Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core
Intel Xeon blade server
pass-through devices. All modules, when installed in pairs, offer load balancing and failover support. Integrated switch modules mean that no extra rack “U space” is required.
•Two module bays for management modules (IBM BladeCenter Management Module or the new Advanced Management Module, depending on the model of the BladeCenter chassis) — The management module provides advanced systems management and KVM capabilities for not only the chassis itself, but for all of the blades and other modules installed in the chassis. The
Management Module provides capabilities similar to the IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II used in stand-alone IBM System x™ or IBM eServer™ xSeries® rack and tower servers. The features of the Management Module can be accessed either locally or remotely across a network. One module comes standard. A second Management Module can be added for hot-swap/redundancyand failover.
•Four module bays for Blower Modules — Two hot-swap/redundant blower modules come standard with the chassis. They are capable of providing efficient cooling for up to 7 blades. These modules replace the need for each blade to contain its own fans. The two blowers are more energy efficient than dozens or hundreds of smaller fans would be, and they offer many fewer points of potential failure. Two additional blower modules can be installed when more than 7 blades are used in a chassis.
•Four module bays for Power Modules — BladeCenter ships with two 2000W high-efficiency hot-swap/redundant power modules (upgradeable to four), capable of handling the power needs of the entire chassis. Many servers use power supplies with an efficiency level of approximately 65- 75%. Because BladeCenter uses power supplies that are at least 90% efficient, much less power is wasted as heat. Not only is more power available for chassis use, there is less power wasted as excess heat output.
•Redundant Midplane connections — By giving each blade two physical connections to the midplane that connects all blades and modules together internally, a failure of one connector cannot bring down the server.
•A hot-swappable Media Tray containing a DVD-ROM drive, a floppy drive, one USB 1.1 port, and a light path diagnostic panel — The media tray is shared by all the blades in the server. This eliminates unnecessary parts (and reduces the number of parts than can fail). In the event of a failure of the Media Tray the tray can be swapped for another. While the tray is offline, the servers in the chassis can remotely access the Media Tray in another chassis. The light path diagnostic panel contains LEDs that identify which internal components are in need of service.
It is extremely important to include all infrastructure costs when comparing a BladeCenter solution to a competitor’s offering, not just the cost of the chassis and the blades. The high density and level of integration of the BladeCenter chassis greatly reduces the cost of the overall solution. For example, because up to six chassis will fit in a rack, this means that up to 84 blade servers can be installed. (Competitive blade offerings would require a second rack for this many blades.) Also, because up to four Ethernet, Myrinet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or other switches can be installed per chassis, up to 24 switches can be installed per rack without having to reserve any “U” space for switches, unlike the competition. (And the integrated switches may be less expensive than external, self-powered switches.) Plus, the number of power distribution units (PDUs) needed per rack may be lessened, because there are fewer discrete devices to have to plug in. In addition, because all the blades are connected to all the switches inside the chassis, there is no need for external Ethernet or other communication cables to connect the blades and switches. (Only the few cables needed to connect the switches to the external world are required.) This not only saves the cost of numerous cables per rack, but also the clutter and bother of routing that many cables. An added bonus is potentially much freer airflow behind the rack, due to fewer cables.
BladeCenter H is an even higher-performing 9U chassis, designed for compute-intensive environments, such as Earth/Life Sciences, commercial analytics and next-generation network applications. Think of it as BladeCenter’s big brother, with more speed and more features. It provides:
•Reduced single points of failure — Many major components (either standard or optionally) are hot-swappableand/or redundant. Servers and modules can be configured for automatic failover to backups.
•Forward and backward compatibility — Every blade, switch, and passthru module released by IBM for the original BladeCenter chassis since 2002 is supported in the BladeCenter H chassis.
•High-speed redundant Midplane connections — Based on 4X InfiniBand, the midplane supports up to 40Gb bandwidth and provides four 10Gb data channels to each blade. By giving each blade two physical connections to the midplane that connects all blades and modules together internally, a failure of one connector alone cannot bring down the server.
•Fourteen 30mm blade slots — These hot-swapslots are capable of supporting any combination of 14 HS20/HS21 (Xeon), LS20/LS21 (AMD® Opteron®), and JS20/JS21 (IBM PowerPC 970FX/MP) blade servers, or 7 double-wide (60mm) HS40 or LS41 blade servers, or a mixture of 30mm and 60mm blades. It also supports multiple optional 30mm Expansion Units in combination
