Core Capabilities

The core feature set of the Azul Compute Appliance allows it to run the vast majority of Java applications, offering unique virtualization, scalability, operating cost and availability advantages with first-class security, management, interoperability and investment protection.

Virtualized Processing

The Azul Compute Appliance provides transparent, dynamic virtualization of Java application processing. Applications from an assortment of host OS and application server environments tap into the shared compute and memory resources of the appliance, receiving exactly the amount of resources they need the moment they need them. Dynamic responsiveness to workload spikes ensures consistent application behavior in a multi-application environment.

• Virtual Partitioning. Each application instance runs within a flexible-sized virtual partition (VPAR) on a compute appliance, guaranteeing that its memory space is completely isolated from all other running applications.

• 10ms Resource Allocation Interval. Processing resources are dynamically allocated every 10 milliseconds to efficiently apply processing power to rapidly changing load conditions. With near-instantaneous redistribution of processing resources, even wildly varying transaction loads are accommodated with no impact to application response time.

System Capacity

Azul Compute Appliances are available in a range of configurations providing massive volumes of processing and memory capacity, handling even the largest workloads. Applications can realize their maximum potential to accommodate business growth without painful server re-provisioning, cost-efficiently consolidating applications and host servers.

• Full SMP Architecture. Compute appliances are available with up to 16 Vega processors (864 cores) in a fully symmetric design.

• Massive Application Capacity. Hundreds of concurrent applications can share the massive processing and memory capacity of a compute appliance without contention, enabling higher overall utilization and correspondingly lower costs. Up to 768 GB of memory is available in each appliance, with up to 670 GB available for individual application instances.

• Universal 64-bit addressing. No matter where the application is installed and launched from, or even what native code libraries it uses, it runs on the Azul Compute Appliance in 64-bit addressing mode, fully utilizing the wider bandwidth and blasting through the limitations of 2 GB or 4 GB physical process memory of 32-bit environments.

Security

Strong security is is designed into the Azul Compute Appliance, eliminating concerns about rogue applications consuming precious resources or using the compute appliance as a platform for initiating network attacks. System administrators have total control over access and use of the compute infrastructure.

• Secure Program Access. Strict security is enforced in all communications with compute appliances. The only binaries allowed to load on the compute appliance are Azul provided (AVM). Communications between appliances and to the management layer from external devices are performed over secure SSL or SSH connections.

• Secure User Access. User access is authenticated locally to the compute appliance internal database, or optionally, to an externally configured LDAP or RADIUS server. User authorization is controlled by assigning flexible CPM roles to each user, allowing separation of monitoring vs management users.

Reliability, Availability and Serviceability

Azul Compute Appliances are built with industrial-strength fault resiliency capabilities commensurate with the requirements of business critical applications.

• Simple, Robust Design. Azul Compute Appliances utilize a highly integrated design that eliminates the need for complex interconnect logic chips used in traditional SMP servers, reducing the possibility of component failure. The interconnect between Vega processor chips and memory is done via an efficiently designed passive midplane, enabling uniform memory access from any processor. Further reliability is achieved by eliminating the need for internal disk drives.

• Redundant Components. Fans, power supplies and network processor boards (handing appliance I/O) are redundant in the system. Fans and power supplies are hot-swappable.

• Failure Prediction and Avoidance. Various fault tolerant elements are included in each system including error correction code (ECC) and parity protection, DRAM fault tolerance , and memory scrubbing. The appliances dynamically deallocate failed memory pages, and automatically restart and reconfigure around failed processor, memory and networking system elements.

Investment Protection

The Azul product line is highly modular to match both the initial and evolving business needs, and ensure investment protection over time. Compute appliances are available in a wide range of configurations, and support multiple paths of gradual capacity increases.

• Product Line Interoperability. Applications using the Azul Virtual Machine run interchangeably on each model of Azul Compute Appliances as well as on appliances across generations, assuring the ability to expand compute capacity without requiring application changes.

• Field Upgradeability. The Vega 3 product line includes partially populated models whose processing and memory capacity can be increased simply by installing additional processor boards in the same chassis. Customers of Vega 2 Series appliances can easily upgrade from Vega 2 to Vega 3 without changes in chassis or operating characteristics.

Environment Interoperability

Extensively interoperable, the Azul Compute Appliance runs virtually all Java applications from any UNIX or Linux server.

• Host Servers and Operating Systems. The OS agnostic appliance can run Java applications from any mix of popular application host hardware platforms and UNIX/Linux operating systems.

• Heterogeneous Application Support. AVM is a J2SE v1.4.2 and v5.0 compliant, JCK certified JVM. Any mix of application instance AVM and Java SE versions can run on an appliance simultaneously.

• Application Servers and Tools. AVM is interoperable with all major J2EE application servers, and popular third-party debugging and profiling tools.