IBM BladeCenter PS703, BladeCenter PS704 Technical Overview And Introduction

Front cover

IBM BladeCenter PS703
and PS704 Technical
Overview and Introduction

Features the POWER7 processor providing
advanced multi-core technology

Details the follow-on to the BladeCenter
PS700, PS701 and PS702

Describes management using
the new Systems Director
Management Console

David Watts

Kerry Anders

David Harlow

Joe Shipman II

ibm.com/redbooks

Redpaper

International Technical Support Organization

IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview
and Introduction

May 2011

REDP-4744-00

Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on
page vii.

First Edition (May 2011)

This edition applies to:

IBM BladeCenter PS703, 7891-73X
IBM BladeCenter PS704, 7891-74X

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2011. All rights reserved.

Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule
Contract with IBM Corp.

Contents

Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

The team who wrote this paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Now you can become a published author, too! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 Overview of PS703 and PS704 blade servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2 Comparison between the PS70x blade servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.3 IBM BladeCenter chassis support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3.1 Supported BladeCenter chassis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.3.2 Number of PS703 and PS704 blades in a chassis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.4 Operating environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5 Physical package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1.6 System features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.6.1 PS703 system features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

1.6.2 PS704 system features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.6.3 Minimum features for the POWER7 processor-based blade servers . . . . . . . . . . 18

1.6.4 Power supply features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1.6.5 Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

1.6.6 Memory features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

1.6.7 I/O features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

1.6.8 Disk features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1.6.9 Standard onboard features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1.7 Supported BladeCenter I/O modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

1.7.1 Ethernet switch and intelligent pass-through modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

1.7.2 SAS I/O modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

1.7.3 Fibre Channel switch and pass-through modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

1.7.4 Converged networking I/O modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

1.7.5 InfiniBand switch module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1.7.6 Multi-switch Interconnect Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1.7.7 Multi-switch Interconnect Module for BladeCenter HT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.8 Building to order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.9 Model upgrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.1 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.2 The IBM POWER7 processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2.2.1 POWER7 processor overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.2.2 POWER7 processor core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.2.3 Simultaneous multithreading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.2.4 Memory access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.2.5 Flexible POWER7 processor packaging and offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.2.6 On-chip L3 intelligent cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.2.7 POWER7 processor and intelligent energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.2.8 Comparison of the POWER7 and POWER6 processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved. iii

2.3 POWER7 processor-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2.4 Memory subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2.4.1 Memory placement rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.5 Active Memory Expansion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

2.6 Technical comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2.7 Internal I/O subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

2.7.1 PCI Express bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

2.7.2 PCIe slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

2.7.3 I/O expansion cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

2.7.4 Embedded SAS Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

2.7.5 Embedded Ethernet Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

2.7.6 Embedded USB controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

2.8 Service processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

2.8.1 Server console access by SOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

2.8.2 Anchor card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

2.9 Internal storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

2.9.1 Hardware RAID function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

2.9.2 External SAS connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

2.10 External disk subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

2.10.1 IBM BladeCenter S integrated storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

2.10.2 IBM System Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

2.11 IVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

2.12 Operating system support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

2.13 IBM EnergyScale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

2.13.1 IBM EnergyScale technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

2.13.2 EnergyScale device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Chapter 3. Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

3.1 PowerVM Version 2.2 enhancements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

3.2 POWER Hypervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

3.3 POWER processor modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

3.4 PowerVM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

3.4.1 PowerVM editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

3.4.2 Logical partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

3.4.3 Multiple Shared-Processor Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

3.4.4 VIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

3.4.5 PowerVM Lx86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

3.4.6 PowerVM Live Partition Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

3.4.7 Active Memory Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

3.4.8 Suspend/Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

3.4.9 N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

3.4.10 Supported PowerVM features by operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

4.2 Reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

4.2.1 Designed for reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

4.2.2 Placement of components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

4.2.3 Redundant components and concurrent repair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

4.3 Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

4.3.1 Partition availability priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

4.3.2 General detection and deallocation of failing components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

4.3.3 Memory protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

iv IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

4.3.4 Cache protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

4.3.5 Special uncorrectable error handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

4.3.6 PCI extended error handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

4.4 Serviceability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

4.4.1 Detecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

4.4.2 Diagnosing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

4.4.3 Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

4.4.4 Notifying the client. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

4.4.5 Locating and servicing parts requiring service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

4.5 Manageability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

4.5.1 Service user interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

4.5.2 IBM Power Systems firmware maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

4.5.3 Electronic Service Agent and Service and Support Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

4.5.4 BladeCenter Service Advisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Chapter 5. Systems Director Management Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

5.1 SDMC Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

5.1.1 Hardware appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

5.1.2 Software appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

5.1.3 IVM, HMC, and SDMC support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

5.1.4 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

5.2 Using the web interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

5.2.1 Resources tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

5.2.2 Settings tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

5.3 POWER-based blades management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

5.3.1 IVM characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

5.3.2 SDMC added capability for POWER-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

5.4 IVM to SDMC transition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

5.4.1 IVM to SDMC transition process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

5.4.2 Steps to SDMC management of POWER-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

5.4.3 FSP access configuration from BladeCenter AMM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

5.4.4 Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

5.4.5 Request Access to Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

5.4.6 Updating ASM passwords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

5.4.7 Systems Director inventory collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

5.5 SDMC basic management of POWER-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

5.5.1 Virtual server creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

5.5.2 Multiple profiles for POWER-based blades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

5.5.3 Dual VIOS on POWER-based blades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

5.5.4 Virtual server Suspend and Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

5.5.5 Active Memory Expansion (AME) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

5.5.6 Virtual consoles from the SDMC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Abbreviations and acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

IBM Redbooks documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

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Contents v

vi IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

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viii IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

Preface

The IBM® BladeCenter® PS703 and PS704 are premier blades for 64-bit applications. They
are designed to minimize complexity, improve efficiency, automate processes, reduce energy
consumption, and scale easily. These blade servers are based on the IBM POWER7™
processor and support AIX®, IBM i, and Linux® operating systems. Their ability to coexist in
the same chassis with other IBM BladeCenter blade servers enhances the ability to deliver
the rapid return on investment demanded by clients and businesses.

This IBM Redpaper™ doocument is a comprehensive guide covering the IBM BladeCenter
PS703 and PS704 servers. The goal of this paper is to introduce the offerings and their
prominent features and functions.

The team who wrote this paper

This paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the
International Technical Support Organization, Raleigh Center.

David Watts is a Consulting IT Specialist at the IBM ITSO Center in Raleigh. He manages
residencies and produces IBM Redbooks® publications for hardware and software topics that
are related to IBM System x® and IBM BladeCenter servers, and associated client platforms.
He has authored over 80 books, papers, and web documents. He holds a Bachelor of
Engineering degree from the University of Queensland (Australia) and has worked for IBM
both in the U.S. and Australia since 1989. David is an IBM Certified IT Specialist and a
member of the IT Specialist Certification Review Board.

Kerry Anders is a Consultant for POWER® systems and PowerVM™ in Lab Services for the
IBM Systems and Technology Group, based in Austin, Texas. He supports clients in
implementing IBM Power Systems™ blades using Virtual I/O Server, Integrated Virtualization
Manager, and AIX. Kerry’s prior IBM Redbooks publication projects include IBM BladeCenter

JS12 and JS22 Implementation Guide, SG24-7655, IBM BladeCenter JS23 and JS43
Implementation Guide, SG24-7740, and IBM BladeCenter PS700, PS701, and PS702
Technical Overview and Introduction, REDP-4655. Previously, he was the Systems

Integration Test Team Lead for the IBM BladeCenter JS21blade with IBM SAN storage using
AIX and Linux. His prior work includes test experience with the JS20 blade, also using AIX
and Linux in SAN environments. Kerry began his career with IBM in the Federal Systems
Division supporting NASA at the Johnson Space Center as a Systems Engineer. He
transferred to Austin in 1993.

David Harlow is a Senior Systems Engineer with business partner Mainline Information
Systems, Inc. located in Tallahassee, Florida and he is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. His
area of expertise includes Power Systems and Power Blade Servers using the IBM i
operating system. He has 19 years of experience with the AS/400®, iSeries®, System i®,
IBM i architecture, and IBM i operating systems. He has worked with the Power blade servers
with VIOS hosting IBM i partitions since the POWER6® JS12 and JS22 entered marketing.
He currently has several IBM certifications including the IBM Certified Technical Sales Expert

- Power Systems with POWER7 and the IBM Certified Sales Expert - Power Systems with
POWER7.

Joe Shipman II is a BladeCenter and System x Subject Matter Expert for the IBM Technical
Support Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He has 7 years of experience working with servers and

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved. ix

has worked at IBM for 5 years. His areas of expertise include IBM BladeCenter, System x,
BladeCenter Fibre Channel fabrics, BladeCenter Networking, and Power Blade Servers.
Previously he worked as an Electrical and Environmental Systems Specialist for the US Air
Force for 10 years.

The team (l-r): Joe, David Harlow, Kerry, and David Watts

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

From IBM Power Systems development:

򐂰 Chris Austen
򐂰 Larry Cook
򐂰 John DeHart
򐂰 Kaena Freitas
򐂰 Bob Galbraith
򐂰 Jim Gallagher
򐂰 Seth Lewis
򐂰 Hoa Nguyen
򐂰 Amartey Pearson

From IBM Power Systems marketing:
򐂰 John Biebelhausen

From IBM Linux Technology Center:
򐂰 Jeff Scheel

This paper is based in part on IBM BladeCenter PS700, PS701, and PS702 Technical
Overview and Introduction, REDP-4655. Thanks to the authors of that document:

򐂰 David Watts
򐂰 Kerry Anders
򐂰 Berjis Patel

Portions of this paper are from the book Systems Director Management Console Introduction
and Overview, SG24-7860. Thanks to the authors of that document:

򐂰 Thomas Libor
򐂰 Allen Oh
򐂰 Lakshmikanthan Selvarajan
򐂰 Peter Wuestefeld

x IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

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򐂰 Use the online Contact us review Redbooks form found at:

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Preface xi

xii IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

Chapter 1. Introduction and general

1

description

This chapter introduces and provides a general description of the new IBM BladeCenter
POWER7 processor-based blade servers. These new blades offer processor scalability from
16 cores to 32 cores:

򐂰 IBM BladeCenter PS703: single-wide blade with two 8-core processors
򐂰 IBM BladeCenter PS704: double-wide blade with four 8-core processors

The new PS703 and PS704 blades are premier blades for 64-bit applications. They are
designed to minimize complexity, improve efficiency, automate processes, reduce energy
consumption, and scale easily.

The POWER7 processor-based PS703 and PS704 blades support AIX, IBM i, and Linux
operating systems. Their ability to coexist in the same chassis with other IBM BladeCenter
blade servers enhances the ability to deliver the rapid return on investment demanded by
clients and businesses.

This chapter covers the following topics:

򐂰 1.1, “Overview of PS703 and PS704 blade servers” on page 2
򐂰 1.2, “Comparison between the PS70x blade servers” on page 3
򐂰 1.3, “IBM BladeCenter chassis support” on page 4
򐂰 1.4, “Operating environment” on page 12
򐂰 1.5, “Physical package” on page 13
򐂰 1.6, “System features” on page 14
򐂰 1.7, “Supported BladeCenter I/O modules” on page 28
򐂰 1.8, “Building to order” on page 34
򐂰 1.9, “Model upgrades” on page 35

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved. 1

1.1 Overview of PS703 and PS704 blade servers

Figure 1-1 shows the IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 blade servers.

Figure 1-1 The IBM BladeCenter PS703 (right) and BladeCenter PS704 (left)

The PS703 blade server

The IBM BladeCenter PS703 (7891-73X) is a single-wide blade server with two eight-core
POWER7 processors with a total of 16 cores. The processors are 64-bit 8-core 2.4 GHz
processors with 256 KB L2 cache per core and 4 MB L3 cache per core.

The PS703 blade server has 16 DDR3 memory DIMM slots. The industry standard VLP
DDR3 memory DIMMs are either 4 GB or 8 GB or 16 GB running at 1066 MHz. The minimum
memory required for a PS703 blade server is 16 GB. The maximum memory that can be
supported is 256 GB (16 x 16 GB DIMMs).

The PS703 blade server supports optional Active Memory™ Expansion, which is a POWER7
technology that allows 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%. This can allow an AIX 6.1 or later
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 PS703 blade server has two onboard 1 Gb integrated Ethernet ports that are connected
to the BladeCenter chassis fabric (midplane). The PS703 also has an integrated SAS
controller that supports local (on-board) storage, integrated USB controller and Serial over
LAN console access through the service processor, and the BladeCenter Advance
Management Module.

The PS703 has one on-board disk drive bay. The on-board storage can be one 2.5-inch SAS
HDD or two 1.8-inch SATA SSD drives (with the addition of an SSD interposer tray). The

2 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

PS703 also supports one PCIe CIOv expansion card slot and one PCIe CFFh expansion card
slot. See 1.6.7, “I/O features” on page 21 for supported I/O expansion cards.

The PS704 blade server

The IBM BladeCenter PS704 (7891-74X) is a double-wide blade server with four eight-core
POWER7 processors with a total of 32 cores. The processors are 64-bit 8-core 2.4 GHz
processors with 256 KB L2 cache per core and 4 MB L3 cache per core.

The PS704 is a double-wide blade, meaning that it occupies two adjacent slots in the IBM
BladeCenter chassis.

The PS704 blade server has 32 DDR3 memory DIMM slots. The industry standard VLP
DDR3 memory DIMMs are either 4 GB or 8 GB running at 1066 MHz. The minimum memory
required for PS704 blade server is 32 GB. The maximum memory that can be supported is
256 GB (32x 8 GB DIMMs).

The PS704 blade server supports optional Active Memory Expansion, which is a POWER7
technology that allows 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%. This can allow an AIX 6.1 or later
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 PS704 blade server has four onboard 1 Gb integrated Ethernet ports that are connected
to the BladeCenter chassis fabric (midplane). The PS704 also has an integrated SAS
controller that supports local (on-board) storage, integrated USB controller and Serial over
LAN console access through the service processor, and the BladeCenter Advance
Management Module.

The PS704 blade server has two disk drive bays, one on the base blade and one on the
expansion unit. The on-board storage can be one or two 2.5-inch SAS HDD or up to four

1.8-inch SSD drives. The integrated SAS controller supports RAID 0, 10, 5, or 6 depending
on the numbers of HDDs or SSDs installed.

The PS704 supports two PCIe CIOv expansion card slots and two PCIe CFFh expansion
card slots. See 1.6.7, “I/O features” on page 21 for supported I/O expansion cards.

Note: For the PS704 blade server, the service processor (FSP or just SP) in the expansion
blade is set to IO mode, which provides control busses from IOs, but does not provide
redundancy and backup operational support to the SP in the base blade.

1.2 Comparison between the PS70x blade servers

This section describes the difference between the five POWER7 blade servers:

򐂰 The PS700 is a single-wide blade with one 4-core 64-bit POWER7 3.0 GHz processor.
򐂰 The PS701 is a single-wide blade with one 8-core 64-bit POWER7 3.0 GHz processor.
򐂰 The PS702 is a double-wide blade with two 8-core 64-bit POWER7 3.0 GHz processors.
򐂰 The PS703 is a single-wide blade with two 8-core 64-bit POWER7 2.4 GHz processors.
򐂰 The PS704 is a double-wide blade with four 8-core 64-bit POWER7 2.4 GHz processors.

The POWER7 processor has 4 MB L3 cache per core and 256 KB L2 cache per core.

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 3

Table 1-1 compares the processor core options and frequencies, and L3 cache sizes of the
POWER7 blade servers.

Table 1-1 Comparison of POWER7 blade servers

System Number of

processors

PS700 blade 1 4 3.0 GHz 16 MB 4 GB / 64 GB Single-wide

PS701 blade 1 8 3.0 GHz 32 MB 16 GB / 128 GB Single-wide

PS702 blade 2 8 3.0 GHz 32 MB 32 GB / 256 GB Double-wide

PS703 blade 2 8 2.4 GHz 32 MB 16 GB / 128 GB Single-wide

PS704 blade 4 8 2.4 GHz 32 MB 32 GB / 256 GB Double-wide

Cores per
processor

Core
frequency

L3 cache
per processor

Minimum /
Maximum
memory

Form factor

For a detailed comparison, see 2.6, “Technical comparison” on page 54.

Full details about the PS700, PS701, and PS702 can be found in the IBM Redpaper, IBM
BladeCenter PS700, PS701, and PS702 Technical Overview and Introduction, REDP-4655
available from:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4655.html

1.3 IBM BladeCenter chassis support

Blade servers are thin servers that insert into a single rack-mounted chassis that supplies

shared power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. Each server is an independent server
with its own processors, memory, storage, network controllers, operating system, and
applications. The IBM BladeCenter chassis is the container for the blade servers and shared
infrastructure devices.

The IBM BladeCenter chassis can contain a mix of POWER, Intel®, Cell, and AMD
processor-based blades. Depending on the IBM BladeCenter chassis selected, combinations
of Ethernet, SAS, Fibre Channel, and FCoE I/O fabrics can also be shared within the same
chassis.

All chassis can offer full redundancy for all shared infrastructure, network, and I/O fabrics.
Having multiple power supplies, network switches, and I/O switches contained within a
BladeCenter chassis eliminates single points of failure in these areas.

The following sections describe the BladeCenter chassis that support the PS703 and PS704
blades. For a comprehensive look at all aspects of BladeCenter products see the IBM
Redbooks publication, IBM BladeCenter Products and Technology, SG24-7523, available
from the following web page:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247523.html

Refer to the BladeCenter Interoperability Guide for complete coverage of the compatibility
information. The latest version can be downloaded from the following address:

http://ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5073016

4 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

1.3.1 Supported BladeCenter chassis

The PS703 and PS704 blades are supported in the IBM BladeCenter chassis as listed in
Ta bl e 1 - 2 .

Table 1-2 The blade servers supported in each BladeCenter chassis

Blade Machine

type-model

Blade
width

BC S
8886

BC E
8677

BC T
8720

BC T
8730

BC H
8852

BC HT
8740

BC HT
8750

PS703 7891-73X 1 slot

PS704 7891-74X 2 slot

IBM BladeCenter H delivers high performance, extreme reliability, and ultimate flexibility for
the most demanding IT environments. See “BladeCenter H” on this page.

IBM BladeCenter HT models are designed for high-performance flexible telecommunications
environments by supporting high-speed networking technologies (such as 10G Ethernet).
They provide a robust platform for NGNs. See “BladeCenter HT” on page 7.

IBM BladeCenter S combines the power of blade servers with integrated storage, all in an
easy-to-use package designed specifically for the office and distributed enterprise
environments. See “BladeCenter S” on page 10.

Note: The number of blade servers that can be installed into chassis is dependent on the
power supply configuration, power supply input (110V/208V BladeCenter S only) and
power domain configuration options. See 1.3.2, “Number of PS703 and PS704 blades in a
chassis” on page 12 for more information.

BladeCenter H

IBM BladeCenter H delivers high performance, extreme reliability, and ultimate flexibility to
even the most demanding IT environments. In 9 U of rack space, the BladeCenter H chassis
can contain up to 14 blade servers, 10 switch modules, and four power supplies to provide the
necessary I/O network switching, power, cooling, and control panel information to support the
individual servers.

Ye s No No No Ye s Ye s Ye s

Ye s No No No Ye s Ye s Ye s

The chassis supports up to four traditional fabrics using networking switches, storage
switches, or pass-through devices. The chassis also supports up to four high-speed fabrics
for support of protocols such as 4X InfiniBand or 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The built-in media tray
includes light path diagnostics, two front USB 2.0 inputs, and an optical drive.

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 5

Figure 1-2 displays the front view of an IBM BladeCenter H and Figure 1-3 displays the rear
view.

Figure 1-2 BladeCenter H front view

Figure 1-3 BladeCenter H rear view

6 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

The key features of the IBM BladeCenter H chassis are as follows:

򐂰 A rack-optimized, 9 U modular design enclosure for up to 14 hot-swap blades.
򐂰 A high-availability mid-plane that supports hot-swap of individual blades.
򐂰 Two 2,900 watt or 2,980 watt hot-swap power modules and support for two optional 2,900

watt or 2,980 watt power modules, offering redundancy and power for robust
configurations (cannot mix power module types).

Power supply requirements: BladeCenter H model 8852-4TX has 2,980 watt power
supplies. Other models have 2,900 W powers supplies and the 2,980 W supplies are
optional.

The PS703 and PS704 do not require the 2,980 watt power supply. They are designed
to fully function with both the 2,900 watt and 2,980 watt power supplies.

򐂰 Two hot-swap redundant blowers. Two additional hot-swap fan modules are included with

additional power module option.

Blower requirements: BladeCenter H model 8852-4TX has enhanced blowers
compared with standard blowers in model 8852-4SX and earlier models. The enhanced
blowers are optional in the model 8852-4SX and earlier models.

The PS700, PS701, PS702, PS703, and PS704 do not require the enhanced blowers.
They are designed to fully function with both the standard and the enhanced blowers.

򐂰 An Advanced Management Module that provides chassis-level solutions, simplifying

deployment and management of your installation.

򐂰 Support for up to four network or storage switches or pass-through modules.
򐂰 Support for up to four bridge modules.
򐂰 A light path diagnostic panel, and two USB 2.0 ports.
򐂰 Serial port breakout connector.
򐂰 Support for UltraSlim Enhanced SATA DVD-ROM and multi-burner drives.
򐂰 IBM Systems Director and Tivoli® Provisioning Manager for OS Deployments for easy

installation and management.

򐂰 Energy-efficient design and innovative features to maximize productivity and reduce

power usage.

򐂰 Density and integration to ease data center space constraints.
򐂰 Help in protecting your IT investment through IBM BladeCenter family longevity,

compatibility, and innovation leadership in blades.

򐂰 Support for the latest generation of IBM BladeCenter blades, helping provide investment

protection.

BladeCenter HT

The IBM BladeCenter HT is a 12-server blade chassis designed for high-density server
installations, typically for telecommunications use. It offers high performance with the support
of 10 Gb Ethernet installations. This 12 U high chassis with DC or AC power supplies
provides a cost-effective, high performance, high availability solution for telecommunication
networks and other rugged non-telecommunications environments. The IBM BladeCenter HT

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 7

chassis is positioned for expansion, capacity, redundancy, and carrier-grade NEBS level
3/ETSI compliance in DC models.

BladeCenter HT provides a solid foundation for next-generation networks (NGN), enabling
service providers to become on demand providers. IBM's technological expertise in the

enterprise data center , coupled with the industry know-how of key business p artner s, delivers
added value within service provider networ ks.

Figure 1-4 shows the front view of the BladeCenter HT.

Figure 1-4 BladeCenter HT front view

8 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

Figure 1-5 shows the rear view of the BladeCenter HT.

Figure 1-5 BladeCenter HT rear view

BladeCenter HT delivers rich telecommunications features and functionality, including
integrated servers, storage and networking, fault-tolerant features, optional hot-swappable
redundant DC or AC power supplies and cooling, and built-in system management resources.
The result is a Network Equipment Building Systems (NEBS-3) and ETSI-compliant server
platform optimized for next-generation networks.

The following BladeCenter HT applications are well suited for these servers:
򐂰 Network management and security

– Network management engine
– Internet cache engine
– RSA encryption
–Gateways
– Intrusion detection

򐂰 Network infrastructure

– Softswitch
– Unified messaging
– Gateway/Gatekeeper/SS7 solutions
– VOIP services and processing
– Voice portals
– IP translation database

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 9

The key features of the BladeCenter HT are as follows:
򐂰 Support for up to 12 blade servers, compatible with the other chassis in the BladeCenter

family

򐂰 Four standard and four high-speed I/O module bays, compatible with the other chassis in

the BladeCenter family

򐂰 A media tray at the front with light path diagnostics, two USB 2.0 ports, and optional

compact flash memory module support

򐂰 Two hot-swap management-module bays (one management module standard)
򐂰 Four hot-swap power-module bays (two power modules standard)
򐂰 New serial port for direct serial connection to installed blades
򐂰 Compliance with the NEBS 3 and ETSI core network specifications

BladeCenter S

The BladeCenter S chassis can hold up to six blade servers, and up to 12 hot-swap 3.5-inch
SAS or SATA disk drives in just 7 U of rack space. It can also include up to four C14
950-watt/1450-watt power supplies. The BladeCenter S offers the necessary I/O network
switching, power, cooling, and control panel information to support the individual servers.

The IBM BladeCenter S is one of five chassis in the BladeCenter family. The BladeCenter S
provides an easy IT solution to the small and medium office and to the distributed enterprise.
Figure 1-6 shows the front view of the IBM BladeCenter S.

Figure 1-6 The front of the BladeCenter S chassis

10 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

Figure 1-7 shows the rear view of the chassis.

Figure 1-7 The rear of the BladeCenter S chassis

The key features of IBM BladeCenter S chassis are as follows:

򐂰 A rack-optimized, 7 U modular design enclosure for up to six hot-swap blades
򐂰 Two optional Disk Storage Modules for HDDs, six 3.5-inch SAS/SATA drives each
򐂰 High-availability mid-plane that supports hot-swap of individual blades
򐂰 Two 950-watt/1450-watt, hot-swap power modules and support for two optional

950/1450-watt power modules, offering redundancy and power for robust configurations

򐂰 Four hot-swap redundant blowers, plus one fan in each power supply
򐂰 An Advanced Management Module that provides chassis-level solutions, simplifying

deployment and management of your installation

򐂰 Support for up to four network or storage switches or pass-through modules
򐂰 A light path diagnostic panel, and two USB 2.0 ports
򐂰 Support for optional UltraSlim Enhanced SATA DVD-ROM and Multi-Burner Drives
򐂰 Support for SAS RAID Controller Module to make it easy for clients to buy the all-in-one

BladeCenter S solution

򐂰 IBM Systems Director, Storage Configuration Manager (SCM), Start Now Advisor, and

Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployments support for easy installation and
management

򐂰 Energy-efficient design and innovative features to maximize productivity and reduce

power usage

򐂰 Help in protecting your IT investment through IBM BladeCenter family longevity,

compatibility, and innovation leadership in blades

򐂰 Support for the latest generation of IBM BladeCenter blades, helping provide investment

protection

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 11

1.3.2 Number of PS703 and PS704 blades in a chassis

The number of POWER7 processor-based blades that can be installed in a BladeCenter
chassis depends on several factors:

򐂰 BladeCenter chassis type
򐂰 Number of power supplies installed
򐂰 Power supply voltage option (BladeCenter S only)
򐂰 BladeCenter power domain configuration

Table 1-3 shows the maximum number of PS703 and PS704 blades running in a maximum
configuration (memory, disk, expansion cards) for each supported BladeCenter chassis that
can be installed with fully redundant power and without performance reduction. IBM blades
that are based on processor types other than POWER7 might reduce these numbers.

Tip: As shown in Table 1-3, there is no restriction to the number of POWER7 blade servers
that you can install in a BladeCenter chassis other than the number of power supplies
installed in the chassis.

Table 1-3 PS703 and PS704 blades per chassis type

BladeCenter H BladeCenter HT BladeCenter S

14 Slots Total 12 Slots Total 6 Slots Total

110VAC 208VAC

Server

PS703 714612262 6

PS704 37361313

When mixing blades of different processor types in the same BladeCenter, the BladeCenter
Power Configurator tool helps determine whether the combination desired is valid. It is
expected that this tool will be updated to include the PS703 and PS704 blade configurations.
For more information about this update, see the following web page:

http://www.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/powerconfig

2 PS 4 PS 2 PS 4 PS 2 PS 4 PS 2 PS 4 PS

1.4 Operating environment

In this section, we list the operating environment specifications for the PS703 and PS704
blade servers and BladeCenter H and S.

PS703 and PS704

򐂰 Operating temperature

– 10°C - 35°C (50°F - 95°F) at 0 - 914 meters altitude (0 - 3000 feet)
– 10°C - 32°C (50°F - 90°F) at 914 - 2133 meters altitude (3000 - 7000 feet)

򐂰 Relative Humidity 8% - 80%
򐂰 Maximum Altitude 2133 meters (7000 ft.)

12 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

IBM BladeCenter H

򐂰 Operating temperature

– 10.0°C - 35 °C (50°F - 95 °F) at 0 - 914 m (0 - 3000 ft.)
– 10.0°C - 32 °C (50°F - 90 °F) at 914 - 2133 m (3000 - 7000 ft.)

򐂰 Relative humidity 8% - 80%
򐂰 Maximum altitude: 2133 meters (7000 ft.)

IBM BladeCenter S

򐂰 – Operating Temperature:

– 10°C - 35°C (50°F - 95°F) at 0 - 914 m (0 - 3000 ft.)
– 10°C - 32°C (50°F - 90°F) at 914 - 2133 m (3000 - 7000 ft.)

򐂰 Relative humidity: 8% - 80%
򐂰 Maximum altitude: 2133 meters (7000 ft.)

BladeCenter HT

򐂰 Operating temperature

– 5°C - 40°C (41°F - 104 °F) at -60 - 1800 m (-197 - 6000 ft.)
– 5°C - 30°C (41°F - 86 °F) at 1800 - 4000 m (6000 - 13000 ft.)

򐂰 Relative humidity 5% - 85%
򐂰 Maximum altitude: 4000 meters (13000 ft.)

1.5 Physical package

The PS703 and PS704 blade servers are supported in BladeCenter H, HT, and S.

This section describes the physical dimensions of the POWER7 blade servers and the
supported BladeCenter chassis only. Table 1-4 shows the physical dimensions of the PS703
and PS704 blade servers.

Table 1-4 Physical dimensions of PS703 and PS704 blade servers

Dimension PS703 blade server PS704 blade server

Height 9.65 inch (245 mm) 9.65 inch (245 mm)

Width 1.14 inch (29 mm)

Single-wide blade

Depth 17.55 inch (445 mm) 17.55 inch (445 mm)

Weight 9.6 lbs (4.35 kg) 19.2 lbs (8.7 kg)

Table 1-5 shows the physical dimension of the BladeCenter chassis that supports the
POWER7 processor-based blade servers.

Table 1-5 Physical dimension of Supported BladeCenter chassis

Dimension BladeCenter H BladeCenter S BladeCenter HT

2.32 inch (59 mm)
Double-wide blade

Height 15.75 inch (400 mm) 12 inch (305 mm) 21 inch (528 mm)

Width 17.4 inch (442 mm) 17.5 inch (445 mm) 17.4 inch (442 mm)

Depth 28 inch (711 mm) 28.9 inch (734 mm) 27.8 inch (706 mm)

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 13

1.6 System features

Two 8-core processors

Disk drive bay

CIOv connectorCFFh connector

SAS disk controller

16 memory DIMM sockets

The PS703 and PS704 blade servers are 16-core and 32-core POWER7 processor-based
blade servers.This section describes the features on each of the POWER7 blade servers.
The following topics are covered:

򐂰 1.6.1, “PS703 system features” on page 14
򐂰 1.6.2, “PS704 system features” on page 16
򐂰 1.6.3, “Minimum features for the POWER7 processor-based blade servers” on page 18
򐂰 1.6.4, “Power supply features” on page 19
򐂰 1.6.5, “Processor” on page 20
򐂰 1.6.6, “Memory features” on page 20
򐂰 1.6.7, “I/O features” on page 21
򐂰 1.6.8, “Disk features” on page 26
򐂰 1.6.9, “Standard onboard features” on page 26

1.6.1 PS703 system features

The BladeCenter PS703 is shown in Figure 1-8.

Figure 1-8 Top view of the PS703 blade server

The features of the server are as follows:
򐂰 Machine type and model number

7891-73X

14 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

򐂰 Form factor

Single-wide (30 mm) blade

򐂰 Processors:

– Two eight-core 64-bit POWER7 processors operating at a 2.4 GHz clock speed for a

total of 16 cores in the blade server
– Based on CMOS 12S 45 nm SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
– Power consumption is 110 W per socket
– Single-wide (SW) Blade package

򐂰 Memory

– 16 DIMM slots
– Minimum 16 GB, maximum capacity 256 GB (using 16 GB DIMMs)
– Industry standard VLP DDR3 DIMMs
– Optional Active Memory Expansion

򐂰 Disk

– 3 Gb SAS disk storage controller
– One disk drive bay which supports one 2.5-inch SAS HDD (hard disk drive) or two

1.8-inch SATA SSD (solid state drive)

– Hardware mirroring:

• One HDD: RAID 0

• One SSD: RAID 0

• Two SSDs: RAID 0 or RAID 10

򐂰 On-board integrated features:

– Service processor (SP)
– Two 1 Gb Ethernet ports
– One SAS Controller
– USB Controller which routes to the USB 2.0 port on the media tray
– 1 Serial over LAN (SOL) Console through SP

򐂰 Expansion Card I/O Options:

– One CIOv expansion card slot (PCIe)
– One CFFh expansion card slot (PCIe)

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 15

1.6.2 PS704 system features

Two 8-core processors

Drive bay

CIOv connectorCFFh connector

16 DIMM sockets

Thumb-screw
sockets

SMP connector to join the
PS704 base blade and SMP
blade together

The PS704 is a double-wide server. The two halves of the BladeCenter PS704 are shown in
Figure 1-9 on this page and Figure 1-10 on page 17.

Figure 1-9 Top view of PS704 blade server base unit

16 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction