Tuning IBM System x Servers for Performance

This publication describes what you can do to improve and maximize the performance of your business server applications running on System x® hardware and either Windows®, Linux®, or VMware® operating systems. It describes how to improve the performance of the System x hardware, the operating system, and specific server applications.

The book is divided into five parts. Part 1 introduces performance turning, server types and benchmarking. Part 2 explains the technology implemented in the major subsystems in System x servers, and shows what settings can be selected or adjusted to obtain the best performance. Part 3 describes the performance aspects of key operating systems: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 and 2008, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux, SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server, and VMware ESX.

Part 4 introduces the performance monitoring tools that are available to users of System x servers. Part 5 shows you how to analyze your system to find performance bottlenecks, and what to do to eliminate them.

This book is targeted at people who configure Intel® and AMD™ processor-based servers running Windows, Linux, or VMware ESX, and seek to maximize performance. Some knowledge of servers is required. Skills in performance tuning are not assumed.

Part 1. Introduction
Chapter 1. Introduction to this book
Chapter 2. Understanding server types
Chapter 3. Performance benchmarks for servers
Part 2. Server subsystems
Chapter 4. Introduction to hardware technology
Chapter 5. Energy efficiency
Chapter 6. Processors and cache subsystem
Chapter 7. Virtualization hardware assists
Chapter 8. PCI bus subsystem
Chapter 9. Chipset architecture
Chapter 10. Memory subsystem
Chapter 11. Disk subsystem
Chapter 12. Network subsystem
Part 3. Operating systems
Chapter 13. Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Chapter 14. Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Chapter 15. Linux
Chapter 16. VMware ESX 3.5
Part 4. Monitoring tools
Chapter 17. Windows tools
Chapter 18. Linux tools
Chapter 19. VMware ESX tools
Part 5. Working with bottlenecks
Chapter 20. Spotting a bottleneck
Chapter 21. Analyzing bottlenecks for servers running Windows
Chapter 22. Analyzing bottlenecks for servers running Linux
Chapter 23. Case studies

Related product families

Product families related to this document are the following:

• 1-Socket Rack Servers
• 1-Socket Tower Servers
• 2-Socket Rack Servers
• 2-Socket Tower Servers
• 4-Socket Rack Servers
• 8-Socket Rack Servers
• Microsoft Alliance
• Microsoft Windows
• Red Hat Alliance
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server