2.1.2 IBM Eserver BladeCenter system management

To get the most value from your IBM Eserver BladeCenter investment throughout its life cycle, you need smart, effective systems management which will keep your availability high and costs low.

Management foundation

IBM Director, our acclaimed industry standards-based workgroup software, delivers

comprehensive management capability for IntelliStation®, ThinkCentre, ThinkPad, and IBM Eserver BladeCenter and xSeries hardware to help reduce costs and improve

productivity. IBM Director is hardware that is designed for intelligent systems management. It offers the best tools in the industry and can save you time and money by increasing availability, tracking assets, optimizing performance, and enabling remote maintenance.

Advanced server management

This exclusive collection of software utilities provides advanced server management and maximum availability through the following components:

￿Server Plus Pack

￿Application Workload Manager

￿Scalable Systems Manager

￿Real-Time Diagnostics

￿Electronic Service Agent™

￿Tape Drive Management Assistant

For more information about advanced server management, see:

http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/xseries/systems_management/xseries_sm.html

Deployment and update management

IBM deployment tools help minimize the tedious work that can be involved in getting your servers and clients ready to run. These tools include:

￿Remote Deployment Manager

￿Software Distribution Premium Edition

￿ServerGuide™

￿ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit

￿UpdateXpress

For more information about IBM Eserver BladeCenter deployment and update management, visit:

http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/xseries/systems_management/xseries_sm.html

2.2 IBM Eserver BladeCenter architecture

In this section, we look into the architectural design of the IBM Eserver BladeCenter chassis and its components.

2.2.1 The midplane

Figure 2-2 on page 7 illustrates the BladeCenter midplane. The midplane has two similar sections (upper and lower) that provide redundant functionality. The processor blades (blade servers) plug into the front of the midplane. All other major components plug into the rear of the midplane (for example, power modules, switch modules, and management modules). The processor blades have two connectors, one that is connected to the upper section and one

6Nortel Networks L2/3 Ethernet Switch Module for IBM Eserver BladeCenter

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IBM L2/3 manual IBM Eserver BladeCenter architecture, IBM Eserver BladeCenter system management, Midplane