i2 Supply Chain Planner™ on the IBM xSeries 455 4-way with ... · PDF file4-way with...

Application Performance White Paper 4/23/2004

i2 Supply Chain Planner™ on the IBM xSeries 455 4-way with Itanium 2® Processors

Application Performance White Paper

Sebnem Jaji, IBM – [email protected]

Larry Blake, IBM – [email protected]

Raghuram Satyanarayana, i2 – [email protected]

Bill Panagakos, IBM – [email protected]

Joakim Lialias, IBM – [email protected]

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Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4

TEST ENVIRONMENT 4

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION 5

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION 6

TEST SYSTEM SUMMARY 7

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION 9

WORKLOAD CHARACTERIZATION 9

DISTRIBUTION MODEL 10

PERFORMANCE RESULTS 12

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 13


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Executive Summary

In 1998, as part of its effort to accelerate its own supply chain transformation, IBM Corporation began using i2 supply chain solutions internally. Based on that success, IBM and i2 formed a broad multi-year go-to-market alliance to bring best-in-class supply chain solutions to market. Since the inception of the relationship in 1998, numerous advances, including porting of i2 solutions to IBM hardware and software, have yielded positive results both for customers and for IBM and i2.

Together, IBM and i2 provide solutions built on IBM eServer xSeries Intel processor-based servers, extending value and choice for customers who optimize their business using i2 solutions. Customers choosing to deploy i2 solutions on IBM eServer xSeries select from a broad range of servers, from uni-processor systems to enterprise powered 16-way SMP systems using either the Intel Xeon or Itanium 2 processors.

IBM, Intel, and i2 Technologies collaborated to bring supply chain solutions on Intel Itanium 2 processors running the Windows Server 2003 operating system. Built on the IBM eServer xSeries 455, customers are able to take advantage of Enterprise X-Architecture technology that delivers mainframe-inspired technology helping to drive new levels of availability, scalability and manageability for i2 supply chain solutions.

This white paper highlights the scalability and performance for the IBM eServer xSeries 455 running i2 Supply Chain Planner™ (SCP). SCP helps organizations balance business objectives against supply chain constraints to effectively plan supply to meet customer demand. The optimal master plans created by SCP align all portions of a company to determine the exact quantity, use, and timing for purchasing, producing, and shipping raw materials, intermediate and finished goods. A key member of the i2 Supply Chain Management (SCM) solution, SCP supports multiple workflows to create optimal material and capacity plans – resolving problems, presenting alternatives, and prioritizing demands. SCP supports diverse business optimization goals in a wide range of industries through built-in solvers based on best practices. In addition, the solution provides the ability to customize parameters for each unique implementation.

It is ideal to deploy SCP on a server that can offer the availability, performance, and scalability to secure overall uptime, productivity, and response time for material and capacity plans. In this white paper we explore the advantages of deploying the IBM eServer x455, built on the next generation Enterprise X-Architecture offering mainframe-inspired technology, for SCP implementations providing superior availability, performance, and scalability. Test results demonstrate that the x455 can be an ideal platform to meet the needs of small and large businesses alike.

Test Environment

i2 SCP was performance tested on an IBM eServer xSeries 455 4-way Server with 1.4Ghz Itanium 2 processors running Microsoft Server 2003 operating system. This test is designed to initialize the SCP engine from flat files to calculate an optimal plan. For this test, no external database software was implemented. Test results can be used as a guide for preliminary sizing for SCP solutions. Distribution model datasets were utilized for the test. These datasets are described in the workload characterization section of this white paper. The elapsed times to calculate the plans and the memory requirements are reported in the performance results section.


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Hardware Configuration

IBM eServer x455

The IBM eServer xSeries 455 (8855-2RZ) used for this test scenario is based on Intel Itanium 2 processors, which provide 64-bit data addressing in the Intel server market. The Itanium 2 processor offers massive execution resources and greater memory addressability helping to drive new levels of transaction performance for compute intensive workloads. The x455 offers additional performance enhancements to the already powerful Itanium 2 processor with unique technology such as XceL4 system cache exploiting up to 64MB of level 4 cache per 4-way SMP configuration. The XceL4 cache improves latency to main memory allowing for more effective use of the front-side bus for other resources such as enhancing network I/O performance helping to drive new performance levels for supply chain planning solutions. The x455 incorporates the next generation Enterprise X-Architecture (EXA) technology, a blueprint for building IBM mainframe muscle into Intel processor-based systems delivering revolutionary advancements to I/O, memory, and processors. The x455 delivers mainframe-inspired XpandOnDemand™ scalability for processors, memory, and I/O offering customers the opportunity to purchase only the performance capacity and I/O that’s needed – then use XpandOnDemand to upgrade the system as their workload demand increase. The x455 can scale from a 4-way to 16-way, helping businesses respond quickly to changing requirements. To increase I/O capacity, the optional RXE-100 Remote Expansion Enclosure provides up to 12 additional Active™ PCI-X slots for triple the I/O slots without the expense of a full system upgrade. The outstanding expandability offered by the x455 makes it the perfect choice for IT administrators seeking a reliable solution when performance levels are variable and unknown – helping to prevent costly mistakes and helping protect investments. IBM eServer x455 is designed from the ground up for high Reliability and Availability, along with ease of Serviceability (RAS). Not only do these mainframe-based innovations help the x455 prevent most outages—and recover rapidly from the few that do occur—they also make the x455 server simpler to service, and easier to manage, while using industry-standard hardware and operating systems. These high-availability features help keep your servers running continuously—a requirement of many global enterprises that operate i2 Supply Chain Planning environments around the clock and are critical to the competitiveness and results of their business. The x455 continues to take customers closer to OnForeverTM availability through an impressive array of features designed to minimize the risk of unexpected downtime. One important area of focus was the memory subsystem providing remarkable defenses against downtime. Given the rapid expansion of the size of memory supported in Intel servers – demonstrated by the 256GB of memory the x455 supports – more reliability was needed to be built into the memory subsystem. Customers using the x455 will be able to take advantage of revolutionary advancements in the memory subsystem to protect against downtime. Active MemoryTM, ChipkillTM memory and Memory ProteXionTM offer several lines of defense against a memory failure in support of system availability. Also, the x455 introduces hot-swap and hot-add memory for on-the-fly mission-critical administration. These additional memory availability technologies will help to protect critical data for supply chain planning solutions which often run from main memory. The array of high-availability features build into the x455 together with proactive and predictive systems management tools delivered by IBM Director and Director Extensions will help customers protect their business from the devastating effects of downtime and help keep overall maintenance costs low resulting in improved overall total cost of ownership.


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The x455 server in this test was configured with four 1.4 GHz Intel Itanium 2 processors with 4 MB of L3 Cache on each CPU. The test server contained 16 GB of memory, which was composed of sixteen standard 1 GB PC2100 ECC DDR SDRAM RDIMMs spread over two memory ports for fastest performance. In addition, the x455 contained two 18.2GB 10K RPM hard disk drives in its two on-board bays configured as a single primary partition for the c drive. The hardware configuration is shown in Figure 1, below.

Hardware Configuration Figure 1: Hardware Configuration

IBM TotalStorage™ Configuration

The x455 was attached to a Storage Area Network (SAN) connected to an IBM Fiber Channel Switch (2109-F16) containing 2GB of cache using redundant IBM Fiber Channel Adapters. The IBM Fiber Channel Switch connected to an IBM TotalStorage FAStT900 Storage System (1742-9RU). IBM

x455 Server

2109 Fiber Channel Switch

FAStT900 Storage Server


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FAStT900 Storage Server delivers breakthrough disk performance and outstanding reliability for demanding Supply Chain Planning applications.. The FAStT900 is designed to offer investment protection with advanced functions and flexible features. Designed for today’s On-Demand business needs, the FAStT900 offers up to 32TB of fiber channel disk storage capacity. FAStT900 offers advanced replication services to support business continuance and disaster recovery. The FAStT900 is an effective storage server for any enterprise seeking maximum performance. The FAStT900 was configured with 14 – 72.8 GB 15K RPM disk drives, which composed 12 data disks, one parity disk and one hot spare disk. These disks were set up in a RAID 5 array and presented as one 200 GB logical disk to the operating system. The operating system and i2 software were installed on the primary partition of the c drive, while the data was installed on the logical partition on the FAStT900. The basic information for the x455 and FAStT900 that was utilized for the test is shown in Table 1

Test System Summary

xSeries 455

Model 8855-2RZ

Quantity 1

OS Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

Processor Complex 4-way 1.4 GHz processors

Memory 16 GB

I/O Subsystem FAStT with 1 Fiber Channel Adapters

FAStT900

Model 1742-9RU

Quantity 1

Cache 2 GB

Quantity Host Adapters 4 Fiber Channel Adapters

Disk Size (14) 72.8 GB—15k RPM

Disk Configuration 200 GB Logical disks RAID 5

Table 1: x455 and FAStT900 Test System Summary


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System Information Report Written at: 04/13/04 15:59:29

System Name: DLWSLB08

System Summary

OS Name - Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Server 2003, Enterprise Edition Version - 5.2.3790 Build 3790 OS Manufacturer - Microsoft Corporation System Name - DLWSLB08

System Manufacturer - IBM

System Model - 88552RZ

System Type - Itanium (TM) -based System

Processor - ia64 Family 31 Model 1 Stepping 5 GenuineIntel ~1400 Mhz




BIOS Version/Date - IBM IBM X Series Firmware v0.1 -[OYKT15AUS-0.1]-, Not Available

SMBIOS Version - 2.3

Windows Directory - C:\\WINDOWS

System Directory - C:\\WINDOWS\\system32

Boot Device -\\Device\\HarddiskVolume1

Locale - United States

Hardware Abstraction Layer - Version = "5.2.3790.0 (srv03_rtm.030324-2048)"

User Name - Not Available

Time Zone - Central Daylight Time

Total Physical Memory - 16,384.00 MB

Available Physical Memory - 15.19 GB

Total Virtual Memory - 56.56 GB

Available Virtual Memory - 54.88 GB

Page File Space - 40.60 GB

Page File - C:\\pagefile.sys

Table 2: x455 System Information Report

Intel has introduced the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) that provides a shell between the operating system and the Itanium 2 system hardware of the x455. Because of the EFI, an Itanium 2 system is not dependant on legacy hardware devices, such as diskette drives and serial devices. The keyboard and mouse were both attached through the Universal Serial Bus (USB) Interface.


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Software Configuration

Operating System

The operating system on the x455 for this test was 64-bit Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. The server under test had 16GB real memory, which was sufficient to run the tests without any paging activity. The use of paging space by i2 applications can severely impact performance. i2 models should be retained in memory to achieve optimal performance. Therefore, it is important to have sufficient real memory to calculate the i2 models without paging. For any SCP model that is expected to grow beyond the amount of available memory, i2 recommends splitting the model into two or more smaller models, or adding additional memory to contain the large model.

i2 Supply Chain Planner

i2 SCP (version 6.1.1.1) with native Windows memory allocation was installed on the x455 on the primary partition. A single instance of SCP was operational for this test. Each model and dataset was loaded into the SCP engine for execution individually. The resulting performance figures are a measure of the amount of time the 64-bit models required for solution calculation in memory and to generate a supply chain plan. i2 SCP can help companies achieve a high degree of customer satisfaction while working within the constraints imposed on their business. SCP is designed to provide visibility to exceptions that inevitably occur and helps solve these exceptions in a manner that is eventually executable by the company. The executable plan that is created by SCP is truly optimized and spans different divisions within the company like procurement, manufacturing, distribution, and warehousing. A wide variety of planning workflows are supported with the ability for the company to create their own different flavor during implementation. In addition to the base plan, the user interface allows users to fine tune the plan (distribution plans, demand picture, capacity availability, etc.) to come up with the best, executable plan. SCP can support diverse business optimization goals in a wide range of industries through built-in solvers. i2 Supply Chain Planner is designed to enable companies to:

• Optimize production, inventory, distribution and transportation simultaneously

• Gain global visibility with emphasis on the problem areas

• Resolve problems quickly

• Rapid, reduced time to value implementation i2 SCP is a leading master planning product, with a proven track record for speed and scalability in over 20 industry verticals. Only i2 SCP can accelerate any supply chain, no matter how large, to daily and event-based master planning.

Workload Characterization The SCP performance test workloads included 1 data model and six differently sized data sets to measure the scalability as the model size increases. This performance test does not use a database manager, as the SCP engine reads in flat files from the file system. The application runs single threaded, and performance criteria are the elapsed time required to complete the planning, the process size


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associated with each dataset is also reported. The data models and the dataset sizes in number of stock keeping units (sku’s) are as follows;

• Distribution Planning (5 Datasets) 1. 10,000 SKU’s 2. 150,000 SKU’s 3. 500,000 SKU’s 4. 800,000 SKU’s 5. 1,200,000 SKU’s 6. 2,000,000 SKU’s

Distribution Model Performance tests specific to the distribution industry are capable of as many as 10 request layers or periods. For each layer, requests of top priority (based on rank) are put in a list and planning done. Data sets provided as part of this performance test have 10 priority levels and 100 distribution centers. The number of layers of requests to be planned can be varied in the startup file. Each layer has delivery requests (requests.dat) file. Based on the number of distribution operations (air, train, truck and delivery), operations associated with satisfying the delivery requests are generated. Buffers in each location and the flows between locations are also generated as part of the performance test. Combining import files for the above data files, with import files for supply chains, sites, plans, strategies, items, and problem sets, results in a completed SCP model for the Distribution industry. Planning is done in the following steps:

1. Satisfy requests to get initial NOHAE at end item buffer. 2. RM/US to resolve NOHAEs and NOHs. This will generate OFL problems in the FLC buffers, used

as resources. 3. Resolve the OFL problems using MI/DS first to utilize capacity in early buckets. For the remaining

OFL problems, use MO/DS. 4. If necessary, resolve other remaining problems using strategies tailored to resolve those

problems. The following is a diagram of the model depicting the relationship between the various items in the performance test:


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Figure 2: SCP Distribution Model Diagram


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Performance Results These test results can be used as an aid for preliminary sizings. This test is designed to initialize the SCP engine from flat files and then calculate the plan. No external database software was implemented, reducing the variability of database accesses from multiple database vendors. Five differently sized Distribution model datasets were used in the test. The time required to fully process each of the 6 plans (elapsed time) was recorded in Table 2, along with the maximum memory usage for each plan. The graph below shows great scalability based on increased size of the plan verses elapsed time.

The time to run each plan and the maximum memory usage for each plan scale proportionally to the size of the plan under test. Assuming that the machine under test has sufficient memory to run each plan, the performance of SCP is most affected by processor speed because of SCP’s single threaded design. These Distribution planning models are designed to be similar to actual customer data models. As shown by the test data, the x455 provides strong performance for small to large customer data models.

i2 SCP version 6.1.1.1

Number of SKU’s Elapsed Time (seconds) Real Memory MB

10,000 00:00:43 286

150,000 00:03:55 1,202

500,000 00:12:21 4,315

800,000 00:19:59 6,404

1,200,000 00:30:33 8,517

2,000,000 00:53:54 11,000

Table 2: Distribution Model Performance on the IBM x455 with 1.4GHz Itanium 2 Processors

Performance of Supply Chain Planner 6.1.1.1 on x455 with Itanium 2® 1.4Ghz Processors

0:00:430:03:55

0:12:21

0:19:59

0:30:33

0:53:54

0:00:000:07:120:14:240:21:360:28:480:36:000:43:120:50:240:57:36

10,000 150,000 500,000 800,000 1,200,000 2,000,000Datasets: # of SKU's per Plan

Tim

e (H

H:M

M:S

S)

Figure 3: Scalability Graph


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Conclusion

Tests documented in this white paper demonstrate that the x455 can be an ideal server for i2 solutions, providing solid performance and scalability to meet the workload challenges of both small and large companies. By choosing to run IBM eServer xSeries for i2 SCP solutions, customers are able to take advantage of new levels of flexibility; performance and cost of ownership to help customers better manage the underlying costs for supply chain solutions. Together, IBM, i2 and Intel are a formidable combination that will bring cost advantages to help customers transform their business while managing the total cost of the overall solution.

Additional Information Visit our Web site at http://ibm.com/eserver/xseries (or call 1-888-SHOPIBM) for more information on IBM eServer xSeries server direction, products and services, including part numbers and prices for the hardware and software products described in this white paper. From the xSeries home page, select Literature for a list of the types of documentation available.

Application Performance Report 4/23/04

© IBM Corporation 2003 IBM Server Group Department U2SA Research Triangle Park NC 27709 Produced in the USA 4-04 All rights reserved IBM, the IBM logo, the e-business logo, Active PCI, Active PCI-X, Electronic Service Agent, HelpCenter, Netfinity, NetView, OS/2, Predictive Failure Analysis, pSeries, ServerGuide, ServeRAID, Tivoli, Wake on LAN, X-Architecture, XceL4 and xSeries are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. For a list of additional IBM trademarks, please see http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml i2 and i2 Technologies are registered trademarks of i2 Technologies US, Inc. Supply Chain Planner, SCM on demand, Supply Chain on demand, and on demand Supply Chain are trademarks of i2 Technologies US, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective owners. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. All offers subject to availability. IBM reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice. IBM is not responsible for photographic or typographic errors. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. IBM PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions; therefore, this statement may not apply to you. This information provided in this document was created and tested under laboratory conditions. Although all material reflects the results derived from these tests, particular customer environments may yield different results, based on such variables as the customer's configuration, environment and workload. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their specific environment. Certification of the solution is solely the responsibility of the implementation team. This information is intended to guide the implementation team with initial findings. This guide is provided for information purposes and is provided on an AS IS basis and without warranty, express or implied, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The users of this guide should always check the latest release information in the product Readme file(s) and check the product Web pages for the latest updates and findings. Warranty Information: For a copy of applicable product warranties, write to: Warranty Information, P.O. Box 12195,

RTP, NC 27709, Attn: Dept. JDJA/B203. IBM makes no representation or warranty regarding third-party products or services. IBM ^ xSeries servers are assembled in the U.S., Great Britain, Japan, Australia and Brazil and are composed of U.S. and non-U.S. parts. This publication may contain links to third party sites that are not under the control of or maintained by IBM. Access to any such third party site is at the user's own risk and IBM is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any information, data, opinions, advice or statements made on these sites. IBM provides these links merely as a convenience and the inclusion of such links does not imply an endorsement.

Disclaimer: This information provided in this document was created and tested under laboratory conditions. Although all material reflects the results derived from these tests, particular customer environments may yield different results, based on such variables as the customer's configuration, environment and workload. Certification of the solution is soley the responsibility of the the implementation team. This information is intended to guide the implementation team with initial findings. This guide is provided for information purposes and is provided on an AS IS basis and without warranty, express or implied, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The users of this guide should always check the latest release information in the product Readme file(s) and check the product Web pages for the latest updates and findings.

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