InformationWeek

October 19, 1998

Unix: The New Mainframe

Servers offer increased capacity, easier administration via software partitioning

By Martin J. Garvey

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ig iron" doesn't just mean mainframe computers anymore. Leading vendors are now delivering Unix servers with more mainframelike capabilities. The machines feature increased capacity for handling more simultaneous requests and easier administration of connected Unix systems through software partitioning.

For IT shops that don't already have multimillion-dollar investments in mainframes, the Unix systems shipping now and through year's end will also offer power at a better price. Even IS managers at companies that use mainframes may welcome these systems' ability to better handle memory-intensive apps, such as data warehousing.

Leading the roster of high-powered servers are new Alpha-based symmetric multiprocessing systems from Compaq, which ship this week, and second-generation NUMA-Q (non-uniform memory access) servers from Sequent Computer Systems Inc., which ship next week. Also next week, IBM will weigh in with an upgrade to its most powerful RS/6000 server. Hewlett-Packard says it will add NUMA capabilities to its commercial Enterprise Parallel Server line in the coming months.

Sized Right
Managers at some fast-growing companies are eager to use these systems to meet demanding IT requirements. Hollywood Entertainment Corp. in Wilsonville, Ore.,needs capacity to support its goal of adding hundreds of stores and expanding further into data-intensive customer services, says Tammy Lowe, the company's senior director of IS. "When we allow customers to browse the Web for [video]tape availability from area stores, there will be three areas of impact: Internet service, online transactions processing integration, and data mining all the [customer] data," Lowe says.

While Lowe considered a mainframe for running online transaction processing, data mining, and other applications on an Oracle database, she concluded it would be too expensive to keep upgrading the system. Instead, the company added Sequent NUMA-Q systems. "I can add nodes up and down the line and I don't need conversions and changes to the operating systems," says Lowe. "It gives me the flexibility to focus on applications, not on constant work in the data center."

The freedom to concentrate on fulfilling business needs, rather than being force-fit into a mainframe environment, is an important advantage offered by the new Unix systems, says analyst Jonathan Eunice of Illuminata. "There's a job to do efficiently, a capability that's supposed to come out of it, and the server is a tool to get there," he says. With Unix systems operating more efficiently on big jobs, "the barriers are dropping, and it gives IS executives the opportunity to treat whatever they've got as a utility."

The new Sequent systems, which start at $228,000 with four CPUs and 1 Gbyte of memory, support as many as 64 450-MHz Xeon processors. Lowe, who already runs three 8-way NUMA-Q machines, anticipates a need for them all. With a 64-CPU NUMA system, Lowe says "users can drill down into raw transactions" without slowing down the performance of large data warehouses. NUMA systems separate memory from the CPU, distributing it throughout the system. By balancing interactions between memory, processors, and I/O, NUMA systems don't suffer from latency as the user expands the system beyond eight CPUs.

One of the biggest obstacles Unix servers have to overcome to become more like mainframes is a lack of better automated management features. Sequent's upcoming systems will be the first of the new crop of near mainframe-caliber machines to support software partitioning that is like mainframe partitioning, according to Steve Statler, senior director of Sequent's solutions integration group. With its Dynamic Partitioning, Sequent's customers will manage resources "on the fly, allocating memory and processing power to distinct applications," he says.

Compaq's newly shipping AlphaServer GlobalSolutions series and IBM's forthcoming S/70 Advanced RS/6000 servers offer only hardware partitioning for multiple applications. So, users will be able to shift resources only at the beginning of the day, before the system is started, rather than throughout the day, via software, as the machines are running.

But by the end of next year, a system from Compaq, code-named WildFire, will support more mainframe-class software partitions for changes on the fly. "That's when the cluster looks like a single system, because the best form of management is to make it so you don't have to manage it," says David Poole, Compaq's product line director for the GS Series.

HP Gets Stronger
Similarly, IBM says it will add software partitioning to its Unix servers by 2000. Software partitioning is also expected to be a feature of an upgrade of HP's Enterprise Parallel Server, to be introduced in December. The Enterprise Parallel Server will now be made up of dozens of 64-bit, V-class SMP systems that are each expected to support up to 32 processors for more capacity. It will be expandable to 64 CPUs in 1999. Additionally, the systems will now be able to function as part of a NUMA framework, because HP will add NUMA capabilities to HP-UX.

Sun Microsystems, which already offers the 64-processor UE10000, needs to improve its own partitioning, says Thomas Kraemer, a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley DeanWitter. Like most competitors, Sun still uses hardware partitioning, says Kraemer. Observers speculate that software partitioning may be introduced at a Sun event next week as an added feature to the Solaris operating system. But Rich Green, VP of Solaris for Sun, wouldn't confirm that plan.

Compaq's GS Series is designed to give customers plenty of headroom; the SMP systems are based on the 575-MHz Alpha 21264 processor, which doubles the performance of its predecessor--already arguably the most powerful processor available. The 64-bit GS140 server comes with up to 14 processors and 28 Gbytes of memory, with pricing starting at $399,000 for systems with two CPUs.

The MCI Interact Data Warehouse in Colorado Springs, Colo., has already set its sights on using eight of Compaq's GS servers instead of a mainframe to handle a data warehouse that's growing in capacity from 1 terabyte of data today to 6 terabytes by the end of 1999. MCI Interact has been sending out CDs with call analysis reports to MCI WorldCom business customers, but the company is ramping up to offer these services over the Internet.

"We're offering a lot of new services and as we do, we must add scalability," says Sajan Pillai, manager of MCI Interact. Pillai says his division has plenty of mainframes, but these 32-bit systems are not as suitable as 64-bit Unix servers, which support more memory for large files, for data mining. "The mainframes are good for sequential processing but data mining is random," says Pillai. "With only 10 Gbytes of memory per server, those aren't the players for a lot of memory-crunching."

With support for up to 32 Gbytes of memory, up to 12 RS64 II processors, and 22.7 terabytes of external storage, IBM's 64-bit S70 Advanced RS/6000 server also raises the stakes for Unix systems. According to Todd Moore, IBM's program director of RS/6000 servers, it has mainframelike features such as spare memory components in case of an outage. Plus, it connects the memory via PCI slots on the system, separate from the CPU, so system performance is isolated from I/O. The unit starts at $150,000.

Additionally, with special adapters and switches, the S70 Advanced can be a node in an IBM RS/6000 SP cluster. It can act as an application server while the SP is the sole database server. IBM says this will improve database processing by a factor of four, compared with each node having to act as both a database and application server.

Mainframes March On
But just as Unix systems are edging into mainframe territory, mainframe vendors are trying to protect their turf in existing installations. For instance, Tom Rosamilia, IBM's VP of System/390 software, says adding application support has been positive for current customers. "It used to be that if they had to go to an ERP application, they made a de facto Unix decision," he says. "Now, people can make a choice on the platform." S/390 supports ERP apps from Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP; Baan said last week its leading application would be on the S/390.

S/390 servers accounted for 15% of 1998's PeopleSoft licenses, says Tim Murray, director of platform alliances for PeopleSoft Inc. Duke Energy Corp. in Charlotte, N.C. is onboard to run PeopleSoft financial and human resource applications on its mainframe by Jan. 1. "We have Unix databases, but we selected mainframe DB2 for scalability and security," says Sarah Smith, manager of operating systems and support for Duke Energy.

As Unix reaches up to mainframe capabilities and mainframes better support what have traditionally been Unix apps, analyst Eunice says users emerge as the winners. Rather than having to be "partisan for an environment," he says, "it's more possible than ever to be aligned with the business."