Installation guide
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Figure 4. P6300 EVA logical drive configuration for the additional nonproduction environments
DL980 system setup
When setting up the DL980 for an Oracle database there are a few best practices that will provide improved performance
and proper configuration.
If the DL980 G7 has 1.0TB or more of RAM, the BIOS System Address Mode should be set to 44-bit. By default this is
set to 40-bit.
Spread the same size DIMM memory evenly across all memory cartridge sockets for maximum performance. For the
two 4-socket configurations it is best to populate all memory slots associated with those four CPUs. For the 8-socket
configuration install memory DIMMs across all memory sockets of the eight CPUs for optimum NUMA performance.
Use only dual or quad rank DIMMs as they are faster than single rank DIMMs.
Configure per DL980 best practices to minimize memory latencies.
If the application has parallelism that will work optimally with Hyper-Threading, leaving it enabled in the BIOS could
result in significance improvement. If not, Hyper-Threading can cause a drop in overall performance. We saw up to
30% improvement in our testing by turning Hyper-Threading on. Make sure to test it for your particular workload.
Use the PCI-Express x8 slots for critical disk I/O.
If connecting three or more HP VMAs, for optimal performance install the Low Profile PCIe expansion option.
Distribute PCIe pass-thru cards evenly across the available I/O bays and I/O hubs.
Install and configure the NUMA packages.
Enable the Hardware Prefetcher. The Hardware Prefetcher proactively collects data from the memory to the cache in
order to reduce response time. If the application is memory intensive, this enablement may have a negative impact on
the performance.
In the BIOS menu under Power Management Options set the HP Power Profile to Maximum Performance.
For environments not running Virtual Machines – Disable Virtualization support in the BIOS as well as INTEL VT-D.
By default Drive Write Cache is Disabled and should remain disabled using VMA attached storage.
Do not use slot 1 for any HP VMA PCIe Pass-Thru Cards. It is a PCI-x Gen1 slot.
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