What advantages does choosing RoCE Ethernet capable network type provide for Db2 pureScale?

When deploying a Db2® pureScale® cluster, whether it is brand new or upgrading a current cluster to a next generation hardware stack, using RoCE network is almost always the best choice for high volume and/or high-write workloads.

Important: InfiniBand is deprecated in Db2 12.1 and might be discontinued in a future release. For high-speed communication between Db2 puresScale members and CFs, use a Converged Ethernet (RoCE) network.

Ethernet is everywhere and many of the switches are also RoCE capable. This not only increases availability but it often decreases the overall hardware cost.

From a raw bandwidth perspective, the RoCE can achieve throughputs at and above 10 Gb/s. As of Db2 version 12.1, RoCE adds 100Gb adapters to its supported matrix improving its overall performance to meet all OLTP customer needs. More critically for high-performance Db2 pureScale workloads, RoCE provides lower latency networking than Ethernet along with reduction in CPU utilization compared to TCP/IP.

RoCE Ethernet is the recommended network type for most demanding production clusters.