IBM 88861TU, BladeCenter S Planning Manual

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IBM BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886

Planning Guide

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IBM BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886

Planning Guide

Note

Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the general information in

“Notices” on page 113; and read the IBM Safety Information and the IBM Systems Environmental Notices and User Guide on the IBM Documentation CD.

Seventh Edition (December 2010)

US Government Users Restricted Rights – Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction ........1

Related documentation

In addition to this document, the following related documentation is provided in Portable Document Format (PDF) on the IBM BladeCenter Documentation CD that comes with your BladeCenter S chassis.

Note: The latest and most up-to-date product information for the BladeCenter S Types 7779 and 8886 can be found at the IBM Systems Information Center, which at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/index.jsp. To access the BladeCenter S system documentation from this site, click Systems hardware → BladeCenter information → Chassis → BladeCenter S (8886).

In addition to the product documentation, online education is also available at this location.

v BladeCenter S Types 7779 and 8886 Installation and User's Guide

This document contains information about setting up and configuring your BladeCenter S Types 7779 and 8886 and its components.

v BladeCenter S Types 7779 and 8886 Problem Determination and Service Guide

This document contains information for troubleshooting your BladeCenter S system and solving problems.

v Serial over LAN Setup Guide

2 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

This guide provides detailed Serial over LAN configuration information for your BladeCenter S system.

v Safety Information

This document contains translated caution and danger statements. Each caution and danger statement in the documentation has a number that you can use to locate the corresponding statement in your language in the Safety Information document.

v Warranty and Support

This document contains information about the terms of the warranty and getting service and assistance.

Additional documentation might be included on the IBM BladeCenter Documentation CD.

The BladeCenter S chassis might have features that are not described in the documentation that comes with the BladeCenter S chassis. The documentation might be updated occasionally to include information about those features, or technical updates might be available to provide additional information that is not included in the BladeCenter documentation. These updates are available from the IBM Web site. To check for updated documentation, go to http:// publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/bladectr/documentation/index.jsp.

The IBM BladeCenter Documentation CD

The IBM BladeCenter Documentation CD contains documentation for your BladeCenter S chassis in Portable Document Format (PDF) and includes the IBM Documentation Browser to help you find information quickly.

Hardware and software requirements

The IBM BladeCenter Documentation CD requires the following minimum hardware and software:

v Microsoft Windows NT XP, Windows 2000, or Red Hat Linux

v 100 MHz microprocessor

v 32 MB RAM

v Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 (or later) or xpdf, which comes with Linux operating

systems

Using the Documentation CD

Use the Documentation Browser to browse the contents of the CD, read brief descriptions of the documents, and view documents, using Adobe Acrobat Reader or xpdf. The Documentation Browser automatically detects the regional settings in use in your system and presents the information in the language for that region (if available). If a topic is not available in the language for that region, the English-language version is displayed.

Use one of the following procedures to start the Documentation Browser:

v If Autostart is enabled, insert the CD into the DVD drive. The Documentation

Browser starts automatically.

v If Autostart is disabled or is not enabled for all users:

– If you are using a Windows operating system, insert the CD into the DVD

drive, and click Start → Run.IntheOpen field, type:

Chapter 1. Introduction 3

e:\win32.bat

where e is the drive letter of your DVD drive, and click OK.

– If you are using a Red Hat Linux, insert the CD into the DVD drive; then, run

the following command from the /mnt/cdrom directory:

sh runlinux.sh

Select your BladeCenter S chassis from the Product menu. The Available Topics list displays all the documents for your BladeCenter product. Some documents might be in folders. A plus sign (+) indicates each folder or document that has additional topics under it. Click the plus sign to display the additional documents.

When you select a document, a description of the document appears under Topic Description. To select more than one document, press and hold the Ctrl key while you select the documents. Click View Book to view the selected document or documents in Acrobat Reader or xpdf. If you selected more than one document, all the selected documents are opened in Acrobat Reader or xpdf.

To search all the documents, type a word or word string in the Search field and click Search. The documents in which the word or word string appears are listed in order of the most occurrences. Click a document to view it, and press Ctrl+F to use the Acrobat search function, or press Alt+F to use the xpdf search function within the document.

Click Help for detailed information about using the Documentation Browser.

Notices and statements in this document

The caution and danger statements in this document are also in the multilingual Safety Information document, which is on the IBM BladeCenter Documentation CD. Each statement is numbered for reference to the corresponding statement in your language in the Safety Information document.

The following notices and statements are used in this document:

v Note: These notices provide important tips, guidance, or advice.

v Important: These notices provide information or advice that might help you

avoid inconvenient or problem situations.

v Attention: These notices indicate potential damage to programs, devices, or data.

An attention notice is placed just before the instruction or situation in which damage might occur.

v Caution: These statements indicate situations that can be potentially hazardous

to you. A caution statement is placed just before the description of a potentially hazardous procedure step or situation.

v Danger: These statements indicate situations that can be potentially lethal or

extremely hazardous to you. A danger statement is placed just before the description of a potentially lethal or extremely hazardous procedure step or situation.

4 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

Features and specifications

The following table provides a summary of the features and specifications of the BladeCenter S chassis.

Media tray (on front):

v One DVD drive (can be either a

CD-RW/DVD-ROM or DVD/RW drive)

v Two USB v2.0 ports

v Front system LED panel

v Two battery backup unit bay

locations, which support the SAS RAID controller modules

Blade bays (on front): Six hot-swap blade server bays

Storage module bays (on front):

Two storage bays, each containing up to six 3.5-inch disk drive bays.

Module bays (on rear):

v One hot-swap advanced

management module bay

v Four hot-swap power module

bays

v Four hot-swap fan module bays

v Four hot-swap I/O module bays

v One hot-swap serial pass-thru

module bay

Power modules:

v Minimum: Two hot-swap power

modules.

v Maximum: Four hot-swap power

modules

Cooling:

Upgradeable microcode:

v Advanced management module

firmware

v I/O module firmware

v Blade server firmware

v Storage module firmware

Security features:

v Login password for remote

connection

v Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security

for remote management access

v Lightweight Directory Access

Protocol (LDAP)

Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) alerts:

v Fan modules

v Blade-dependent features

Size (7 U):

v Height: 306.3 mm (12 in.)

v Depth: 733.4 mm (28.9 in.)

v Width: 444 mm (17.5 in.)

v Weight:

– Fully configured weight with

blade servers: approximately

108.86 kg (240 lb)

– Empty chassis without modules

or blade servers: approximately

40.82 kg (90 lb)

Environment:

v Air temperature:

– BladeCenter S system on:

- Altitude: 0 to 914 m (3000 ft) 10° to 35°C (50° to 95°F)

- Altitude: 914 m to 2134 m (3000 ft to 7000 ft) 10° to 32°C (50° to 90°F)

– BladeCenter S system off: -40° to

60°C (-40° to 140°F).

v Humidity: 8% to 80%

v Acoustics: declared sound power level:

6.3 to 6.8 bels

Electrical input:

v Sine-wave input (50 - 60 Hz

single-phase) required

v Input voltage (110 V ac):

– Minimum: 100 Vrms

– Maximum: 127 Vrms

v Input voltage (220 V ac):

– Minimum: 200 Vrms

– Maximum: 240 Vrms

Heat output: Approximate heat output in British thermal units (BTU) per hour:

v Minimum configuration: 1365 Btu per

hour (400 watts)

v Maximum configuration: 11942 Btu

per hour (3500 watts)

Four variable-speed, hot-swap fan modules

Two fans in each power supply cool the storage modules

Management module:

v One hot-swap advanced

management module

Chapter 1. Introduction 5

Components of the BladeCenter S system

BladeCenter S system components include an advanced management module, blade servers, I/O modules, storage modules, power modules, fan modules, a serial pass-thru module, and a media tray.

Front view of the BladeCenter S chassis

Blade servers, storage modules, and the media tray are installed in the front of the BladeCenter S chassis.

Note: For proper cooling, each bay in the BladeCenter S chassis must have either a device or a filler installed.

The following illustration shows the front of the BladeCenter S chassis.

Battery backup unit 1

Blades

Storage

module

SAS/SATA hard disk drives

Media tray

Battery backup unit 2

SAS/SATA hard disk drives

Storage

module

Storage modules

You can install a maximum of two storage modules in the BladeCenter S chassis and each storage module contains hot-swap hard disk drives. A storage module and the hard disk drives installed in that storage module are commonly referred to as integrated shared storage because this storage is integrated in the BladeCenter S chassis and shared among the blade servers in the BladeCenter S system.

Each storage module can support up to six hot-swap, 3.5-inch hard disk drives. If you are installing SAS connectivity modules, both SAS and SATA hard disk drives are supported, and you can use both types of hard disk drives in each storage module. If you are installing SAS RAID controller modules, you must install SAS hard disk drives.

Within each storage module, hard disk drives are numbered 1 through 6 from left to right, and top to bottom.

Note: Each hard disk drive bay must contain either a hard disk drive or a drive-bay filler.

6 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

Note: Four power modules are required in the BladeCenter S chassis if both storage modules are installed.

To access the hard disk drives in the storage module, the following devices must be installed:

v SAS I/O modules. You can choose to install either SAS connectivity modules or

SAS RAID controller modules.

Note: You cannot mix these module types in the same BladeCenter S chassis.

– SAS connectivity module. At least one SAS connectivity module must be

installed. If a single SAS connectivity module is installed, it controls access to both storage modules in the BladeCenter S chassis. If two SAS connectivity modules are installed, the module in I/O module bay 3 controls access to storage module 1, and the module in I/O module bay 4 controls access to storage module 2.

– SAS RAID controller module. Two SAS RAID controller modules must be

installed, one in I/O module bay 3 and the other in I/O module bay 4. Each SAS RAID controller module will have access to both storage modules (for high availability).

v A SAS expansion card in each of the blade servers, which provides access

through the SAS I/O modules in I/O module bays 3 and 4 to the SAS or SATA hard disk drives in each storage module.

There is one LED on each storage module:

Fault Solid (amber) when there is a storage module failure.

Chapter 1. Introduction 7

There are two LEDs on each hard disk drive:

Green Flashing when an operation, such as a read or a write, is being performed.

Amber

Flashing when the hard disk drive is being rebuilt (fast blink) or identified (slow blink).

Note: When power is restored to the BladeCenter S chassis after a complete loss of power and you have implemented the hard disk drives as a mirrored array, the fault light will blink as the hard disk drive is being resynchronized.

This resynchronization occurs because the blade servers are attempting to power on before all of the storage modules and SAS connectivity modules are powered up and available. The mirrored array is accessible during resynchronization although performance may be slightly slower.

Solid when there is a drive failure.

Media tray

The media tray contains the DVD drive (which can be either a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive or a DVD/RW drive) and two USB v2.0 ports, which are shared by the blade servers. The media tray also contains two battery backup units, which provide backup for SAS RAID controller modules cache

Note: The port on the side of the media tray is reserved for future use.

8 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

Controls and indicators

Power-on

Location

Over-temperature

Information

System error

The media tray provides the following controls and indicators:

System LED panel

The LEDs on this panel provide status information for the BladeCenter S chassis.

Note: These LEDs are also displayed on the rear of the BladeCenter S chassis.

Power-on

Lit (green). Power is being supplied to the BladeCenter S chassis.

Off. The power subsystem, ac power, or the LED has failed.

Note: Even if the power-on LED is off, always remove the power cords from all power modules before you service the BladeCenter S chassis.

Location

Lit or flashing (blue). It has been turned on by the system administrator to aid in visually locating the BladeCenter S chassis. You can turn off the location LED throught the Web interface or the IBM Director console.

Over-temperature

Lit (amber). The temperature in the BladeCenter S chassis exceeds the temperature limits, or a blade server reports an over-temperature condition. The BladeCenter S chassis might have already taken corrective action, such as increasing the fan speed. This LED turns off automatically when there is no longer an over-temperature condition.

Information

Lit (amber). A noncritical event has occurred that requires attention, such as the wrong I/O module being inserted into a bay, or power demands within the BladeCenter S chassis exceeding the capacity of the installed power modules.

Chapter 1. Introduction 9

You can turn off the information LED through the Web interface or the IBM Director console.

System error

Lit (amber). A system error has occurred, such as a module failure or a system error in a blade server. An LED on the failing component is also lit to assist in isolating the error.

DVD drive activity LED

Lit (green). The drive is in use.

DVD drive eject button

Press this button to open the DVD drive.

USB ports

Connect USB devices to these ports.

Battery backup unit:

Battery backup units provide backup for SAS RAID controller modules cache.

Battery backup units are installed in the battery backup unit bays located in the media tray when you install SAS RAID controller modules. The battery backup unit in battery backup bay 1 provides backup support for the SAS RAID controller module in I/O module bay 3; the battery backup unit in battery backup bay 2 provides backup support for the SAS RAID controller module in I/O module bay

Note: Both battery backup units are required if you install SAS RAID controller modules.

Controls and indicators

The battery backup unit provides the following indicators:

Power Lit (green). Power is being supplied to the battery backup unit.

Charging

Lit (green). The battery backup unit is being charged.

Fault Lit (amber). The battery backup unit has a failure. If the Fault LED is lit,

replace the battery backup unit.

10 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

Blade server

Blade servers can contain components such as microprocessors, memory, Ethernet controllers, and hard disk drives. They receive power, network connection, and I/O devices (such as DVD drive, keyboard, mouse, video port, USB ports, and a remote monitoring port) from the BladeCenter S chassis.

A SAS expansion card must be installed in each blade server that will access the integrated shared storage.

Note: The control panel door is shown in the closed position in the following illustration. To access the power-control button, you must open the control panel door.

Activity LED

Location LED

KVM select button

Information LED

Blade-error LED

Media-tray select button

Power-control button

Power-on LED

You can find the documentation for blade servers in the IBM Systems Information Center, which is at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/index.jsp. To access the blade server documentation from this site, click Systems hardware → BladeCenter information → Blade servers.

To determine which blade servers are compatible with the BladeCenter S chassis, see the IBM ServerProven Web site at http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/ serverproven/compat/us/eserver.html.

Controls and indicators

Blade servers typically provide the following controls and indicators:

KVM select button

Activity LED

Location LED

When using an operating system that supports a local console and keyboard, press this button to associate the shared BladeCenter S chassis keyboard and video ports with the blade server.

When this green LED is lit, it indicates that there is activity on the hard disk drive or network.

When this blue LED is lit, it has been turned on by the system administrator to aid in visually locating the blade server. The location LED

Chapter 1. Introduction 11

can be turned off through the Web interface of the advanced management module or through the IBM Director Console.

Information LED

When this amber LED is lit, it indicates that information about a system error for the blade server has been placed in the advanced management module event log. The information LED can be turned off through the Web interface of the advanced management module or through the IBM Director console.

Blade-error LED

When this amber LED is lit, it indicates that a system error has occurred in the blade server. The blade-error LED will turn off after one of the following events:

v Correcting the error

v Reseating the blade server in the BladeCenter S chassis

v Cycling the BladeCenter S chassis power

Media-tray select button

Press this button to associate the shared BladeCenter S chassis media tray (removable-media drive and front-panel USB ports) with the blade server. The LED on the button flashes while the request is being processed, then is lit when the ownership of the media tray has been transferred to the blade server. It can take approximately 20 seconds for the operating system in the blade server to recognize the media tray.

If there is no response when you press the media-tray select button, use the advanced management module to determine whether local control has been disabled on the blade server.

Power-control button

This button is behind the control panel door. Press this button to turn on or turn off the blade server.

The power-control button has effect only if local power control is enabled for the blade server. Local power control is enabled and disabled through the Web interface of the advanced management module.

Press down the power button for five seconds to begin powering down the blade server.

Power-on LED

This green LED indicates the power status of the blade server in the following manner:

v Flashing rapidly: The service processor (BMC) is initializing the blade

server.

v Flashing slowly: The blade server has completed initialization and is

waiting for a power-on command.

v Lit continuously: The blade server has power and is turned on.

12 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

Rear view of the BladeCenter S chassis

Fan modules, I/O modules, power modules, the advanced management module, and the serial pass-thru module are in the rear of the BladeCenter S chassis.

Note: Each bay in the BladeCenter S chassis must have either a device or a filler installed.

The following illustration shows the rear of the BladeCenter S chassis.

Advanced management module

The advanced management module is a hot-swap module that you use to configure and manage all installed BladeCenter components. The BladeCenter S chassis comes with one advanced management module in the advanced management module bay.

The advanced management module provides systems-management functions and keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) multiplexing for all blade servers in the BladeCenter S chassis that support KVM. It controls the following connections:

v A serial port for a local connection to another computer, such as a notebook

computer

v The external video and USB connections for keyboard and mouse

v A 10/100 Mbps Ethernet connection

The advanced management module communicates with the service processor (also called the baseboard management controller, or BMC) in each blade server to support features such as blade server power-on requests, error and event reporting, KVM requests, and requests to use the BladeCenter S chassis shared media tray.

Chapter 1. Introduction 13

Activity LED

Power-on LED

Serial Console

Error LED

Video

Port link LED

Ethernet

LINK

TX/RX

Port activity LED

USB

MAC address

Release handle

The BladeCenter S chassis supports a single advanced management module, and it must be installed in the advanced management module bay.

Advanced management module indicators and controls:

The advanced management module has several LEDs that you can use to obtain status about the advanced management module and the Ethernet connection.

Power-on LED

Activity LED

Error LED

Port link LED

LINK

TX/RX

Port activity LED

Release handle

The following advanced management module LEDs provide status information about the advanced management module and Ethernet connection:

14 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

Reset

Power-on

Lit (green). The advanced management module has power.

Activity

Lit (green). The advanced management module is actively controlling the BladeCenter S system.

Error Lit (amber). An error has been detected in the advanced management

module. When the error LED is lit, the BladeCenter system error LED is also lit.

Port Link

Lit (green). There is an active connection through the Ethernet port to the network.

Port activity

Flashing (green). There is activity through the Ethernet port over the network link.

Reset

Insert a straightened paper clip into the reset pinhole and remove it to restart the advanced management module. The fan modules operate at full speed while the advanced management module is initializing.

Attention: If you push the paper clip in all the way and hold it for approximately 10 seconds, the advanced management module will be reset to the default configuration. Therefore, you should always make sure that you save your current configuration before resetting the advanced management module.

For more information about saving and restoring configurations, see the IBM BladeCenter Advanced Management Module User's Guide.

Advanced management module input and output connectors:

The advanced management module has a serial connector, a video connector, two USB connectors for keyboard and mouse, and an Ethernet connector for remote management.

Serial Console

Video

Ethernet

USB

LINK

TX/RX

Release handle

Chapter 1. Introduction 15

Serial Console

Use this connection to configure and manage the BladeCenter components through the advanced management module command-line interface (CLI). For example, you can connect a notebook computer to the serial connector and use a terminal emulator program to configure the IP addresses, user accounts and other settings.

The serial pinout for the advanced management module is an EIA-561, as shown in the following table:

Contact (pin number) Signal name

1 DSR (Data set ready)

2 DCD (Data carrier detect)

3 DTR (Data terminal ready)

4 GND (Ground)

5 Receive (RX)

6 Transmit (TX)

7 CTS (Clear to send)

8 RTS (Request to send)

Video Use this connector to connect a compatible SVGA or VGA video monitor to

the BladeCenter S system.

Ethernet

Use this connector to connect the BladeCenter S system to a the management station, either through an Ethernet cable or on the network.

USB connectors

Use these connectors to connect a mouse and keyboard (or other USB devices). Unlike the USB connectors on the media tray, these connectors are shared by the blade servers through the BladeCenter Keyboard, Video, Mouse (KVM) interface. The KVM interface owns these ports.

Note: If you connect a USB storage device to these connectors, the blade server has ownership of the media tray and can access the device. To switch ownership of the media tray to a specific blade server, press the

button on that blade server.

Serial pass-thru module

The serial pass-thru module has six serial ports that you can use to directly attach a four-wire serial RJ-45 connector to each of the blade servers in the BladeCenter S chassis. If you use the serial pass-thru module, it must be installed in the serial pass-thru module bay.

Note: See the documentation for the blade server that you are using to ensure that it supports this type of serial access.

The connectors are numbered 1 through 6, from top to bottom, and correspond to blade servers in blade server bays 1 through 6.

16 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

Serial pass-thru module

Release handle

Serial pass-thru connector pinout

There are eight pins on each RJ-45 port, numbered 1 through 8, from bottom to top.

Serial pass-thru module

Contact (pin number) Signal name Signal direction

1 RTS (Request to

2 Not used n/a

3 RXD (Receive data) Input to blade server

4 GND (Ground) n/a

5 Not used n/a

6 TXD (Transfer data) Output from blade server

7 Not used n/a

8 CTS (Clear to send) Input to blade server

Release handle

Output from blade server

send)

Chapter 1. Introduction 17

Note: The serial pass-thru module uses the DTE convention.

I/O modules

You can install up to four I/O modules in the BladeCenter S chassis, including Ethernet switch modules, Fibre Channel switch modules, pass-thru modules (optical and copper), SAS connectivity modules, and SAS RAID controller modules.

I/O modules 1 and 3

! !

I/O modules 2 and 4

Note:

You can find the documentation for I/O modules at the IBM Systems Information Center, which is at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/index.jsp. To access the I/O module documentation from this site, click Systems hardware → BladeCenter information → I/O modules.

To determine which I/O modules are compatible with the BladeCenter S chassis, see the IBM ServerProven Web site at http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/ serverproven/compat/us/eserver.html.

I/O module bay 1

I/O module bay 1 supports any standard Ethernet or pass-thru module that connects to the two integrated Ethernet controllers in each of the blade servers.

Note: This I/O module bay is wired differently from I/O module bay 1 in a BladeCenter E or BladeCenter H chassis.

18 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

I/O module bay 2

I/O module bay 2 supports an optional I/O module, such as an Ethernet switch or a pass-thru module, that connects to the two integrated Ethernet controllers in each of the blade servers.

Note: If you install an I/O module in I/O module bay 2, you will also need to install an expansion card option, such as the 2/4 Port Ethernet Expansion Card, in each blade server that will access the external Ethernet network through the switch module in I/O module bay 2.

I/O module bays 3 and 4

I/O module bays 3 and 4 support SAS connectivity modules or SAS RAID controller modules.

v If you are using the RAID storage solution, you must install two SAS RAID

controller modules, one in I/O module bay 3 and one in I/O module bay 4. SAS RAID controller modules require a SAS expansion card option in each blade server that will access the integrated shared storage.

v If you are using only one SAS connectivity module, install the module in I/O

module bay 3. You can install an additional SAS connectivity module in bay 4. A SAS connectivity module requires a SAS expansion card option in each blade server that will access the integrated shared storage.

The two bays also support Ethernet switch modules, Fibre Channel switch modules, and pass-thru modules (optical and copper) if the storage modules are not being used.

Important: I/O module bays 3 and 4 must both contain the same type of switch (either SAS connectivity modules, SAS RAID controller modules, Ethernet switch modules, pass-thru modules, or Fibre Channel switch modules).

Power modules

The BladeCenter S system supports up to four autoranging power modules that are capable of supporting either 110 V ac or 220 V ac.

Chapter 1. Introduction 19

Fault LED

DC power LED

AC power LED

Power module

There are two types of power modules. These power modules are identical except for the power cord connector; one power module has a C14 connector and the other power module has a C20 connector. Both types of power modules can be installed in the same chassis.

Table 1. Power modules used in the BladeCenter S system

Power module with C14 connector

Power module with C20 connector

C14 connector

Within the BladeCenter S chassis, all power supplies are combined into a single power domain, which distributes power to each of the blade servers and modules through the system midplane.

You must install a minimum of two power modules. If you install only two power modules, install them in power module bays 1 and 2 (the top and bottom power module bays on the right as you face the rear of the BladeCenter S chassis).

20 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

C20 connector

Note: You must install all four power modules if you are using both storage modules.

If you disengage or remove all devices from the front of the BladeCenter S chassis (media tray, blade servers, and storage modules), the power modules will be disabled.

Indicators and controls

There are three LEDs on each power module:

AC power

Lit (green). Power is being supplied to the power module.

DC power

Lit (green). Power is being supplied from the power module to the BladeCenter S chassis midplane.

Fault Lit (amber). There is a fault with the power module.

Note: Before unplugging the AC power cord from the power module or

removing the power module from the BladeCenter S chassis, verify that the capacity of the remaining power modules are sufficient to meet the minimum power requirements for all components in the BladeCenter S chassis. You can view power status and requirements through the advanced management module.

For information on accessing and using the advanced management module, see the Advanced Management Module User's Guide.

1. Verify that the power modules are properly connected to an AC power

source. All power modules in the BladeCenter S chassis must be connected to the same power input voltage (either 110 V ac or 220 V ac). Do not mix power input voltages.

2. Unplug the AC power cord from the power module and plug it in

again.

3. Reseat the power supply.

4. Swap the AC power cord with a power cord that is known to be

working.

5. Move the power module to another power module bay in the

BladeCenter S chassis.

Fan modules

The BladeCenter S chassis comes with four installed hot-swap fan modules.

The fan modules (sometimes called fan packs) are designed to provide cooling airflow to the blade servers and I/O modules. Each fan module contains two fans.

Chapter 1. Introduction 21

Fan error LED

Indicators and controls

Each fan module has a single LED:

Error Lit (amber). One of the fans in the fan module has failed.

Note: If one of the fans in the fan module fails, the other fan will begin

operating at full speed.

Systems and storage management

IBM provides products that you can use to manage your BladeCenter S system and the integrated shared storage that is available.

IBM Director

IBM Director provides a comprehensive entry-level workgroup hardware manager. It includes advanced self-management capabilities for maximum system availability and support for multiple operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, AIX, Linux, and i5/OS.

With IBM Director, a systems or network administrator can perform the following tasks:

v View and modify the hardware configuration of remote systems

v Monitor the usage, health, and performance of critical components, such as

microprocessors, disks, and memory

v Centrally manage individual or large groups of IBM and non-IBM

x86-processor-based servers, desktop computers, workstations, and notebook computers on a variety of platforms

v Inventory your environment

v Perform updates to managed systems, such as device drivers and firmware

v Automatically perform an action based on events or schedules, if IBM Director is

configured to do so

By deploying IBM Director, you can achieve reductions in ownership costs through the following benefits:

v Reduced downtime

v Increased productivity of IT personnel and users

v Reduced service and support costs

22 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

For more information about IBM Director and to download the latest version of IBM Director, go to http://www.ibm.com/systems/management/director/.

Storage Configuration Manager

Storage Configuration Manager is a Web based device management application.

Storage Configuration Manager provides user and programmatic interfaces that you need to configure and monitor multiple instances of different types of storage related devices, including either the SAS connectivity modules or the SAS RAID controller modules, and the SAS controllers on the expansion cards in each blade server. It includes a Web-based graphical user interface. It can be installed as a stand-alone application or as an extension to IBM Director 5.20.2.

You can connect to the Storage Configuration Manager Manager component of the application from any computer on the network that it is installed on, using a standard Web browser (Internet Explorer 6.x or later, Firefox 1.0 or later).

Instead of using Storage Configuration Manager, you have the option of configuring the integrated shared storage from the configuration wizard of the advanced management module if you choose one of the predefined configurations that are provided. However, you must install Storage Configuration Manager if you decide to modify an existing configuration or create your own customized configuration.

To download Storage Configuration Manager go to http://www.ibm.com/ systems/support/management and select IBM Storage Configuration Manager.

Chapter 1. Introduction 23

24 BladeCenter S Type 7779/8886: Planning Guide

+ 100 hidden pages

IBM 88861TU, BladeCenter S Planning Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual