The companies unveiled their first joint product since announcing their merger
Oracle has launched a high-end database and storage system that it co-developed with Sun, the companies' first joint product since announcing their plans to merge almost five months ago.
Called the Exadata Database Machine Version 2, it combines Intel-based servers and other Sun hardware with Oracle's database and storage management software in a rack-based system optimized for enterprise data warehousing and high-speed online transaction processing (OLTP).
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison unveiled the product on a webcast Tuesday from Oracle's California headquarters, where he was joined by John Fowler, executive vice president in charge of Sun's systems business. The system uses an unusually large amount of flash memory -- up to 5TB in a fully loaded rack -- to achieve high levels of OLTP performance, Ellison said. Neither of the executives made any reference to the companies' pending merger, which Oracle had hoped to close by now but which has been held up by competition regulators in Europe. Nor did they disclose any more information about which Sun products Oracle will support or discontinue if the merger goes through.
The system that launched Tuesday uses Linux, rather than Sun Solaris, and Intel-type processors, rather than Sun's Ultrasparc T2 chips, as some had expected. But Oracle has pledged to support Sun's Sparc platform in the future.
The Exadata system is a follow-on to a similar product that Oracle developed last year with HP. Both systems combine database servers, storage servers and networking in a rack-based system preconfigured with Oracle's software. The first Exadata system was for data warehousing only, Ellison said, while Exadata 2 is for both data warehousing and online transaction processing. "Exadata Version 1 was the world's fastest machine for data warehousing applications," he said. "Exadata Version 2 is twice as fast as Exadata Version 1 for data warehousing, and it's the only database machine that runs OLTP applications."
The first version was based on HP's Intel-based ProLiant G5 servers, while the new machine uses Sun Fire X4275 servers with Intel's quad-core Nehalem processors. It also uses a faster memory type, DDR3, and faster disk and InfiniBand components, Ellison said, explaining the performance boost over the first Exadata.
But the main advance is a new flash-based memory system from Sun that is used in the storage servers. Called FlashFire, it packs four flash accelerator cards into each storage server, each with a capacity of 96GB. A fully loaded rack with eight storage servers has 5TB of flash memory, as well as 100TB of SAS disk capacity or 336TB of SATA disk capacity, Ellison said. "We have a huge, fast flash cache built into our storage servers," Ellison said. "These are not flash disks -- make no mistake, these are not flash disks. This is a smart memory hierarchy made up of DRAM in our database servers and flash in our storage servers, with very sophisticated algorithms. This is a very smart memory hierarchy where the Oracle software manages that memory extremely efficiently, much faster than flash disk."
The use of flash memory and InfiniBand allows the system to perform 1 million I/O operations per second, according to Ellison. "We can move data much more rapidly than any other computer in the world," he claimed.
All that speed comes at a price. A full rack configuration, with eight database servers and 14 storage servers, starts at $1.15 million for the database hardware alone, according to a price list. The Oracle database software and Exadata Storage Software are extra, as are the storage hardware and installation fees.
The system is also offered in half-rack, quarter-rack and single-server configurations, however. The entry product starts at $115,000 for the database server hardware. "It's incredible the amount of flash they're using," said Dan Olds, principal analyst with Gabriel Consulting Group. "It's not quite an in-memory database, but it's not far off it. Couple that with the Nehalem processors and the InfiniBand, and that's where the OLTP performance is coming from."
Terms of use are "quite restrictive, though," he noted, pointing to an Oracle FAQ. Exadata customers have to use the latest Enterprise Edition of Oracle Database, version 11.2 or higher, and the system can't be modified in any way.
Customers also can't run any other software on the machines, he noted. "They didn't really talk about whether you can do OLTP and data warehousing at the same time," Olds said. "As these machines get bigger and bigger, there are fewer and fewer customers that can use them for just one workload."
In some ways the event was notable for what Ellison did not say. With Sun customers facing uncertainty about the future of their platforms, rivals HP and IBM have been courting Sun customers away with aggressive migration programs. Oracle has been trying to contain the damage with newspaper ads saying it will invest more in Sun's Sparc than Sun does. But Ellison said nothing about his plans for Sun on Tuesday. He and Fowler both stressed that the Exadata 2 was developed under the companies' long-standing partnership. The Webcast ended abruptly with no time for questions.
Oracle has won approval for its Sun acquisition from U.S. regulators, but the European Commission has held up the deal, possibly until January. The Commission says it's concerned that Oracle's ownership of Sun's MySQL database could harm competition in the open-source software market.
While most analysts expect the deal to go through, the uncertainty has been hammering Sun's server business. Its server revenue plunged 37% in the second quarter, a much greater decline than for any of its main rivals, according to IDC.
http://www.test104.com/en/products/products.asp
2009年9月21日星期一
HP extends data center, campus Ethernet switches
Rollout pumps up ProCurve family, targets Cisco
HP this week unveiled enhancements to its data center and campus switching portfolio designed to increase density and tightly integrate switching with blade server systems.
The products include blade switches designed to reduce cost and improve security in the data center; an 8Gbps FibreChannel Virtual Connect module and firmware upgrade intended to tune bandwidth to application requirements; and new chassis and modules for its ProCurve 5400 and 8200 Ethernet switches to provide an array of configurations depending on network need.
The extensions are intended to better align HP's data center and network products for the market and mindshare battle with Cisco. Cisco's recently shipped Unified Computing System integrates data center servers, switching, virtualization and storage access, and are viewed as a competitive assault on HP and IBM's traditional data center turf. The campus LAN enhancements are viewed as lower cost alternatives to Cisco in that market as well.
The new HP blade switches include the 10G Ethernet ProCurve 6120XG and ProCurve 6120G/XG. The 6120XG sports eight 10G uplinks -- one 10GBASE-CX4 Ethernet or one SFP+, five SFP+ that can be either 1Gbps or 10Gbps, and two midplane crosslinks or SFP+.
The 6120XG is also Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) "ready," which means it will support an upgrade to the CEE standards for the integration of Ethernet and Fibre Channel in the future. Those standards are expected for ratification in the first or second quarter of 2010.
The 6120G/XG is designed to facilitate the transition from 1G Ethernet to 10G Ethernet. It features one 10G Ethernet CX4 port for short distance data center links; two 10G Ethernet XFP ports for copper of fiber connectivity; two 1G Ethernet SFP ports; and four 1G Ethernet RJ45 ports. In addition to aiding in the migration to 10G, the 6120G/XG supports the attachment of legacy network equipment in the data center.
The 6120XG costs $11,500; the 6120G/XG costs $5,500.
For the campus LAN, HP unveiled a half-size chassis of its 8212zl switch. The 8206zl is designed for high-density LAN access, mid-size LAN core and distribution layer applications, and data center end-of-row access and aggregation. It features six chassis slots and the same hardware and software architecture as the 8212zl.
The 8206zl costs $12,599.
New modules for both the 8200zl and 5400zl switches include a 24-port 10/100/1000 PoE+ card, $4,199; a 20-port 10/100/1000 PoE+ board with four SFP ports, $4,199; a 24-port 10/100 PoE+ card, $2,499; and a four port 10G SFP+ module, $4,199. These products are intended to support new bandwidth intensive applications such as video while reducing cost and power consumption. HP also unveiled a 1500 watt Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) power supply for the lines at a list price of $1,099.
The company is also offering bundled configurations of its 5400 switches. A 12-slot 5412zl with 96 Gigabit Ethernet ports -- 92 ports of PoE+ and four ports of SFP -- and two 1500w PoE+ power supplies costs $17,199. A 48-port 5406zl bundle -- 40 ports of PoE+ gigabit ports and four SFP ports -- plus one 1500w PoE+ power supply costs $8,599.
The Virtual Connect 8Gbps FibreChannel module supports 20 ports of 8Gbps uplink and downlink bandwidth. It is backward compatible and replaces a 20-port 4Gbps Fibre Channel Virtual Connect module already offered by HP. It also costs the same as the 4Gbps module -- $9,499.
The Virtual Connect firmware upgrade provides dynamic bandwidth adjustment depending on application requirements, HP says. It also supports twice the number of virtual LANs -- 128 -- per uplink set.
All products are available now. HP would not discuss product plans for data center core switches and 48-port and higher top-of-rack 10G switches, with or without support for FibreChannel-over-Ethernet; nor would it discuss product plans for a FibreChannel-over-Ethernet Virtual Connect module.
http://www.test104.com/en/products/products.asp
HP this week unveiled enhancements to its data center and campus switching portfolio designed to increase density and tightly integrate switching with blade server systems.
The products include blade switches designed to reduce cost and improve security in the data center; an 8Gbps FibreChannel Virtual Connect module and firmware upgrade intended to tune bandwidth to application requirements; and new chassis and modules for its ProCurve 5400 and 8200 Ethernet switches to provide an array of configurations depending on network need.
The extensions are intended to better align HP's data center and network products for the market and mindshare battle with Cisco. Cisco's recently shipped Unified Computing System integrates data center servers, switching, virtualization and storage access, and are viewed as a competitive assault on HP and IBM's traditional data center turf. The campus LAN enhancements are viewed as lower cost alternatives to Cisco in that market as well.
The new HP blade switches include the 10G Ethernet ProCurve 6120XG and ProCurve 6120G/XG. The 6120XG sports eight 10G uplinks -- one 10GBASE-CX4 Ethernet or one SFP+, five SFP+ that can be either 1Gbps or 10Gbps, and two midplane crosslinks or SFP+.
The 6120XG is also Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) "ready," which means it will support an upgrade to the CEE standards for the integration of Ethernet and Fibre Channel in the future. Those standards are expected for ratification in the first or second quarter of 2010.
The 6120G/XG is designed to facilitate the transition from 1G Ethernet to 10G Ethernet. It features one 10G Ethernet CX4 port for short distance data center links; two 10G Ethernet XFP ports for copper of fiber connectivity; two 1G Ethernet SFP ports; and four 1G Ethernet RJ45 ports. In addition to aiding in the migration to 10G, the 6120G/XG supports the attachment of legacy network equipment in the data center.
The 6120XG costs $11,500; the 6120G/XG costs $5,500.
For the campus LAN, HP unveiled a half-size chassis of its 8212zl switch. The 8206zl is designed for high-density LAN access, mid-size LAN core and distribution layer applications, and data center end-of-row access and aggregation. It features six chassis slots and the same hardware and software architecture as the 8212zl.
The 8206zl costs $12,599.
New modules for both the 8200zl and 5400zl switches include a 24-port 10/100/1000 PoE+ card, $4,199; a 20-port 10/100/1000 PoE+ board with four SFP ports, $4,199; a 24-port 10/100 PoE+ card, $2,499; and a four port 10G SFP+ module, $4,199. These products are intended to support new bandwidth intensive applications such as video while reducing cost and power consumption. HP also unveiled a 1500 watt Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) power supply for the lines at a list price of $1,099.
The company is also offering bundled configurations of its 5400 switches. A 12-slot 5412zl with 96 Gigabit Ethernet ports -- 92 ports of PoE+ and four ports of SFP -- and two 1500w PoE+ power supplies costs $17,199. A 48-port 5406zl bundle -- 40 ports of PoE+ gigabit ports and four SFP ports -- plus one 1500w PoE+ power supply costs $8,599.
The Virtual Connect 8Gbps FibreChannel module supports 20 ports of 8Gbps uplink and downlink bandwidth. It is backward compatible and replaces a 20-port 4Gbps Fibre Channel Virtual Connect module already offered by HP. It also costs the same as the 4Gbps module -- $9,499.
The Virtual Connect firmware upgrade provides dynamic bandwidth adjustment depending on application requirements, HP says. It also supports twice the number of virtual LANs -- 128 -- per uplink set.
All products are available now. HP would not discuss product plans for data center core switches and 48-port and higher top-of-rack 10G switches, with or without support for FibreChannel-over-Ethernet; nor would it discuss product plans for a FibreChannel-over-Ethernet Virtual Connect module.
http://www.test104.com/en/products/products.asp
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