HP c3000 User Manual 2

HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure technologies

technology brief

Abstract.............................................................................................................................................. 2

Overview of HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure ....................................................................................... 2

HP Thermal Logic technologies .............................................................................................................. 4

Active Cool fans .............................................................................................................................. 5

HP PARSEC architecture.................................................................................................................... 6

Thermal Logic for the server blade and enclosure................................................................................. 7

Power supplies and enclosure power subsystem................................................................................... 8

HP BladeSystem Power Sizer ......................................................................................................... 9

Pooled power ............................................................................................................................ 10

Dynamic Power Saver mode ........................................................................................................ 11

Power Regulator......................................................................................................................... 11

Power Capping for each server blade........................................................................................... 11

Interconnect options and infrastructure.................................................................................................. 12

Fabric connectivity and port mapping............................................................................................... 13

Virtual Connect.............................................................................................................................. 16

Enclosure-based DVD ROM................................................................................................................. 17

Onboard Administrator ...................................................................................................................... 17

Insight Display ............................................................................................................................... 19

Web GUI...................................................................................................................................... 20

Command-line interface .................................................................................................................. 20

Onboard Administrator cabling ....................................................................................................... 20

Enclosure link cabling..................................................................................................................... 20

Recommendations.............................................................................................................................. 21

Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Appendix A. Acronyms in text............................................................................................................. 22

Appendix B. Fan, power supply, and device bay population guidelines................................................... 23

For more information.......................................................................................................................... 28

Call to action .................................................................................................................................... 28

Abstract

The HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure is the next generation in an evolution of the entire rackmounted infrastructure. The c3000 Enclosure is designed for remote sites, small and medium-sized businesses, and data centers with special power and cooling constraints. This technology brief provides an overview of the HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure, including a comparison with the enterprise-class HP BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure, Thermal Logic power and cooling technologies, and interconnect options.

This technology brief assumes the reader is familiar with HP ProLiant server technology and has some knowledge of general BladeSystem architecture. For more information about the infrastructure components, see the HP website at

www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/.

Overview of HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure

The HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure, announced in September 2007, is the newest enclosure implemented using the BladeSystem c-Class architecture. While the c7000 Enclosure is optimized for enterprise data center applications, the c3000 Enclosure is optimized for other computing environments, such as remote sites or small businesses. More information on c-Class architecture and the c7000 Enclosure is available on the HP technology website at

www.hp.com/servers/technology.

The c3000 Enclosure fits into standard size HP and third-party racks, and accommodates c-Class form-factor server/storage blades and interconnect modules. It has the flexibility to scale from a single enclosure holding up to 8 server blades, to a rack containing 7 enclosures holding up to 56 server/storage blades total. It is optimized for data centers with special power and cooling constraints, such as DC powered racks, or data centers with low power and cooling capacities (under 4000 watts per rack). The c3000 Enclosure is designed for use with management devices such as local KVM switches for local administration.

The HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure has a fully redundant design with redundant signal paths between servers and interconnect modules. The enclosure is available with a single-phase power subsystem.

• Up to 4 full-height (FH) server blades or up to 8 half-height (HH) server and/or storage blades per

enclosure

• Up to 4 interconnect modules simultaneously supporting a variety of network interconnect fabrics

such as Ethernet, Fibre Channel (FC), InfiniBand (IB), Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), or Serial-attached SCSI (SAS)

• Active Cool fan kits for a maximum of 6 fans

• Up to 6 power supplies, accepting either low-line (100 to 120 volts alternating current [VAC]), or

high-line (200 to 240 VAC) power input

• Onboard Administrator (OA) management module

• Optional DVD drive

• Optional KVM enclosure module for connecting the c3000 to a in-rack KVM switch

It can be populated with the following components:

Both c-Class enclosures have common critical components such as servers, interconnects, mezzanine cards, storage blades, power supplies, and fans. Table 1 lists components supported by the c3000 and c7000 Enclosures.

Table 1. Comparison of components supported by HP BladeSystem c-Class Enclosures

Enclosure c3000 c7000

Height 6U 10U

Blade orientation Horizontal Vertical

Blades supported 8 HH , 4 FH, 6HH/1FH 16 HH, 8 FH

Interconnect bays 4 8

Power supplies 6 at up to 1200 watts each 6 at 2250 watts each

Active Cool fans 6 10

Enclosure KVM support Yes No

CD/DVD support Enclosure-based available External

OA support Single (now)

Dual (future)

Midplane speed Tested up to 10 Gbit on Midplane Tested up to 10 Gbit on midplane

OA Serial/USB connections In front In rear

Single or dual

Figures 1 and 2 show the front and rear view of the HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure.

Figure 1. HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure – front view

Figure 2. HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure – rear view

HP Thermal Logic technologies

HP BladeSystem c-Class products have been designed technologies―a set of technologies integrated across server blades, enclosures, and interc modules―all of which combined provide significant power and cooling benefits in comparison to traditional rack and tower based servers. HP BladeSystem products reduce overall demand for pow and cooling by as much as 40 percent compared to standard rack and tower based servers. Thermal Logic is the term that HP uses to define the mechanical design features, built-in intelligence, and control capabilities throughout the BladeSystem c-Class. Thermal Logic technologies enable IT administrators to make the most of the power and thermal environments. They provide an instant of power usage and temperature at the server, enclosure, or rack level. Thermal Logic technologies automatically adjust power and thermal controls to minimize power and cooling usage while maintaining adequate cooling for all devices and ensuring high availability.

HP Thermal Logic technologies include the following elements and capabilities

• Active Cool fans

• Parallel Redundan

• Instant power and thermal monitoring

• Pooled power for a variety of power red

• Dynamic Power Saver mode

• Power Regulator

• Power workload b

t Scalable Enclosure Cooling (PARSEC) design

undancy modes

alancing

with a variety of HP Thermal Logic

onnect

view

Active Cool fans

Quite often, dense, full-featured, small form-factor servers use very small fans designed to provide localized cooling in the specific areas needed by the server blade. Because such fans generate fairly low airflow (in cubic feet per minute, or CFM) at medium backpressure, a single server often requires multiple fans to ensure adequate cooling. Therefore, installing many server blades together in an enclosure, with each server blade containing several fans, can result in significant cost and space overhead.

A second solution for cooling is to use larger, blower-style fans that can provide cooling across an entire enclosure. Such fans are good at generating CFM, but they typically require higher power input, take up more space, make more noise, and must be designed for the maximum load in an enclosure. As a result, designers may have to sacrifice server features to allow the large, high-power fans to fit in the enclosure. Even then, ensuring adequate airflow to all the servers without leakage, over provisioning, or bypass is a challenge.

To overcome these issues for the HP BladeSystem c-Class, HP engineers designed a new type of fan based on aircraft technology that delivers both high airflow and high pressure in a small form factor that can scale to meet future cooling needs. HP Active Cool fan technology optimizes airflow, reduces power draw, and improves acoustic performance for any server blade configuration.

With 20 patents pending involving Active Cool fan technology and its implementation, HP Active Cool fans are an innovative design that can cool eight server blades using as little as 100 watts of power. Active Cool fans use ducted fan technology (the fan is longer than it is wide) with a high performance motor and impeller (Figure 3) to deliver high CFM at a high pressure. The fan includes a bell mouth inlet with a specially-designed impeller, followed by a stator section that also provides cooling fins for the motor and acoustic treatments in the rear of the fan. This design providies cooling capacity to support blade products beyond current roadmaps. Its unique shape allows for highpressure flow at even the slowest speeds with low noise levels and minimal power consumption.

Figure 3. Ducted fan cross-section and ducted fan blade compared to traditional server fan

Active Cool fans are controlled by the c-Class Onboard Administrator so that cooling capacity can be ramped up or down based on the needs of the entire system. Along with optimizing the airflow, this control algorithm allows the BladeSystem c-Class to optimize the acoustic levels and power consumption. As a result, the c3000 Enclosure requires less airflow (CFM) than traditional rack-mount servers to properly cool the server blades within the enclosure.

HP PARSEC architecture

HP Parallel Redundant Scalable Enclosure Cooling (PARSEC) architecture is a hybrid model for cooling that combines the best of local and centralized cooling in a single system to ensure optimum airflow and cooling for all servers. Density, once a barrier to cooling, is turned into an advantage with HP Thermal Logic technologies like HP PARSEC architecture and HP Active Cool fans. With these innovations, server blades get more cooling airflow where it is needed most and use less power than traditional rack servers.

To optimize thermal design, HP developed a relatively airtight center air plenum, or air chamber. For example, all device bays include a shutoff door that is normally closed to prevent air leakage through that device bay. When a server blade is inserted, it seals into the center air plenum docking collar, and the server shut-off door opens to allow airflow across that server blade. Similarly, the fan seals into the center air plenum docking collar. Each fan bay includes louvers that automatically open when a fan is installed. If a fan is not installed or is not functional, the pressure distribution around the fan changes. This pressure change causes the louvers to close, ensuring that cooling air is not diverted through the non-operating fan.

The enclosure and the components within it optimize the cooling capacity through unique mechanical designs. Airflow through the enclosure is managed to ensure that every device gets cool air, that no device sits in the hot exhaust air of another device, and that air only goes where it is needed for cooling. Fresh air is pulled into the interconnect bays through a slot in the front of the enclosure. Ducts move the air from the front to the rear of the enclosure, where it is then pulled into the interconnects and the central plenum. The air is then exhausted out the rear of the system (Figure 4).

Figure 4. HP BladeSystem c3000 self-sealing enclosure

Base BladeSystem c3000 Enclosures ship with four installed fans that support up to four half-height devices in device bays 1, 2, 5, and 6, or two full-height server blades in device bays 1 and 2. Adding two additional fans to the enclosure allows population of eight half-height devices or four fullheight server blades.

In a four-fan configuration, the Onboard Administrator prevents server and storage blades installed in device bays 3, 4, 7, and 8 from powering on until two additional fans are added into fan bays 1 and 3. To populate blade devices in all eight device bays, it is necessary to populate c3000 Enclosures with six Active Cool fans. Figure 5 shows enclosure fan bay and device bay population guidelines. See Appendix B for more detailed fan and device bay population guidelines.

Figure 5. The c3000 Enclosure fan bay and device bay population guidelines

Thermal Logic for the server blade and enclosure

The server blade design uses precise ducting throughout the server blade to manage airflow and temperature based on the unique thermal requirements of all the critical components. The airflow is tightly ducted to ensure that no air bypasses the server blade and to obtain the most thermal work from the least amount of air. This concept allows much more flexibility in heat sink design choice. The heat sink design closely matches the requirements of the server blade and processor architecture. For example, in the Intel® Xeon® based HP BladeSystem BL460c server blade, HP was able to use a smaller, high-power processor heat sink than in rack-mount servers. These heat sinks have vapor chamber bases, thinner fins, and tighter fin pitch than previous designs. This allows creating the largest heat transfer surface in the smallest possible package (Figure 6). The smaller heat sink allows more space for full-size DIMM sockets and hot plug hard drives on the server blades.

Ducting produces high pressure, so the server blade uses less airflow and that reduces fan power requirements. The lower airflow requirement has the added benefit of optimizing available data center cooling capacity, which is one of the main issues facing IT facilities today and in the future.

Each device (server blades, interconnect modules, and enclosure subsystems) includes temperature sensors that monitor heat. If high temperature levels occur, the Integrated Lights-Outs (iLO) and Onboard Administrator modules provide alerts to various management tools such as Insight Control and HP Insight Manager. In addition, built-in failsafes will shut down devices in the enclosure if temperature levels exceed specified parameters. This prevents permanent damage to any devices within the enclosure.

Figure 6. Processor heat sink using fully ducted design (left) and a traditional heat sink in a 1U rack-mount server

(right)

Instant Thermal Monitoring provides a real-time view of heat, power, and cooling data. The Onboard Administrator retrieves thermal information from all server blades, storage blades, and interconnect modules in the enclosure to ensure an optimal balance between cooling, acoustic levels, and power consumption. The Thermal Logic feature of the Onboard Administrator keeps fan and system power at the lowest level possible. However, if the thermal load within the enclosure increases, the Thermal Logic feature instructs the fan controllers to increase fan speeds to accommodate the additional demand. Typically, a distributed element manager queries the thermal conditions of the hardware every few minutes in a polling cycle. Onboard Administrator, on the other hand, monitors the thermal conditions on the hardware in real-time, without a delay for a polling cycle.

HP’s Thermal Logic includes sophisticated algorithms in each BladeSystem ROM, iLO, and Onboard Administrator. In combination, these algorithms minimize the power and cooling required to properly operate the HP BladeSystem environment.

Power supplies and enclosure power subsystem

Power is delivered through a pooled power backplane that ensures that the full capacity of the power supplies is available to all server blades. BladeSystem c3000 power supplies are single-phase power supplies, supporting both low-line and high-line environments. Wattage output per power supply depends on the rated alternating current (AC) input voltage. The BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure ships with two power supplies; however, up to six power supplies can be installed, depending on the AC redundancy level required and the number of devices installed in the enclosure. AC power supplies auto-switch between 100VAC and 240VAC, to provide deployment options.

The BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure houses the power supplies in the same enclosure as the server blades, storage blades, and interconnect modules (Figure 7). The power supply modules connect to a passive power backplane that distributes power to all the components in a shared manner. Moving the power supplies into the enclosure allowed HP to reduce the transmission distance for DC power distribution and to use an industry-standard 12V infrastructure for the BladeSystem c-Class. Using a 12V infrastructure allowed HP to eliminate several power-related components and improve power efficiency on the server blades and in the infrastructure. The control circuitry was stripped and put on the management board and fans.

Figure 7. HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure supports up to six power supplies

The new, high efficiency HP c3000 power supplies provide greater than 90 percent efficiency in AC to DC conversion. These power supplies use the ProLiant universal form factor so they can also be used in other ProLiant servers. Each AC power supply ships with a standard power distribution unit (PDU) power cord (C13 to C14 ). By purchasing proper wall outlet cords, users can connect the power supplies to standard wall outlets.

NOTE

Wall outlet power cords should only be used with low-line (100 to 120 VAC) power sources. If high-line (200 to 240 VAC) power outlets are required, safety regulations require the use of a PDU or a UPS between the c3000 Enclosure power supplies and wall outlets.

The enclosure can contain up to six 1200-watt self-cooled power supplies. A pair of PDUs is required for AC line redundancy. A variety of PDUs can be chosen, as indicated in the c3000 QuickSpecs available at this URL:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12790_div/12790_div.html. The

HP BladeSystem Power Sizer should be used to size the PDU appropriately for the c3000 storage and server configuration.

HP expects that in the markets targeted for the c3000 Enclosure (midmarket and remote sites), the c3000 will be connected to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for power backup instead of to a PDU. Use the HP BladeSystem Power Sizer to determine the UPS capacity requirement.

NOTE

The rack-mountable HP R5500 UPS (5000VA/4500 watts) supports four power supplies in the power supply redundant (N+1) power mode.

HP BladeSystem Power Sizer

The HP BladeSystem Power Sizer is a tool that assists facilities teams and IT staff in sizing their power and cooling infrastructure to meet the needs of an HP BladeSystem solution. The BladeSystem Power Sizer is based on actual component-level power measurements of a system stressed to maximum capability. The sizer allows a customer to select the type and number of components within each server blade and enclosure and to see the effect of changes on power consumption and heat loading.

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