Sun Fire X4275 Server

The Sun Fire™ X4275 server, powered by two Intel(R) Xeon(R) X5570 processors and running the Java™ System Messaging Server 6.42 on top of the Solaris 10 Operating Systems (OS), establishes a new world record on SPECmail2009 benchmark.

SPECmail2009 is a new benchmark that replaces all previous versions and is designed to simulate real-world corporate e-mail environments and measure a system's ability to serve e-mail using industry-standard SMTP and IMAP4 protocols. The SPECmail2009 benchmark can generate e-mail server workloads of up to 40,000 corporate users and supports encrypted network connections via SSL v3.0 or TLS 1.0 technologies. SPECmail2009 sessions per hour is the main metric of the benchmark and it reflects the maximum number of sessions that the mail server can sustain while maintaining a specific Quality of Service (QoS).

Benchmark Outcome

• The Sun Fire X4275 server achieved a new World Record result of 38,348 SPECmail2009 sessions/hour, equivalent to 8,000 SPECmail_Ent2009 users.
• Sun's Open Network Systems and storage deliver world record performance through the convergence of compute, networking and storage. The powerful combination of the Sun Fire X4275 server and Sun Storage 7110 Unified Storage System demonstrate Sun's leadership position in e-mail serving using an off-the-shelf OS and software components on an industry-standard benchmark.
• The competing solution based on Apple Xserv3,1, equipped with identical Intel Xeon processors (8 cores, 2 chips), and direct attached storage posted a result of 28,887 SPECmail2009 sessions/hour, equivalent to 6,000 SPECmail_Ent2009 users.
• The Sun Fire X4275 (8 cores, 2 chips) server supported 33 percent more users and 33 percent better sessions/hour rate than the Apple Xserv3,1-based solution.
• The Sun Fire X4275 server, assisted by two Sun Storage 7110 Unified Storage Systems, supported 1/3 more users using approximately half the number of disk drives, compared to a competitive system using direct attached storage.
• This benchmark result demonstrates that the Sun Fire X4275 server running Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2 on Solaris 10 and utilizing ZFS on the Sun Storage 7110 Unified Storage System can support a large, enterprise-level IMAP mail server environment while delivering leading performance and minimizing physical footprint.

• Benchmark Results

• Press Release

The Sun Fire X4275 server posted the best price/performance result on the TPC-H benchmark at 1000 GB scale factor for all non-clustered systems. Available on 5/1/2009, the Sun Fire X4275 server posted a score of 23,365.3 QphH@1000GB and achieved leading price/performance of US$2.41/QphH@1000GB. Sun's unique "warehouse-in-a-box" solution takes up 2 RU of space and is the best 2-socket TPC-H submission at 1000GB scale factor.

The TPC-H benchmark was established by the Transaction Processing Council (TPC) to allow customers to evaluate the performance of various Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing (BIDW) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) systems in conjunction with a standard database size, referred to as the scale factor (SF). The benchmark measures the combined performance of a particular database manager on a specific computer system at scale factors of 100 GB, 300 GB, 1000 GB, 3000 GB, 10000 GB and 30000 GB, and reports the composite TPC-H Query-per-Hour (QphH) performance metric, as well as the price/performance, which is the ratio of total cost of solution, consisting of hardware, software and three-year maintenance costs to the QphH.

Benchmark Outcome

• The newest open network system — the Sun Fire X4275 server — creates the perfect symbiosis of state-of-the-art server and storage technologies at the departmental server level.
• Powered by a pair of Intel Xeon X5570 processors and running the industry-leading Solaris 10 Operating System, the new benchmark result shows the lowest priced configuration, as well as the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO), of any single server TPC-H submissions at 1000GB.
• Innovative design of the Sun Fire X4275 server provides up to 12TB of raw storage density in 2RU at less than US$1/GB, making the server an ideal candidate for Business Intelligence/Data Warehousing (BIDW) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) chores.
• When combined with Sybase IQ 15 analytics server software, the Sun Fire X4275 offers an affordable and easy-to-manage solution for organizations seeking high performance analytics and reporting platforms, making it ideal for BIDW and DSS processes.
• The Sun Fire X4275 server combines remarkable compute and data throughput performance with outstanding storage density offering an unparalleled "Data Warehouse-in-a-Box" solution that consumes on average 780W of power.
• Since the Sun Fire X4275 server did not use any external storage, this solution also demonstrates unbeatable space-performance (only 2RU), power-performance (780W) and cost of system administration (single box). Sun is the only vendor to produce "Data Warehouse-in the box" solutions using TPC-H benchmark at any scale factor.
• Compared to the competing HP DL585G2-based solution (14772.9 QphH@1000GB, US$9.73/QphH@1000 GB, available 04/25/07), the Sun Fire X4275:

  - cost 6 times less to acquire
  - has 4 times better price/performance
  - uses 1/17 the number of disk drives
  - provides real-world data protection with fully mirrored storage
  

• In summary, the unique features of the Sybase IQ 15 analytics server software allow for compact organization of the data with a footprint that is 10 times smaller than that allowed by traditional databases. The collaboration between Sybase and Sun continues to deliver affordable data warehousing solutions to their mutual customers.

• Press Release