsu Siemens Computers Primergy BX630-A Server: 2 x AMD 1.8 GHz Dual-Core CPUs, 16 gigabytes of memory
• 1 Fujitsu Siemens Computers RX300S2-A Server: 2 x Intel 2.8 GHz Dual-Core CPUs, 16 gigabytes of memory
• 10 Fujitsu Siemens Computers BX300 Blade Servers used as clients creating user load; 2 x Intel 933 MHz CPUs, 2 gigabytes of memory
• 1 Fujitsu Siemens Computers E4010D Notebook used for test sequence control and monitoring

Other components of both the testing laboratories included a Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure. Refer to the following tables for a summary of the server system components.

 

System Components	Quantity	Description
Hardware Type	2	DELL PowerEdge 850 Server
Operating System		Windows Server 2003, R2
Processor	1	Intel XEON 3.0 GHz Dual-Core, EM64T
Memory	4	gigabytes
Disk Subsystem	1	150 gigabytes, Adaptec DELL Array SCSI
NIC	1	Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet

 

System Components	Quantity	Description
Hardware Type	1	FUJITSU SIEMENS RX300S2-A
Operating System		Windows Server 2003, SP1
Processor	2	Intel 2.8 GHz Dual-Core, EM64T
Memory	16	gigabytes
Disk Subsystem	2	70 gigabytes, LSI Logic RAID 1 SCSI
NIC	1	Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet

 

System Components	Quantity	Description
Hardware Type	1	FUJITSU SIEMENS PRIMERGY BX630-A
Operating System		Windows Server 2003, SP1
Processor	2	AMD 2.8 GHz Dual-Core, AMD64
Memory	16	gigabytes
Disk Subsystem	2	36 gigabytes, LSI Logic RAID 1 SCSI
NIC	1	Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet

 

For all server systems used during the tests, the system information was documented by running the system tool msinfo32.exe.

 

 

Figure: System Information of one of the servers used for the tests

 

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