8 ms·

How widespread are ARM servers outside of hyperscalers who naturally wouldn't touch anything Supermicro makes with a 10-foot pole?

rjsw 4y ago
Amazon have them [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWS_Graviton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWS_Graviton
- silksowed 4y ago
  does anyone know of anyone using graviton for compute instances? would like to gauge how the experience has been
  - jwcooper 4y ago
    We've been using Graviton (and now 2 and 3) for our node and rails services for over a year now. Early on there was a rush to get everything supported (aarch64 compiled packages mostly), but now everything works just fine. We just swapped some c6i.2xlarge servers for c7g.xlarge (graviton 3, half the size of the intel servers) and utilization for our workload (sidekiq jobs, in this case) bumped up maybe 20-30%. The performance is quite good.
  - 15155 4y ago
    I've switched several organizations to AWS Graviton instances. You basically get 30% more of everything for 20% less cost. No issues: if your software supports it, do it.
  - matwood 4y ago
    I've been running JVM, nginx, and Aurora workloads on Graviton for awhile. The cost savings were too much to pass up, so I moved us over rather quickly where I could.
  - zX41ZdbW 4y ago
    Here is the benchmark comparing all generation of Graviton servers in AWS with Intel and AMD servers: https://benchmark.clickhouse.com/hardware/ https://benchmark.clickhouse.com/hardware/
throwawaymaths 4y ago
Why wouldn't they touch anything supermicro makes?
- wmf 4y ago
  Jut because unbranded servers are even cheaper and more customizable than Supermicro. It's not because Supermicro is bad per se.
- spamizbad 4y ago
  Because Supermicro ships boards with things BMCs (ASPEED 2500s and the like) that have firmware they don't even control or support. That's a problem if you have thousands of servers deployed and there's a security vulnerability or defect, you go to the vendor for support, and they just shrug. Or problems with DRAM training. Or any other weird BIOS/firmware quirk that Supermicro won't help you with. This stuff is less of a problem if you're just using a few dozen of these things at most. But at scale commodity hardware becomes a nightmare. It's why most hyperscalers find it more cost-effective to just build their own (Amazon, Google, Meta, others)
  - throwawaymaths 4y ago
    Awesome, thanks this was helpful! I think also for some reason my brain forgot the definition of hyperscaler despite having used it (correctly) 6 or so years ago, I don't really work with servers anymore
  - zozbot234 4y ago
    > Because Supermicro ships boards with things BMCs (ASPEED 2500s and the like) that have firmware they don't even control or support. That's not a Supermicro-specific problem, though. In fact, the Oxide Computers folks are predicting their whole business approach on being able to "control and support" most every piece of firmware that they ship to users. It's not easy, and it's far from standard in the industry.
    - rcxdude 4y ago
bfgoodrich 4y ago
[dead]
Gys 4y ago
Oracle Cloud offers ARM servers from Ampere, the same brand as Supermicro will offer. Oracle even has a free forever tier with ARM: https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/ https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/
- nix23 4y ago
  Why are you getting downvoted? I dont get that....
  - Gys 4y ago
    I am wondering about that as well
  - AtlasBarfed 4y ago
    I would guess it is the word association of "Oracle" "free" and "forever". Pair any two of those and it strains credibility for anyone that deals with Oracle. All three?
- wmf 4y ago
  Oracle Cloud is hyperscale which kind of reinforces the point. If you want to buy not rent Ampere servers it has been really hard to get them.
- rbanffy 4y ago
  > Oracle Cloud offers ARM servers from Ampere A real shame, as they could offer SPARC, if they hadn't decided the future was x86 after acquiring Sun. At least IBM offers POWER and Z.
wmf 4y ago
They're not widespread yet because few vendors sell them. Supermicro and HPE give ARM servers more credibility.
- rbanffy 4y ago
  > They're not widespread yet because few vendors sell them. And the few vendors probably can't build enough of them because hyperscalers are syphoning all the fab output to their own datacenters.

rjsw 4y ago

Amazon have them [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWS_Graviton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWS_Graviton

silksowed 4y ago
does anyone know of anyone using graviton for compute instances? would like to gauge how the experience has been
- jwcooper 4y ago
  We've been using Graviton (and now 2 and 3) for our node and rails services for over a year now. Early on there was a rush to get everything supported (aarch64 compiled packages mostly), but now everything works just fine. We just swapped some c6i.2xlarge servers for c7g.xlarge (graviton 3, half the size of the intel servers) and utilization for our workload (sidekiq jobs, in this case) bumped up maybe 20-30%. The performance is quite good.
- 15155 4y ago
  I've switched several organizations to AWS Graviton instances. You basically get 30% more of everything for 20% less cost. No issues: if your software supports it, do it.
- matwood 4y ago
  I've been running JVM, nginx, and Aurora workloads on Graviton for awhile. The cost savings were too much to pass up, so I moved us over rather quickly where I could.
- zX41ZdbW 4y ago
  Here is the benchmark comparing all generation of Graviton servers in AWS with Intel and AMD servers: https://benchmark.clickhouse.com/hardware/ https://benchmark.clickhouse.com/hardware/

throwawaymaths 4y ago

Why wouldn't they touch anything supermicro makes?

wmf 4y ago
Jut because unbranded servers are even cheaper and more customizable than Supermicro. It's not because Supermicro is bad per se.
spamizbad 4y ago
Because Supermicro ships boards with things BMCs (ASPEED 2500s and the like) that have firmware they don't even control or support. That's a problem if you have thousands of servers deployed and there's a security vulnerability or defect, you go to the vendor for support, and they just shrug. Or problems with DRAM training. Or any other weird BIOS/firmware quirk that Supermicro won't help you with. This stuff is less of a problem if you're just using a few dozen of these things at most. But at scale commodity hardware becomes a nightmare. It's why most hyperscalers find it more cost-effective to just build their own (Amazon, Google, Meta, others)
- throwawaymaths 4y ago
  Awesome, thanks this was helpful! I think also for some reason my brain forgot the definition of hyperscaler despite having used it (correctly) 6 or so years ago, I don't really work with servers anymore
- zozbot234 4y ago
  > Because Supermicro ships boards with things BMCs (ASPEED 2500s and the like) that have firmware they don't even control or support. That's not a Supermicro-specific problem, though. In fact, the Oxide Computers folks are predicting their whole business approach on being able to "control and support" most every piece of firmware that they ship to users. It's not easy, and it's far from standard in the industry.
  - rcxdude 4y ago

bfgoodrich 4y ago

[dead]

Gys 4y ago

Oracle Cloud offers ARM servers from Ampere, the same brand as Supermicro will offer. Oracle even has a free forever tier with ARM: https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/ https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/

nix23 4y ago
Why are you getting downvoted? I dont get that....
- Gys 4y ago
  I am wondering about that as well
- AtlasBarfed 4y ago
  I would guess it is the word association of "Oracle" "free" and "forever". Pair any two of those and it strains credibility for anyone that deals with Oracle. All three?
wmf 4y ago
Oracle Cloud is hyperscale which kind of reinforces the point. If you want to buy not rent Ampere servers it has been really hard to get them.
rbanffy 4y ago
> Oracle Cloud offers ARM servers from Ampere A real shame, as they could offer SPARC, if they hadn't decided the future was x86 after acquiring Sun. At least IBM offers POWER and Z.

wmf 4y ago

They're not widespread yet because few vendors sell them. Supermicro and HPE give ARM servers more credibility.

rbanffy 4y ago
> They're not widespread yet because few vendors sell them. And the few vendors probably can't build enough of them because hyperscalers are syphoning all the fab output to their own datacenters.