Intel 7400 manual Abstract, Consolidation of a Performance Sensitive Application Virtualizing

White Paper

Intel® Xeon® Processor 7400-based Server

Consolidation of a Performance-

Sensitive Application: Virtualizing

Electronic Sports League’s

Gaming Infrastructure

Abstract

An end-user case study with Electronic Sports League (ESL) using VMware ESX 3.5U1* with NetQueue feature running on Intel® Xeon® processor 7400 series-based servers with Intel® NICs supporting VMDq feature. Game servers are mission-critical, single-threaded, processor-intensive, and network-latency sensitive. They were previously believed to be “non-virtualizeable” due to the overhead of virtualization. In this case, we will show that game QoS can be preserved on virtualized game servers when using the latest technologies noted above. We’ll also show that large server consolidation ratios and cost savings can be achieved at the same time.

Authors: Bob Albers, I/O Usage Architect, and Sreeram Sammeta,

Sr. Systems Engineer, Intel Digital Enterprise Group