Is IBM Power9 the best performing Linux server?
IBM Power Linux servers have a proven history of delivering over twice the performance per core compared to industry leading x86 server brands. IBM Power Linux servers have also proven to deliver the lowest cost of ownership compared to other Linux servers running on x86 hardware.
Although there is no one single answer to this question, the two statements address what most people want to know when comparing Linux server workloads, such as: application server, database server and cloud server.
Linux server hardware running on IBM POWER9 can deliver over twice the performance per core compared to industry leading x86 server brands, which reduces licensing costs and is the main reason it has the lowest total cost of ownership and makes it the best Linux server. In comparison to x86 servers, IBM Power9 Linux server hardware provide 2x more cores, 3.4x better core performance, 4x more threads, 33% more memory (up to 4TB), 2.4x better price performance, 2x data bandwidth, 5.6X the CPU-GPU bandwidth, a smaller foot print, have better availability (less than 2 minutes of unplanned downtime per year) and have lower energy consumption. Performance benchmarks prove IBM Power9 Linux servers are best for Red Hat, Ubuntu and SUSE applications. IBM Power9 Linux servers have many benchmark test results proving it is the best Linux server for Ubuntu Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and IBM Red Hat Enterprise Linux, including application server, database server, SAP server, Oracle server, analytics server, business intelligence server, web server, media server, HCI, private cloud server and other x86 workloads.
The questions and answers presented here are based on real-life business scenarios, independent x86 Linux server comparison case studies, industry experts, competitor specifications, vendor testing and other fact based benchmark laboratory testing results. The questions revolve around the important business decisions companies must make about how to lower licensing costs, operating costs and/or how to improve application response times for business units.
FACT: Fact: 80 percent of the Fortune 100 companies use IBM Power Systems.
What applications can I run on a IBM Power Linux Server?
Any x86 Linux server application running on Ubuntu Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and RedHat Enterprise Linux is supported. In addition, the community versions of Linux server like Debian, openSUSE, CentOS, Fedora and others can also run on IBM Power Linux servers.
Does an IBM Power9 Linux server cost more than an x86 server?
Yes, maybe and no. When comparing the upfront hardware costs of purchasing a IBM Power Linux server solution to a comparable x86 server solution, x86 hardware may be at times less expensive and sometimes not. However, after accounting for lower licensing costs, reliability, implementation time, scalability, performance, ongoing management and security, IBM Power9 Linux servers have a much lower cost of ownership compared to alternative x86 servers.
Why does a IBM Power Linux server have a lower TCO compared to an x86 server?
IBM Power systems provide better performance per core, which means fewer cores needed to run applications, therefore software licensing costs will be lower. Fewer server environments require less system management, database administration and other labour costs, which lowers operating costs. Other cost saving benefits include smaller physical foot print and lower power consumption. Although an x86 server may have a lower upfront acquisition costs, industry testing and case study results prove this does not equate to a lower cost solution. On average, businesses can lower costs by up to 50-60% when migrating x86 workloads to a IBM Power9 Linux server.
Which Linux server is the most reliable?
Without a doubt, it is the IBM Power Linux server line. IBM Power servers have a 99.9996% uptime score (2.1 minutes/server/annum unplanned downtime), and have proven to be the most reliable servers on the market for the past 10 years in a row. In addition, IBM Power Linux servers have the fastest shut down and boot up time. ITIC ranked IBM Power systems number 1 in every major reliability category for on premises infrastructure for the last 12 years in a row.
Is application performance better on IBM Power9 Linux server versus x86 servers?
Yes, absolutely. Testing and business case studies consistently prove IBM Power9 Linux servers process data faster than x86 servers, using less cores and in a much smaller foot print. In the application server space, a 2-socket Power9 Linux server has 3.4x faster core performance and 2.4X the price-performance with two times more threads compared to an x86 server. IBM Power9 servers have up 5.6x more I/O, 9.5x I/O bandwidth, almost 5.6x CPU to GPU bandwidth, support up to 2x more RAM, 1.8x more memory bandwidth per socket, 5.6x data throughput 4x as many threads. Many of the Power9 server performance benefits also cascade to other areas of application performance and system resource utilisation. IBM Power Linux server memory is larger and has much larger cache, which translates to lower latency and less I/O, faster shut down and startup. FYI, the world’s fastest supercomputers (No. 2 & 3 on HPC500) are running on a IBM Power9 processor.
How many IBM Power9 Linux servers would I need to replace my x86 server farm?
Most environments would only need 1 IBM Power9 Linux server to replace an x86 cluster or server farm, but a workload analysis will determine the proper sizing of a Power9 replacement solution. A IBM Power9 server can have up to 192 cores. Below are some real world Power9 migration examples, illustrating the cost saving benefits by only calculating the initial server and software licensing costs over 3 years.
Example 1: Power9 Migration with MongoDB 700 user workload running 1000 transactions.
2-socket Intel Xeon Skylake Gold 6150 (2x18-core)
- 256 GB memory
- 2 x 480 GB SSD
- 3 x 10 Gb two-port network
- IBM Red Hat Linux RHEL 7.6
- KVM (2 VMs with 18-cores each) and 98 containers
would require US$28,805 in upfront costs for the x86 server and US$171,200 for licensing RHEL OS, Virtualization and OCP.
The equivalent IBM Power9 L922 (2x10-core)
- 256 GB memory
- 2x 388 GB SSD
- 2x 10 Gb two-port network
- IBM Red Hat Linux 7.6
with PowerVM (2 partitions with10-cores each) and 174 containers for US$28,821 in upfront costs and US$115,900 for licensing.
Results? US$1,081 cost savings per container running on the IBM Power9 with additional significant savings for core software licenses.
The result is a US$1,081 cost savings per container running on the IBM Power9 server, allowing 1.7x more containers (3.2x more containers per core) and 2.6 better price performance than a comparable x86 server. This company can now scale out MongoDB workload using half the number of x86 servers, providing significant savings for core based software licenses.
Example 2: A CPU intensive private cloud app environment achieves the best Java benchmark score
...with half the application server cores and a two thirds less database server cores running on:
IBM Power9 S924 2.9GHz
- 24-core and a S924 3.3GHz
- 16-core server with 256 GB of memory each
Delivering 2.4x better per core performance for a cost of US$218,000.
Compared to:
Cisco UCS C240 M5 2xIntel Xeon Platinum 8168 (2.7GHz, 48-core)
- with 256 GB of memory
- and Cisco UCS C240 M5 2xIntel Xeon Platinum 8168 (2.7GHz, 48-core)
- with 1TB of memory for US$358,000.
The Java test results show the IBM Power9 servers getting 34,517 WebjOPS (1,438 per core) and the Cisco server achieving only 28,860 (601 per core).
As you can see from the above results, IBM Power Servers thread count enable more containers per server. In CPU demanding workloads, x86 servers hits a maximum container count faster (72 containers) than Power9 (more than double x86) and has 15% less throughput than Power9. If these environments need additional cores, the x86 costs will continue to increase for the server to reach equivalent throughput of the Power9.
Example 3: EDB pgbench mark
Using the EDB pgbench mark, 853,709 transactions per second were achieved on a EnterpriseDB Postgres Advance Server 10 workload running on:
IBM Power9 L922 (2x10-core/2.9 GHz)
- 256 GB memory
- 2 x 300GB SATA
- 7.2K rpm LFF HDD
- 10 Gb two-port
- 1 x 16gbps FCA
- EDB Postgres Advanced Server 10
- RHEL 7.5 with PowerVM (4 partitions with 5-cores each)
cost US$27,480 and US$144,557 for IBM Red Hat Linux RHEL OS and Virtualization.
Compared to 611,118 transactions per second on:
2-socket Intel Xeon Skylake Gold 6148 (2x20-core/2.4 GHz
- 256 GB memory
- 2 x 300GB HDD
- 1 Gb two-port
- 1 x 16gbps FCA
- EDB Postgres Advanced Server 10
- IBM Red Hat Linux RHEL 7.5
- KVM (4 VMs with 10-cores each)
costing US$29,247 and licensing of US$243,166. The IBM Power9 server delivered 2.8x per core better performance, 1.4x system throughput and at 40% less cost. The IBM Power9 server delivered 2.4x better price performance than the x86 server.
Are IBM Power Linux servers more secure than x86 servers?
IBM Power Systems are built with security at every level, from processor to the OS, and deliver end-to-end security out of the box. All IBM Power9 Linux servers are delivered with pre-loaded firmware and operating system security patches that mitigate known vulnerabilities and threats such as Meltdown and Spectre, which include all supported OS types: Linux, AIX and IBM i OS400. The IBM Power server holistic security measures include the hardware, hypervisor, firmware, operating system, applications, network resources and security software.
Are IBM Power Linux servers more scalable than x86 servers?
Yes, there is no contest.
Is migrating to IBM Power Linux Server difficult?
In most cases, no. After recompiling your x86 code, you will be ready to go without making any additional changes. Some customers have claimed over 8x performance improvement immediately upon migration.
Is there a guide to help migrate x86 workloads to a IBM Power Linux server?
Yes. Below are a few links to help you migrate your x86 applications to IBM Power-based platforms:
- https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/liabw/liabwp9qsg_8335.htm
- https://developer.ibm.com/linuxonpower/porting-guide/
- https://developer.ibm.com/tutorials/l-porting-tuning-tools/
- https://developer.ibm.com/linuxonpower/sdk/
- https://developer.ibm.com/linuxonpower/tutorials/sdk_linux_on_power/
Send Me Your Server Workload For Analysis.
If you have not seen enough evidence to build your business case to switch to a IBM Power Linux server, please request from me supporting documentation that reflects your specific workloads.
Small companies may save 10s of thousands per year, while larger companies can save millions per year.
I can also provide a detailed workload analysis, illustrating how your applications will run on a comparable Power system, whether it be for Linux, AIX (Unix) or on an IBM i system. The bigger your environment, the more money your company can save by switching to IBM Power servers.
If you would like to discover how to reduce the costs of your mission critical Linux environment, please feel free to contact me for an obligation free discussion - benkwan@nz1.ibm.com