HP c7000 User Manual 2
HP BladeSystem specification for a c-Class provisioning
server blade
Executive summary............................................................................................................................... 3
Why server blades for the provisioning server? ....................................................................................... 3
Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)................................................................................................... 3
Ease of manageability ...................................................................................................................... 3
HP StorageWorks SB40c storage blade ............................................................................................. 3
Purpose of the provisioning server blade ................................................................................................ 4
What is automated provisioning / RDP?................................................................................................. 5
Automated provisioning.................................................................................................................... 5
RDP and its underlying technologies ................................................................................................... 6
DHCP ......................................................................................................................................... 6
PXE............................................................................................................................................. 7
Bootworks ................................................................................................................................... 7
AClient........................................................................................................................................ 7
HP BladeSystem requirements for hosting the server blade........................................................................ 8
Deployment..................................................................................................................................... 8
HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure .................................................................................................. 8
HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch.................................................................................................. 10
Onboard Administrator management module ................................................................................ 10
HP Active Cool Fan .................................................................................................................... 11
HP c7000 Enclosure Power Supply............................................................................................... 11
HP ProLiant BL480c server blade .................................................................................................. 12
Infrastructure bill of materials (BOM) .................................................................................................... 13
c7000 enclosure, power, OA, fan, and blade switch bill of materials (BOM)........................................ 13
HP ProLiant BL480c bill of materials (BOM)....................................................................................... 13
Software installation requirements for HP ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack ................................. 13
Initial deployment of provisioning server blade...................................................................................... 14
Configuring the c-Class enclosure..................................................................................................... 14
Configuring the initial server blade .................................................................................................. 16
Usage scenarios for the blade provisioning server ................................................................................. 19
Scenario 1 – mass deployment of c-Class server blades...................................................................... 19
Scenario 2 – deploying applications ................................................................................................ 20
Scenario 3 – managing multi-server blade infrastructure ..................................................................... 21
Operations and maintenance.............................................................................................................. 22
Operations guide ....................................................................................................................... 23
Implementation services...................................................................................................................... 23
HP Services ................................................................................................................................... 23
HP Factory Express......................................................................................................................... 23
Implementing a proof-of-concept ...................................................................................................... 23
Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 23
For more information.......................................................................................................................... 24
Executive summary
This document specifies the design of an HP BladeSystem c-Class server blade that serves as a
Microsoft® Windows® infrastructure server for provisioning line-of-business applications such as web
servers, mail servers, database servers and other mission-critical applications. This specification
outlines the use of this server blade design in several different scenarios as a modular component of a
Windows infrastructure in support of line-of-business application deployment. This specification
assumes a minimum level of Windows infrastructure support that includes DNS, DHCP and domain
and directory services. The specification adheres to Microsoft Windows Server System Reference
Architectural best practices and is intended to be used as a component of an HP Adaptive
Infrastructure.
Target audience: The intended audience is a solutions architect and/or technical consultant requiring
an understanding of automated provisioning of service/application/management updates using HP
ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack on Industry Standard HP ProLiant servers.
Why server blades for the provisioning server?
Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)
Although the provisioning server is specific to c-Class blades, it is not restricted to them. The
provisioning server can be deployed on HP p-Class blades and ProLiant DL, and ML lines of servers.
However, there are distinct advantages to using c-Class blades over traditional rack mounted servers.
The total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis favors blades with respect to capital expenditures (each
additional blade purchase lowers total cost compared to its alternatives) and operating expenses
(requires less power and cooling, and less administrative staff). c-Class blades are ideal for large
scale deployment of blades where operating expenses are an issue. With the c-Class blade
enclosure’s shared backplane, you can take advantage of the economies of scale not found with
traditional rack mounted servers. With the integrated shared backplane, you won’t need to buy
additional network cards, cables, switches and supporting devices for each additional server blade
purchase. The c-Class blades are optimized for future growth.
Ease of manageability
With the HP c-Class Onboard Administrator (OA), managing multiple server blades has never been
easier. The OA provides a single point from which to perform basic management tasks on blades or
switches within the enclosure. The OA performs initial configuration steps for the enclosure, allows for
run-time management and configuration of the enclosure components, and informs you of problems
within the enclosure through e-mail, SNMP, or the enclosure’s Insight Display.
HP StorageWorks SB40c storage blade
Another reason for deploying c-Class blades for the provisioning server is the availability of industry’s
first storage blade from HP. Because the provisioning server can host numerous images locally on the
server blade, the SB40c storage blade from HP is an ideal solution. The SB40c consist of 6 disk
drives with an internal raid controller that sits next to a BladeSystem server providing up to 876
gigabytes of direct attached storage (DAS) capacity to each blade within an HP BladeSystem c-Class
enclosure.
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Figure 1. HP StorageWorks SB40c storage blade
Purpose of the provisioning server blade
The main purpose of the provisioning server blade is to provide the following service(s):
• Installation and deployment of applications to easily facilitate the management of your network in
today’s environment with the least amount of effort
• Automate provisioning of service/application/management updates using HP
Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP) on Industry Standard HP ProLiant servers
• Reduce the number of errors that may occur during manual installation or deployment processes
• Provide for the capture and storage of the newly deployed server’s configuration
• Provide DHCP/PXE/Database/File server (depending on your existing infrastructure)
The server blade may or may not provide a DHCP/PXE/Database/File server infrastructure for the HP
BladeSystem enclosure, depending on your existing network. These services may already exist within
your infrastructure, in which case the provisioning server blade would rely on their services. This
server blade specification does not address the scaling out of any of these services onto multiple
server blades. These services can be consolidated onto a single server blade or deployed on other
servers or server blades and turned off on the provisioning server blade. This specification is an
example of consolidating these services and, as such, does not focus on hosting any one of these
services for larger deployment scenarios where isolating a service for performance reasons would be
required.
If any one of these services’ CPU, memory or disk requirements exceeds the capacity of the
provisioning server blade configuration, then the service should be dedicated to a server that can
meet and exceed those requirements. HP recommends a proof of concept deployment to determine
exact solution and deployment details to meet the specific business need.
ProLiant Essentials
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What is automated provisioning / RDP?
Automated provisioning
So what exactly is the automated provisioning of software and hardware? It means little or no human
intervention. In other words, the process of installation or deployment is laid out for administrators in
the form of images, scripts, or batch files. The only requirement is for the administrator to power on
the server, perhaps execute a couple of scripts or batch files, and/or respond to a minimal number of
prompts for configuration information. The process is fully automated so that there are no chances of
data-entry errors or choosing wrong options that could render your application inoperable.
The technology that can achieve this level of automation is the ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment
Pack (RDP). RDP is a new generation of server deployment software. The software contains Altiris
Deployment Solution integrated with the HP SmartStart Scripting Toolkit that manages the server
deployment via a central console and provides imaging or scripting for server and application
deployment.
In short, you configure the server the way it should be configured: capture an image of the server,
then deploy or re-deploy the image onto servers as many times as necessary with the same results
each and every time. This provides the consistency offered by the use of RDP. The key benefit is that it
gives IT administrators the ability to easily deploy servers in an unattended, automated fashion. More
general benefits include improved overall consistency of configurations across servers and reduced IT
resource requirements during server deployments.
For more detailed information on ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP), see the following:
• ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack (RDP) home page:
• Quickspecs:
Figure 2. ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11053_na/11053_na.html
http://www.hp.com/go/rdp
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RDP and its underlying technologies
Understanding the technologies behind RDP is necessary for proper implementation of HP server
blade deployment. These include: DHCP, PXE, Bootworks, and AClient.
Figure 3. RDP / PXE Technology
DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) simplifies the administrative management of IP address
configuration by automating address configuration for network clients. The DHCP standard provides
for the use of DHCP servers, which are defined as any computer running the DHCP service. The DHCP
server automatically allocates IP addresses and related TCP/IP configuration settings to DHCP-enabled
clients on the network. The use of DHCP is required to utilize the Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE).
The DHCP server supplies the address of a Boot Server (PXE Server) in the DHCP response. For more
information on DHCP, see the Internet Software Consortium at:
also see: RFC 2131 at:
ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2131.txt.
http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP/ and
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PXE
“PXE is defined on a foundation of industry-standard Internet protocols and services that are widely
deployed in the industry, namely TCP/IP, DHCP, and TFTP. These standardize the form of the
interactions between clients and servers. . . In brief, the PXE protocol operates as follows. The client
initiates the protocol by broadcasting a DHCPDISCOVER containing an extension that identifies the
request as coming from a client that implements the PXE protocol. Assuming that a DHCP server or a
Proxy DHCP server implementing this extended protocol is available, after several intermediate steps,
the server sends the client a list of appropriate Boot Servers. The client then discovers a Boot Server of
the type selected and receives the name of an executable file on the chosen Boot Server. The client
uses TFTP to download the executable from the Boot Server. Finally, the client initiates execution of the
downloaded image. At this point, the client’s state must meet certain requirements that provide a
predictable execution environment for the image.” Source: Intel®, Preboot Execution Environment
(PXE) Specification. For in-depth information on PXE visit the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)
Specification from Intel at:
Bootworks
Bootworks is pushed out by the PXE Server to the target client server. This allows the Altiris
Deployment Solution to manage the client or target server when off-line, before it is configured with
an operating system. All disk cloning requires that DOS be loaded on the target PC. Bootworks is a
patented Altiris technology that provides access to the network under a DOS boot. Bootworks presents
the following options for getting DOS loaded on the target PC:
ftp://download.intel.com/design/archives/wfm/downloads/pxespec.pdf.
• PXE — PXE requires a DOS boot image to be created and made available on a PXE Server. This
process is done during the Altiris software installation, which is beyond the scope of this document.
DHCP is also required. As a result, the target server connects to a PXE Server and downloads the
DOS boot image. The Altiris Deployment Solution installation will walk you through creating a DOS
boot image and installing the PXE and DHCP server components during the RDP application
installation.
• DOS Boot Diskette — For non-PXE-enabled servers, this is an alternative option for booting to DOS.
A boot diskette must be created for each NIC type. Altiris provides a boot disk wizard that takes
you step-by-step through the process of building a boot diskette.
AClient
AClient agent is an Altiris application that downloads to the client server that enables it to
communicate with the deployment server. It is a small utility that allows target servers to be managed
by the deployment server. The AClient agent must be on the target server so that it can communicate
with the deployment server. AClient agents are responsible for pre-configuring the target server prior
to executing any images, as well as any post-configuration of servers after any imaging event, such as
rebooting when necessary.
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HP BladeSystem requirements for hosting the server blade
Figure 4. HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure, rear view
Deployment
Whether a small, medium, or large corporate network infrastructure, HP BladeSystem provides a
faster, simpler, and lower cost way to build and configure in an IT infrastructure. The HP BladeSystem
c-Class infrastructure of unified server, storage, network, power/cooling and management
capabilities provides quick and easy delivery of applications and services while operating the IT
environment. Using HP BladeSystem tools with the HP ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack
(RDP), all configuration tasks can be accomplished in an efficient and timely matter.
The requirements for this implementation are to support the server blade operation in one to three
basic IT scenarios. The server blade would first require specific physical and electrical requirements
from the hosting enclosure and also require some physical and electrical infrastructure support to host
a Windows operating system (i.e., support services from the network such as a TCP/IP infrastructure,
a SAN infrastructure if that functionality is required, power and cabling infrastructure, etc.). This
server blade would require the support of an HP BladeSystem enclosure as detailed below.
The following is a detailed list of requirements for the HP BladeSystem enclosure that is required to
host and operate this server blade. This blade specification is written with the assumption that all
services will be executed locally on the server blade itself. Therefore, this server blade will act as the
PXE server and DHCP server. In addition, all images will be stored locally on the server blade. With
that in mind, the HP c-Class BladeSystem components for the blade-specific provisioning server
include the following:
HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure
The HP BladeSystem 16-bay enclosure can effectively be set up, configured, and ready to run in
approximately 15 minutes. By using the initial setup wizard and the Insight Display feature, a systems
engineer can configure the enclosure for power, remote access and networking without a need for a
single cable. After configuring a static IP address for the Onboard Administrator (OA), a system
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