Resource allocation

Server Configuration Profile: Resource Allocation Optimized System (RAOS-2024)

This document provides a comprehensive technical overview of the Resource Allocation Optimized System (RAOS-2024), a server configuration specifically engineered for environments requiring predictable, high-throughput resource allocation across diverse workloads, particularly virtualization hosts, high-concurrency web services, and transactional database systems. The design prioritizes balanced bandwidth across the memory channels, PCIe fabric, and NVMe subsystem.

1. Hardware Specifications

The RAOS-2024 is built upon the latest generation of server-grade platforms, leveraging high core-count processors and dense memory modules to maximize the effective resource density per rack unit.

1.1. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The system supports dual-socket configurations utilizing the latest generation scalable processors, selected for their high core count, substantial L3 cache, and superior PCIe lane availability.

Attribute	Specification (Primary Configuration)	Notes
Processor Model	2x Intel Xeon Scalable 9580+ (Sapphire Rapids Refresh)	Optimized for sustained TDP and high interconnect speed.
Core Count (Total)	112 Cores (56P + 56E)	Heterogeneous architecture utilized for workload steering.
Base Clock Speed	2.4 GHz (P-Cores) / 1.8 GHz (E-Cores)
Max Turbo Frequency	Up to 4.2 GHz	Achievable under appropriate thermal conditions.
L3 Cache (Total)	220 MB (Intel Smart Cache)	Critical for database and in-memory workloads.
TDP (per CPU)	350W	Requires robust cooling infrastructure (see Section 5).
Socket Interconnect	UPI 2.0 (Ultra Path Interconnect)	Sustained bandwidth of 16 GT/s per link.

1.2. Memory Subsystem

Memory configuration is critical for resource allocation, emphasizing high capacity and low latency access across all CPU memory channels. The system utilizes 32 DIMM slots (16 per CPU).

Attribute	Specification	Notes
Total Capacity	2 TB DDR5 ECC RDIMM	Achieved using 64GB DIMMs.
DIMM Type	DDR5-5600MT/s ECC RDIMM (32GB/64GB/128GB options)	Supports 8-channel configuration per CPU.
Configuration Density	64 x 32GB DIMMs (Maximum density configuration)	This configuration operates at DDR5-4800MT/s due to density constraints.
Memory Bandwidth (Theoretical Peak)	~1.44 TB/s (at 5600MT/s, dual-CPU configuration)	Essential for memory-bound applications like in-memory databases.
Memory Protection	ECC (Error-Correcting Code) with Sub-NUMA Clustering (SNC) support.	Critical for enterprise reliability.

1.3. Storage Configuration

The storage architecture is designed for high IOPS and low queue depth latency, utilizing direct-attached NVMe drives managed by a high-speed Hardware RAID solution or software-defined storage (SDS) configurations.

Component	Specification	Count / Configuration
Boot Drive (OS/Hypervisor)	2x 960GB M.2 NVMe SSD (RAID 1)	Dedicated for system boot volumes.
Primary Storage Pool (Data)	12x 3.84TB U.2 NVMe SSDs (PCIe Gen 5 x4)	Configured in a high-performance RAID 10 equivalent array (e.g., ZFS RAIDZ2 or similar).
Secondary Storage (Archive/Cold)	4x 16TB SAS HDDs (7200 RPM)	Accessed via a dedicated SAS HBA.
Maximum Internal Storage Capacity	92.16 TB (NVMe) + 64 TB (HDD)	Total raw capacity.
Storage Controller	Broadcom MegaRAID 9750-16i (or equivalent)	Supports PCIe Gen 5 lanes directly from the CPU.

1.4. Networking and I/O Fabric

The RAOS-2024 leverages the extensive PCIe Gen 5 capabilities of the platform to ensure minimal contention between core compute, memory, and high-speed NIC traffic.

Interface	Specification	Purpose
Primary Network Interface (LOM)	2x 25GbE Base-T (Intel X710/X900 series)	Management and low-latency infrastructure traffic.
High-Speed Fabric Interface	2x 100GbE QSFP28 (Mellanox ConnectX-7 or equivalent)	For East-West traffic, storage networking (NVMe-oF), or HPC interconnection.
Internal PCIe Slots	6x Full-Height, Full-Length Slots (PCIe Gen 5 x16 physical/electrical)	Available for accelerators (GPUs) or specialized Storage HBAs.
Root Complex Topology	Dual I/O Hubs connected via PCIe x16 links between CPUs	Ensures balanced access to all peripherals from both sockets.

1.5. Power and Chassis

The 4U chassis supports high-density power supplies necessary for peak CPU and accelerator loads.

Attribute	Specification
Form Factor	4U Rackmount
Power Supplies (Redundant)	2x 2400W 80+ Platinum (N+1 redundancy)
Maximum Power Draw (Estimated Peak)	~1850W (CPU heavy load, no accelerators)
Chassis Management	Dedicated BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) supporting Redfish API.

2. Performance Characteristics

The performance profile of the RAOS-2024 is characterized by its exceptional memory bandwidth and I/O throughput, crucial for resource-intensive tasks where data movement bottlenecks are common.

2.1. CPU Performance Benchmarks

Synthetic benchmarks confirm the efficacy of the heterogeneous core architecture when properly managed by modern Operating System Schedulers.

Benchmark Tool	Metric	Result (Dual CPU)	Comparison Baseline (Previous Gen)
SPECrate 2017_fp_base	Aggregate Floating Point Throughput	1850	+38%
SPECspeed 2017_int_peak	Single-Threaded Integer Performance	550	+22%
Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)	Rendering Performance Score	62,500	N/A (Architecture dependent)

Note on Heterogeneous Architecture: Performance highly depends on the workload's ability to differentiate between Performance-cores (P-cores) and Efficiency-cores (E-cores). Workloads sensitive to core frequency scaling benefit significantly from the P-cores, while background or highly parallel tasks utilize the E-cores efficiently, improving overall power efficiency per watt.

2.2. Memory Latency and Bandwidth

Memory performance is the key differentiator for this configuration, directly impacting database transaction commits and virtualization overhead.

• **Peak Memory Bandwidth:** Measured at 1.38 TB/s using specialized streaming tests configured across all 8 memory channels per socket, operating in a fully interleaved mode. This represents 96% utilization of the theoretical peak bandwidth.
• **NUMA Latency:** Measured latency between local memory access (on-socket) is consistently below 60ns. Cross-socket (Remote NUMA) access latency averages 110ns, which is significantly improved over previous generations due to the faster UPI links.

2.3. Storage I/O Benchmarks

The PCIe Gen 5 storage backbone delivers unprecedented sequential and random I/O performance necessary for high-IOPS applications like OLTP databases.

Workload Type	Metric	Result (NVMe Pool)	Requirement Context
Sequential Read (128K Block)	Throughput	45 GB/s	Large file transfer, backup operations.
Random Read (4K Block)	IOPS (QD=64)	3.1 Million IOPS	Database random lookups, metadata access.
Random Write (4K Block)	IOPS (QD=64)	2.5 Million IOPS	Transaction logging, high-frequency writes.
Latency (P99, 4K Random Read)	Latency	35 microseconds (µs)	Critical for real-time data access.

These results demonstrate that the system can sustain high levels of I/O contention without saturating the PCIe fabric, allowing the storage subsystem to operate near its physical limits. This contrasts sharply with configurations relying on PCIe Gen 4 or SAS/SATA backplanes.

2.4. Virtualization Density Benchmarks (vCPU Allocation)

When deployed as a virtualization host (running VMware ESXi or KVM), the RAOS-2024 showcases high density due to the 112 physical cores and 2TB of RAM.

• **VM Density:** Capable of safely hosting 300+ standard 4 vCPU/16GB RAM virtual machines, assuming balanced resource utilization.
• **Overcommitment Ratio:** A sustained overcommitment ratio of 4:1 (vCPU:pCPU) is recommended for general-purpose workloads, leveraging the efficiency cores for lower-priority tasks.

3. Recommended Use Cases

The RAOS-2024 configuration is purposefully over-provisioned in memory and I/O bandwidth, making it ideal for specific, resource-hungry enterprise roles where resource competition must be minimized.

3.1. Enterprise Virtualization Hosts (VMware/Hyper-V/KVM)

This configuration excels as a hypervisor host due to the massive memory capacity and high core count, minimizing the need for NUMA awareness management across large VM pools.

• **Key Benefit:** High VM density combined with low memory latency ensures that even memory-intensive VMs (e.g., Java application servers) perform optimally without excessive ballooning or swapping.

3.2. High-Concurrency Transactional Databases (OLTP)

Databases such as Microsoft SQL Server (Enterprise Edition), Oracle, or large-scale PostgreSQL/MySQL instances benefit immensely from the combination of fast CPU cores and low-latency NVMe storage.

• **Memory Allocation Strategy:** At least 70% of the total 2TB RAM should be dedicated to the database buffer pool to maximize in-memory caching, reducing reliance on the storage subsystem for frequently accessed data.
• **I/O Strategy:** The NVMe pool configured in RAID 10 provides the necessary write performance for transaction logs and data file reads, keeping the commit times extremely low.

3.3. In-Memory Data Grids and Caching Layers

Systems designed for applications like SAP HANA, Redis clusters, or distributed caching layers require maximum memory capacity per socket. The 2TB capacity allows for substantial, highly available in-memory datasets.

3.4. Software-Defined Storage (SDS) Controllers

When deployed as a controller node for systems like Ceph or GlusterFS, the abundant PCIe Gen 5 lanes allow for dedicated, high-speed connectivity to multiple NVMe OSDs (Object Storage Daemons) without impacting the CPU's ability to handle metadata operations. The high core count supports the intensive background checksumming and replication processes inherent in SDS.

4. Comparison with Similar Configurations

To understand the value proposition of the RAOS-2024, it is necessary to compare it against two common alternatives: a Compute-Optimized configuration (higher clock speed, less RAM) and a Storage-Dense configuration (fewer CPU resources, more drives).

4.1. Configuration Comparison Table

Feature	RAOS-2024 (Resource Allocation Optimized)	Compute Optimized (CO-2024)	Storage Dense (SD-2024)
CPU Model	2x 56C/112T (Hybrid)	2x 40C/80T (Higher Clock/Turbo)	2x 32C/64T (Lower TDP Focus)
Total RAM Capacity	2 TB DDR5-5600	1 TB DDR5-5600	4 TB DDR5-4800
NVMe Storage Slots (U.2/M.2)	12x U.2 + 2x M.2	6x U.2 + 2x M.2	24x U.2 + 0x M.2
PCIe Gen Version	Gen 5.0	Gen 5.0	Gen 4.0 (Backplane Limitation)
Primary Bottleneck Focus	I/O Bandwidth / Memory Capacity	Raw Core Frequency / Single-Thread Speed	Raw Storage Capacity / SATA/SAS Headroom
Typical Workload Fit	Virtualization, OLTP Databases	HPC, Compilation Servers, CAD	File Servers, Cold Storage, Backup Targets

4.2. Analysis of Comparison Points

• **Memory vs. Compute:** The CO-2024 configuration trades 1TB of RAM for potentially higher sustained clock speeds on its P-cores. For workloads like virtualization, where memory pressure is high, the RAOS-2024's superior memory capacity outweighs the slight frequency advantage of the CO-2024.
• **Storage Density vs. Speed:** The SD-2024 offers nearly double the raw capacity but is constrained by older PCIe Generation 4 backplanes and lower CPU core counts, making it unsuitable for high-IOPS transactional workloads. The RAOS-2024 prioritizes the speed (Gen 5 NVMe) of the 12 primary drives over sheer quantity.

4.3. Network Throughput Comparison

The RAOS-2024's dual 100GbE fabric positions it well for modern data center fabrics, unlike the Storage Dense model which often relies on 25GbE or 50GbE links due to cost constraints on the HBA slots.

5. Maintenance Considerations

Deploying a high-density, high-power server configuration like the RAOS-2024 requires specific attention to power delivery, thermal management, and firmware lifecycle management.

5.1. Cooling Requirements

With dual 350W CPUs and the potential addition of PCIe accelerators (e.g., a low-profile GPU drawing 300W), the thermal dissipation requirements are substantial.

• **Rack Density:** Deployment should be restricted to racks utilizing high-efficiency in-row cooling or equivalent CRAC/CRAH units capable of maintaining ambient inlet temperatures below 24°C (75.2°F).
• **Airflow:** Requires front-to-back airflow paths. Hot aisle containment is strongly recommended to prevent recirculation of heat back into the intake plenum.
• **Fan Configuration:** The chassis utilizes high-static pressure, variable-speed fans. Monitoring the BMC fan speed output via IPMI sensors is mandatory; sustained operation above 85% fan duty cycle indicates potential cooling deficiency.

5.2. Power Requirements and Redundancy

The dual 2400W power supplies are necessary to manage the transient power spikes associated with high-frequency core switching and Turbo Boost activation.

• **PDU Sizing:** Each rack unit housing this server should be provisioned with Power Distribution Units (PDUs) capable of delivering a sustained 2.5kW per server slot to account for overhead and future expansion (e.g., adding a second storage shelf).
• **Firmware Updates:** Regular updates to the System BIOS and BMC firmware are critical, particularly after major CPU microcode updates that affect power management features (e.g., Speed Shift Technology, E-core affinity).

5.3. Licensing and Operating System Considerations

The sheer number of physical cores (112 total) significantly impacts software licensing costs for vendor solutions that utilize per-core licensing models (e.g., certain database engines or virtualization platforms).

• **Licensing Strategy:** Administrators must choose operating systems and hypervisors that either support per-socket licensing or offer favorable per-core models for heterogeneous architectures.
• **NUMA Awareness:** Ensure that the OS kernel and application runtimes (e.g., Java Virtual Machines) are correctly configured to respect the NUMA topology. Failure to do so can result in performance degradation due to excessive remote memory access, negating the benefits of the high-speed UPI links. For instance, assigning a VM exactly 56 cores and 1TB of RAM ensures it resides entirely within one NUMA node for optimal performance.

5.4. Diagnostics and Monitoring

Effective resource allocation requires visibility. Key areas for continuous monitoring include:

1. **Memory Utilization:** High utilization (>90%) signals an immediate need for memory expansion or workload reduction. 2. **UPI Link Utilization:** Spikes in UPI traffic can indicate poor application affinity or excessive cross-socket communication, pointing to potential application re-architecture needs. 3. **PCIe Lane Saturation:** Monitoring the utilization of the PCIe root complexes to ensure storage and networking traffic are not exceeding the Gen 5 x16 capacity.

Intel-Based Server Configurations

Configuration	Specifications	Benchmark
Core i7-6700K/7700 Server	64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 512 GB	CPU Benchmark: 8046
Core i7-8700 Server	64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2x1 TB	CPU Benchmark: 13124
Core i9-9900K Server	128 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 1 TB	CPU Benchmark: 49969
Core i9-13900 Server (64GB)	64 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD
Core i9-13900 Server (128GB)	128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD
Core i5-13500 Server (64GB)	64 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD
Core i5-13500 Server (128GB)	128 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD
Core i5-13500 Workstation	64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2 NVMe SSD, NVIDIA RTX 4000

AMD-Based Server Configurations

Configuration	Specifications	Benchmark
Ryzen 5 3600 Server	64 GB RAM, 2x480 GB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 17849
Ryzen 7 7700 Server	64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2x1 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 35224
Ryzen 9 5950X Server	128 GB RAM, 2x4 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 46045
Ryzen 9 7950X Server	128 GB DDR5 ECC, 2x2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 63561
EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/1TB)	128 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/2TB)	128 GB RAM, 2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/4TB)	128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/1TB)	256 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/4TB)	256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 9454P Server	256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe

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⚠️ *Note: All benchmark scores are approximate and may vary based on configuration. Server availability subject to stock.* ⚠️