IBM Power 750 Express server offers IBM POWER7
technology and large enterprise compute capability in
small form factor
Table of contents
2Overview 32 Publications
3Key prerequisites 33 Technical information
3Planned availability date 47 Terms and conditions
4Description 51 Prices
23 Statement of general direction 86 Order now
23 Product number
At a glance
The Power® 750 Express server is a powerful 1- to 4-socket server that supports up
to 32 cores with the configuration flexibility to meet today's growth and tomorrow's
processing needs. The server features:
• Powerful POWER7 processors that offer 6-core to 32-core configuration options
– 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-core 3.0 or 3.3 GHz configurations (8-core processor card)
– 32-core 3.55 GHz configuration
• Up to 512 GB of memory with four processor cards installed, optionally
augmented with Active MemoryTM Expansion
• Up to four optional PCIe I/O drawers or up to eight optional PCI-X I/O drawers,
with up to 41 PCIe slots or up to 50 PCI-X slots
• Rich I/O options in the system unit
– Five PCI slots in the system unit
– Eight disk/solid-state disk (SSD) SAS SFF (small form factor) bays -- up to 2.4
TB
– Slimline DVD-RAM
– Half-high bay for tape or removable drive
– Integrated SAS/SATA controller for disk/SSD/DVD
– Optional 175 MB RAID write cache for disk/SSD
– Integrated Virtual Ethernet ports (four 1 Gb or two 10 Gb)
• Rack-mount configuration
•
EnergyScaleTM technology
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
1
For ordering, contact your IBM® representative, an IBM Business Partner, or IBM
Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL (Reference: YE001).
Overview
The Power 750 Express server (8233-E8B) supports up to four 3.3 GHz 6-core or
four 8-core 3.0, 3.3, and 3.55 GHz POWER7 processor cards in a rack-mount drawer
configuration. The POWER7 processors in this server are 64-bit, 6-core and 8-core
modules packaged on dedicated processor cards with 4 MB of L3 cache/core and 256
KB of L2 cache/core.
The Power 750 Express server supports a maximum of 32 DDR3 DIMM slots, eight
per processor card. Memory features (two memory DIMMs per feature) supported
are 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB and run at speeds of 1066 MHz. A system with four
processor cards installed has a maximum memory of 512 GB. Also, the optional
Active Memory Expansion can allow the effective maximum memory capacity to be
much larger than the true physical memory. Innovative compression/decompression
of memory content using processor cycles can allow memory expansion up to 100%.
A server with a maximum of 512 GB can effectively be expanded up to 1 TB. This
can enhance virtualization and server consolidation by allowing a partition to do
significantly more work with the same physical amount of memory or a server to run
more partitions and do more work with the same physical amount of memory.
The Power 750 Express server provides great I/O expandability. For example, with
12X-attached I/O drawers, you can have up to 50 PCI-X slots or up to 41 PCIe
slots. This combination can provide over 100 LAN ports or over 72 WAN ports, or
up to 576 disk drives (over 240 TB disk storage). Extensive quantities of externally
attached storage and tape drives and libraries can also be attached.
The Power 750 Express system unit without I/O drawers can contain a maximum of
either eight SFF SAS disks or eight SFF SAS SSDs, providing up to 2.4 TB. All disks
and SSDs are direct dock and hot pluggable. The eight SAS bays can be split into
two sets of four bays for additional AIX/Linux configuration flexibility. The system
unit also contains a slimline DVD-RAM, plus a half-high media bay for an optional
tape drive or removable disk drive.
Also available in the Power 750 system unit is a choice of quad gigabit or dual 10 Gb
integrated host Ethernet adapters. These native ports can be selected at the time of
initial order. Virtualization of these integrated Ethernet adapters is supported.
Other integrated features include:
• Five expansion slots
– Three PCIe x8 (two short-length, one full-length)
– Two PCI-X DDR (full length)
– Two GX slots for 12X I/O loop or 4X connections
• Service Processor
• Integrated SAS/SATA controller for disk/SSD/DVD in system unit
– Optional 175 MB RAID write cache to augment disk/SSD performance and
function
• EnergyScale technology
• Two system ports and three USB ports
• Two hardware management console (HMC) ports and two SPCN ports
• Redundant and hot-swap power
• Redundant and hot-swap cooling
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
2
Key prerequisites
If installing the AIX® operating system (one of these):
• AIX Version 6.1 with the 6100-04 Technology Level and Service Pack 2, or later
• AIX Version 6.1 with the 6100-03 Technology Level and Service Pack 5, or later
(planned availability: June 25, 2010)
• AIX Version 6.1 with the 6100-02 Technology Level and Service Pack 8, or later
(planned availability: June 25, 2010)
• AIX Version 5.3 with the 5300-11 Technology Level and Service Pack 2, or later
(planned availability: March 16, 2010)
• AIX Version 5.3 with the 5300-10 Technology Level and Service Pack 4, or later
(planned availability: May 28, 2010)
• AIX Version 5.3 with the 5300-09 Technology Level and Service Pack 7, or later
(planned availability: May 28, 2010)
If installing the IBM i operating system:
• IBM i 6.1 with i 6.1.1 machine code, or later (planned availability: March 16,
2010)
If installing the Linux® operating system (one of these):
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 for the Power 750 Express Server, or later,
with current maintenance updates available from Novell to enable all planned
functionality
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3 for the Power 750 Express Server,
with current maintenance updates available from Novell to enable all planned
functionality
Users should also update their systems with the latest Linux for Power service and
productivity tools available at
• VIOS 2.1.2.11 with Fix Pack 22.1 and Service Pack 1, or later
JavaTM 1.4.2 on POWER7:
There are unique considerations when running Java 1.4.2 on POWER7. For
best exploitation of the outstanding performance capabilities and most recent
improvements of POWER7 technology, IBM recommends upgrading Java-based
applications to Java 6 or Java 5 whenever possible.
February 19, 2010, except for feature 4526, which is planned to be available on
March 16, 2010.
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
3
Description
Power 750
Summary of standard features:
• Rack-mount (4U) configuration
• 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-core design with one, two, three, or four 3.3 GHz processor
cards; 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-core design with one, two, three or four 3.0 or 3.3
GHz processor cards; or 32-core design with four 3.55 GHz processor cards
• 8 GB of PC3-8500 1066 MHz ECC memory (error checking and correcting)
memory, expandable to 128 GB per processor card (512 GB system maximum)
Note: The 8 GB memory feature (#4526) is planned to be available on March 15,
2010.
• 8 x 2.5-inch DASD/SSD/Media backplane with an external SAS port
– 1 to 8 SFF DASD or SSDs (mixing allowed)
• Choice of two integrated virtual Ethernet daughter cards:
– Quad-port 1 Gb IVE
– Dual-port 10 Gb IVE
• Two media bays:
– One slim bay for a DVD-RAM (required)
– One half-high bay for an optional tape drive or removable disk
• A maximum of five hot-swap slots:
– Two PCIe x8 slots, short card length (slots 1 and 2)
– One PCIe x8 slot, full card length (slot 3)
– Two PCIX DDR slots, full card length (slots 4 and 5)
– One GX+ slot (shares same space as PCIe x8 slot 2)
– One GX++ slot (shares same space as PCIe x8 slot 1)
• Integrated:
– Service Processor
– Quad-port 10/100/1000 Mb Ethernet
– EnergyScale technology
– Hot-swap and redundant cooling
– Three USB ports; two system ports
– Two HMC ports; two SPCN ports
• Two Power Supplies, 1725 Watt AC, Hot-swap
The minimum Power 750 configuration must include a processor, processor
activations, memory, two power supplies and power cords, one or two DASD, a
DASD/SSD/Media backplanes, an operator panel cable, an Ethernet daughter card, a
DVD-RAM, an operating system indicator, and a Language Group Specify.
The minimum defined configuration, if no choice is made, when AIX or Linux is the
primary operating system is:
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
4
8340 DASD/Media Backplane for 2.5-inch DASD/SATA
DVD/Tape with External SAS Port
5624 Quad-port 1 Gb Integrated Ethernet Daughter Card
2 x 7740 Two Power Supplies, 1725 Watt AC, Base
5762 SATA DVD-RAM
9300/97xx) Language Group Specify
2146 or 2147 Primary Operating System Indicator - IBMAIX (2146)
or Linux (2147)
2 x 6xxx Two Power Cords
Notes:
• The 8 GB memory feature (#4526) is planned to be available on March 16, 2010.
• No internal DASD is required if feature 0837 (Boot from SAN) is selected. A Fibre
Channel adapter must be ordered if feature 0837 is selected.
The minimum defined configuration, if no choice is made, when IBM i is the primary
operating system is:
Feature number Description
8335 0/6 core 3.3 GHz POWER7 Processor
6 x 7717 6 Processor Activations
4526 8 GB (2 x 4096 MB) Memory
2 x 1884 69.7 GB 15K RPM SAS SFF Disk Drive
1878 Operator Panel Cable, Rack-mount drawer with
2.5-inch DASD Backplane
8340 DASD/Media Backplane for 2.5-inch DASD/SATA
DVD/Tape with External SAS Port
5624 Quad-port 1 Gb Integrated Ethernet Daughter Card
2 x 7740 Power Supply, 1725 Watt AC, Base
5762 SATA DVD-RAM
9300/97xx) Language Group Specify
2145 Primary Operating System Indicator - IBM i
0040 Mirrored System Disk Level Specify Code
0566 IBM i 6.1 with 6.1.1 Machine Code Specify Code
2 x 6xxx Two Power Cords
Notes:
• The 8 GB memory feature (#4526) is planned to be available on March 16, 2010.
• No internal DASD is required if feature 0837 (Boot from SAN) is selected. A Fibre
Channel adapter must be ordered if feature 0837 is selected.
IBM Editions
IBM Editions are available only as initial order.
If you order a Power 750 Express server IBM Edition as defined below, you can
qualify for half the initial configuration's processor core activations at no addition
charge.
The total memory (based on the number of cores) and the quantity/size of disk,
SSD, Fibre Channel adapters, or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) adapters
shipped with the server are the only features that determine if a customer is entitled
to a processor activation at no additional charge.
Specifically, with an IBM Edition, processor activations for the processor card options
are:
• 3.3 GHz 6-core processor cards
– 3 x #7717 (chargeable) and 3 x #2327 (no-charge) with 6-core (1 x #8335)
configuration
– 6 x #7717 (chargeable) and 6 x #2327 (no-charge) with 12-core (2 x #8335)
configuration
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
5
– 9 x #7717 (chargeable) and 9 x #2327 (no-charge) with 18-core (3 x #8335)
configuration
– 12 x #7717 (chargeable) and 12 x #2327 (no-charge) with 24-core (4 x
#8335) configuration
• 3.0 GHz 8-core processor cards
– 4 x #7714 (chargeable) and 4 x #2324 (no-charge) with 8-core (1 x #8334)
configuration
– 8 x #7714 (chargeable) and 8 x #2324 (no-charge) with 16-core (2 x #8334)
configuration
– 12 x #7714 (chargeable) and 12 x #2324 (no-charge) with 24-core (3 x
#8334) configuration
– 16 x #7714 (chargeable) and 16 x #2324 (no-charge) with 32-core (4 x
#8334) configuration
• 3.3 GHz 8-core processor cards
– 4 x #7715 (chargeable) and 4 x #2325 (no-charge) with 8-core (1 x #8332)
configuration
– 8 x #7715 (chargeable) and 8 x #2325 (no-charge) with 16-core (2 x #8332)
configuration
– 12 x #7715 (chargeable) and 12 x #2325 (no-charge) with 24-core (3 x
#8332) configuration
– 16 x #7715 (chargeable) and 16 x #2325 (no-charge) with 32-core (4 x
#8332) configuration
• 3.55 GHz 8-core processor cards
– 16 x #7716 (chargeable) and 16 x #2326 (no-charge) with 32-core (4 x
#8336) configuration
When you purchase an IBM Edition, you can purchase an AIX, IBM i, or Linux
operating system license, or you may choose to purchase the system with no
operating system. The AIX, IBM i, or Linux operating system is processed via a
feature number on AIX 5.4 or 6.1, IBM i 6.1.1, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
If you choose AIX 5.4 or 6.1 for your primary operating system, you can also order
IBM i 6.1.1 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The converse is true if you choose an
IBM i or Linux subscription as your primary operating system.
These sample configurations can be changed as needed and still qualify for
processor entitlements at no additional charge. However, selection of total memory
or DASD/SSD/Fibre Channel/FCoE adapter quantities smaller than the totals
defined as the minimums disqualifies the order as an IBM Edition and the no-charge
processor activations are then removed.
Processor activations are only available to Solution Delivery Integration (SDIs) as
MES orders.
Processor cards ordered separately after the initial order are not eligible for nocharge processor activations.
Edition minimum memory definition details:
A minimum of 4 GB memory per core is needed to qualify for the IBM Edition, except
on the 6-core IBM Edition where there is a 32 GB minimum memory requirement.
For example, a 6-core minimum is 32 GB, an 8-core minimum is 32 GB, and a 12core minimum is 48 GB. There can be many different valid memory configurations
that meet the minimum 4 GB per core requirement. For example:
• 6-core (32 GB minimum) -- 4 x 8 GB (2 x 4 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4526)
Also, 2 x 16 GB (2 x 8 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4527)
Also, 1 x 32 GB (2 x 16 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4528)
• 8-core (32 GB minimum) -- 4 x 8 GB (2 x 4 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4526)
Also, 2 x 16 GB (2 x 8 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4527)
Also, 1 x 32 GB (2 x 16 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4528)
• 12-core (48 GB minimum) -- 6 x 8 GB (2 x 4 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4526)
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
6
Also, 3 x 16 GB (2 x 8 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4527)
Also, 2 x 32 GB (2 x 16 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4528)
• 16-core (64 GB minimum) -- 8 x 8 GB (2 x 4 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4526)
Also, 4 x 16 GB (2 x 8 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4527)
Also, 2 x 32 GB (2 x 16 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4528)
• 18-core (72 GB minimum) -- 9 x 8 GB (2 x 4 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4526)
Also, 5 x 16 GB (2 x 8 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4527)
Also, 3 x 32 GB (2 x 16 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4528)
• 24-core (96 GB minimum) -- 12 x 8 GB (2 x 4 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4526)
Also, 6 x 16 GB (2 x 8 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4527)
Also, 3 x 32 GB (2 x 16 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4528)
• 32-core (128 GB minimum) -- 16 x 8 GB (2 x 4 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4526)
Also, 8 x 16 GB (2 x 8 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4527)
Also, 4 x 32 GB (2 x 16 GB DIMMs) Memory (#4528)
Note: The 8 GB memory feature (#4526) is planned to be available on March 16,
2010.
Note: You can also mix different size memory features on the same server and
meet the minimum memory requirements for the IBM Edition benefit as long as
at least 4 GB per core is attained. For example, the 1 x 16 GB memory feature
(#4527) can replace the 2 x 8 GB feature (#4526). However, all memory features
on an individual processor card must be identical.
• Minimum of: Two DASD, or two SSD, or two Fibre Channel adapters, or two FCoE
adapters. You only need to meet one of this disk/SSD/FC/FCoE criteria. Partial
criteria cannot be combined.
– Two SAS disk drives -- Any capacity drives located in the system unit, feature
5802 I/O drawer, or feature 5886 disk drawer qualify.
– Two SAS SSDs -- Drives located in the system unit, feature 5802 I/O drawer, or
feature 5886 disk drawer qualify.
– Two Fibre Channel adapters -- Either PCI-X or PCI-E adapters located in the
system unit or 12X-attached I/O drawer.
– Two Fibre Channel over Ethernet adapters -- Either PCI-X or PCI-E adapters
located in the system unit or 12X-attached I/O drawer.
Multiple sample POWER7 IBM Edition configurations are provided in the IBM internal
configurator tool, including:
• Four 3.3 GHz 6-core processor card configurations (6-core, 12-core, 18-core, and
24-core)
• Four 3.0 GHz 8-core processor card configurations (8-core, 16-core, 24-core, and
32-core)
• Four 3.3 GHz 8-core processor card configurations (8-core, 16-core, 24-core, and
32-core)
• Four 3.5 GHz 8-core processor card configurations (32-core)
Dynamic logical partitioning
The dynamic logical partitioning (LPAR) function provides enhanced resource
management for the Power 750 Express server. Dynamic LPAR allows available
system resources to be quickly and easily configured across multiple logical
partitions to meet the rapidly changing needs of your business.
Dynamic LPAR also allows you to add new system resources such as new hot-plug
PCI adapters into your system's configuration without requiring a reboot. Without
the optional PowerVMTM Standard Edition (#7794) or PowerVM Enterprise Edition
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
7
(#7795) feature, as many as 32 LPARs are supported in a 32-core Power 750. If
the PowerVM Standard or Enterprise Edition feature is installed in the system, a
maximum of 10 dynamic LPARs for each physical processor can be defined, with a
system maximum of 160 dynamic LPARs.
An HMC or IVM is required to manage POWER7 processor-based servers
implementing partitioning. Multiple POWER7 processor-based servers can be
supported by a single HMC.
If an HMC is used to manage any POWER7 processor-based server, the HMC must be
a CR3, or later, model rack-mount HMC or C05, or later, deskside HMC.
When IBM Systems Director is used to manage an HMC or if the HMC manages more
than 254 partitions, the HMC should have 3 GB of RAM minimum and be CR3 model,
or later, rack-mount or C06, or later, deskside.
PowerVM Editions (optional)
Three optional PowerVM Edition features are now available on the Power 750:
PowerVM Express Edition, PowerVM Standard Edition, and PowerVM Enterprise
Edition. These are managed using built-in Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)
software or optionally through use of an HMC.
PowerVM Standard Edition (#7794) and PowerVM Enterprise Edition (#7795) allow
customers to create partitions in units of less than 1 CPU (sub-CPU LPARs) and allow
the same system I/O to be virtually added to these partitions. The optional features,
available for a fee, also include a software component that provides cross-partition
workload management.
PowerVM Standard and Enterprise Editions offer:
•
Micro-PartitioningTM (up to 10 partitions per processor, 160 per system)
• Virtualized disk and optical devices (VIOS)
• Automated CPU reconfiguration
• Real-time partition configuration and load statistics
• Support for dedicated and shared processor LPAR groups
• Support for manual provisioning of resources
At initial order entry, selecting feature number 7994 or 7995 will result in MicroPartitioning to be enabled during manufacture and the enabling software media and
publications to be shipped to the customer. When ordering feature number 7994
or 7995 as an MES, an activation key will be posted on an IBM Web site, and the
customer must retrieve it and install it on the system.
The IBM Web site is
http://www-912.ibm.com/pod/pod
Other features of PowerVM Editions:
• If any processors in a system have the Virtualization feature, all active processors
must have it.
• Once the Virtualization feature is installed in a system, it cannot be removed.
• Virtual Ethernet and Virtual Storage are part of PowerVM Editions.
PowerVM Enterprise Edition also includes Live Partition Mobility, which allows for the
movement of a logical partition from one POWER6TM or POWER7 server to another
with no application downtime, and Active Memory Sharing, which dynamically
reallocates memory between running logical partitions on a server. Also available is
PowerVM Express (#7793), designed for users looking for an introduction to more
advanced virtualization features at a highly affordable price. With PowerVM Express
and IVM, users can create up to three partitions on the server, leverage (VIOS),
utilize Shared Dedicated Capacity to help optimize use of processor cycles, and even
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
8
try out the Shared Processor Pool. With its intuitive browser-based interface, IVM is
easy to use and helps reduce the time and effort required to manage virtual devices,
processors, and partitions. An HMC is not required.
Notes:
• PowerVM 2.1.2.11 with Fix Pack 22.1 and Service Pack 1, or later, and a supported
AIX or Linux operating system level are minimum requirements for performing
Live Partition Mobility functions on POWER7. Refer to the Software requirements
section for more information on minimum AIX and Linux OS levels.
• Active Memory Sharing is planned to be supported with the availability of SLES 11
SP1.
Customers can upgrade from PowerVM Express to either PowerVM Standard or
PowerVM Enterprise, or they can upgrade from PowerVM Standard to PowerVM
Enterprise.
By upgrading to PowerVM Standard or PowerVM Enterprise, users gain the ability
to create up to 160 logical partitions on the Power System 750. Users also gain
the ability to manage their PowerVM enabled machine with either an HMC or the
Integrated Virtualization Manager.
By upgrading to PowerVM Enterprise, users can leverage Live Partition Mobility and
Active Memory Sharing.
Active Memory Expansion (optional)
Active Memory Expansion is an innovative POWER7 technology that allows the
effective maximum memory capacity to be much larger than the true physical
memory maximum. Sophisticated compression/decompression of memory
content can allow memory expansion up to 100%. This can allow a partition to do
significantly more work or support more users with the same physical amount of
memory. Similarly, it can allow a server to run more partitions and do more work for
the same physical amount of memory.
Active Memory Expansion is available for partitions running AIX 6.1, or later.
Technology Level 4 with SP2 is needed.
Active Memory Expansion uses CPU resource to compress/decompress the memory
contents. The trade-off of memory capacity for processor cycles can be an excellent
choice, but the degree of expansion varies, depending on how compressible the
memory content is, and it also depends on having adequate spare CPU capacity
available for this compression/decompression. Tests in IBM laboratories using
sample workloads showed excellent results for many workloads in terms of memory
expansion per additional CPU utilized. Other test workloads had more modest
results.
Clients have a great deal of control over Active Memory Expansion usage. Each
individual AIX partition can turn on or turn off Active Memory Expansion. Control
parameters set the amount of expansion desired in each partition to help control the
amount of CPU used by the Active Memory Expansion function. An IPL is required
for the specific partition that is turning memory expansion on or off. Once turned on,
there are monitoring capabilities in standard AIX performance tools such as lparstat,
vmstat, topas, and svmon.
A planning tool is included with AIX 6.1 TL4, allowing you to sample actual
workloads and estimate both how expandable the partition's memory is and how
much CPU resource is needed. Any Power Systems model can run the planning tool.
In addition, a one-time, 60-day trial of Active Memory Expansion is available to
provide more exact memory expansion and CPU measurements. The trial can be
requested using the Capacity on Demand Web page
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/cod/
Active Memory Expansion is enabled by a chargeable hardware feature (#4792),
which can be ordered with the initial order of the server or as an MES order. A
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
9
software key is provided when the enablement feature is ordered, which is applied
to the server. An IPL is not required to enable the server. The key is specific to an
individual server and is permanent. It cannot be moved to a different server.
The additional CPU resource used to expand memory is part of the CPU resource
assigned to the AIX partition running Active Memory Expansion. Normal licensing
requirements apply.
Power 750 Capacity BackUp (CBU) capability
(Applies to IBM i only)
The Power 750 systems' CBU designation can help meet your requirements for a
second system to use for backup, high availability, and disaster recovery. It enables
you to temporarily transfer IBM i processor license entitlements and 5250 Enterprise
Enablement entitlements purchased for a primary machine to a secondary CBUdesignated system. Temporarily transferring these resources instead of purchasing
them for your secondary system may result in significant savings. Processor
activations cannot be transferred.
The CBU specify feature 0444 is available only as part of a new server purchase.
Certain system prerequisites must be met and system registration and approval are
required before the CBU specify feature can be applied on a new server. Standard
IBM i terms and conditions do not allow either IBM i processor license entitlements
or 5250 OLTP (Enterprise Enablement) entitlements to be transferred permanently
or temporarily. These entitlements remain with the machine they were ordered for.
When you register the association between your primary and on-order CBU system,
you must agree to certain terms and conditions regarding the temporary transfer.
After a CBU system designation is approved and the system is installed, you can
temporarily move your optional IBM i processor license entitlement and 5250
Enterprise Enablement entitlements from the primary system to the CBU system
when the primary system is down or while the primary system processors are
inactive. The CBU system can then better support failover and role swapping for
a full range of test, disaster recovery, and high availability scenarios. Temporary
entitlement transfer means that the entitlement is a property transferred from the
primary system to the CBU system and may remain in use on the CBU system as
long as the registered primary and CBU system are in deployment for the high
availability or disaster recovery operation.
The primary system for a Power 750 (8233-E8B) server can be:
These systems have IBM i software licenses with an IBM i P20 or P30 software tier.
The primary machine must be in the same enterprise as the CBU system.
Before you can temporarily transfer IBM i processor license entitlements from the
registered primary system, you must have more than one IBM i processor license
on the primary machine and at least one IBM i processor license on the CBU server.
An activated processor must be available on the CBU server to use the transferred
entitlement. You can then transfer any IBM i processor entitlements above the
minimum one, assuming the total IBM i workload on the primary system does
not require the IBM i entitlement you would like to transfer during the time of the
transfer. During this temporary transfer, the CBU system's internal records of its
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
10
total number of IBM i processor license entitlements are not updated, and you may
see IBM i license noncompliance warning messages from the CBU system. These
warning messages in this situation do not mean you are not in compliance. Before
you can temporarily transfer 5250 entitlements, you must have more than one 5250
Enterprise Enablement entitlement on the primary server and at least one 5250
Enterprise Enablement entitlement on the CBU system. You can then transfer the
entitlements that are not required on the primary server during the time of transfer
and that are above the minimum of one entitlement.
For example, if you have a 6-core Power 750 as your primary system with two IBM
i processor license entitlements (one above the minimum) and two 5250 Enterprise
Enablement entitlements (one above the minimum), you can temporarily transfer
only one IBM i entitlement and one 5250 Enterprise Enablement entitlement.
During the temporary transfer, the CBU system's internal records of its total number
of IBM i processor entitlements is not updated, and you may see IBM i license
noncompliance warning messages from the CBU system.
If your primary or CBU machine is sold or discontinued from use, any temporary
entitlement transfers must be returned to the machine on which they were originally
acquired. For CBU registration and further information, visit
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/cbu
I/O drawer availability
Four 12X attached I/O drawers are supported on the Power 750, providing extensive
capability to expand the overall server expandability and connectivity.
• Feature 5802 provides PCIe slots and SSF SAS disk slots.
• Feature 5877 provides PCIe slots.
• Feature 5796 provides PCI-X slots.
• The 7314-G30 provides PCI-X slots (supported but not orderable).
Three disk-only I/O drawers are also supported, providing large storage capacity and
multiple partition support:
• Feature 5886 EXP12S holds 3.5-inch SAS disk or SSD.
• Feature 5786 EXP24 holds 3.5-inch SCSI disk (used for migrating existing SCSI
drives).
• The 7031-D24 holds 3.5-inch SCSI disk (supported but not orderable).
TotalStorage® EXP24 Disk Drawer (#5786)(supported only -- not
orderable)
The TotalStorage EXP24 (#5786) is a 4 EIA unit drawer and mounts in a 19-inch
rack. The front of the IBM TotalStorage EXP24 Ultra320 SCSI Expandable Storage
Disk Enclosure has bays for up to 12 disk drives organized in two SCSI groups of
up to six drives. The rear also has bays for up to 12 disk drives organized in two
additional SCSI groups of up to six drives plus slots for the four SCSI interface
cards. Each SCSI drive group can be connected by either a Single Bus Ultra320 SCSI
Repeater Card (#5741) or a Dual Bus Ultra320 SCSI Repeater Card (#5742). This
allows the EXP24 to be configured as four sets of six bays, two sets of 12 bays, or
two sets of six bays plus one set of 12 bays.
The EXP24 feature 5786 has three cooling fans and two power supplies to provide
redundant power and cooling. The SCSI disk drives contained in the EXP24 are
controlled by PCI-X SCSI adapters connected to the EXP24 SCSI repeater cards via
SCSI cables. The PCI-X adapters are located in the Power 750 system unit or in an
attached I/O drawer with PCI-X slots.
The EXP24S SCSI Disk Drawer is an earlier technology drawer compared to the
later SAS EXP12S drawer. It is used to house the older SCSI disk drives that are
supported but no longer orderable.
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
11
The following feature number I/O drawers are available for order on the Power 750.
PCI-X DDR 12X Expansion Drawer (#5796)
The PCI-X DDR 12X Expansion Drawer (#5796) is a 4 EIA unit tall drawer and
mounts in a 19-inch rack. Feature 5796 is 8.8 inches wide and takes up half the
width of the 4 EIA rack space. Feature 5796 requires the use of a feature 7314
drawer-mounting enclosure. The 4 EIA tall enclosure can hold up to two feature
5796 drawers mounted side by side in the enclosure. The PCI-DDR 12X Expansion
Drawer has six 64-bit, 3.3 V, PCI-X DDR slots running at 266 MHz that use blindswap cassettes and support hot plugging of adapter cards. The drawer includes
redundant hot-plug power and cooling. The client must select one of the two
available interface adapters for use in the feature 5796 drawer, either the Dual-Port
12X Channel Attach Adapter -- Long Run (#6457) or the Dual-Port 12X Channel
Attach Adapter Short Run (#6446). The adapter selection is based on how close the
host system or the next I/O drawer in the loop is physically located.
A maximum of four feature 5796 drawers can be placed on the same 12X loop.
Mixing features 5802 or 5877 and 5796 on the same loop is not supported. Mixing
feature 5796 and the 7314-G30 on the same loop is supported with a maximum of
four drawers total per loop. A minimum configuration of two 12X cables (either SDR
or DDR) and two ac power cables and two SPCN cables is required to ensure proper
redundancy. The drawer attaches to the host CEC enclosure with a 12X adapter in a
GX slot via 12X SDR or DDR cables.
The Power 750 uses GX Dual-port 12X Channel Attach (#5609) or GX Dual- port
12X Channel Attach (#5616) to attach a feature 5796 12X I/O Drawer using SDR
speed, no matter which GX adapter is used.
PCI-X DDR 12X Expansion Drawer (7314-G30) (supported, not orderable)
The 7314-G30 is equivalent to the feature 5796 described above with one key
difference -- IBM i does not support this I/O drawer. Otherwise, it provides the same
six PCI-X DDR slots per unit and has the same configuration rules/considerations as
feature 5796.
12X I/O Drawer PCIe, SFF disk (#5802)
This feature provides a 4U high 19-inch I/O drawer containing 10 PCIe 8x I/O
adapter slots and 18 SAS hot-swap SFF SAS disk bays, which can be used for either
disk drives or SSDs. Using 146 GB disk drives, the feature 5802 provides up to 2.6
TB of storage.
The 18 disk bays can be organized either into one group of 18 bays (AIX/Linux),
two groups of nine slots (AIX/IBM i/Linux), or four groups of four or five bays AIX/
Linux). Selecting either one, two, or four groups of drive bays is done with a mode
switch on the drawer.
A maximum of two feature 5802 drawers can be placed on the same 12X loop.
Mixing feature 5802 and feature 5796 and the 7314-G30 on the same loop is not
supported. Mixing feature 5802 and feature 5877 on the same loop is supported
with a maximum of two drawers total per loop. The PCIe adapter slots use Gen
3 blind-swap cassettes and support hot plugging of adapter cards. A minimum
configuration of two 12X DDR cables and two ac power cables and two SPCN cables
is required to ensure proper redundancy. 12X SDR cables are not supported. The
drawer attaches to the host CEC enclosure with a 12X adapter in a GX slot via 12X
DDR cables (#1861/#1862/#1864/#1865).
The Power 750 uses GX Dual-port 12X Channel Attach (#5609) or GX Dual-port 12X
Channel Attach (#5616) to attach a feature 5802 12X I/O Drawer. The feature 5609
provides the higher capacity bandwidth (DDR).
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
12
12X I/O Drawer PCIe, No disk (#5877)
This feature provides a 4U high 19-inch I/O drawer containing 10 PCIe 8x I/O
adapter slots.
A maximum of two feature 5877 drawers can be placed on the same 12X loop.
Mixing features 5877 and 5796/7314-G30 on the same loop is not supported. Mixing
features 5802 and 5877 on the same loop is supported with a maximum of two
drawers total per loop. The PCIe adapter slots use Gen 3 blind-swap cassettes and
support hot plugging of adapter cards. A minimum configuration of two 12X DDR
cables and two ac power cables and two SPCN cables is required to ensure proper
redundancy. 12X SDR cables are not supported. The drawer attaches to the host
CEC enclosure with a 12X adapter in a GX slot via 12X DDR cables (#1861/#1862/
#1864/#1865).
The Power 750 uses GX Dual-port 12X Channel Attach (#5609) or GX Dual-port 12X
Channel Attach (#5616) to attach a feature 5877 12X I/O Drawer. Feature 5609
provides the higher capacity bandwidth (DDR).
Note that conversions between a diskless feature 5877 and a feature 5802 with disk
bays are not available.
EXP 12S SAS Drawer (#5886)
The EXP 12S SAS drawer (#5886) is a 2 EIA drawer and mounts in a 19 inch-rack.
The drawer can hold either SAS disk drives or SSD. The EXP 12S SAS drawer has
twelve 3.5-inch SAS disk bays with redundant data paths to each bay. The drawer
supports redundant hot-plug power and cooling and redundant hot-swap SAS
expanders (Enclosure Services Manager-ESM). Each ESM has an independent SCSI
Enclosure Services (SES) diagnostic processor.
The SAS disk drives or SSD contained in the EXP12S are controlled by one or two
PCIe or PCI-X SAS adapters connected to the EXP12S via SAS cables. The SAS cable
will vary, depending upon the adapter being used, the operating system being used,
and the protection desired.
• The large cache PCI-X feature 5904/5908 uses a SAS Y cable when a single port
is running the EXP12S. A SAS X cable is used when a pair of adapters are used for
controller redundancy.
• The medium cache PCI-X feature 5902 and PCIe feature 5903 adapters are always
paired and use a SAS X cable to attach the feature 5886 I/O drawer.
• The zero cache PCI-X feature 5912 and PCIe feature 5901 use a SAS Y cable
when a single port is running the EXP12S. A SAS X cable is used for AIX/Linux
environments when a pair of adapters are used for controller redundancy.
In all of the above configurations, all 12 SAS bays are controlled by a single
controller or a single pair of controllers.
A second EXP12S drawer can be attached to another drawer using two SAS EE
cables, providing 24 SAS bays instead of 12 bays for the same SAS controller port.
This is called cascading. In this configuration, all 24 SAS bays are controlled by a
single controller or a single pair of controllers.
The feature 5886 can also be directly attached to the SAS port on the rear of the
Power 750, providing a very low cost disk storage solution. When used this way,
the imbedded SAS controllers augmented by the 175 MB write cache RAID enabler
feature 5679 in the system unit drive the disk drives in EXP12S. A second unit
cannot be cascaded to a feature 5886 attached in this way.
19-inch racks
The Model 8233-E8B and its I/O drawers are designed to mount in the 25U 7014S25 (#0555), 36U 7014-T00 (#0551), or the 42U 7014-T42 (#0553) rack. These
racks are built to the 19-inch EIA standard. When you order a new 8233 system,
you can also order the appropriate 7014 rack model with the system hardware on
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
13
the same initial order. IBM is making the racks available as features of the 8233E8B when you order additional I/O drawer hardware for an existing system (MES
order). The rack feature number should be used if you want IBM to integrate the
newly ordered I/O drawer in a 19-inch rack before shipping the MES order.
1.3-Meter Rack (#0555)
The 1.3-Meter Rack (#0555) is a 25 EIA unit rack. The rack that is delivered as
feature 0555 is the same rack delivered when you order the 7014-S25 rack. Order
the feature 0555 only when required to support rack integration of MES orders prior
to shipment from IBM.
1.8-Meter Rack (#0551)
The 1.8-Meter Rack (#0551) is a 36 EIA unit rack. The rack that is delivered as
feature 0551 is the same rack delivered when you order the 7014-T00 rack; the
included features may be different. Some features that are delivered as part of the
7014-T00 must be ordered separately with the feature 0551. Order the feature 0551
only when required to support rack integration of MES orders prior to shipment from
IBM.
2.0-Meter Rack (#0553)
The 2.0-Meter Rack (#0553) is a 42 EIA unit tall rack. The rack that is delivered
as feature 0553 is the same rack delivered when you order the 7014-T42 rack; the
included features may be different. Some features that are delivered as part of the
7014-T42 must be ordered separately with the feature 0553. Order the feature 0553
only when required to support rack integration of MES orders prior to shipment from
IBM.
IBM Power Systems Deployment-ready Services
IBM offers a portfolio of integration, configuration, and customization services for
IBM Power Systems. These Deployment-ready Services are designed to accelerate
customer solution deployment and reduce related resources and cost. Offerings
include:
• Integration
– Component integration
– Rack integration
– Operating system preinstallation
– Unit personalization
– Third-party hardware/software installation
– Customer Specified Placement
• Asset tagging: Standard tagging Radio Frequency Item Device (RFID)
• Special packaging: Box consolidation
• System customization: Remote access Partitioning Customized operating system/
firmware
For more information on Deployment-ready Services, refer to
http://www.ibm.com/power/deploymentreadyservices/
Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) features
Reliability, fault tolerance, and data correction
The reliability of systems starts with components, devices, and subsystems that are
designed to be fault-tolerant. POWER7 uses lower voltage technology, improving
reliability with stacked latches to reduce soft error (SER) susceptibility. During the
design and development process, subsystems go through rigorous verification and
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
14
integration testing processes. During system manufacturing, systems go through a
thorough testing process to help ensure the highest level of product quality.
The system cache and memory offer ECC (error checking and correcting) faulttolerant features. ECC is designed to correct environmentally induced, single-bit,
intermittent memory failures and single-bit hard failures. With ECC, the likelihood of
memory failures will be substantially reduced. ECC also provides double-bit memory
error detection that helps protect data in the event of a double-bit memory failure.
The AIX and IBM i operating systems provide disk drive mirroring and disk drive
controller duplexing. The Linux operating system supports disk drive mirroring
(RAID 1) through software, while other RAID protection schemes are provided via
hardware RAID adapters.
The Journaled File System, also known as JFS or JFS2, helps maintain file system
consistency and reduces the likelihood of data loss when the system is abnormally
halted due to a power failure. JFS, the recommended file system for 32-bit kernels,
now supports extents on the Linux operating system. This feature is designed
to substantially reduce or eliminate fragmentation. Its successor, JFS2, is the
recommended file system for 64-bit kernels.
With 64-bit addressing, a maximum file system size of 32 TB and maximum file
size of 16 TB, JFS2 is highly recommended for systems running the AIX operating
system.
Memory error correction extensions
The memory has single-bit-error correction and double-bit-error detection ECC
circuitry. The ECC code is also designed such that the failure of any one specific
memory module within an ECC word by itself can be corrected absent any other
fault.
Memory protection features include scrubbing to detect errors, a means to call for
the deallocation of memory pages for a pattern of correctable errors detected, and
signaling deallocation of a logical memory block when an error occurs that cannot be
corrected by the ECC code.
Redundancy for array self-healing
Although the most likely failure event in a processor is a soft single-bit error in
one of its caches, other events can occur, and they need to be distinguished from
one another. For caches and their directories, hardware and firmware keep track
of whether errors are being corrected beyond a threshold. If exceeded, a deferred
repair error log is created.
Caches and directories on the POWER7 chip are manufactured with spare bits
in their arrays that can be accessed via programmable steering logic to replace
faulty bits in the respective arrays. This is analogous to the redundant bit steering
employed in main storage as a mechanism that is designed to help avoid physical
repair, and is also implemented in POWER7 systems. The steering logic is activated
during processor initialization and is initiated by the built-in system-test (BIST) at
power-on time.
When correctable error cache exceeds a set threshold, systems using the POWER7
processor invoke a dynamic cache line delete function, which enables them to stop
using bad cache and eliminates exposure to greater problems.
Fault monitoring functions
• When a POWER7 processor-based system is powered on, BIST and POST (poweron self-test) check processor, cache, memory, and associated hardware required
for proper booting of the operating system. If a noncritical error is detected or if
the errors occur in resources that can be removed from the system configuration,
the restarting process is designed to proceed to completion. The errors are logged
in the system nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM).
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
15
• Disk drive fault tracking is designed to alert the system administrator of an
impending disk drive failure before it impacts customer operation.
Mutual surveillance
The Service Processor monitors the operation of the firmware during the boot
process, and also monitors the HypervisorTM for termination. The Hypervisor
monitors the Service Processor and will perform a reset/reload if it detects the loss
of the Service Processor. If the reset/reload does not correct the problem with the
Service Processor, the Hypervisor will notify the operating system and the operating
system can take appropriate action, including calling for service.
Environmental monitoring functions
POWER7-based servers include a range of environmental monitoring functions:
• Temperature monitoring warns the system administrator of potential
environmental-related problems by monitoring the air inlet temperature. When
the inlet temperature rises above a warning threshold, the system initiates an
orderly shutdown. When the temperature exceeds the critical level or if the
temperature remains above the warning level for too long, the system will shut
down immediately.
• Fan speed is controlled by monitoring actual temperatures on critical components
and adjusting accordingly. If internal component temperatures reach critical
levels, the system will shut down immediately, regardless of fan speed. When a
redundant fan fails, the system calls out the failing fan and continues running.
When a nonredundant fan fails, the system shuts down immediately.
Availability enhancement functions
The POWER7 family of systems continues to offer and introduce significant
enhancements designed to increase system availability.
POWER7 processor functions
As in POWER6, the POWER7 processor has the ability to do processor instruction
retry and alternate processor recovery for a number of core-related faults. This
significantly reduces exposure to both hard (logic) and soft (transient) errors in
the processor core. Soft failures in the processor core are transient (intermittent)
errors, often due to cosmic rays or other sources of radiation, and generally are not
repeatable. When an error is encountered in the core, the POWER7 processor will
first automatically retry the instruction. If the source of the error was truly transient,
the instruction will succeed and the system will continue as before. On IBM systems
prior to POWER6, this error would have caused a checkstop.
Hard failures are more difficult, being true logical errors that will be replicated
each time the instruction is repeated. Retrying the instruction will not help in this
situation because the instruction will continue to fail. As in POWER6, POWER7
processors have the ability to extract the failing instruction from the faulty core
and retry it elsewhere in the system for a number of faults, after which the failing
core is dynamically deconfigured and called out for replacement. The entire process
is transparent to the partition owning the failing instruction. These systems are
designed to avoid a full system outage.
POWER7 single processor checkstopping
As in POWER6, POWER7 provides single processor checkstopping. This significantly
reduces the probability of any one processor affecting total system availability.
Partition availability priority
Also available is the ability to assign availability priorities to partitions. If an
alternate processor recovery event requires spare processor resources in order
to protect a workload, when no other means of obtaining the spare resources is
available, the system will determine which partition has the lowest priority and
attempt to claim the needed resource. On a properly configured POWER7 processor-
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
16
based server, this allows that capacity to be first obtained from, for example, a test
partition instead of a financial accounting system.
POWER7 cache availability
The POWER® processor-based line of servers continues to be at the forefront of
cache availability enhancements. The L3 cache is now integrated on the POWER7
processor. The POWER7 processor provides both L2 and L3 cache line delete
functions.
Special uncorrectable error handling
Uncorrectable errors are difficult for any system to tolerate, although there are
some situations where they can be shown to be irrelevant. For example, if an
uncorrectable error occurs in cached data that will never again be read or where
a fresh write of the data is imminent, it would be unwise to "protect" the user by
forcing an immediate reboot.
Special Uncorrectable Error (SUE) handling was an IBM innovation introduced for
POWER5TM processors, where an uncorrectable error in memory or cache does not
immediately cause the system to terminate. Rather, the system tags the data and
determines whether it will ever be used again. If the error is irrelevant, it will not
force a checkstop.
PCI extended error handling
PCI extended error handling (EEH) enabled adapters respond to a special data
packet generated from the affected PCI slot hardware by calling system firmware,
which will examine the affected bus, allow the device driver to reset it, and continue
without a system reboot. For Linux, EEH support extends to the majority of
frequently used devices, although some third-party PCI devices may not provide
native EEH support.
Predictive failure and dynamic component deallocation
Servers with POWER processors have long had the capability to perform predictive
failure analysis on certain critical components such as processors and memory.
When these components exhibit symptoms that would indicate a failure is imminent,
the system can dynamically deallocate and call home about the failing part before
the error is propagated system-wide. In many cases, the system will first attempt to
reallocate resources in such a way that will avoid unplanned outages. In the event
that insufficient resources exist to maintain full system availability, these servers will
attempt to maintain partition availability by user-defined priority.
Uncorrectable error recovery
When the auto-restart option is enabled, the system can automatically restart
following an unrecoverable software error, hardware failure, or environmentally
induced (ac power) failure.
Serviceability
The purpose of serviceability is to repair the system while attempting to minimize
or eliminate service cost (within budget objectives), while maintaining high
customer satisfaction. Serviceability includes system installation, MES (system
upgrades/downgrades), and system maintenance/repair. Depending upon the
system and warranty contract, service may be performed by the customer, an IBM
representative, or an authorized warranty service provider.
The serviceability features delivered in this system provide a highly efficient service
environment by incorporating the following attributes
• Design for Customer Set Up (CSU), Customer Installed Features (CIF), and
Customer Replaceable Units (CRU)
• Error detection and Fault Isolation (ED/FI)
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
17
• First Failure Data Capture (FFDC)
• Converged service approach across multiple IBM server platforms
Service environments
The HMC is a dedicated server that provides functions for configuring and managing
servers for either partitioned or full-system partition using a GUI or command-line
interface (CLI). An HMC attached to the system allows support personnel (with
client authorization) to remotely log in to review error logs and perform remote
maintenance if required.
The POWER7 processor-based platforms support two main service environments:
• Attachment to one or more HMCs is a supported option by the system. This is the
default configuration for servers supporting logical partitions with dedicated or
virtual I/O. In this case, all servers have at least one logical partition.
• No HMC. There are two service strategies for non-HMC systems
– Full system partition: A single partition owns all the server resources and only
one operating system may be installed.
– Partitioned system: In this configuration, the system can have more than
one partition and can be running more than one operating system. In this
environment, partitions are managed by the Integrated Virtualization Manager
(IVM), which provides some of the functions provided by the HMC.
Service Interface
The Service Interface allows support personnel to communicate with the service
support applications in a server using a console, interface, or terminal. Delivering
a clear, concise view of available service applications, the Service Interface allows
the support team to manage system resources and service information in an
efficient and effective way. Applications available via the Service Interface are
carefully configured and placed to give service providers access to important service
functions.
Different service interfaces are used, depending on the state of the system and its
operating environment. The primary service interfaces are:
• LEDs
• Operator Panel
• Service Processor menu
• Operating system service menu
• Service Focal Point on the HMC
• Service Focal Point Lite on IVM
In the light path LED implementation, when a fault condition is detected on the
POWER7 system, an amber FRU fault LED will be illuminated, which will be rolled up
to the system fault LED. The light path system pinpoints the exact part by turning
on the amber FRU fault LED associated with the part to be replaced.
The system can clearly identify components for replacement by using specific
component-level LEDs, and can also guide the servicer directly to the component
by signaling (turning on solid) the system fault LED, enclosure fault LED, and the
component FRU fault LED. The servicer can also use the identify function to blink the
FRU-level LED. When this function is activated, a roll-up to the blue enclosure locate
and system locate LEDs will occur. These LEDs will turn on solid and can be used to
follow the light path from the system to the enclosure and down to the specific FRU.
First Failure Data Capture and Error Data Analysis
First Failure Data Capture (FFDC) is a technique that helps ensure that when a fault
is detected in a system, the root cause of the fault will be captured without the
need to re-create the problem or run any sort of extending tracing or diagnostics
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
18
program. For the vast majority of faults, a good FFDC design means that the root
cause can also be detected automatically without servicer intervention.
First Failure Data Capture FFDC information, error data analysis, and fault isolation
are necessary to implement the advanced serviceability techniques that enable
efficient service of the systems and to help determine the failing items.
In the rare absence of FFDC and Error Data Analysis, diagnostics are required to recreate the failure and determine the failing items.
Diagnostics
General diagnostic objectives are to detect and identify problems such that they can
be resolved quickly. Elements of IBM's diagnostics strategy include:
• Provide a common error code format equivalent to a system reference code,
system reference number, checkpoint, or firmware error code.
• Provide fault detection and problem isolation procedures. Support remote
connection ability to be used by the IBM Remote Support Center or IBM
Designated Service.
• Provide interactive intelligence within the diagnostics with detailed online failure
information while connected to IBM's back-end system.
Automatic diagnostics
Because of the FFDC technology designed into IBM Servers, it is not necessary to
perform re-create diagnostics for failures or require user intervention. Solid and
intermittent errors are designed to be correctly detected and isolated at the time the
failure occurs. Runtime and boot-time diagnostics fall into this category.
Stand-alone diagnostics
As the name implies, stand-alone or user-initiated diagnostics require user
intervention. The user must perform manual steps, including:
• Compact disk-based diagnostics
• Keying in commands
• Interactively selecting steps from a list of choices
Concurrent maintenance
The system will continue to support concurrent maintenance of power, cooling, PCI
adapters, DASD, DVD, and firmware updates (when possible). The determination of
whether a firmware release can be updated concurrently is identified in the readme
information file released with the firmware.
Service labels
Service providers use these labels to assist them in performing maintenance actions.
Service labels are found in various formats and positions, and are intended to
transmit readily available information to the servicer during the repair process.
Following are some of these service labels and their purpose:
Location diagrams
Location diagrams are strategically located on the system hardware, relating
information regarding the placement of hardware components. Location diagrams
may include location codes, drawings of physical locations, concurrent maintenance
status, or other data pertinent to a repair. Location diagrams are especially useful
when multiple components are installed such as DIMMs, CPUs, processor books,
fans, adapter cards, LEDs, and power supplies.
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
19
Remove/replace procedures
Service labels that contain remove/replace procedures are often found on a cover
of the system or in other spots accessible to the servicer. These labels provide
systematic procedures, including diagrams, detailing how to remove/replace certain
serviceable hardware components.
Arrows
Numbered arrows are used to indicate the order of operation and serviceability
direction of components. Some serviceable parts such as latches, levers, and touch
points need to be pulled or pushed in a certain direction and certain order for the
mechanical mechanisms to engage or disengage. Arrows generally improve the ease
of serviceability.
Packaging for service
The following service enhancements are included in the physical packaging of the
systems to facilitate service:
• Color coding (touch points): Terracotta colored touch points indicate that a
component (FRU/CRU) can be concurrently maintained. Blue colored touch points
delineate components that are not concurrently maintained -- those that require
the system to be turned off for removal or repair.
• Tool-less design: Selected IBM systems support tool-less or simple tool designs.
These designs require no tools or simple tools such as flathead screwdrivers to
service the hardware components.
• Positive retention: Positive retention mechanisms help to assure proper
connections between hardware components such as cables to connectors, and
between two cards that attach to each other. Without positive retention, hardware
components run the risk of becoming loose during shipping or installation,
preventing a good electrical connection. Positive retention mechanisms like
latches, levers, thumb-screws, pop Nylatches (U-clips), and cables are included
to help prevent loose connections and aid in installing (seating) parts correctly.
These positive retention items do not require tools.
Error Handling and Reporting
In the unlikely event of system hardware or environmentally induced failure, the
system runtime error capture capability systematically analyzes the hardware error
signature to determine the cause of failure. The analysis result will be stored in
system NVRAM. When the system can be successfully restarted either manually or
automatically, the error will be reported to the operating system. Error Log Analysis
(ELA) can be used to display the failure cause and the physical location of the failing
hardware.
With the integrated Service Processor, the system has the ability to automatically
send out an alert via phone line to a pager or call for service in the event of a critical
system failure. A hardware fault will also turn on the amber system fault LED located
on the system unit to alert the user of an internal hardware problem. The indicator
may also be set to blink by the operator as a tool to allow system identification.
For identification, the blue locate LED on the enclosure and at the system level will
turn on solid. The amber system fault LED will be on solid when an error condition
occurs.
On POWER7 processor-based servers, hardware and software failures are recorded
in the system log. When an HMC is attached, an ELA routine analyzes the error,
forwards the event to the Service Focal Point (SFP) application running on the
HMC, and notifies the system administrator that it has isolated a likely cause of
the system problem. The Service Processor event log also records unrecoverable
checkstop conditions, forwards them to the SFP application, and notifies the system
administrator. Once the information is logged in the SFP application, if the system is
properly configured, a call home service request will be initiated and the pertinent
failure data with service parts information and part locations will be sent to an IBM
Service organization. Customer contact information and specific system-related
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
20
data such as the machine type, model, and serial number, along with error log data
related to the failure are sent to IBM Service.
Service Processor
The Service Processor provides the capability to diagnose, check the status of, and
sense the operational conditions of a system. It runs on its own power boundary and
does not require resources from a system processor to be operational to perform its
tasks.
The Service Processor supports surveillance of the connection to the HMC and to
the system firmware (Hypervisor). It also provides several remote power control
options, environmental monitoring, reset, restart, remote maintenance, and
diagnostic functions, including console mirroring. The Service Processors menus
(ASMI) can be accessed concurrently with system operation allowing nondisruptive
abilities to change system default parameters.
Call Home
Call Home refers to an automatic or manual call from a customer location to
IBM support structure with error log data, server status, or other service-related
information. Call Home invokes the service organization in order for the appropriate
service action to begin. Call Home can be done through HMC or non-HMC managed
systems. While configuring Call Home is optional, clients are encouraged to
implement this feature in order to obtain service enhancements such as reduced
problem determination and faster and potentially more accurate transmittal of
error information. In general, using the Call Home feature can result in increased
system availability. The Electronic Service AgentTM application can be configured
for automated call home. Refer to the next section for specific details on this
application.
IBM Electronics Services
Electronic Service Agent and the IBM Electronic Services Web portal comprise the
IBM Electronic Services solution -- dedicated to providing fast, exceptional support
to IBM customers. IBM Electronic Service Agent is a no-charge tool that proactively
monitors and reports hardware events such as system errors, performance issues,
and inventory. Electronic Service Agent can help focus on the customer's company
strategic business initiatives, save time, and spend less effort managing day-to-day
IT maintenance issues.
Integrated in the operating system in addition to the HMC, Electronic Service Agent
is designed to automatically and electronically report system failures and customerperceived issues to IBM, which can result in faster problem resolution and increased
availability. System configuration and inventory information collected by Electronic
Service Agent also can be viewed on the secure Electronic Services Web portal and
used to improve problem determination and resolution between the customer and
the IBM support team. As part of an increased focus to provide even better service
to IBM customers, Electronic Service Agent tool configuration and activation comes
standard with the system. In support of this effort, a new HMC External Connectivity
security whitepaper has been published, which describes data exchanges between
the HMC and the IBM Service Delivery Center (SDC) and the methods and protocols
for this exchange. To read the whitepaper and prepare for Electronic Service Agent
installation, go to the Reference Guide section at
http://www.ibm.com/support/electronic
Select your country.
Click on "IBM Electronic Service Agent Connectivity Guide."
Benefits
Increased uptime: Electronic Service Agent is designed to enhance the
warranty and maintenance service by providing faster hardware error reporting
and uploading system information to IBM Support. This can optimize the time
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
21
monitoring the symptoms, diagnosing the error, and manually calling IBM Support
to open a problem record. And 24 x 7 monitoring and reporting means no more
dependency on human intervention or off-hours customer personnel when errors are
encountered in the middle of the night.
Security: Electronic Service Agent is secure in monitoring, reporting, and storing
the data at IBM. Electronic Service Agent securely transmits via the Internet (HTTPS
or VPN) and can be configured to communicate securely through gateways to
provide customers a single point of exit from their site. Communication between
the customer and IBM only flows one way; activating Service Agent does not enable
IBM to call into a customer's system. System inventory information is stored in a
secure database, which is protected behind IBM firewalls. The customer's business
applications or business data is never transmitted to IBM.
More accurate reporting: Because system information and error logs are
automatically uploaded to the IBM Support Center in conjunction with the service
request, customers are not required to find and send system information, decreasing
the risk of misreported or misdiagnosed errors. Once inside IBM, problem error data
is run through a data knowledge management system and knowledge articles are
appended to the problem record.
Customized support: Using the IBM ID entered during activation, customers can
view system and support information in the "My Systems" and "Premium Search"
sections of the Electronic Services Web site.
The Electronic Services Web portal is a single Internet entry point that replaces the
multiple entry points traditionally used to access IBM Internet services and support.
This Web portal enables you to gain easier access to IBM resources for assistance in
resolving technical problems. The newly improved My Systems and Premium Search
functions make it even easier for Electronic Service Agent-enabled customers to
track system inventory and find pertinent fixes.
My Systems provides valuable reports of installed hardware and software using
information collected from the systems by IBM Electronic Service Agent. Reports
are available for any system associated with the customer's IBM ID. Premium
Search combines the function of search and the value of Electronic Service Agent
information, providing advanced search of the technical support knowledgebase.
Using Premium Search and the Service Agent information that has been collected
from the system, customers are able to see search results that apply specifically to
their systems.
For more information on how to utilize the power of IBM Electronic Services, visit the
following Web site or contact an IBM Systems Services Representative
http://www.ibm.com/support/electronic
Accessibility by people with disabilities
A U.S. Section 508 Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) containing
details on accessibility compliance can be requested at
IBM Power 750 Express server is capable as of February 19, 2010, when used
in accordance with associated IBM documentation, of satisfying the applicable
requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, provided that any assistive
technology used with the product properly interoperates with it. A U.S. Section 508
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) can be requested via the IBM web
site
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
22
Statement of general direction
IBM plans for PowerVM to support up to 320 logical partitions on the Power 750
server and up to 640 logical partitions on the Power 770 and 780 servers. For future
POWER7 systems, IBM plans for PowerVM to support up to 1,000 logical partitions
per server.
IBM is working with Red Hat on POWER7 support. Red Hat plans to support
the Power 750, 755, 770, and 780 models in an upcoming release targeted for
availability during first half 2010. For additional questions on the availability of this
release, contact Red Hat.
IBM plans for PowerVM Lx86 to support POWER7 systems in second quarter 2010.
All statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are subject to change or
withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. Any reliance on
these Statements of Direction is at the relying party's sole risk and will not create
liability or obligation for IBM.
The information on the new product is intended to outline our general product
direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The
information on the new product is for informational purposes only and may not
be incorporated into any contract. The information on the new product is not
a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or
functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality
described for our products remains at our sole discretion.
Product number
The following are newly announced features on the specific models of the IBM Power
Systems 8233 machine type:
Description MT Model Feature
IBM Power 750 8233 E8B
Specify Code for External High Speed Modem 8233 E8B 0032
Mirrored System Disk Level, Specify Code 8233 E8B 0040
Device Parity Protection-All, Specify Code 8233 E8B 0041
Mirrored System Bus Level, Specify Code 8233 E8B 0043
Device Parity RAID-6 All, Specify Code 8233 E8B 0047
Modem Cable - US/Canada and General Use 8233 E8B 1025
USB Internal Docking Station for Removable Disk
Drive 8233 E8B 1103
USB External Docking Station for Removable Disk
Drive 8233 E8B 1104
USB 160 GB Removable Disk Drive 8233 E8B 1106
USB 500 GB Removable Disk Drive 8233 E8B 1107
200V 16A 4.3m (14-Ft) TL Line Cord 8233 E8B 1406
125V 4.3m (14-Ft) Line Cord 8233 E8B 1413
200V 1.8m (6-Ft) Locking Line Cord 8233 E8B 1414200V 1.8m (6-Ft) Watertight Line Cord 8233 E8B 1415200V 4.3m (14-Ft) Locking Line Cord 8233 E8B 1416200V 4.3m (14-Ft) Watertight Line Cord 8233 E8B 1417
4.3m 200V/16A Power Cord S. Africa 8233 E8B 1418
4.3m 200V/16A Power Cord Israel 8233 E8B 1419
4.3m 200V/16A Power Cord EU/Asia 8233 E8B 1420
4.3m 200V/16A Power Cord CH/DK 8233 E8B 1421
200V 1.8m (6-Ft) Locking Line Cord 8233 E8B 1424
200V 1.8m (6-Ft) Watertight Line Cord 8233 E8B 1425
200V 4.3m (14-Ft) Locking Line Cord 8233 E8B 1426
200V 4.3m (14-Ft) Watertight Line Cord 8233 E8B 1427
Serial-to-Serial Port Cable for Rack/Rack- 8M 8233 E8B 3125
73.4 GB 15,000 RPM Ultra320 SCSI Disk Drive
Assembly 8233 E8B 3278
146.8 GB 15,000 RPM Ultra320 SCSI Disk Drive
Assembly 8233 E8B 3279
300 GB 15K RPM SCSI Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3585
69GB 3.5" SAS Solid State Drive 8233 E8B 3586
69GB 3.5" SAS Solid State Drive 8233 E8B 3587
Widescreen LCD Monitor 8233 E8B 3632
IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-009
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
25
IBM T541H /L150p 15" TFT Color Monitor 8233 E8B 3637
IBM ThinkVision® L170p Flat Panel Monitor 8233 E8B 3639
ThinkVision L171p Flat Panel Monitor 8233 E8B 3640
IBM T115 Flat Panel Monitor 8233 E8B 3641
ThinkVision L191p Flat Panel Monitor 8233 E8B 3642
IBM T120 Flat Panel Monitor 8233 E8B 3643
IBM T119 Flat Panel Monitor 8233 E8B 3644
IBM T117 Flat Panel Monitor 8233 E8B 3645
73GB 15K RPM SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3646
146GB 15K RPM SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3647
300GB 15K RPM SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3648
450GB 15K RPM SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3649
SAS Cable (EE) Drawer to Drawer 1M 8233 E8B 3652
SAS Cable (EE) Drawer to Drawer 3M 8233 E8B 3653
SAS Cable (EE) Drawer to Drawer 6M 8233 E8B 3654
SAS SFF Cable 8233 E8B 3656
Right Angle SAS Tape Drive Cable 8233 E8B 3657
428GB 15K RPM SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3658
SAS Cable (X) Adapter to SAS Enclosure, Dual
Controller/Dual Path 3M: 8233 E8B 3661
SAS Cable (X) Adapter to SAS Enclosure, Dual
Controller/Dual Path 6M: 8233 E8B 3662
SAS Cable (X) Adapter to SAS Enclosure, Dual
Controller/Dual Path 15M: 8233 E8B 3663
SAS Cable, DASD Backplane to Rear Bulkhead 8233 E8B 3668
SAS Cable, DASD Backplane (Split) to Rear
Bulkhead) 8233 E8B 3669
69.7GB 15k rpm SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3676
139.5GB 15k rpm SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3677
283.7GB 15k rpm SAS Disk Drive 8233 E8B 3678
SAS Cable (AI)- Adapter to Internal drive 1M 8233 E8B 3679
3M SAS CABLE, ADPTR TO ADPTR (AA) 8233 E8B 3681
6M SAS CABLE, ADPTR TO ADPTR (AA) 8233 E8B 3682
SAS Cable (AE) Adapter to Enclosure, single
controller/single path 3M 8233 E8B 3684
SAS Cable (AE) Adapter to Enclosure, single
controller/single path 6M 8233 E8B 3685
SAS Cable (YI) System to SAS Enclosure, Single
Controller/Dual Path 1.5M 8233 E8B 3686
SAS Cable (YI) System to SAS Enclosure, Single
Controller/Dual Path 3M 8233 E8B 3687
SAS Cable (AT) 0.6 Meter 8233 E8B 3688
SAS Cable (YO) Adapter to SAS Enclosure, Single
Controller/Dual Path 1.5 M 8233 E8B 3691
SAS Cable (YO) Adapter to SAS Enclosure, Single
Controller/Dual Path 3 M 8233 E8B 3692
SAS Cable (YO) Adapter to SAS Enclosure, Single
Controller/Dual Path 6 M 8233 E8B 3693
SAS Cable (YO) Adapter to SAS Enclosure, Single
Controller/Dual Path 15 M 8233 E8B 3694
0.3M Serial Port Converter Cable, 9-Pin to 25-Pin 8233 E8B 3925
Asynch Printer/Terminal Cable, 9-pin to 25-pin,
4M 8233 E8B 3926
Serial Port Null Modem Cable, 9-pin to 9-pin,
3.7M 8233 E8B 3927
Serial Port Null Modem Cable, 9-pin to 9-pin, 10M 8233 E8B 3928
1.8 M (6-ft) Extender Cable for Displays (15-pin
D-shell to 15-pin D-shell) 8233 E8B 4242
Extender Cable - USB Keyboards, 2M 8233 E8B 4256
VGA to DVI Connection Converter 8233 E8B 4276