EBC Core Compute

EBC Core offers a compute environment where the resources are used efficiently. A user’s EBC Core platform can include various compute clusters. Different compute clusters may be required for desktop virtualization, separate production and over-the-air (OTA) environments, license restrictions or CPU guarantees.

EBC Core is supplied in a cluster consisting of a number of hosts.

EBC Core Host

The host in an EBC Core environment is based on a standard server configuration. The ‘’EBC HV GC’’ server type is the standard server supplied and it’s supplied in the latest available version.

For EBC environments with more demanding memory requirements, there is a High Memory hypervisor server type. This can be used on request. The table below lists the currently available hypervisor server types with the amount of usable capacity that a single hypervisor server adds to a cluster.

Hypervisor Server Type	Deployment	Use Case	# Available GB RAM1	# Available GB RAM1	CPU Core Speed
EBC HV GC v2	Standard	Generic Compute	450	28	≥ 2.4GHz
EBC HV HM v2	Optional	High Memory	900	28	≥ 2.4GHz

An EBC Core environment has a cluster configuration of at least three hosts where two hosts are used and one is spare (N + 1 principle). The (N + 1) cluster has a maximum of 15 hosts (14 + 1); an extra spare server is required above this number. The maximum cluster size is 30 hypervisor servers (28 + 2).

The capacity of the spare server(s) is not available for regular use and therefore is not a part of the net capacity. The overview below shows some examples of cluster sizes, including the minimum and maximum sizes, and the associated usable net capacity in the number of usable CPU Cores and GB RAM.

EBC Core Cluster Size	Hypervisor Server Model	# Spare Servers	# Available CPU Cores1	# Available GB RAM1
3 (2+1) minimum	EBC HV GC v2	1	56	900
15 (14+1)	EBC HV GC v2	1	392	6.300
17 (15+2)	EBC HV GC v2	2	420	6.750
30 (28+2) maximum	EBC HV GC v2	2	784	12.600

EBC Core Purchase Units

EBC Core has 3 types of purchase units as follows –

1. The number of hosts (hypervisor-servers) in the cluster

2. The 50% commit on the net capacity in GB RAM

3. The amount of GB RAM used

In EBC Core, the CPU cores are an integral part of the host purchase unit.

The 50% commit is a minimum purchase in the net GB RAM capacity of the cluster. The full net RAM capacity of the cluster is available for purchase and the use of GB RAM capacity above 50% is charged per 1 GB of usage. The available net CPU resources can be used at your discretion.

The purchase units are described in the table below.

Purchase Unit	Type of Host	Billing Type	Description
EBC Core - Host	• Generic • High Memory	Baseline	Agreed number of hosts in the cluster
EBC Core - 50% Commit		Baseline	50% of the GB RAM associated with the host
EBC Core - 1GB RAM Additional		Overage	Amount of GB RAM consumption above the baseline

You can also expand your EBC Core environment. Expansion takes place in the form of 1 host plus 50% commit of net GB vRAM capacity.

EBC vCPU

Within the EBC Core product, 1 CPU is equal to at least 2.4 GHz. You determine how to use the capacity of the net available physical CPU cores.

There are guidelines for vCPU use for predictable application performance. The vCPU guarantee values of over-subscription, the guarantee value indicates how many vCPUs can be deployed for each physical CPU core present. EBC Core gives you freedom on the extent to which over-subscription is applied per compute cluster.

The most commonly used over-subscription levels are (as an indication):

vCPU Variant	vCPU Guarantee Value	Use Case
EBC vCPU Standard Guarantee (Default)	1:4 (25%)	• Generic production servers • OTA servers
EBC vCPU High Guarantee	1:2 (50%)	• Medium-load application servers
EBC vCPU Full Guarantee	1:1 (100%)	• Terminal servers • High-load application servers • Latency-sensitive application servers

Calculation Example EBC Core

You have an environment for applications with an above-average load and therefore use the EBC vCPU with High Guarantee. The requested resources are –

1. 500 vCPUs (High Guarantee 1:2)

2. 4000 GB vRAM.

3. 20% free space for growth

vCPU

Due to the 1:2 guarantee value, half of the requested vCPUs need to be present as physical CPU cores to meet the performance requirements.

500 vCPUs: 2 = 250 CPUs.

20% of 500 vCPUs = 100 vCPUs required as free space for growth.

100 vCPUs: 2 = 50 CPUs.

In total, you need 250 + 50 = 300 CPUs.

Memory

4000 GB of vRAM and 20% room for growth are needed.

4000 GB vRAM + 20% = 4400 GB vRAM.

Hosts

The standard hypervisor host adds a net of 28 CPUs and 450 GB to a VDC.

300 CPU : 28 = 10,7 — In terms of CPU, you need a capacity of 11 hosts.

4400 GB vRAM : 450 = 9,8 — In terms of memory, you need a capacity of 10 hosts.

The higher value of the two above is used, in this case, 11 hosts.

For every 15 hosts (up to a maximum of 30) in a cluster, 1 spare-host will be deployed. In this example, 1 spare-host is added to the configuration.

The total number of hosts in the cluster is therefore, 11 + 1 = 12 hosts.

An EBC Core cluster with 12 hosts is thus deployed with the net capacity shown in the table below.

EBC Core Cluster Size in # Hosts	Hypervisor Server Type	# Spare Servers	# Available CPU Cores1	# Available GB RAM1
(11 + 1) 12	EBC HV GC v2	1	308	4950

Within this cluster, you have a net capacity of 308 CPUs and 4950 GB RAM available. The requested and immediately required capacity is 500 vCPUs (1:2) and 4000 GB RAM.

• This cluster contains 308 CPUs. The 500 High Guarantee vCPUs (1:2) use 250 CPUs. There is still 308 - 250 = 58 CPU of net capacity available. The CPUs are included in the host unit (Baseline). The use of CPUs has no (own) cost component.
• This cluster contains 4950 GB RAM. This net capacity consists of 2 purchase units is as follows:
  • EBC Core – 50% Commit

    The 50% Commit is half the net capacity, in this example it’s 0.5 * (11 * 450) = 2475 GB RAM.

  • EBC Core – 1 GB vRAM Additional

    In this cluster, the remaining 50% (2475 GB RAM) per purchase-unit of 1 GB RAM is available as Overage. For the directly needed 4000 GB RAM, 4000 - 2475 = 1525 of this purchase unit is needed.

The additional available capacity in this example cluster is 4950 - 4000 = 950 GB RAM.

Calculation of purchase units in this example is depicted in the below table.

Purchase Unit	Calculation Type	Quantity	Description
EBC Core – Generic Host 450 GB RAM	Baseline	12	Cluster Size is 12 Hosts (11+1)
EBC Core – 50% Commit	Baseline	11	50% commit at 11 net hosts (225 GB RAM/host)
EBC Core – 1 GB vRAM Additional	Overage	1525	The difference between 4000 GB - 11 * 225 GB RAM

EBC Core In Use

You choose the number of hosts and clusters that match the resource request that includes the below guidelines –

• The minimum order is 50% of the usable capacity of a cluster.
• Do you need more resources during work or regular growth? If so, you can access additional resources. The additional consumption is automatically billed monthly. The Equinix account manager can advise you on which purchase best suits your situation.

  • For EBC Core, the additional consumption is limited to the maximum available capacity (100%) of a cluster that is used for your environment.

• Within the limits of the host, EBC Core does not have a maximum size of VM for the use of compute resources. There are recommendations for the best performance of a VM. Adding more compute resources to a VM above the recommended size does not always lead to performance improvements.

  • For EBC Core, the maximum recommended VM size is 8 vCPU and 64 GB vRAM.

Option EBC Core 3.0 No VMware Licenses (NVL)

With EBC Core 3.0, the hosts are configured in a VMware cluster. The host price includes the VMware licenses. EBC Core 3.0 NVL offers an option to settle the VMware licenses separately as VMware license points. In this case, you pay a lower price for the Commit 50% of the GB vRAM and for the Additional GB vRAM.

The advantage of this option is that licenses are only settled for the time that one VM on the platform actually uses VMware in accordance with the definition of VMware.