IBM HS21 User Manual

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Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core

Intel Xeon blade server

Product Guide

November 2006

	IBM BladeCenter HS21

Product Overview	Uncompromising 2-socket blade server for business-
	critical or telecommunications applications

CONTENTS
Product Overview	1
Selling Features	2
Key Features	4
Key Options	12
HS21 Images	13
HS21 Specifications	13
BladeCenter Images	16
BladeCenter Specs	16
BladeCenter H Images	17
BladeCenter H Specs	18
BladeCenter T Images	19
BladeCenter T Specs	19
The Bottom Line	20
Server Rec. Map	22
For More Information	23
Legal Information	23

[Suggested uses: Front-and mid-tier applications requiring high performance, enterprise-class availability and extreme flexibility and power efficiency.]

Today’s data center environment is tougher than ever. You are looking to reduce IT cost, complexity, space requirements, power consumption and heat output, while increasing flexibility, utilization and manageability. Incorporating IBM X-Architecture™ features, the IBM® BladeCenter® HS21 blade server, combined with the various BladeCenter chassis, can help you accomplish all of these goals.

Reducing an entire server into as little as .5U of rack space does not mean trading away features and capabilities for smaller size. Each HS21 blade server offers features comparable to many 1U rack-optimized full-featured servers: The HS21 supports up to two of the latest full- performance/low-power-draw quad- and dual-core Intel® Xeon® processors. The Xeon processors are designed with 4MB (dual-core) or 8MB (quad-core) of L2 cache, a leading-edge 1066 or 1333MHz front-side bus (FSB), and 64-bit extensions (EM64T), to help provide the computing power you require to match your business needs and growth. The HS21 supports up to 32GB of 667MHz PC2-5300 Fully Buffered ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) double data rate II (DDR2) memory in 8 DIMM slots, using the Memory and I/O Expansion Unit, with optional Chipkill™ protection, for high performance and reliability. The base HS21 is packaged into a single 30mm form factor and supports up to 16GB of memory in 4 DIMM slots.

Integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet1 controllers are standard, providing high-speed data transfers and offering TOE (TCP Offload Engine) support, load-balancing and failover capabilities. The

Memory and I/O Expansion Unit provides two additional Gigabit Ethernet controllers (without TOE support). Via optional expansion cards, each blade can also connect to additional Ethernet, Myrinet, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, InfiniBand™, and other high-speed communication switches housed in the chassis. Optional 2-port Expansion Cards add additional fabrics to the HS21 server as needed. This blade is designed with power management capability to provide the maximum uptime possible for your systems. In extended thermal conditions or power brownouts, rather than shut down completely, or fail, the HS21 automatically reduces the processor frequency to maintain acceptable thermal and power levels.

All HS21 models offer impressive features at an equally impressive price, including up to two SAS hard disk drives, with RAID-0 data striping or RAID-1 disk mirroring support. An optional 30mm Storage and I/O Expansion Unit connects to a blade (model-dependent) to provide an additional three 2.5” SAS HDDs with hot-swap support, optional RAID-5 with battery-backed cache, and four additional communication ports. Moreover, the HS21 is optimized for diskless operation, offering each blade server access to essentially unlimited storage capacity via Fibre Channel or iSCSI.

A single BladeCenter or BladeCenter H chassis supports up to 14 hot-swappable 30mm-wide HS21 blades in only 7U (BladeCenter) or 9U (BladeCenter H) of rack space or up to 8 hotswappable blades in the rugged 8U BladeCenter T chassis. Plans call for supporting up to 8 HS21 NEBS-3/ETSI-compliant blades in a telecommunications environment. In addition to the blade servers, these chassis also hold up to four (BladeCenter/BladeCenter T) communication switches, or up to ten switches/bridges (BladeCenter H) internally. Not only can this save significant data center space (and therefore the cost of floor space and rack hardware) compared to 1U servers, it also consolidates switches/bridges and cables for reduced complexity and lower cabling costs, and allows clients to manage everything in the solution as one. Using a BladeCenter chassis, up to 84 HS21 servers (168 processors) can be installed in one industry-standard 42U rack but the value of BladeCenter extends far beyond high density data center environments.

1Actual data transfer speed will vary and is often less than the maximum possible. Gigabit Ethernet transfer speed requires support on both system and server, and appropriate network infrastructure.

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Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core

Intel Xeon blade server

	The various BladeCenter chassis are designed to monitor environmental conditions in the
	chassis and each blade and send alerts to the administrator. Advanced standard features, such
	as Active Memory™, Predictive Failure Analysis™, light path diagnostics, hot-swap
	redundant power supplies and blower modules with Calibrated Vectored Cooling™; IPMI
	2.0 support, including highly secure remote power control; text-console redirect over LAN,
	a Management Module (upgradeable with a redundant MM), IBM Director management
	software including IBM PowerExecutive™, Remote Deployment Manager, and IBM
	ServerGuide™ help maintain system availability with increased uptime.
	If you need highly manageable, high-performance computing power in a spaceor power-
	constrained environment, the HS21 is the ideal system.

Selling Features	Price/Performance
	• There is an HS21 model to fit all budgets. The HS21 offers a choice of high-performance multi-core
	Xeon processors with low-power draw, 64-bit extensions, either a 1066MHz or a 1333MHz front
	side bus and either 8MB or 4MB (processor-specific) of shared integrated Level 2 cache.
	• Low-voltage processors draw less power and produce less waste heat than high-voltage
	processors, thus helping to reduce data center energy costs. Some dual-core Xeon processors use
	only 65W. This is half the wattage consumed by older 130W processors. On a per-core basis, the
	80W quad-core processors are even more economical, consuming only 20W per core, vs. 32.5W
	per core for the 65W dual-core processors. For even lower dual-core power utilization, consider
	processors operating at 40W and even 35W (20W and 17.5W per core, respectively.)
	• Fully buffered PC2-5300 ECC memory operates at 667MHz with dual-interleaving, for high
	performance.
	• Selected HS21 blade servers are NEBS3/ETSI-compliant and feature long-life availability. These
	blades are ideal for telecom or Next Generation Network (NGN) applications such as IPTV, IP
	Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and security.
	• The extremely high degree of integration in the various BladeCenter chassis reduces the need
	for server components, replacing numerous fans, KVM and Ethernet cables, power supplies,
	external switches and other components with fewer shared hot-swap/redundant components in the
	BladeCenter chassis itself. This integration also can greatly reduce the amount of power
	consumed and heat produced, relative to an equivalent number of 1U servers. This can
	significantly reduce a data center’s power bill. The reduced datacenter footprint can also save on
	infrastructure cost.
	• The chassis midplane provides high-speed blade-to-blade, blade-to-switch-module and
	module-to-module communication internally as well as externally. The midplane in the
	BladeCenter H provides four 10Gb data channels to each blade, and supports 4X InfiniBand and
	10Gb Ethernet high-speed switch modules.
	• The various BladeCenter chassis use ultrahigh efficiency power supplies. Most industry-
	standard servers use power supplies that are between 65-75% efficient at converting power from
	AC wall current to the DC power used inside servers. BladeCenter power modules can be more
	than 90% efficient. This helps save even more money, as more of the power input you are paying
	for is used for processing, rather than released into the data center as waste heat.
	• BladeCenter also reduces the number of parts required to run the system. Sharing fans, systems
	management, floppy devices and media means fewer parts to buy and maintain, and fewer items
	that can bring the solution down.

	Flexibility
	The HS21 has the ability to grow with your application requirements, thanks to:
	• Up to two multi-core Xeon processors (four or eight cores in all).
	• Up to 16GB (standard) or 32GB (using the optional Memory and I/O Expansion Unit) of high-
	speed fully buffered 667MHz PC2-5300 DDR2 error checking and correcting (ECC) system
	memory with optional Chipkill protection.
	• Up to two internal 2.5-inch SAS HDDs, up to three 2.5-inch SAS HDDs in an adjacent Storage and
	I/O Expansion Unit, and access to terabytes of external IBM System Storage™ and IBM
	TotalStorage™ SAN and NAS storage devices. 2.5-inch drives consume approximately half the
	power of 3.5-inch drives.
	• Two Gigabit Ethernet ports standard; plus more, using either a 2-port Gigabit Ethernet Expansion
	Card, a Memory and I/O Expansion Unit, or a PCI I/O Expansion Unit II.
	In addition, the various BladeCenter chassis offer a high degree of flexibility:
	• A 30mm HS21 blade server can be upgraded, via a Memory and I/O Expansion Unit to a double-
	wide HS21 (with expanded capabilities). With or without the Memory and I/O Expansion Unit, the
	blade can be expanded further with a Storage and I/O Expansion Unit and/or a PCI I/O
	Expansion Unit. This expandability allows configurations that are 30mm, 60mm, 90mm or 120mm

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Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core

Intel Xeon blade server

wide, with a variety of memory, storage and I/O options, depending on need.

•Xeon processor-based HS21 blades can be used in the same chassis as Intel processor-based HS20/HS40 blades, Opteron processor-based LS20/LS21/LS41 blades, and IBM PowerPC®

processor-based JS20/JS21 blades. Depending on the blade servers used, the various BladeCenter chassis support Microsoft Windows, Linux, Netware, IBM AIX® and Sun Solaris 10 operating systems in the same chassis.

•Every HS/LS/JS blade server ever released by IBM is supported in BladeCenter H, and most are supported in every BladeCenter chassis ever released, going back to 2002. Every switch module released by IBM is equally compatible. (Ask HP and Dell how far back their compatibility goes.)

Future blades and fabric switches are expected to continue to be compatible with previous chassis for the foreseeable future.

•A blade server has access to as many as 10 communication switches and/or bridges in one BladeCenter H chassis. (Up to 6 switches in a BladeCenter or BladeCenter T chassis.) And the switches can be Ethernet, iSCSI, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, Myrinet, or anything else designed and ServerProven for BladeCenter use. Switches, bridges and interface cards are currently available from such vendors as Brocade, Cisco, Intel, McData, Nortel, QLogic, Cisco Topspin and others, in addition to IBM.

Manageability

•The HS21 blade server includes a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) to monitor server availability, perform Predictive Failure Analysis, etc., and trigger IBM Director alerts.

•Each BladeCenter chassis includes a Management Module or Advanced Management Module to provide additional systems management capabilities, including Web-based out-of-band control; virtual floppy and CD-ROM support; Windows “blue screen” error capture; LDAP and SSL support; and remote redirection of video, text, keyboard and mouse.

•Integrated industry-standard IPMI 2.0 support works with the BMC to alert IBM Director to anomalous environmental factors, such as voltage and thermal conditions. It also supports highly secure remote power control.

•IBM PowerExecutive, an IBM-exclusive, is designed to take advantage of new system power management features, by monitoring actual power usage and providing power consumption capping features. More accurate power usage data helps with data center construction planning and the sizing of power and cooling needs, as well as allowing you to use available power more efficiently.

•The HS21 supports an optional feature card that provides concurrent KVM (cKVM) and concurrent media (cMedia) access by multiple administrators at once. (This card uses a dedicated slot and does not affect the use of PCI-X/PCI-E adapters.)

•IBM Director 5.1x is included for proactive systems management and works with both the blade’s internal BMC and the chassis’ management module. It comes with a portfolio of tools, including IBM PowerExecutive, Management Processor Assistant, RAID Manager, Update Assistant, and

Software Distribution. In addition, IBM Director offers extended systems management tools for additional server management and increased availability. When a problem is encountered, IBM Director can issue administrator alerts via e-mail, pager, and other methods.

Availability and Serviceability

•BladeCenter chassis are designed for operation with greatly reduced potential for single points of failure. Most aspects of operation, from blade servers to communication modules, to management modules, to power and blower modules, are hot-swappable. The midplane connections are redundant and the other features can be made so, when used in pairs.

•HS21 blade servers support the use of Chipkill-enabled memory DIMMs. Chipkill memory can be up to 16X better than standard ECC memory at correcting some types of memory errors. This can help reduce downtime caused by memory errors.

•IPMI 2.0 supports highly secure remote system power on/off using data encryption. This allows an administrator to restart a server without having to visit it in person, saving travel time and getting the server back up and running quickly and securely.

•Environmentally tuned blower modules in the chassis adjust to compensate for changing thermal characteristics. At the lower speeds they draw less power and suffer less wear. Equally important in a crowded data center, temperature-controlled blowers produce less ambient noise in the data center than if they were constantly running at full speed.

•Text and graphics console redirection support allows the administrator to remotely view HS21

2For terms and conditions or copies of the IBM Statement of Limited Warranty, call 800-772-2227 in the U.S. In Canada call 800-426-2255. Telephone support may be subject to additional charges. For warranties including onsite labor, a technician is sent after IBM attempts to resolve the problem remotely. International warranty service is available in any country in which this product is sold.

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Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core

Intel Xeon blade server

text and graphic messages over serial or LAN connections.

• A standard three-year (parts and labor) limited onsite warranty2 affords you peace of mind and greater potential investment protection.

IBM Systems Agenda

The philosophy behind the design of the HS21 and the various BladeCenter Chassis involves four major aspects, Openness, Collaborative Innovation, Virtualization, and Technology Innovation that Matters:

• Unlike competitive blade solutions, many parts of the BladeCenter specifications have been made open. Hundreds of vendors have downloaded the specifications, and dozens so far have released products designed specifically for BladeCenter, including Brocade, Topspin, Cisco, Nortel, Emulex, and others. This provides a wider selection of options to better fit your needs than a purely proprietary offering could.

• IBM has collaborated with industry leaders to offer innovative solution packages for specific industry segments, including banking, retail, telco and others. In addition, IBM formed Blade.org, a planned collaborative organization, to focus on accelerating the expansion of solutions for BladeCenter. Founding members in the blade.org community include Brocade, Citrix Systems, Intel Corporation, Network Appliances, Nortel, Novell and VMware.

• IBM offers virtualization capabilities in a number of ways: desktop virtualization via Hosted Clients, InfiniBand virtualization and native blade virtualization.

	• Technology for technology’s sake is pointless. Instead IBM BladeCenter focuses on technological
	innovation that provides real customer benefits. Examples of this include a high degree of blade
	and module compatibility across all chassis, the use of fewer and lower-power components to
	enable significant power and cooling savings, and hot-swap and redundant components that
	reduce single points of failure.

Key Features	Intel Xeon Processors
	The HS21 supports up to two identical Xeon processors (that is, the same clock rate and cache
	size and the same number of cores). The choice of processors includes:
	• 80W quad-core Xeon processor models 5310, 5320, and 5345 at 1.6, 1.86, or 2.33GHz
	(respectively), with 64-bit extensions, reduced power draw, a 1066MHz (1.6 or 1.86GHz) or
	1333MHz (2.33GHz) FSB, and 8MB of shared L2 processor cache; supported in all BladeCenter
	chassis.
	• 80W dual-core Xeon processor model 5160 at 3.0GHz, with 64-bit extensions, low power draw, a
	1333MHz FSB, and 4MB of shared L2 processor cache; supported in all BladeCenter chassis.
	• 65W dual-core Xeon processor models 5110 or 5120 at 1.6 or 1.86GHz (respectively), with a
	1066MHz FSB, or models 5130, 5140, or 5150 at 2.0, 2.33, or 2.66GHz, with a 1333MHz FSB.
	These processors feature 64-bit extensions, impressive performance/watt and 4MB of shared L2
	processor cache. Select models also feature an embedded processor with long life support as well
	as NEBS 3/ETSI compliance. Supported in all BladeCenter chassis.
	• 40W dual-core Xeon processor model 5148 at 2.33GHz, with 64-bit extensions, ultralow power
	draw, a 1333MHz FSB, and 4MB of shared L2 processor cache; supported in all BladeCenter
	chassis.
	• 35W dual-core Xeon processor model 5138 at 2.13GHz, with 64-bit extensions, ultralow power
	draw, a 1066MHz FSB, and 4MB of shared L2 processor cache; supported in all BladeCenter
	chassis. This processor is a long-life, embedded offering, intended for a NEBS environment.
	The dual-core Xeon processors contain two complete processor cores; quad-core
	processors, similarly, contain four cores. The processors also contain one unified shared 4MB
	(dual-core) or 8MB (quad-core) cache. The shared cache is dynamically allocated between the
	cores as needed. The two cores appear to software as two physical processors. The dual-core
	processors offer considerably higher performance than a same-speed Xeon processor with a
	single core. Likewise, quad-core processors offer considerably higher performance than a
	same-speed Xeon processor with dual cores.
	Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, to
	reduce power draw.
	Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) 64-bit extensions allow Xeon processors to
	use large memory addressing when running with a 64-bit operating system. This can result in
	higher performance. Additional registers and instructions (SSE3) can further boost performance
	for applications written to use them. Contact your software providers to determine their software
	support for EM64T.

	DDR II ECC Fully Buffered Memory with Chipkill Protection
	The HS21 ships with PC2-5300 fully-buffered double data rate II (DDR II) memory (operating

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Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core

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at 667MHz) for faster access, and provides Active Memory features, including advanced Chipkill memory protection (using 1GB or larger DIMMs), for up to 16X better error correction than standard ECC memory. The HS21 supports up to 16GB of memory in four DIMM slots. Adding a 30mm Memory and I/O Expansion Unit doubles the memory support to 32GB in eight DIMM slots.

The fully buffered memory in the HS21 provides up to triple the memory bandwidth (up to 21.3GBps in four channels of PC2-5300 fully-buffered DIMMs vs. a maximum of 6.4GBps in two channels of unbuffered PC2-3200 memory. By performing reads and writes simultaneously, it eliminates the previous memory read-to-write blocking latency. In addition, it also offers innovative data reliability and security features to help improve data integrity, including enhanced CRC protection, data retry on error detect and buffer registers for improved fault isolation.

For increased availability, the HS21 offers two additional (but mutually exclusive) levels of IBM

Active Memory protection: online memory mirroring, and online hot-spare memory.

Memory mirroring works much like disk mirroring. The total memory is divided into two channels. Data is written concurrently to both channels. If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs in the primary channel, it is instantly disabled and the mirrored (backup) memory in the other channel becomes active (primary) until the failing DIMM is replaced. One-half of total memory is available for use with mirroring enabled. (Note: Due to the double writes to memory, performance is affected.)

When online hot-spare memory is enabled, using single and/or dual-rank DIMMs one rank is set aside per branch as online spares in case one of the other ranks fails. The spare rank must have capacity at least that of the largest active rank. In an HS21 with 16GB installed, up to 8GB

(using 4 single-rank 4GB DIMMs) or 12GB (using 4 dual-rank 4GB DIMMs) of memory is available when the hot-spare feature is active. (The lowest-numbered rank of those with the highest capacity in each branch is used for the hot-spares.) If a Memory and I/O Expansion Unit is installed to upgrade an HS21 to 32GB of RAM, up to 24GB (using 8 single-rank 4GB DIMMs) or 28GB (using 8 dual-rank 4GB DIMMs) of memory is available when the hot-spare feature is active.

Either of these features requires operating system support.

PC2-5300 fully buffered memory is available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB memory kits (two 512MB, 1GB, 2GB or 4GB DIMMs per kit, respectively). DIMMs are installed in pairs for increased performance, provided by dual-interleaving.

Gigabit Ethernet Controllers

The HS21 includes two integrated Broadcom BCM5708S Gigabit Ethernet controllers for up to 10X higher maximum throughput than a 10/100 Ethernet controller. The controllers offer TOE (TCP Offload Engine) support, as well as failover and load balancing for better throughput and system availability. It also supports highly secure remote power management using IPMI 2.0, plus Wake on LAN® and PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) Flash interface.

For additional Gigabit Ethernet controllers, an optional Memory and I/O Expansion Unit may be added. This provides two Broadcom BCM5714S controllers (no TOE support). An optional 2-port Ethernet expansion card adds two additional Gigabit Ethernet ports per HS21 server.

Large HDD Storage Capacity

The HS21 offers a choice of disk storage, supporting up to two 2.5-inch internal fixed SAS drives, as well as an expansion unit that offers additional direct-attached storage.

• 10K RPM 2.5-inch — 36.4 or 73.4GB capacities (146.8GB maximum)

If this is not enough internal storage, an optional “sidecar” storage blade is available. The

Storage and I/O Expansion Unit is a 30mm blade that supports up to three 2.5-inch hot-swap

SAS HDDs. It is installed in the slot adjacent to an HS21 blade server.

Fully populating both the HS21 blade and the expansion unit provides up to 367GB of local storage to the HS21 blade server. This storage can be configured as a single RAID-1 or RAID-5 array, or as two separate RAID arrays—one in the expansion unit and the other in the base blade—for even more flexibility. If you need more storage space, terabyte capacities are possible with optional external iSCSI and SAN storage solutions.

External Tape Storage

The HS21 supports various external rack-mounted SAN-attached tape drives. Supported tape technologies include:

•IBM 2U Universal Tape Autoloader

•IBM 4U Universal Tape Library

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Workhorse 2-socket dual and quad-core

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Disk Controllers

All HS21 models include an integrated LSI 1064E SAS controller. This controller supports up to two internal SAS LVD (low-voltage differential) drives and offers hardware RAID-0/1 support.

If an optional Storage and I/O Expansion Unit is used, the integrated ServeRAID-8k-l controller offers hardware RAID-0/1/1E support and 32MB of fast PC2-4200 DDR2 cache for the internal drives. A ServeRAID-8k option adds RAID-5 support for up to five direct-attached SAS drives, along with 256MB of cache memory for higher performance, and battery backup, without consuming a valuable adapter slot.

The SAS controller provides data transfer speeds of up to 300MB per second3 in each direction (full-duplex) across the SAS bus, for an aggregate speed of 600MBps, nearly double that of Ultra320 SCSI’s 320MBps (half-duplex) bandwidth. The serial design of the SAS bus allows maximum performance to be maintained as additional drives are added.

High-Performance Adapter Slots

The HS21 blade server includes one x8 PCI-E and one 133MHz PCI-X adapter slot on each blade. Either one legacy PCI-X expansion card or one SFF (small form factor) PCI-E adapter can be installed in this blade (one card total).

One of three possible expansion units may be added to increase the number of expansion card slots available. Each will utilize the PCI-E slot in the HS21:

•The 30mm Memory and I/O Expansion Unit provides one PCI-X slot in addition to the one on the HS21 blade.

•The 30mm PCI I/O Expansion Unit II provides two PCI-X slots in addition to the one on the HS21 blade (3 PCI-X slots usable).

•The 30mm Storage and I/O Expansion Unit provides two adapter slots: either two PCI-X cards or one PCI-X and one PCI-E slot in addition to the one PCI-X slot on the HS21 blade. (The first PCI-X card installed in the expansion unit must be a Gigabit Ethernet card, because it is routed to module bays 1 and 2.)

The HS21 also supports an optional feature card (in a dedicated slot) that provides concurrent

KVM (cKVM) and concurrent media (cMedia) access by multiple administrators at once.

Adapters can also be used to add interfaces to BladeCenter communication modules, including

Fibre Channel, Myrinet, additional Gigabit Ethernet modules, InfiniBand, etc.

BladeCenter Chassis

IBM offers three choices of chassis in which to use the HS21 blade server. Each chassis serves different customer needs. The original BladeCenter chassis offers maximum density, great flexibility and a wide variety of expansion options at an entry-level price. The next-generation BladeCenter H chassis offers all of BladeCenter’s capabilities, and adds new high-performance features. If you need a ruggedized chassis (for example, government/ military or telcos), BladeCenter T offers special features optimized for those environments. There is a high degree of interchangeability and compatibility of features among the three chassis. Any or all of these chassis can be installed in a rack along with other rack-optimized equipment.

BladeCenter is a 7U chassis that provides:

•Reduced single points of failure — Many major components (either standard or optionally) are hot-swappable and/or redundant. Servers and modules can be configured for automatic failover to backups.

•Forward and backward compatibility — Most blades, and every switch and passthru module released for IBM BladeCenter since 2002, are supported. Many new blades and fabric switches released by IBM for BladeCenter H or BladeCenter T will also be supported in the original BladeCenter chassis.

•Fourteen 30mm blade slots — These hot-swap slots are capable of supporting up to 14 HS20/HS21 (Xeon), LS20/LS21 (AMD® Opteron®), and JS20/JS21 (IBM PowerPC 970FX/MP) blade servers, or 7 double-wide (60mm) HS40 or LS41 blade servers or a mixture of 30mm and 60mm blades. It also supports multiple optional 30mm Expansion Units in combination with the blade servers, using the same blade slots. Up to six chassis can be installed in an industry-standard 42U rack, for a total of up to 84 30mm blade servers per rack, with full power redundancy.

•Four module slots for communication and I/O switches — The modules interface with all of the blade servers in the chassis and eliminate the need for external switches or expensive, cumbersome cabling. All connections are done internally via the midplane. Two module slots are reserved for hot-swap/redundant Gigabit Ethernet switch modules. The other two bays support additional Gigabit Ethernet modules, or Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and other switch modules or

3 Data transfer rates depend on many factors and are often less than the maximum possible.

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pass-through devices. All modules, when installed in pairs, offer load balancing and failover support. Integrated switch modules mean that no extra rack “U space” is required.

•Two module bays for management modules (IBM BladeCenter Management Module or the new Advanced Management Module, depending on the model of the BladeCenter chassis) — The management module provides advanced systems management and KVM capabilities for not only the chassis itself, but for all of the blades and other modules installed in the chassis. The

Management Module provides capabilities similar to the IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II used in stand-alone IBM System x™ or IBM eServer™ xSeries® rack and tower servers. The features of the Management Module can be accessed either locally or remotely across a network. One module comes standard. A second Management Module can be added for hot-swap/redundancy and failover.

•Four module bays for Blower Modules — Two hot-swap/redundant blower modules come standard with the chassis. They are capable of providing efficient cooling for up to 7 blades. These modules replace the need for each blade to contain its own fans. The two blowers are more energy efficient than dozens or hundreds of smaller fans would be, and they offer many fewer points of potential failure. Two additional blower modules can be installed when more than 7 blades are used in a chassis.

•Four module bays for Power Modules — BladeCenter ships with two 2000W high-efficiency hot-swap/redundant power modules (upgradeable to four), capable of handling the power needs of the entire chassis. Many servers use power supplies with an efficiency level of approximately 6575%. Because BladeCenter uses power supplies that are at least 90% efficient, much less power is wasted as heat. Not only is more power available for chassis use, there is less power wasted as excess heat output.

•Redundant Midplane connections — By giving each blade two physical connections to the midplane that connects all blades and modules together internally, a failure of one connector cannot bring down the server.

•A hot-swappable Media Tray containing a DVD-ROM drive, a floppy drive, one USB 1.1 port, and a light path diagnostic panel — The media tray is shared by all the blades in the server. This eliminates unnecessary parts (and reduces the number of parts than can fail). In the event of a failure of the Media Tray the tray can be swapped for another. While the tray is offline, the servers in the chassis can remotely access the Media Tray in another chassis. The light path diagnostic panel contains LEDs that identify which internal components are in need of service.

It is extremely important to include all infrastructure costs when comparing a BladeCenter solution to a competitor’s offering, not just the cost of the chassis and the blades. The high density and level of integration of the BladeCenter chassis greatly reduces the cost of the overall solution. For example, because up to six chassis will fit in a rack, this means that up to 84 blade servers can be installed. (Competitive blade offerings would require a second rack for this many blades.) Also, because up to four Ethernet, Myrinet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or other switches can be installed per chassis, up to 24 switches can be installed per rack without having to reserve any “U” space for switches, unlike the competition. (And the integrated switches may be less expensive than external, self-powered switches.) Plus, the number of power distribution units (PDUs) needed per rack may be lessened, because there are fewer discrete devices to have to plug in. In addition, because all the blades are connected to all the switches inside the chassis, there is no need for external Ethernet or other communication cables to connect the blades and switches. (Only the few cables needed to connect the switches to the external world are required.) This not only saves the cost of numerous cables per rack, but also the clutter and bother of routing that many cables. An added bonus is potentially much freer airflow behind the rack, due to fewer cables.

BladeCenter H is an even higher-performing 9U chassis, designed for compute-intensive environments, such as Earth/Life Sciences, commercial analytics and next-generation network applications. Think of it as BladeCenter’s big brother, with more speed and more features. It provides:

•Forward and backward compatibility — Every blade, switch, and passthru module released by IBM for the original BladeCenter chassis since 2002 is supported in the BladeCenter H chassis.

•High-speed redundant Midplane connections — Based on 4X InfiniBand, the midplane supports up to 40Gb bandwidth and provides four 10Gb data channels to each blade. By giving each blade two physical connections to the midplane that connects all blades and modules together internally, a failure of one connector alone cannot bring down the server.

•Fourteen 30mm blade slots — These hot-swap slots are capable of supporting any combination of 14 HS20/HS21 (Xeon), LS20/LS21 (AMD® Opteron®), and JS20/JS21 (IBM PowerPC 970FX/MP) blade servers, or 7 double-wide (60mm) HS40 or LS41 blade servers, or a mixture of 30mm and 60mm blades. It also supports multiple optional 30mm Expansion Units in combination

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