IBM p5 550 Technical Overview And Introduction

Front cover

IBM Eserver p5 550
Technical Overviewhnical Overview
and IntroductionIntroduction

Finer system granularity using
Micro-Partitioning technology to lower TCO

Outstanding performance based on
POWER5 processor technology

From Web servers to
integrated cluster solutions

ibm.com/redbooks

Giuliano Anselmi

Gregor Linzmeier

Wolfgang Seiwald

Philippe Vandamme

Redpaper

International Technical Support Organization

IBM Sserver p5 550 Technical Overview and
Introduction

July 2004

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

First Edition (July 2004)

This edition applies to IBM Sserver p5 550 AIX 5L Version 5.3, product number 5765-G03.

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2004. 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 that wrote this Redpaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .x

Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .x

Chapter 1. General description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 System specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2 Physical package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2.1 IBM eServer p5 550 deskside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.2.2 IBM eServer p5 550 rack-mounted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3 Minimum and optional features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.3.1 Processor card features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.3.2 Memory features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.3.3 Disk and media features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.3.4 USB diskette drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.3.5 I/O drawers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.3.6 Hardware Management Console models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.4 Value Paks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.5 System racks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.5.1 IBM RS/6000 7014 Model T00 Enterprise Rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.5.2 IBM RS/6000 7014 Model T42 Enterprise Rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5.3 AC Power Distribution Unit and rack content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5.4 Rack-mounting rules for p5-p550 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1.5.5 Additional options for rack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1.5.6 OEM rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.1 The POWER5 chip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.1.1 POWER chip evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.1.2 CMOS, copper, and SOI technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.2 Processor cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.2.1 Available processor speeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.3 Memory subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.3.1 Memory placement rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.3.2 Memory restriction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.4 System buses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.4.1 RIO buses and GX card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.5 Internal I/O subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.5.1 PCI-X slots and adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.5.2 LAN adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.5.3 Graphic accelerators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.5.4 SCSI adapters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.6 Internal serial ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.7 Internal storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.7.1 Internal media devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.7.2 Internal hot swappable SCSI disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2004. All rights reserved. iii

2.7.3 RAID options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.8 External I/O subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.8.1 I/O drawers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.8.2 7311 Model D20 I/O drawer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.8.3 7311 I/O drawer’s RIO-2 cabling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.8.4 7311 Model D20 I/O drawer SPCN cabling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.8.5 External disk subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

2.9 Dynamic logical partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.10 Micro-Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.10.1 Advanced POWER Virtualization feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.10.2 Virtual I/O server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.10.3 Partition Load Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.10.4 Simultaneous multi-threading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2.11 Service processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.11.1 Service processor base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2.11.2 Service processor extender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.12 Boot process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.12.1 IPL flow without an HMC attached to the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.12.2 Hardware Management Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.12.3 IPL flow with an HMC attached to the system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.12.4 Definitions of partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2.12.5 Hardware requirements for Micro-Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.12.6 Specific partition definitions used for Micro-partition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2.12.7 System Management Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.12.8 Boot options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.12.9 Additional boot options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.12.10 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.13 Operating system requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.13.1 AIX 5L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.13.2 Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Chapter 3. Capacity on Demand, RAS, and manageability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

3.1 Capacity on Demand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

3.1.1 Processor Capacity Upgrade on Demand methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

3.1.2 How to report temporary activation resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

3.2 Reliability, availability, and serviceability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

3.2.1 Fault avoidance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

3.2.2 First Failure Data Capture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

3.2.3 Permanent monitoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

3.2.4 Self-healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

3.2.5 N+1 redundancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

3.2.6 Fault masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

3.2.7 Resource deallocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

3.2.8 Serviceability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

3.3 Manageability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.3.1 Service processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.3.2 Service Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.3.3 p5 Customer-Managed Microcode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

3.3.4 Service Update Management Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

3.4 Cluster 1600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

iv p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

How to get IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Contents v

vi p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

Notices

This information was developed for products and services offered in the U.S.A.

IBM may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult
your local IBM representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area.
Any reference to an IBM product, program, or service is not intended to state or imply that only that IBM
product, program, or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program, or service that does
not infringe any IBM intellectual property right may be used instead. However, it is the user's responsibility to
evaluate and verify the operation of any non-IBM product, program, or service.

IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter described in this document. The
furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license inquiries, in
writing, to:

IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, North Castle Drive Armonk, NY 10504-1785 U.S.A.

The following paragraph does not apply to the United Kingdom or any other country where such provisions
are inconsistent with local law: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS

PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT,
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimer of
express or implied warranties in certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you.

This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made
to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. IBM may make
improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time
without notice.

Any references in this information to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any
manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the
materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk.

IBM may use or distribute any of the information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without
incurring any obligation to you.

Any performance data contained herein was determined in a controlled environment. Therefore, the results
obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Some measurements may have been made
on development-level systems and there is no guarantee that these measurements will be the same on
generally available systems. Furthermore, some measurement may have been estimated through
extrapolation. Actual results may vary. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their
specific environment.

Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of those products, their published
announcements or other publicly available sources. IBM has not tested those products and cannot confirm the
accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the
capabilities of non-IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products.

This information contains examples of data and reports used in daily business operations. To illustrate them
as completely as possible, the examples include the names of individuals, companies, brands, and products.
All of these names are fictitious and any similarity to the names and addresses used by an actual business
enterprise is entirely coincidental.

COPYRIGHT LICENSE:
This information contains sample application programs in source language, which illustrates programming
techniques on various operating platforms. You may copy, modify, and distribute these sample programs in
any form without payment to IBM, for the purposes of developing, using, marketing or distributing application
programs conforming to the application programming interface for the operating platform for which the sample
programs are written. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. IBM, therefore,
cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs. You may copy, modify, and
distribute these sample programs in any form without payment to IBM for the purposes of developing, using,
marketing, or distributing application programs conforming to IBM's application programming interfaces.

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2004. All rights reserved. vii

Trademarks

The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,
other countries, or both:

Advanced Micro-Partitioning™
AIX®
AIX 5L™
Chipkill™
Electronic Service Agent™
Enterprise Storage Server®

Eserver®

Eserver®

The following terms are trademarks of other companies:

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

HACMP™
i5/OS™
IBM®
Micro-Partitioning™
POWER™
POWER4™
POWER4+™
POWER5™

PowerPC®
pSeries®
Redbooks™
Redbooks (logo) ™
RS/6000®
Service Director™
TotalStorage®

viii p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

Preface

This document is a comprehensive guide covering the IBM Sserver® p5 550 UNIX®
servers. We introduce major hardware offerings and discuss their prominent functions.

Professionals wishing to acquire a better understanding of IBM Sserver p5 products should
consider reading this document. The intended audience includes:

򐂰 Customers
򐂰 Sales and marketing professionals
򐂰 Technical support professionals
򐂰 IBM Business Partners
򐂰 Independent software vendors

This document expands the current set of IBM Sserver documentation by providing a
desktop reference that offers a detailed technical description of the p5-550 system.

This publication does not replace the latest IBM Sserver pSeries® marketing materials and
tools. It is intended as an additional source of information that, together with existing sources,
can be used to enhance your knowledge of IBM server solutions.

The team that wrote this Redpaper

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

Giuliano Anselmi is a certified pSeries Presales Technical Support Specialist working in the
Field Technical Sales Support group based in Rome, Italy. For seven years, he was an IBM
Sserver pSeries Systems Product Engineer, supporting Web Server Sales Organization in
EMEA, IBM Sales, IBM Business Partners, Technical Support Organizations, and IBM Dublin
eServer Manufacturing. Giuliano has worked for IBM for 12 years, devoting himself to
RS/6000® and pSeries systems with his in-depth knowledge of the related hardware and
solutions.

Gregor Linzmeier is an IBM Advisory IT Specialist for RS/6000 and pSeries workstation and
entry servers as part of the Systems and Technology Group in Mainz, Germany supporting
IBM sales, Business Partners, and customers with pre-sales consultation and implementation
of client/server environments. He has worked for more than 13 years as an infrastructure
specialist for RT, RS/6000, and AIX® in large CATIA client/server projects.

Wolfgang Seiwald is an IBM Presales Technical Support Specialist working for the System
Sales Organization in Salzburg, Austria. He holds a Diplomingenieur degree in Telematik
from the Technical University of Graz. The main focus of his work for IBM in the past five
years has been in the areas of the IBM Sserver pSeries systems and the IBM AIX operating
system.

Philippe Vandamme is an IT Specialist working in pSeries Field Technical Support in Paris,
France, EMEA West region. With 15 years of experience in semi-conductor fabrication and
manufacturing and associated technologies, he is now in charge of pSeries Pre-Sales
Support. In his daily role, he supports and delivers training to the IBM and Business Partner
Sales force.

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2004. All rights reserved. ix

The project that produced this document was managed by:

Scott Vetter

IBM U.S.

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

Ron Arroyo, Lupe Brown, Arzu Gucer, Barb Hewitt, Thoi Nguyen, Jan Palmer, Charlie
Reeves, Craig Shempert, Scott Smylie, Joel Tendler, Ed Toutant, Jane Arbeitman, enley
Jackson, Andy McLaughlin.

IBM U.S.

Become a published author

Join us for a two- to six-week residency program! Help write an IBM Redbook dealing with
specific products or solutions, while getting hands-on experience with leading-edge
technologies. You'll team with IBM technical professionals, Business Partners and/or
customers.

Your efforts will help increase product acceptance and customer satisfaction. As a bonus,
you'll develop a network of contacts in IBM development labs, and increase your productivity
and marketability.

Find out more about the residency program, browse the residency index, and apply online at:

ibm.com/redbooks/residencies.html

Comments welcome

Your comments are important to us!

We want our papers to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments about this
Redpaper or other Redbooks in one of the following ways:

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

ibm.com/redbooks

򐂰 Send your comments in an Internet note to:

[e-mail]

򐂰 Mail your comments to:

IBM Corporation, International Technical Support Organization
Dept. JN9B Building 905 Internal Zip 9053D004
11501 Burnet Road
Austin, Texas 78758-3493

x p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

Chapter 1. General description

The IBM Sserver p5 550 deskside and rack-mount servers are designed for greater
application flexibility, with innovative technology, to capitalize on the e-business revolution at
the entry-level or server environments. Introduced with the POWER4 and POWER4+
technology in 2001, available from the 1-way entry-level through the 32-way high-end pSeries
systems, the IBM POWER architecture achieved a new stage of capability characteristics by
including features such as logical partitioning (LPAR). With POWER5 microprocessor
technology, the p5-550 is the first cost-effective, high-performance entry UNIX server to
include the next development of the IBM partitioning concept, Micro-Partitioning.

1

Dynamic LPAR on a 4-way p5-550 allows up to four dedicated partitions. In addition, the
optional Advanced POWER Virtualization feature enables the support up to 40
Micro-Partitions on a 4-way system. Micro-Partitioning technology is an advanced feature of
the POWER5 processor that enables multiple partitions to share a physical processor. The
extended POWER Hypervisor controls dispatching the physical processors to each of the
Micro-partitions. In addition to Micro-Partitioning, the Advanced POWER Virtualization feature
allows sharing of physical network adapters and enables the virtualization of SCSI storage.

In combination with the extraordinary POWER5 processor, Micro-Partitioning is designed to
increase the system management efficiency and lowers the operating expenses by allowing
multiple use of single physical resources installed on the p5-550 system.

Simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) is a standard feature of POWER5 technology that allows
two threads to be executed at the same time on a single processor. SMT is selectable with
dedicated or Micro-partition processors.

The symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) p5-550 system features base 2-way or 4-way, 64-bit,
copper and silicone on insulator (SOI)-based POWER5 microprocessors running at 1.65 GHz
with 36 MB off-chip Level 3 cache configurations. Additional processor configurations are
allowed with the addition of IBM Sserver Capacity on Demand (CoD) features. Main
memory starting at 1 GB can be expanded up to 64 GB, based on the available DIMMs, for
higher performance and exploitation of 64-bit addressing to meet the demands of enterprise
computing, such as large database applications.

Included with the p5-550 are five hot-plug PCI-X slots with Enhanced Error Handling (EEH),
one embedded Ultra320 SCSI dual-channel controller, one 10/100/1000 Mbps integrated

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2004. All rights reserved. 1

dual-port Ethernet controller, two serial ports, two USB 2.0 capable ports, two HMC ports, two
RIO-2 ports, and two System Power Control Network (SPCN) ports.

The p5-550 includes four front-accessible, hot-swap-capable disk bays in a minimum
configuration with an additional four hot-swap-capable disk bays orderable as an optional
feature. The eight disk bays can accommodate up to 1.17 TB of disk storage using the

146.8 GB Ultra320 SCSI disk drives. Three non hot-swapable media bays are used to
accommodate additional devices. Two media bays only accept slim line media devices, such
as DVD-ROM or DVD-RAM, and one half-height bay is used for a tape drive. The p5-550 also
has I/O expansion capability using the RIO-2 bus, which allows attachment of the 7311 Model
D20 I/O drawers.

Additional reliability and availability features include redundant hot-plug cooling fans and
redundant power supplies. Along with these hot-plug components, the p5-550 is designed to
provide an extensive set of reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features that
include improved fault isolation, recovery from errors without stopping the system, avoidance
of recurring failures, and predictive failure analysis.

2 p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

1.1 System specifications

Table 1-1 lists the general system specifications of the p5-550 system.

Table 1-1 p5 550 specifications

Description Range

Operating temperature 5 to 35 degrees Celsius (41 to 95 F)

Relative humidity 8% to 80%

Operating voltage 2-way: 100 to 127 or 200 to 240 V AC (auto-ranging)

Operating frequency 47/63 Hz

Maximum power consumption 1100 watts maximum

MAximum thermal output 3754 Btu

a. British Thermal Unit

1.2 Physical package

The following sections discuss the major physical attributes found on a p5-550 in
rack-mounted and deskside versions (Figure 1-1), as shown in Table 1-2. The p5-550 is a 4U,
19-inch rack-mounted system or deskside system depending on the feature code.

4-way: 200 to 240 V AC

a

/hour (maximum)

Table 1-2 Physical packaging of the p5-550

Dimension Rack (FC 7886) Deskside (FC 7887)

Height 178 mm (7.0 inches) 533 mm (21.0 inches)

Width 437 mm (17.2 inches) 201 mm (7.9 inches)

Depth 731 mm (28.8 inches) 779 mm (30.7 inches)

Minimum configuration 41.4 kg (91 pounds)

Maximum configuration 57.0 kg (125 pounds)

Chapter 1. General description 3

Figure 1-1 Rack-mount and deskside versions of the p5-550

1.2.1 IBM eServer p5 550 deskside

The p5-550 is a deskside server that is ideal for environments requiring the user to have local
access to the hardware. A typical example of this would be applications requiring a native
graphics display.

To order a p5-550 system as a deskside version, FC 7887 is required. The system is
designed to be set up by the customer and, in most cases, will not require the use of any
tools. Full set-up instructions are included with the system.

The GXT135P 2D graphics accelerator with analog and digital interfaces (FC 2849) is
available and is supported for SMS, firmware menus, and other low-level functions, as well as
when AIX or Linux starts the X11-based graphical user interface. Graphical AIX system tools
are usable for configuration management if the adapter is connected to the primary console,
such as the IBM L200p Flat-Panel Monitor (FC 3636) or the IBM T541H 15-inch TFT Color
Monitor (FC 3637).

1.2.2 IBM eServer p5 550 rack-mounted

The p5-550 is a 4U rack-mounted server and is intended to be installed in a 19-inch rack,
thereby enabling efficient use of computer room floor space. If the IBM 7014-T42 rack is used
to mount the p5-550, it is possible to place up to 10 systems in an area of
644 mm (25.5 inches) x 1147 mm (45.2 inches).

To order a p5-550 system as a rack-mounted version, FC 7886 is required. In addition to the
rack-mounted version, the p5-550 can be installed in IBM or OEM racks. Therefore you are
required to select one of the following features:

򐂰 IBM Rack-mount Drawer Rail Kit (FC 7162)
򐂰 OEM Rack-mount Drawer Rail Kit (FC 7163)

Included with the p5-550 rack-mounted server packaging are all of the components and
instructions necessary to enable installation in a 19-inch rack using suitable tools.

4 p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

The GXT135P 2D graphics accelerator with analog and digital interfaces (FC 2849) is
available and is supported for SMS, firmware menus, and other low-level functions, as well as
when AIX or Linux starts the X11-based graphical user interface. Graphical AIX system tools
are usable for configuration management if the adapter is connected to a common
maintenance console, such as the 7316-TF3 Rack-Mounted Flat-Panel display.

Figure 1-2 shows the basic ports available on the p5-550.

Figure 1-2 Detailed views of the p5-550 rack-mount system

1.3 Minimum and optional features

The p5-550 system is based on a flexible, modular design, and it features:

򐂰 Up to two processor books using the POWER5 chip, for a 2-way or 4-way configuration
򐂰 From 1 to 64 GB of total system memory capacity using DDR1 DIMM technology
򐂰 Four SCSI disk drives in a minimum configuration, eight SCSI disk drives with an optional

second 4-pack enclosure for an internal storage capacity of 1.17 TB using 146.8 GB
drives

򐂰 Four PCI-X slots and 1 GX+ slot or five PCI-X slots
򐂰 Two slim-line media bays for optional storage devices
򐂰 One half-high bay for an optional tape device

The p5-550, including the service processor (SP) described in 2.11.1, “Service processor
base” on page 36, supports the following native ports:

򐂰 Two 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports
򐂰 Two serial ports

Chapter 1. General description 5

򐂰 Two USB 2.0 ports
򐂰 Two HMC por ts
򐂰 Two remote I/O (RIO-2) ports
򐂰 Two SPCN ports

In addition, the p5-550 features one internal Ultra320 SCSI dual channel controller,
redundant hot-swap power supply (optional), cooling fans, and up to two processor power
regulators.

The system supports 32-bit and 64-bit applications.

1.3.1 Processor card features

The p5-550 accommodates 2-way processor cards with state-of-the-art, 64-bit,
copper-based, POWER5 microprocessors running at 1.65 GHz that share 1.9 MB of L2 on
chip cache, 36 MB of L3 cache, and eight slots for memory DIMMS using DDR1 technology.
This processor card (FC 5237) is a Capacity on Demand (CoD) processor card, which means
it provides the physical processor resources, but an additional activation is needed to use the
processors. Different options for activating them are available; see Table 1-3.

An initial order of the p5-550 system must contain the FC 5237 and at least two processor
activations (2x FC 7871 or FC 7871 and FC8450).

The permanent activation options are Permanent

CUoD (shipped from manufacturing as

activated, or for later activation of available non-activated processors through the HMC) and

no-additional-charge CUoD (one processor at no additional charge, if the initial order

qualifies for the Value Pak options, see Table 1-7 on page 10). Temporary activations of
processors are provided by
“Capacity on Demand” on page 48 for further details about CoD activation concepts.
Table 1-3 contains all the available feature codes for processor cards, at the time of writing.

Table 1-3 Processor card and processor activation feature codes

Processor card FC Description

5237 Two processors, 0 activated, 1.65 GHz, eight DDR1 DIMM sockets

One processor activation for base FC 5237

CUoD (permanent) 7871

No-additional charge CUoD
(Value Pak)

Reserve CoD (30 days) 7934

On/Off CoD activation (one
day) billing

Each processor card features one POWER5 chip, with two processor cores that share

1.9 MB of L2 cache on-chip, 36 MB of L3 cache, and eight slots for memory DIMMs using
DDR1 memory technology.

Reserve CoD (prepaid 30 day reserve), and On/Off CoD. See 3.1,

8450

7931 (requires one FC 7930 to enable On/Off CoD)

6 p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

1.3.2 Memory features

The processor cards used in the p5-550 system have eight sockets for memory DIMMs that
must be ordered in quads. Each of the memory features available (at the time of writing) listed
in Table 1-4, therefore, provides four DIMMs.

Table 1-4 Memory feature codes

Feature code Description

4444 1 GB (4x 256 MB) DIMMs, DDR1 SDRAM

4447 2 GB (4x 512 MB), DIMMs, DDR1

4445 4 GB (4x 1024 MB) DIMMs, DDR1

4450 8 GB (4x 2048 MB) DIMMs, DDR1

4449 16 GB (4x 4096 MB) DIMMs, DDR1

It is recommended that each processor card have an equal amount of memory installed.
Balancing memory across the installed processor cards allows distributed memory accesses
that provide optimal performance. The memory controller will detect a variety of memory
configurations of mixed memory sized DIMMs and DIMMs installed in pairs.

1.3.3 Disk and media features

The minimum p5-550 configuration includes a 4-pack disk drive enclosure. A second 4-pack
disk drive enclosure can be installed by ordering FC 6592 or FC 6593; therefore, the
maximum internal storage capacity is 1.17 TB (using the disk drive features available at the
time of writing). The p5-550 also features two slim-line media device bays and one half-height
media bay. The minimum configuration requires at least one disk drive. Table 1-5 shows the
disk drive feature codes that each bay can contain.

Table 1-5 Disk drive feature code description

Feature code Description

3273 36.4 GB 10 K RPM Ultra3 SCSI disk drive assembly

3277 36.4 GB 15 K RPM Ultra3 SCSI disk drive assembly

3274 73.4 GB 10 K RPM Ultra3 SCSI disk drive assembly

3278 73.4 GB 15 K RPM Ultra3 SCSI disk drive assembly

3275 146.8 GB 10 K RPM Ultra3 SCSI disk drive assembly

Any combination of DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM drives of the following devices can be installed
in the two slim-line bays:

򐂰 DVD-RAM drive, FC 5751
򐂰 DVD-ROM drive, FC 2640

A logical partition running a supported release of the Linux operating system requires a
DVD-ROM drive or DVD-RAM drive to provide a way to boot hardware diagnostics from CD.
Concurrent diagnostics, as provided by AIX, is not available on Linux at the time of writing.

Supplementary devices can be installed in the half-height media bay, such as:
򐂰 IBM 80/160 GB Internal Tape Drive with VXA Technology, FC 6120

Chapter 1. General description 7

򐂰 60/150 GB 16-bit 8 mm Internal Tape Drive, FC 6134
򐂰 36/72 GB 4 mm Internal Tape Drive, FC 6258

1.3.4 USB diskette drive

For today’s administration tasks, an internal diskette drive is not state-of-the-art. In some
situations, the external USB 1.44 MB diskette drive for p5-550 systems (FC 2591) is helpful.
This super-slim-line and lightweight USB V2 attached diskette drive takes its power
requirements from the USB port. A USB cable is provided. The drive can be attached to the
integrated USB ports, or to a USB adapter (FC 2738). A maximum of one USB diskette drive
is supported per integrated controller/adapter. The same controller can share a USB mouse
and keyboard.

1.3.5 I/O drawers

The p5-550 has five internal PCI-X slots, where four of them are long slots and one is a short
slot. If more PCI-X slots are needed, especially well-suited to extend the number of LPARs
and Micro-Partitions, up to eight Model 7311 Model D20 I/O drawers can be attached to the
rack-mount p5-550 system. Up to four Model D20 drawers can be connected to the two RIO-2
ports on the rear of the system that are provided in a minimum configuration. An additional
four Model D20s can be connected by ordering the Remote I/O expansion card (FC 1806). It
provides two RIO-2 ports located on a interposer card that occupies the short PCI-X slot.

7311 Model D20 I/O drawer

The 7311 Model D20 I/O drawer is a 4U full-size drawer, which must be mounted in a rack. It
features seven hot-pluggable PCI-X slots and optionally up to 12 hot-swappable disks
arranged in two 6-packs. Redundant, concurrently maintainable power and cooling is an
optional feature (FC 6268). The 7311 Model D20 I/O drawer offers a modular growth path for
the p5-550 system with increasing I/O requirements. When a p5-550 is fully configured with
eight attached 7311 Model D20 drawers, the combined system supports up to 61 PCI-X
adapters (in a full configuration, Remote I/O expansion cards are required) and
104 hot-swappable SCSI disks.

PCI-X and PCI cards are inserted from the top of the I/O drawer down into the slot. The
installed adapters are protected by plastic separators, designed to prevent grounding and
damage when adding or removing adapters.

The drawer has the following attributes:

򐂰 4U rack-mount enclosure assembly
򐂰 Seven PCI-X slots 3.3 volt, keyed, 133 MHz hot-pluggable
򐂰 Two 6-pack hot-swappable SCSI devices
򐂰 Optional redundant hot-plug power
򐂰 Two RIO-2 ports and two SPCN ports

Note: The 7311 Model D20 I/O drawer initial order, or an existing 7311 Model D20 I/O
drawer that is migrated from another pSeries system, must have the RIO-2 ports available
(FC 6417).

7311 Model D20 I/O drawer physical package

The I/O drawer has the following physical characteristics:
򐂰 Width: 482 mm (19.0 inches)

8 p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

򐂰 Depth: 610 mm (24.0 inches)
򐂰 Height: 178 mm (7.0 inches)
򐂰 Weight: 45.9 kg (101 pounds)

Figure 1-3 shows the different views of the 7311-D20 I/O drawer.

Adapters

Service
Access

I/O
Drawer

Front Rear

Operator panel

Power supply 2

Power supply 1

RIO ports

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 A B C D 8 9 A B C D

SCSI d isk loc ations and ID s

Reserved ports

SPCN ports

Rack indicator

PCI-X slots

Figure 1-3 7311-D20 I/O drawer

Note: The 7311 Model D20 I/O drawer is designed to be installed by an IBM service
representative.

I/O drawers and usable PCI slots

Only the 7311 Model D20 I/O drawer is supported on a p5-550 system. Depending on the
p5-550 system configuration, the maximum number of I/O drawers supported is different.
Table 1-6 summarizes the maximum number of I/O drawers supported and the total number
of PCI-X slots available.

Table 1-6 Maximum number of I/O drawers supported and total number of PCI slots

p5-550 Max number of I/O drawers Total number of PCI-X slots

Minimum configuration 4 28 + 5

Additional FC 1806 8 56 + 5

1.3.6 Hardware Management Console models

The Hardware Management Console (HMC) provides a set of functions that are necessary to
manage the p5-550 system when LPAR, Capacity on Demand without reboot, inventory and
microcode management, and remote power control functions are needed. These functions

Chapter 1. General description 9

include the handling of the partition profiles that define the processor, memory, and I/O
resources allocated to an individual partition.

The 7310 Model CR2 or the 7310 Model C03 HMCs are specifically for POWER5
processor-based systems. However, an existing 7315 Model CR2 and the 7315 Model C03
(POWER4 processor-based systems HMC) can be converted for POWER5 processor-based
systems use when it is loaded with the HMC software required for POWER5 processor-based
systems (FC 0961).

POWER5 processor-based system HMCs require Ethernet connectivity. Ensure that
sufficient Ethernet adapters are available to enable public and private networks if you need
both. The 7310 Model C03 is a desktop model with only one native 10/100/1000 Ethernet
port, but three additional PCI slots. The 7310 Model CR2 is a 1U, 19-inch rack mountable
drawer that has two native Ethernet ports and two additional PCI slots.

When an HMC is connected to the p5-550, the p5-550 integrated serial ports are disabled. If
you need serial connections, for example, non-Ethernet HACMP heartbeat, you need to
provide an async adapter.

Note: It is not possible to connect POWER4 and POWER5 processor-based systems
simultaneously to the same HMC.

1.4 Value Paks

Value Paks are a new offering available on an initial order only. They provide a predefined
configuration, designed to meet typical customer requirements. Special reduced pricing is
available when a system order satisfies specific configuration requirements for memory, disk
drives, and processors. When a Value Pak is ordered, it is still possible to select additional
features.

If you order a p5-550, you can qualify for a processor activation at no additional charge. The
number of processors, total memory, and quantity and size of disk are the only features that
determine if a customer is entitled to processor activations at no additional charge. You will
also be entitled to a discounted AIX operating system license or you can choose to purchase
the system with no operating system. All Value Paks consist of a standard configuration that
must be part of the order. For each paid processor activation, the customer is entitled to one
processor activationat no additional charge if the following minimum requirements are met:

򐂰 The system must have at least two disk drives of 73.4 GB or greater each.
򐂰 There must be at least 2 GB of memory installed for each activated processor, as

described in Table 1-7.

Note: Value Paks are available in an initial order only.

Table 1-7 Value Pak configurations

Value Paks Processors, FCs Memory (MB) Disk

1.65 GHz 2-way, 1x 5237 and 1x 7871 4096, 2x FC 4447 2x 73.4 GB (FC 3274)

1.65 GHz 4-way, 2x 5237 and 2x 7871 8192, 2x FC 4445 2x 73.4 GB (FC 3274)

10 p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction

1.5 System racks

The Enterprise Rack Models T00 and T42 are 19-inch wide racks for general use with
IBM Sserver p5, pSeries, and RS/6000 rack-based or rack drawer-based systems. The
racks provide increased capacity, greater flexibility, and improved floor space utilization.

The p5-550 uses a 4U rack-mounted server drawer.

If a p5-550 system is to be installed in a non-IBM rack or cabinet, you should ensure that the
rack conforms to the EIA

1

standard EIA-310-D (see 1.5.6, “OEM rack” on page 14).

Note: It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure that the installation of the drawer in the
preferred rack or cabinet results in a configuration that is stable, serviceable, safe, and
compatible with the drawer requirements for power, cooling, cable management, weight,
and rail security.

1.5.1 IBM RS/6000 7014 Model T00 Enterprise Rack

The 1.8-meter (71 inch) Model T00 is compatible with past and present p5, pSeries, and
RS/6000 racks and is designed for use in all situations that have previously used the older
rack models R00 and S00. The T00 rack has the following features:

򐂰 36 EIA units (36U) of usable space.
򐂰 Optional removable side panels.
򐂰 Optional highly perforated front door.
򐂰 Optional side-to-side mounting hardware for joining multiple racks.
򐂰 Standard black or optional white color in OEM format.
򐂰 Increased power distribution and weight capacity.
򐂰 An optional reinforced (ruggedized) rack feature (FC 6080) provides added earthquake

protection with modular rear brace, concrete floor bolt-down hardware, and bolt-in steel
front filler panels.

򐂰 Support for both AC and DC configurations.
򐂰 DC rack height is increased to 1926 mm (75.8 inches) if a power distribution panel is fixed

to the top of the rack.

򐂰 Up to four Power Distribution Units (PDUs) can be mounted in the proper bays, but others

can fit inside the rack. See 1.5.3, “AC Power Distribution Unit and rack content” on
page 12.

򐂰 Optional rack status beacon (FC 4690). This beacon is designed to be placed on top of a

rack and cabled to servers, such as a p5-550, and other components, such as a 7311 I/O
drawer, inside the rack. Servers can be programmed to illuminate the beacon in response
to a detected problem or changes in system status.

򐂰 A rack status beacon junction box (FC 4693) should be used to connect multiple servers

and I/O drawers to the beacon. This feature provides six input connectors and one output
connector for the rack. To connect the servers or other components to the junction box or
the junction box to the rack, status beacon cables (FC 4691) are necessary. Multiple
junction boxes can be linked together in a series using daisy chain cables (FC 4692).

򐂰 Weight:

1

Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA). Accredited by American National Standards Institute (ANSI), EIA provides a

forum for industry to develop standards and publications throughout the electronics and high-tech industries.

Chapter 1. General description 11

T00 base empty rack: 244 kg (535 pounds)
T00 full rack: 816 kg (1795 pounds)

1.5.2 IBM RS/6000 7014 Model T42 Enterprise Rack

The 2.0-meter (79.3-inch) Model T42 is the rack that will address the special requirements of
customers who want a tall enclosure to house the maximum amount of equipment in the
smallest possible floor space. The features that differ in the Model T42 rack from the Model
T00 include the following:

򐂰 42 EIA units (42U) of usable space
򐂰 AC power support only
򐂰 Weight:

– T42 base empty rack: 261 kg (575 pounds)
– T42 full rack: 930 kg (2045 pounds)

1.5.3 AC Power Distribution Unit and rack content

For rack models T00 and T42 9-outlet PDUs are available.

PDUs with nine outlets (FC 9176, 9177, 9178, 7176, 7177, and 7178) are available. A T42
rack configured for the maximum number of power outlets would have six PDUs (two
mounted horizontally requiring 2U of rack space), for a total of 54 power outlets.

The p5-550 can be connected to any PDU that is available for the 7014-T00 or 7014-T42
racks.

For detailed power cords requirements and power cord feature codes, see the publication
Site and Hardware Planning Information, SA38-0508. An online copy can be found at:

http://publib16.boulder.ibm.com/pseries/en_US/infocenter/base/

The first four PDUs ordered for a rack will be mounted vertically in the sides of the rack,
occupying all the four PDU bays available. Any additional PDUs will be mounted horizontally
in the rear of the rack and will occupy 1U of rack space.

Note: Each p5-550, or a system drawer to be mounted in the rack, requires two power
cords, which are not included in the base system order.

The Universal PDU (FC 7188) and the optional Universal PDU to be mounted horizontally in
the rack (FC 9188) will be available on December 31, 2004, supporting a wide range of
country requirements and electrical power specifications. Each Universal PDU provides 12
C13 power outlets for use within a 7014-T00 or 7014-T42 rack, compared to nine C13 power
outlets provided by FC 7176 or FC 7177 PDUs. Nine different power cord features can be
used to connect the PDU to a wall power outlet. Each power cord provides the unique design
characteristics for the different power requirements. To match new power requirements,
these power cords can be requested with an initial order of the rack, or with a later upgrade of
the rack features.

12 p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction