ClearPath MCP Software Series Compatibility Guide

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ClearPath MCP Software Series

Compatibility Guide

Overview

The ClearPath MCP Software Series is designed to deliver new cost and performance competitive attributes and to continue to advance MCP environment attributes by enabling fast implementation of client application modernization initiatives. By packaging the MCP operating environment as a “software only” solution, clients are able to deploy MCP onto platforms of their own choosing. This Compatibility Guide describes the system requirements for ClearPath MCP Software Series products and provides guidelines for their use.

Product Specific Information

This section describes the currently supported configurations for each product in the ClearPath MCP Software Series. As new products are added to the series their characteristics will be included in this document.

ClearPath MCP Developer Studio System Type:

DE1000 or GE1000

When the ClearPath Forward fabric version of Developer Studio is ordered and installed over s-Par on a PEPP (Partitionable Enterprise Partition Platform), the system identifies itself as a DE1000.

When a hardware-independent version of Developer Studio is ordered and installed on Bare Metal or over a qualified non-Unisys hypervisor, the system identifies itself as a GE1000.

The following table defines the attributes of a Developer Studio partition. Host

Environments Allowed

MCP

CPMs MCP Memory MCP Disk Types MCP Tape Eligible? MCP DVD Eligible? Windows OS Allowed s-Par 1 or 2 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk or VSS1/VSS2 Yes No Windows Server 2012 R2

VMware 1 or 2 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk No No Windows Server 2012 _R2

Bare Metal 1 or 2 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk or VSS1/VSS2 Yes

No Windows Server 2012 _R2

Here are recommendations for various size attributes for Developer Studio for the minimum allowable configuration and one which comfortably supports larger MCP configurations.

# of Intel Logical

Processors # GB of Memory Available Disk Space – Existing Partition (GB) Available Disk Space – New Partition (GB) Minimum Configuration 2 (1 CPM) 2 60 90 Recommended Configuration 4 (2 CPM) 40+ 120+ 200+

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ClearPath MCP Developer Studio Personal Edition System Type:

DE1000

ClearPath MCP Developer Studio Personal Edition is a single user development environment qualified for use on a client provided Reference Architecture computer.

The following table defines the attributes of the Developer Studio Personal Edition partition. Host

MCP

CPMs MCP Memory MCP Disk Types MCP Tape Eligible? MCP DVD Eligible? Windows OS Allowed

Bare Metal 1 or 2 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk or VSS1/VSS2 Yes Yes Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows 7 SP1 Windows 8.1

Here are recommendations for various size attributes for Developer Studio Personal Edition for the minimum allowable configuration and one which comfortably supports larger MCP configurations.

Processors # GB of Memory Available Disk Space – Existing Partition (GB) Available Disk Space – New Partition (GB) Minimum Configuration 2 (1 CPM) 2 60 90 Recommended Configuration 4 (2 CPM) 40+ 120+ 200+ ClearPath MCP Bronze System Type:

GE0500

ClearPath MCP Bronze is a production level MCP environment qualified for use on a client provided Reference Architecture computer utilizing either Bare Metal or a hypervisor. ClearPath MCP Bronze is a general purpose MCP offering for environments having modest capacity requirements.

The following table defines the attributes of these products. Host

MCP

CPMs MCP Memory MCP Disk Types MCP Tape Eligible? MCP DVD Eligible? Windows OS Allowed Bare Metal 1 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk _{or VSS1/VSS2} Yes No Windows Server 2012 _R2 VMware 1 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk No No Windows Server 2012 _R2

Here are recommendations for various size attributes for ClearPath MCP Bronze for the minimum allowable configuration and one which comfortably supports larger MCP configurations.

Processors # GB of Memory Available Disk Space – Existing Partition (GB) Available Disk Space – New Partition (GB) Minimum Configuration 2 (1 CPM) 2 100 120 Recommended Configuration 3 (1 CPM) 40+ 120+ 200+

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ClearPath MCP Silver System Type:

GE1000

ClearPath MCP Silver is a production level MCP environment qualified for use on a client provided Reference Architecture computer utilizing either Bare Metal or a hypervisor. ClearPath MCP Silver is a general purpose MCP offeringfor environments having higher capacity requirements than can be provided by the ClearPath MCP Bronze. The following table defines the attributes of these products.

Host

MCP

CPMs MCP Memory MCP Disk Types MCP Tape Eligible? MCP DVD Eligible? Windows OS Allowed

Bare Metal 1 or 2 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk _{or VSS1/VSS2} Yes No Windows Server 2012 _R2 VMware 1 or 2 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk No No Windows Server 2012 _R2

Here are recommendations for various size attributes for ClearPath MCP Silver for the minimum allowable configuration and one which comfortably supports larger MCP configurations.

# of Intel

Logical Processors

# GB of

Memory Available Disk Space – Existing Partition (GB) Available Disk Space – New Partition (GB) Minimum Configuration 2 (1 CPM) 2 100 120 Recommended Configuration 4 (2 CPM) 40+ 120+ 200+

ClearPath Financial Server System Type:

FS1000

ClearPath Financial Server is a production level MCP environment qualified for use on a client provided Reference Architecture computer utilizing either Bare Metal or a hypervisor. ClearPath Financial Server is available to the Financial Series market only.

The following table defines the attributes of this product. Host

MCP

CPMs MCP Memory MCP Disk Types MCP Tape Eligible? MCP DVD Eligible? Windows OS Allowed Bare Metal 1 to 4 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk or

VSS1/VSS2 Yes No

Windows Server 2012 R2

VMware 1 to 4 64MW to _4GW Logical Disk No No Windows Server 2012 _R2

Here are recommendations for various size attributes for ClearPath Financial Server for the minimum allowable configuration and one which comfortably supports larger MCP configurations.

# of Intel

Logical Processors

# GB of

Memory Available Disk Space – Existing Partition (GB) Available Disk Space – New Partition (GB) Minimum Configuration 2 (1 CPM) 2 100 120 Recommended Configuration 5 (4 CPM) 40+ 120+ 200+

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Required Software

The following software components are required to be installed in Windows prior to installation and use of ClearPath MCP Software Series.

 Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5

- Included in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 - Separately downloadable for Windows 7 SP1 from

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30653&

 Microsoft Windows Management Framework 4.0 (or greater) - Included in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 - Separately downloadable for Windows 7 SP1 from

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40855

Hardware Compatibility List

ClearPath MCP Software Series products have been tested on various Unisys ES3000 and Dell® PowerEdge™ servers. These product lines conform to the ClearPath MCP Software Series Reference Architecture, along with the other system attributes described in this document. Other servers are likely to work as well, but have not been tested.

For information regarding supported disks, tapes and HBAs may see the “Storage” section later in this document.

Software Compatibility List

The third party software components listed below have been used with ClearPath MCP Software Series products and were found to work reliably, although Unisys does not support them. Other non-OS software packages may work as well, but have not been tested.

Software Component Primary Use

EMC PowerPath (Logical Disk only) Allows multiple paths to a Logical Disk

Elaborate Bytes Virtual CloneDrive Read-only CD/DVD capability in MCP environment Symantec Endpoint Protection Anti-virus software

Emulex OC Manager Centralized management tool for Emulex HBAs

Processors

ClearPath MCP Software Series is designed to work with Intel CPUs which support the x64 instruction set. Due to the way in which time is maintained in the MCP, the processor(s) should support an “Invariant Time Stamp Counter,” which means they should be based on the Intel Nehalem microarchitecture and beyond. Nehalem processors from Intel were released in November 2008. Processors older than this may likely have an erratic ability to keep the correct time in the MCP. In addition, if the MCP Disk Encryption feature is desired, only the Intel Ivy Bridge microarchitecture and beyond supports this. More specifically, these are Intel CPUs which support Intel ® Data Protection Technology with AES-NI and Secure Key.

The MCP utilizes virtual processors called CPMs, which efficiently translate the MCP’s instruction set into equivalent Intel instructions and then execute them. Each of these MCP CPMs can consume an Intel Logical Processor when under load. Additionally, the MCP’s I/O Processor (IOP) utilizes execution threads in the Windows environment for I/O activity. In order to handle the MCP processor workload (CPM and IOP) with optimal performance, and also leave sufficient Intel performance to handle normal Windows operations, it is desirable to have more Intel Logical Processors available than the number of CPMs.

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The following table represents the Unisys minimum recommendations for Intel Logical Processors. Logical Processor count may include actual cores or threads (also called hyper-threads). The use of more Logical Processors than recommended may be advised for heavier Windows workloads or larger I/O configurations.

MCP CPMs 1 2 3 4

Recommended

Intel Cores 3 4 4 5

Selecting an Intel Processor

When selecting a hardware platform for deploying a ClearPath MCP Software Series system, one of the key choices is the Intel processor that the system uses. As described above, there are certain minimum requirements for the Intel processor used. The three key components of an Intel processor are its cores, its frequency (clock rate), and its cache size. Typically, the faster the Intel processor, the fewer cores there are, and the more expensive it will be. The choice should be based on the balance of your performance needs and your desired system configuration. Cache size can be a factor in the processor decision but, generally speaking, recent Intel processors have had sufficient cache for the CPM process to operate efficiently.

When selecting a processor, consider the following:

1. The number of cores/Logical Processors needed for the MCP environment (described in this document). 2. Whether or not the environment will be virtualized or partitioned.

3. The criticality of performance.

When looking at performance, there is more to consider than a processor’s frequency (clock-rate), specifically: 1. Base Frequency: The minimum clock rate if the BIOS settings are set as recommended in this document. 2. Maximum Frequency / Turbo Mode: Enabling Turbo typically provides the best performance, depending on

other things happening in the system.

3. Generation of the Intel Processor: An older generation Intel processor will perform slower, sometimes significantly slower, than a newer processor having the same clock rate.

It is often difficult to compare processors of different generations. Industry benchmarks provide a rough estimate of performance differences. However, no one benchmark reflects the performance difference seen for all workloads. The SPEC CINT2006 Base (Baseline) “SPECint_base2006” benchmark most closely matches the typical MCP workload. Visit the website https://www.spec.org/cgi-bin/osgresults?conf=cint2006 for more information. The larger the

Base/Baseline result the faster the processor. Note that because this benchmark allows the processor to go into Turbo mode, it may be overstating the actual performance. However, it can be used as a very rough guide for comparison purposes.

Processor Performance Settings

While the above information regarding processors is useful, it does not tell the whole story with regards to achieving optimal MCP performance. Given a particular processor, performance is best achieved by setting the system BIOS to optimal settings. The recommended BIOS settings for optimal performance are outlined in the following table.

BIOS Setting

Description Optimal Performance Value CPU Power Management Maximum Performance Memory Frequency Maximum Performance

C1E Disabled

Monitor/Mwait Disabled

C-States Disabled

Turbo Boost Enabled

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It is recommended that you disable Logical Processor threading (hyper-threading) to reduce its overall impact on performance. While enabling threading makes more Logical Processors available, each thread shares physical execution resources with another thread, causing the performance of each Logical Processor to be somewhat reduced. Enabling Logical Processor threading might be appropriate if individual CPM performance is not critical and more CPMs (or overall larger system capacity) are desirable.

It is important to note that while these settings may produce the better MCP performance, they are not necessarily recommended for situations where power consumption, heat dissipation, and other environmental factors are important. Many of these settings are best deployed in a datacenter, rather than a desktop.

Note that this list may not be exhaustive. Other settings may impact system performance as well.

Memory

MCP Firmware (the Windows software component of ClearPath MCP Software Series) utilizes standard Windows memory management routines to acquire a contiguous block of memory for use by the MCP. Depending upon the physical memory available in the system, the MCP Firmware will allow the user to set a desired MCP memory size ranging from a minimum of 64MW to a maximum of 4GW. Note that MCP memory is generally described in “words” where one word is actually 8 bytes of physical memory. For example, 1GW of MCP memory is equivalent to 8GB of physical memory.

The minimum memory size for a ClearPath MCP Software Series hosting environment is 2GB, whether it’s a Bare Metal platform, an s-Par partition, or a Virtual Machine. In addition to the memory needed for the MCP environment, the system also needs memory for Windows and other platform functionality. A good rule of thumb is that Windows should have a minimum of about 2GB of memory for itself. Having said that, ClearPath MCP Software Series products can function with less Windows memory where less MCP memory is configured, and require more Windows memory where more MCP memory is configured. In addition, the memory requirements of any other Windows-based

applications running in the underlying Windows environment must be considered as well.

The following table provides specific guidelines of how much physical memory the hosting environment requires for various MCP memory sizes.

MCP Memory 64MW 128MW 192MW 256MW 512MW 1GW 2GW 3GW 4GW

Required Host Memory

(minimum) 2GB 2GB 3GB 4GB 8GB 16GB 24GB 32GB 40GB

Some additional points should also be noted. Depending upon how much memory is available in the system at the time the MCP Firmware attempts to acquire the MCP memory, it will potentially reduce the MCP memory size down to less than what is desired. Also, the longer Windows has been running prior to starting the MCP Firmware memory service, the more likely that Windows memory has become fragmented, thus making it more difficult to obtain the desired contiguous MCP memory.

Additional memory beyond what’s recommended may also help with performance. For example, if logical disks are in use, cache for these will be allocated from host system memory, not MCP memory. If large numbers of IO devices are configured or if a significant amount of encryption is being performed, additional memory may also be beneficial.

Storage

ClearPath MCP Software Series needs storage for several purposes. First, and most obvious, is the need to have storage for the underlying Windows environment. This includes the Windows OS, application software, MCP

Firmware, and potential space for MCP diagnostics if they need to be collected. In addition to that, there needs to be storage available for MCP disks, which can take the form of either Logical Disks (standard Windows files in the Windows file system) or VSS Disks (a unique file system native to MCP but foreign to Windows).

Logical Disks can reside on any fixed media (non-removable) drive which has been formatted with the Windows NTFS file system. The drive can be either internal or external to the server chassis. Multiple drives in a RAID array are also

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permitted. The path to the Logical Disk cannot be encrypted or compressed using the standard Windows file system attributes. Encryption which happens outside of the OS, such as Bitlocker, is permitted.

VSS Disks must reside externally, outboard of the server chassis using Fibre Channel, on either a Storage Area Network (SAN) or Direct Attach connection. Currently, only Emulex Fibre Channel host bus adapters have been qualified to communicate with VSS Disks.

The MCP Firmware, pre-installed MCP Halt/Load (H/L) Unit Logical Disk, and Diagnostics reside on Windows storage volumes. About 30GB of disk space should be made available for MCP Firmware and the preinstalled H/L, plus 34GB for each diagnostic dump you expect to save on the system. Then one must determine the MCP space requirements for data packs. If internal storage is used for this purpose, what remains after accounting for MCP Firmware, H/L Pack and Diagnostics can be used for additional Windows storage and/or Logical Disks. If externally connected SAN disks are used, the remaining capacity can be used for additional Windows storage, Logical Disks, or VSS Disks.

A summary of the disks, tapes, HBAs and other storage products that Unisys has tested may be found in the ClearPath MCP Software Series Peripheral Support Matrix located on the ClearPath MCP Software Series page of the Unisys support website.

Host Environments

ClearPath MCP Software Series can be run in one of the following “host environments:”  Over Bare Metal (Windows is running directly on the hardware)

 As a Virtual Machine running on a non-Unisys Hypervisor  In a Unisys ClearPath Forward fabric (over s-Par)

Refer to the Product Specific Information section for additional details on supported host environments. Bare Metal

The Bare Metal server used to run a ClearPath MCP Software Series product must conform to the Reference Architecture (RA) as detailed in the previous sections. Choosing a platform and associated peripherals listed in the Hardware Compatibility List is helpful to ensure conformance to the RA, although it is not required.

The list of storage products which may be used as Logical Disks when running on Bare Metal is determined by Microsoft’s Hardware Compatibility List.

Hypervisors

Running ClearPath MCP Software Series on a hypervisor is allowed for certain product models. When using a hypervisor, the sections of this document which reference memory, processor, etc. should be used to define the configuration of the Virtual Machine rather than the host platform.

Regarding hardware compatibility, please refer to the Hardware Compatibility List of the vendor providing your Hypervisor rather than the HCL in this document.

Unisys has done some basic testing of the following hypervisors with the ClearPath MCP Software Series and found no issues. Others may work as well, but Unisys has not tested them.

 VMware ESXi 5.5  VMware ESXi 6.0

The following special considerations should be observed when using a hypervisor.

 No MCP tape or MCP optical devices are supported on hypervisor based systems.  Only Logical Disks are supported. VSS is not supported on hypervisor-based systems.

 Changes to critical settings (virtual cores, memory, etc.) can be made much more dynamically with Virtual Machines. Many of these attributes are only checked by the MCP Firmware during installation. Changing them after installation can lead to configuration issues which are not subsequently checked by the MCP Firmware.  Live Migration, which is the ability of a hypervisor to move a running VM from one host to another, while

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s-Par

Running ClearPath MCP Software Series on Unisys Secure Partitioning (s-Par) is allowed for certain product models which require a Unisys ClearPath Forward fabric. When using s-Par, the sections of this document which reference memory, processor, etc. should be used to define the configuration of the logical partition rather than the host platform. Regarding platform compatibility, please ask your Unisys sales partner about the Unisys ClearPath Forward fabric product offerings.

The following special considerations should be observed when using s-Par.  No MCP optical devices are supported on s-Par based systems.  Both Logical Disks and VSS are supported.

 The minimum required Forward fabric environment for ClearPath MCP Software Series is Fabric 3.0.

Trademark and Copyright Information

Unisys and other Unisys product and service names mentioned herein, as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unisys Corporation.