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· Mar 14

new RHEL server Intel vs AMD

#Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) #Caché

we are looking at replacing our VMS system with Linux :-( yes a sad day!

now the question has become should we go with Intel or AMD.  personally I think Intel is the way to go for several reasons.

has anyone seen or heard of an AMD being slower or there is a definite performance of one over the other.

thanks for your feedback.

Paul

 first our current environment which will be copied over to the new platform

Cache 2015.2 yes we are stuck here due to Vendor and no further support. with the upgrade we will be updating to a newer version of Cache and eventually IRIS when the vendor has certified it.

30+ databases > 10TB

databases are encrypted

now here is what I have found in a link on this site.

Hardware Considerations

In most cases, this document focuses specifically on operating system versions, and only generally on the characteristics of the underlying hardware. This section is intended as a refinement of that approach, describing specific features of individual hardware offerings that InterSystems products recognize and use to their advantage.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

When run on Intel 64-bit processors, beginning with the Intel® Xeon® Processor (Westmere), Caché makes direct use of hardware instruction(s) to perform AES encryption.

 and then there is this which I found out in the vast knowledge of the world!

 

Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC are both high-performance processors that are suitable for a wide range of server applications. However, there are some key differences between the two processors that may make one more suitable for your needs than the other.

Intel Xeon

·         Pros:Higher clock speedsLarger cachesBetter single-threaded performanceMore mature ecosystem

·         Cons:Higher power consumptionMore expensive

AMD EPYC

·         Pros:More cores and threadsLower power consumptionMore affordableBetter performance per watt

·         Cons:Smaller cachesWorse single-threaded performanceLess mature ecosystem

In general,

Intel Xeon is better suited for applications that require high single-threaded performance, such as gaming or high-frequency trading.

AMD EPYC is better suited for applications that require high parallel performance, such as virtualization or big data analytics.

Here are some specific examples of applications where each processor is better suited:

·         Intel Xeon:GamingHigh-frequency tradingVideo editingAudio productionDatabases

·         AMD EPYC:VirtualizationBig data analyticsMachine learningCloud computingContent delivery networks

Discussion (6)2
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Cliff Mason · Mar 18

It's really a horserace that depends on the application.  IRIS tends to favor higher clock speeds, which implies that Intel higher clock speed chips are better.  However, Intel makes a LOT of lower speed chips, so buyer beware.  AMD does a better job at hyperthreading, and the increased core count can really offset the somewhat lower clock speeds.  In an application like TrakCare, where there are many users, this is advantageous.  In Health Connect, the higher clock speeds may have an advantage.  As always, this is implementation dependent.  If in the cloud, you can test both with your application to determine which fits your needs the best.  AMD tends to have a slight price/performance advantage.

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Scott Roth · Mar 18

May 2023 we moved from AIX to RHEL, that was a sad day as we are finding a lot of quirks when it comes to our RHEL environment. We went from Physical Hardware to VM, and found that the VM environment wasn't as thought out like we wanted.

Our VM Hosts were not organized, and we have had 3 unexpected downtimes since because of resource contention.

May want to look at other Linux OS's outside of RHEL if you can, as the updates/patches aren't as dynamic as they were in our old environment meaning we didn't have to reboot too often. If we had the choice, we would of went with Ubuntu or SUSE as at least the updates/patches don't require reboots as often.

Now we get notified at the drop of a hat when there is a patch, that security needs us to reboot. You just can't take it down at a moment's notice.

Just thoughts, and pain points. Each environment is different and hopefully you don't run into as many issues as we have.

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Cliff Mason · Mar 18

RHEL tends to be more security focused than Ubuntu, as in SELinux now being standard.  As such, their security patches are more frequent, and it's your company's choice as to how often and when to apply these.  They are both solid OS's.  

As far as VM's go, there is a necessary level of experiience required if using VMware.  It's easy to over subscribe and you never want to allow this to happen.  There are customers that use one VM per physical machine to avoid conflict.  It's all about your production needs.

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