Manageability, Availability and Serviceability

Optimized for virtualization and database applications with maximum memory and compute capacity in a blade

•Most HS/LS/JS/QS blade servers ever released by IBM are supported in every BladeCenter chassis ever released, going back to 20023. Every switch module released by IBM is equally compatible. (Ask HP and Dell how far back their compatibility goes.)

•A blade server has access to as many as 10 communication switches/bridges in a BladeCenter H or 8 in a BladeCenter HT chassis. (Up to 4 switches in a BladeCenter E, S, or T chassis.) And the

switches can be Ethernet, iSCSI, SAS, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, or anything else designed and ServerProven® for BladeCenter use. Switches, bridges and interface cards are currently available from such vendors as Brocade, Cisco, Intel, McData, Nortel, QLogic, Cisco Topspin and others, in addition to IBM.

Manageability

•The HX5 blade server includes an Integrated Management Module (IMM) to monitor server availability, perform Predictive Failure Analysis, etc., and trigger IBM Systems Director alerts. The IMM performs the functions of both the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) of earlier systems, and the Remote Supervisor Adapter II, as well as remote presence/cKVM.

•Each BladeCenter chassis includes an Advanced Management Module to provide additional systems management capabilities, including Web-based out-of-band control; virtual floppy and CD- ROM support; latest OS failure screen capture; LDAP and SSL support; and remote redirection of video, text, keyboard and mouse.

•Integrated industry-standard Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) next-generation BIOS. New capabilities include:

Human readable event logs – no more beep codes

Complete setup solution by allowing adapter configuration function to be moved into UEFI

Complete out-of-band coverage by the Advance Settings Utility to simplify remote setup

•Integrated industry-standard IPMI 2.0 support works with the IMM to alert IBM Systems Director to anomalous environmental factors, such as voltage and thermal conditions. It also supports highly secure remote power control.

•Integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) provides a highly secure start-up process from power- on through hand-off to the operating system boot loader. ACPI support is provided to allow ACPI- enabled operating systems to access the security features of this module. (TCG V1.2-compliant.)

•IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager, an IBM-exclusive, is designed to take advantage of new system power management features, by monitoring actual power usage and providing power consumption capping features. More accurate power usage data helps with data center construction planning and the sizing of power and cooling needs, as well as allowing you to use available power more efficiently.

•The HX5 supports remote presence/concurrent KVM (cKVM) and concurrent media (cMedia) access by multiple administrators at once, via the IMM.

•IBM Systems Director is included for proactive systems management and works with both the blade’s internal IMM and the chassis’ management module. It comes with a portfolio of tools, including IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager, Service and Support Manager, and others. In addition, IBM Systems Director offers extended systems management tools for additional server management and increased availability. When a problem is encountered, IBM Systems Director can issue administrator alerts via e-mail, pager, and other methods.

Availability and Serviceability

•BladeCenter chassis are designed for operation with greatly reduced potential for single points of failure. Most aspects of operation, from blade servers to communication modules, to management modules, to power and blower modules, are hot-swappable. The midplane connections are redundant and the other features can be made so, when used in pairs.

•Fast PC3-10600 DDR3 ECC memory offers multiple layers of Active Memory protection, including Chipkill error correction, Memory ProteXion (redundant bit steering), memory scrubbing, memory rank sparing, and memory mirroring for high availability

•HX5 blade servers support the use of Chipkill-enabled ECC (error checking and correcting) memory. Chipkill memory can be up to 16X better than standard ECC memory at correcting some types of memory errors. This can help reduce downtime caused by memory errors.

•Solid-state drives offer up to triple the availability (MTBF rates) of conventional SAS HDDs. This can lessen the need for redundant drives.

•IPMI 2.0 supports highly secure remote system power on/off using data encryption. This allows an administrator to restart a server without having to visit it in person, saving travel time and getting the server back up and running quickly and securely.

3Some older chassis may require power module and management module upgrades.

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