The
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation's (SPEC) Virtualization
Committee released the SPECvirt Datacenter 2021
benchmark, a new multi-host benchmark for measuring the performance
of a scaled-out datacenter. The SPECvirt Datacenter 2021 benchmark uses
real-world and simulated workloads to measure the overall efficiency
of virtualization solutions and their management environments. The new
benchmark complements the existing SPECvirt_sc 2013 server
consolidation benchmark, which is designed for a single-host environment.
Today's
datacenters use clusters of servers to ensure reliability, availability,
serviceability, and security. Adding virtualization to a clustered
solution enhances server optimization, flexibility, and application
availability while reducing costs through server and
datacenter consolidation. While the SPECvirt Datacenter 2021
benchmark enables analysis of these more complex multi-host environments,
it is much easier to use than the SPECvirt_sc 2013 benchmark,
providing a single virtual machine (VM) template to set up its harness and
workloads. The SPECvirt Datacenter 2021 benchmark supports multiple
hypervisor vendor solutions and ships with support for RHV 4.x and vSphere
6.x and 7.x.
"The
ongoing evolution of virtualized environments has made it imperative that
suppliers and buyers have a fair, vendor-agnostic tool
for measuring the performance of solutions that power virtualized
multi-host infrastructures," said David Schmidt, Chair of the SPEC
Virtualization Committee. "The SPECvirt Datacenter 2021 benchmark is
easy to use and creates an excellent foundation for examining and
comparing performance in these complex environments that are
increasingly becoming the norm."
The
SPECvirt Datacenter 2021 benchmark provides a methodical way to measure a
virtualization platform's performance in a dynamic virtualized datacenter
environment. It models typical, modern-day usage of
virtualized infrastructure, such as VM resource provisioning, cross-node
load balancing (including management operations such as VM
migrations), and VM power on/off. The benchmark exercises datacenter
operations under load and dynamically provisions new workload VMs
from a preconfigured template or powers on existing VMs. As the load
reaches maximum capacity of the cluster, hosts are added to the
cluster to measure scheduler efficiency and maximize throughput.
The
SPECvirt Datacenter 2021 benchmark feature overview:
- Multi-host benchmark - Minimum of four hosts
required, scales in increments of four.
- Datacenter operations model - Multi-workload
benchmark measures performance of hypervisor
infrastructure, including how the hypervisor manager
controls resources.
- Five real-world and simulated workloads -
- OLTP database, based on
HammerDB benchmark
- Hadoop/Big Data
cluster, based on BigBench benchmark
- Simulated departmental
mail server
- Simulated departmental
web server
- Simulated departmental
collaboration server
- VM resource management - Handled by
the hypervisor manager, including scheduling policies. Workload VMs
powered on or deployed during benchmark.
- Ease of use - Single preconfigured template
VM to set up harness and workloads. No tuning of guest
OS/software necessary.
Available
for immediate download
The
SPECvirt Datacenter 2021 benchmark is available for
immediate download from SPEC for $2,500. There is a $500 discount for
those who already have a copy of the SPECvirt_sc 2013 benchmark until
March 2, 2022. Discounts are also available for qualifying
non-profit research and academic organizations. Visit the SPEC website for
more information.