Summary: CPU utilization comparison.

From: Monappallil, George (george.monappallil@rpfl.com)
Date: Wed Oct 24 2007 - 12:45:42 EDT


I found the problem, which was a resource pool configured with 1 cpu
assigned to the pool. Hence, the one cpu being idle all the time and
also hence the vmstat output was showing 25% idle time because one (of
the four cores) couldn't be used.

I disabled the pools and the output on the SF490 is similar to the E2900

Thanks to Richard Skelton and Vikas Sharma for prodding me in the right
direction.

-George

________________________________

From: Monappallil, George
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:58 AM
To: 'sunmanagers@sunmanagers.org'
Subject: CPU utilization comparison.

Guys:
I was using the below script to stress test the CPUs on an SF490 and
E2900.
The SF490 has 2 CPUs and the E2900 has 4CPUs. Both machine have 1.5MHz
UltraSparc IV CPUs.

On the SF490, I start off with 2 threads (because 2 physical cpus)

perl -e 'while (--$ARGV[0] and fork) {}; while () {}' 2
The behaviour is
*****
vmstat 1 10
 kthr memory page disk faults
cpu
 r b w swap free re mf pi po fr de sr m0 m1 m5 m1 in sy cs us
sy id
 0 0 0 12930032 3493952 30 6 181 2 1 0 0 5 0 0 4 697 1604 1080 1
1 99
 0 0 0 11784400 2091176 0 30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 521 1623 930 51
0 49
 0 0 0 11784400 2091176 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 488 823 867 50
0 49
 0 0 0 11784400 2091176 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 466 365 885 50
0 50
 0 0 0 11784400 2091176 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 476 6591 1196 51
6 43
 0 0 0 11784400 2091176 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 5 501 524 905 50
0 49

I see roughly 50% utilization. Now when I increase the number of threads
to 4 (because these are dual core cpus) the behavour is below
******
vmstat 1 10
 kthr memory page disk faults
cpu
 r b w swap free re mf pi po fr de sr m0 m1 m5 m1 in sy cs us
sy id
 0 0 0 12930024 3493944 30 6 181 2 1 0 0 5 0 0 4 697 1604 1080 1
1 99
 1 0 0 11783656 2090904 0 30 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 588 477 923 74
1 25
 1 0 0 11783656 2090904 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 589 396 910 75
0 25
 1 0 0 11783656 2090904 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 572 1907 878 75
0 25
 1 0 0 11783656 2090904 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 658 399 937 75
0 25
 1 0 0 11783656 2090904 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 642 2120 916 74
1 25

I see 75% CPU utilization.
**************************

For the E2900, I start off with 4 thread and then increase it to 8
(again because it is a dual core)
With 4 threads:
**********
#vmstat 1 6
 kthr memory page disk faults
cpu
 r b w swap free re mf pi po fr de sr m0 m1 m5 m1 in sy cs us
sy id
 0 0 0 35573824 27958752 34 4 75 1 1 0 0 4 0 0 3 384 4503 355 1
1 99
 0 0 0 33317024 26119200 0 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 352 781 197 50
0 50
 0 0 0 33316952 26119128 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 342 643 148 50
0 50
 0 0 0 33316952 26119128 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 357 2723 187 50
0 49
 0 0 0 33316952 26119128 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 354 668 173 50
1 49
 0 0 0 33316952 26119128 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 344 679 172 50
0 50

I see roughly 50% utilization
With 8 threads:
******
#vmstat 1 6
 kthr memory page disk faults
cpu
 r b w swap free re mf pi po fr de sr m0 m1 m5 m1 in sy cs us
sy id
 0 0 0 35573816 27958744 34 4 75 1 1 0 0 4 0 0 3 384 4503 355 1
1 99
 0 0 0 33315656 26118792 0 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 448 753 174
100 0 0
 0 0 0 33315584 26118720 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 469 691 189
100 0 0
 0 0 0 33315584 26118720 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 461 153 184
100 0 0
 0 0 0 33315584 26118720 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 445 1184 159
100 0 0
 0 0 0 33315584 26118720 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 441 675 168
100 0 0

I see 100% CPU utilization. Why is that the E2900 has higher CPU usage
than the SF490.

Both servers are running Solaris 10 with the same patch level. Both
servers aren't running anyother processes and baseline cpu utilization
before these tests were roughly 100% idle time.

You help is appreciated.

-George
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