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HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades

technology brief

Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 3

ProLiant c-Class Server Blade architecture ............................................................................................... 3

Processor technologies ......................................................................................................................... 5 Intel Xeon dual-core and quad-core processors .................................................................................... 5

Xeon dual-core processors............................................................................................................. 5 Xeon quad-core processor ............................................................................................................. 6

AMD Opteron dual-core processor.................................................................................................. 7 New processor socket technology...................................................................................................... 7

Memory technologies........................................................................................................................... 8

I/O technologies ................................................................................................................................. 8 PCI Express technology..................................................................................................................... 8 Serial Attached SCSI technology........................................................................................................ 9

HP Smart Array E200i controller .................................................................................................... 9 HP Smart Array P400i controller .................................................................................................... 9 SAS and SATA Small Form Factor hard drives ............................................................................... 10

Optional mezzanine cards.............................................................................................................. 10

Networking technologies.................................................................................................................... 11 TCP Offload Engine........................................................................................................................ 11 iSCSI ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Receive Side Scaling (RSS).............................................................................................................. 12

Thermal Logic technologies ................................................................................................................. 12

Power management ........................................................................................................................... 13 Power meter .................................................................................................................................. 13 HP Power Regulator for ProLiant....................................................................................................... 13 Power Capping ............................................................................................................................. 14

Configuration and management technologies ....................................................................................... 14 Integrated Lights-Out 2.................................................................................................................... 14 Onboard Administrator................................................................................................................... 14

Insight Display ........................................................................................................................... 16


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Web GUI .................................................................................................................................. 17 Command-line interface .............................................................................................................. 17

HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades ........................................................................................................ 17

Conclusion........................................................................................................................................ 18

For more information.......................................................................................................................... 19

Call to action .................................................................................................................................... 19

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Half-height server blades support up to two processors, eight DIMM slots, two hot-plug drives, andtwo optional mezzanine cards that provide the I/O fabric connectivity to the eight interconnect bays(Figure 1).

Figure 1. Internal view of the half-height HP BladeSystem BL465c Server Blade

Because of their larger size, full-height server blades support up to four processors, twelve or sixteeDIMM slots, four hot-plug drives, and three optional mezzanine cards. Full-height server blades alsprovide twice as much I/O bandwidth to the interconnect modules as the half-height blade serversprovide (Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Internal view of the full-height HP BladeSystem BL480c Server Blade

Processor technologiesHP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades use multi-core technologies from Intel and AMD. A multi-coreprocessor has two or four separate execution cores on one or more physical dies so that it can

perform more work within a given clock cycle. To take advantage of multi-core processing, softwarmust be multi-threaded so that the work can be spread across multiple execution cores.

Intel Xeon dual-core and quad-core processorsDual-core Intel Xeon 5000 and 5100 Sequence processors and quad-core Intel Xeon 5300 Sequenceprocessors are based on the Intel Core microarchitecture. The Core microarchitecture enables thesprocessors to use less power and produce less heat than previous generations of Intel processors. Using Hyper-Threading technology, dual-core processors can simultaneously execute four softwarethreads, thereby increasing processor utilization. To avoid saturation of the front side bus (FSB), theIntel 5000 chipset widens the interface by providing two independent buses. The Intel Coremicroarchitecture features additional technologies that improve performance per watt and energyefficiency. These technologies include hardware virtualization, Enhanced Intel Speed-StepTechnology, Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extension 3 (SSSE3), and Intel Execute Disable Bittechnology.4

Xeon dual-core processorsThe 64-bit Intel Xeon 5000 Sequence processors have two complete processor cores, includingcaches, buses, and execution states. These processors run at a maximum frequency of 3.73 GHz and

4 For additional information about Intel processors, see the HP technology brief titled The Intel processorroadmap for industry-standard servers athttp://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00164255/c00164255.pdf.

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have 2 MB of L2 cache per core. The processors support maximum FSB speeds of 1066 MHz(Figure 3).

The Xeon 5100 Sequence dual-core processor runs at a maximum frequency of 3.0 GHz with 4 MBof shared L2 cache and a maximum FSB speed of 1333 MHz (Figure 3).

The Xeon 5000 and 5100 Sequence processors use the Intel 5000 series chipsets. These chipsetscontain two main components: the Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and the I/O controller hub. TheNorthbridge MCH supports DDR2 Fully Buffered DIMMs.

Figure 3.Dual-core Intel Xeon 5000 and 5100 Sequence processors

Xeon quad-core processor The quad-core Intel Xeon 5300 Sequence processor (Figure 4) is the first quad-core processor fordual-socket platforms. The Xeon 5300 Sequence processor runs at a maximum frequency of2.66 GHz and has a total of four cores. Each pair of cores shares a 4-MB L2 cache.

Figure 4.Quad-core Intel Xeon 5300 sequence processor

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AMD Opteron dual-core processorThe dual-core AMD Opteron Rev. F 2000 and 8000 series processors use HyperTransporttechnology, which is a parallel, point-to-point interconnect that replaces parallel FSB technology. ThOpteron Rev. F processor (Figure 5) runs at speeds up to 3.0 GHz and has 1 MB of L2 cache percore. The processor features an integrated memory controller that supports PC2-5300 (DDR2-667)DIMMs. Because of the integrated memory controller in the AMD architecture, each CPU has its owlocal memory. This direct connection allows faster memory access. The AMD Direct Connectarchitecture uses the HyperTransport bus to provide direct communication between CPUs, CPU andI/O, and CPU and memory. In multi-CPU architecture, any CPU can access memory in any other CPusing the HyperTransport buses. For power efficiency, the AMD processor family includes low-powprocessors (45W and 68W). 5

Figure 5.AMD Opteron Rev. F processor

New processor socket technologyThe latest Intel 5000, 5100, and 5300 Sequence processors and AMD Opteron Rev. F processorpackages use a processor socket technology called Land Grid Array (LGA) to enable higher CPU buspeeds. The processor package designs no longer have pins. Instead, they have pads of gold-platedcopper that touch processor socket pins on the motherboard.

The processors must be carefully installed to prevent damage to the delicate processor socket pins thcould require replacing the motherboard. HP engineers developed a special installation tool tosimplify processor installation and reduce the possibility of damage to the socket pins.

5 For additional information about AMD processors, see the HP technology brief titled The AMD processorroadmap for industry-standard servers athttp://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00428708/c00428708.pdf .

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Memory technologiesDepending on the model, HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades support registered and Fully BufferedPC2-5300 (DDR2) DIMMs as indicated in Table 1. Single-rank registered DDR2 DIMMs place onlone load per DIMM on the memory bus. Therefore, they are best suited for servers with memorycapacities of up to 32 GB. Fully Buffered DIMMs implement a serial architecture to increase memobandwidth and capacity. 6

Table 1. Memory technologies supported by HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades

ProLiant server Registered PC2-5300(DDR2-667)

Fully Buffered PC2-5300 (DDR2-667)

BL460c X

BL465c X

BL480c X

BL685c X

In contrast to the first generation of DDR memory, DDR2 memory devices operate at a lower voltag(1.8V) to reduce power consumption. DDR2 devices also use higher clock frequencies to increasedata transfer rates and on-die termination control to improve signal quality. At 200 MHz (double-clocked to an effective frequency of 400 MHz), DDR2 increases memory bandwidth to 3.2 GB/s.7

I/O technologiesHP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades support PCI Express (PCIe), Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS), Seria

(SATA) I/O technologies, and gigabit Ethernet. PCI Express allows adding internal expansion cardsthat support various system capabilities as well as connection to external storage blades. SAS is aserial communication protocol for direct-attached storage devices such as SAS and SATA small formfactor (SFF) disk drives.

PCI Express technologyThe PCI Express (PCIe) serial interface provides point-to-point connections between the chipset I/Ocontroller hub and I/O devices. Each PCIe serial link consists of one or more dual-simplex lanes. Ealane contains a send pair and a receive pair to transmit data at the signaling rate in both directionssimultaneously (Figure 6). PCI Express 1.0 has a signaling rate of 2.5 Gb/s per direction per lane.

After accounting for 20 percent serial encoding overhead, the resulting effective maximum bandwidis 2 Gb/s (250 MB/s) per direction per lane. Therefore, a x4 linkwith 4 send and receive pairshas an effective bandwidth of 2 GB/s and a x8 link has an effective bandwidth of 4 GB/s. Thisflexibility allows slower devices to transmit on a single lane with a relatively small number of pins

6 For more information, refer to the HP technology brief titled FB-DIMM technology in HP ProLiant serversavailable at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/technology/whitepapers/adv-technology.html#mem. 7 For additional information about DDR2 memory technology, refer to the HP technology brief titled Memortechnology evolution: an overview of system memory technologies available athttp://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/technology/whitepapers/adv-technology.html .

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SAS and SATA Small Form Factor hard drivesThe SAS architecture enables system designs that deploy high-performance SAS10 and high-capacitySATA11 SFF drives. This capability provides a broad range of storage solutions that give IT managethe flexibility to choose storage devices based on reliability, performance, and cost.

SFF 2.5-inch drives offer several advantages over 3.5-inch drives. Their smaller physical sizeincreases the number of gigabytes per U that can be implemented in a server rack. SFF drives havebeen shown to be more reliable than their larger counterparts, largely due to the use of smaller partsand better vibration control.

Using SFF drives also reduces power consumption and heat generation. SFF SAS drives consumeapproximately half of the power used by a 3.5-inch drive of comparable capacity. This reduction inpower consumption allows SFF drives to run cooler than 3.5-inch drives.

SFF drives also deliver higher performance because their smaller platters reduce seek times: the heahave a shorter distance to travel. At this writing, the peak data transfer rate for the current generationof SAS drives is 3 Gb/s in full duplex mode. RAID performance improves by increasing the numbespindles.

Optional mezzanine cardsHP offers a variety of I/O mezzanine card options to provide connectivity to outside networks andstorage. HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades use two types of mezzanine cards to connect to the variouinterconnect fabrics such as Fibre Channel, Ethernet, serial-attached SCSI, or InfiniBand. Type I (x4and Type II (x8) mezzanine cards differ only in the amount of power allocated to them by the serverand in the physical space they occupy on the server blade. Type I mezzanine cards have slightly lesspower available to them and are slightly smaller. Type I mezzanine cards are compatible with allProLiant c-Class server blades in all mezzanine slots. Type II mezzanine cards are compatible with ProLiant c-Class server blades in mezzanine slot 2 or 3 (full-height servers) and slot 2 (half-heightservers).

Both types of mezzanine cards use a 450-pin connector, enabling up to eight lanes of differentialtransmit and receive signalsin other words, up to two x1 connections, up to two x4 connections, oa single x8 connection. Table 2 shows the mezzanine cards available for the c-Class server blades asof the publication date of this paper. For the most up-to-date information about the c-Class mezzanicard options, go to the HP website at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/c-class-interconnects.html.

10 Please refer to the technology brief Serial-Attached SCSI technology athttp://www.hp.com/servers/technology for more information about these features. 11 Please refer to the technology brief Serial ATA technology athttp://www.hp.com/servers/technology formore information about these features.

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Table 2. HP BladeSystem c-Class mezzanine cards

Mezzanine/Adapter Ports and Speed Bus Card Form Factor

HP NC512m Two @ 10,000 Mbps x8 PCI Express 1.1 Type II

HP NC373m Two @ 1000 Mbps x4 PCI Express 1.0 Type I

HP N326m Two @ 1000 Mbps x4 PCI Express 1.0 Type I

HP N325m Four @ 1000 Mbps x4 PCI Express 1.0 Type IEmulex LPe1105-HPFC HBA

Two @ 4 Gbps FibreChannel

x4 PCI Express 1.0 Type I

HP QLogicQMH2462 FC HBA

Two @ 4 Gbps FibreChannel

x4 PCI Express 1.0 Type I

HP Infiniband One @ 20 Gbps (eachdirection) Infiniband

x8 PCI Express 1.0a Type II

Because the connections between the blade slots and the interconnect module bays are hard-wiredthrough the signal midplane, the server mezzanine cards must be matched to the appropriate type ofinterconnect module. For example, a server using a Fibre Channel mezzanine card must be placed inthe slot that connects to an interconnect bay holding a Fibre Channel switch. To simplify theinstallation of the various mezzanine cards and interconnect modules, the Onboard Administratoruses an electronic keying process to detect any mismatch between the mezzanine cards and theinterconnect modules.

Networking technologiesMultifunction NICs embedded on all c-Class server blades provide several advantages: TCP/IP Offload engine (TOE) improves CPU efficiency.

Accelerated iSCSI provides access to Storage Area Network (SAN) storage over TCP/IP. iSCSI Boot enables booting the server from a SAN, thus eliminating the need for drives in a serve RDMA provides superior performance by moving data from the memory of one server directly to

memory of another server with minimal CPU overhead.

TCP Offload EngineThe increased bandwidth of gigabit Ethernet networks has resulted in increased demand for CPUcycles to manage the network protocol stack. This means that even a fast CPU will show degradedperformance if it is processing application instructions at the same time that data is being transferredto or from the network. Computers most susceptible to this problem are application, web, and fileservers that have a high number of concurrent connections.

The TCP/IP Offload Engine helps speed up network intensive applications by offloading TCP/IP-related tasks from the processors onto the network adapter. TOE network adapters have on-boardlogic to process common and repetitive tasks of TCP/IP network traffic. This effectively eliminates need for the CPU to segment and reassemble network data packets. Eliminating this work significanincreases application performance of servers attached to gigabit Ethernet networks. TOE is supporteon Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with the Scalable Networking Pack installed.

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iSCSIiSCSI is a standard for implementing the SCSI protocol for interacting with storage devices over aTCP/IP network. iSCSI can be implemented over any TCP/IP network, but the most commonimplementation is over gigabit Ethernet. iSCSI serves the same purpose as Fibre Channel in buildinSANs, but iSCSi avoids the cost, complexity, and compatibility issues associated with Fibre ChannSANs.

iSCSi devices (initiators) access storage resources (targets) using the iSCSI protocol. While the targ

is usually a hard drive enclosure or another computer, it can also be any other storage device thatsupports the iSCSI protocol, such as a tape drive.

Initiators include software initiators and host bus adapters (HBA). Software initiators require CPUresources to manage the protocol stack. A more efficient approach is to offload management of theprotocol to an iSCSI HBA, such as the NC373i Integrated Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter. AiSCSI HBA appears to the operating system as a SCSI HBA.

Receive Side Scaling (RSS)The Network Driver Interface Specifications (NDIS) define a common Application ProgrammingInterface for network interface cards operating under Microsoft operating systems. Early versions of

NDIS did not differentiate between computers with single or multiple CPUs. Therefore one CPU wforced to handle the entire network processing load. NDIS v6.0 includes support for multipleprocessors. With NDIS v6.0, RSS can dynamically balance the processing of network packetsreceived across multiple processors. The Scalable Networking Pack for Windows Server 2003 isrequired for RSS support.

Thermal Logic technologiesHeat dissipation is a key issue for c-Class server blades because of increased density. Thermal Logiis the term that HP uses to define the mechanical design features, built-in intelligence, and controlcapabilities throughout the BladeSystem c-Class that enable IT administrators to make the most ofpower and thermal environments. It provides an instant view of power usage and temperature at theserver, enclosure, or rack level. Thermal Logic technology includes the ability to automatically adjupower load, workload, and thermal controls to maximize performance, power, and cooling capacityfor each unique environment.

HP Parallel Redundant Scalable Enclosure Cooling (PARSEC) architecture is a hybrid model forcooling that combines the best of local and centralized cooling in a single system to ensure optimumairflow and cooling for all servers. Density, once a barrier to cooling, is turned into an advantagewith HP Thermal Logic technologies such as HP PARSEC architecture and HP Active Cool fans. Wthese innovations, server blades get more cooling airflow where it is needed most and use less powethan traditional rack servers.

The PARSEC architecture also uses precise ducting throughout the server blade to manage airflow a

temperature based on the unique thermal requirements of all the critical components. The airflow istightly ducted to make every gram of airflow countensuring no air bypasses the blade, so it obtainthe most thermal work from the least amount of air. This concept allows much more flexibility inheatsink design choice. The heatsink design closely matches the requirements of the server blade anprocessor architecture. For example, in the HP ProLiant BL460c Server Blade with Intel Xeonprocessors, HP was able to use smaller, more highly efficient processor heatsinks than in rack-mounservers (Figure 7). These heatsinks have vapor chamber bases, thinner fins, and tighter fin pitch thaprevious heatsink designs. This allows the largest heat transfer surface in the smallest package. Thesmaller heatsink allows more space for DIMM sockets and hot plug hard drives on the server blades

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Figure 7. Processor heatsink using fully ducted design (left) vs. traditional heatsink in a 1U rack-mount server(right)

Ducting produces high pressure which reduces the amount of required airflow, thus reducing the fanpower draw. The lower airflow requirement has the added benefit of optimizing the available datacenter cooling capacity, which is one of the largest constraints in IT facilities today and in the futureMore information about HP Thermal Logic technologies is available at this URL:www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/

Power managementPower management tools from HP help to accurately monitor server power usage, improve serverpower efficiency, and provision power usage of HP BladeSystem c-Class server blades. These toolsinclude: Power meter for monitoring server power usage Power Regulator for higher server efficiency Power Capping for provisioning power to groups of ProLiant servers

Power meterHP ProLiant c-Class server blades enable the analysis of actual server power usage by integrating apower meter. The power meter is accessible to the Onboard Administrator through iLO or throughexternal power management software such as HP Insight Power Manager (IPM). IPM also enablesconsolidating the power data for multiple servers to a central location. This information can be usedcharge business units or third parties for the actual cost of energy associated with workload

processing. The Onboard Administrator provides instant and time averaged views of the powerconsumption of the individual servers or of all servers within the c-Class BladeSystem enclosure.

HP Power Regulator for ProLiant At the CPU level, HP Power Regulator for ProLiant12 is a ROM-based power management feature ofHP ProLiant servers. Power Regulator technology takes advantage of the power states available on

12 For additional information about Power Regulator for ProLiant, seehttp://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/ilo/power-regulator.html .

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Intel x86 processors to scale back the power to a processor when full power is not needed.13 Becausethe c-Class architecture shares power among all blades in an enclosure, HP will be able to takeadvantage of Power Regulator technology to balance power loads among the server blades. PowerRegulator ensures that servers are running at their optimum power efficiency. Power is conservedduring periods of light workload while maintaining optimum performance across all workloads.

Power CappingUsing updated HP Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) firmware (version 1.30) and updated SystemROM/BIOS (dated May 1, 2007), HP ProLiant c-Class server blades have the ability to limit theamount of power consumed. Customers can set a limit in watts or Btu/hr. The purpose of this limit iconstrain the amount of power consumed, which reduces the heat output into the data center. TheiLO 2 firmware monitors server power consumption, checks it against the power cap goal, and, ifnecessary, adjusts server performance to maintain an average power consumption that is less than orequal to the power cap goal.

Using the IPM v1.10 plug-in to Systems Insight Manager v5.1, customers can set power caps ongroups of supported servers. The IPM software statically allocates the group power cap among theservers in the group. The group cap is allocated equitably among all servers in the group based on acalculation using each servers idle and maximum measured power consumption.

The latest iLO 2 firmware can be found athttp://www/hp.com/go/ilo . Updated System ROM/BIOScan be found on the Software and Drivers download page for each server model athttp://www.hp.com/go/proliant . The latest Insight Power Manager software can be found athttp://www.hp.com/go/ipm .

Configuration and management technologiesThe HP BladeSystem c-Class provides an intelligent infrastructure through the iLO 2 managementprocessor and Onboard Administrator. The Insight Display is a rack-mounted information exchangedevice with access to all of the Onboard Administrator setup, management, and troubleshootinginformation. The technology brief titled Managing the HP BladeSystem c-Class gives detailed

information about these technologies and is available on the HP technology website athttp://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/technology/whitepapers/proliant-servers.html .

Integrated Lights-Out 2Integrated Lights-Out 2 Standard Blade Edition is integrated on the motherboard of all HP ProLiantc-Class Server Blades. iLO 2 is a combination of hardware and firmware that provides remotemanagement capabilities over Ethernet. iLO 2 provides full graphics support using a dedicated iLO port.

The iLO 2 management processor obtains its power from the auxiliary power plane of the server, sois always available when the server is inserted into the enclosure. iLO 2 is active, regardless ofwhether the server is on or off or whether the OS is operating.

Onboard AdministratorThe Onboard Administrator is a management controller module that resides within the HPBladeSystem c-Class enclosure. The Onboard Administrator works with the iLO 2 managementprocessors on each server blade to form the core of the management architecture for HP BladeSystec-Class. HP customers have the option of installing a second Onboard Administrator board in the HBladeSystem c7000 Enclosure to act as a completely redundant controller in an active-standby mod

13 Power states of AMD x86 processors can be changed manually, but the change is not integrated with PowerRegulator and requires a system reboot.

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If the standby Onboard Administrator board determines that the active Onboard Administrator is nofunctioning properly, the standby Onboard Administrator shuts down the active Onboard

Administrator and assumes the active role itself. This redundancy can be particularly useful in remosite situations.

Onboard Administrator collects system parameters related to thermal and power status, systemconfiguration, and managed network configuration. It manages these variables cohesively andintelligently so that IT personnel can configure the HP BladeSystem c-Class and manage it in a fracof the time that other solutions require.

Onboard Administrator retrieves thermal information from the components in the enclosure. If thethermal load of the enclosure increases, the Onboard Administrators thermal logic feature instructsthe fan controllers to increase fan speeds to accommodate the additional demand. The speed of theindividual fans can be adjusted to reduce noise and power consumption, and to compensate forairflow differences within the enclosure. The performance of each subsystem is proactively monitorand any failures or warnings can be reported to the system log and to broader infrastructuremanagement tools such as HP Systems Insight Manager (when SNMP is enabled). The Onboard

Administrator manages subsystem failure by taking appropriate action, including adjusting fan speedor reducing power consumption, to maintain the enclosure's ability to operate.

The Onboard Administrator uses sophisticated power measurement sensors to accurately monitorexactly how much power is being consumed and how much power is available. Because Onboard

Administrator uses real-time measured power data instead of maximum power envelopes, customerscan deploy as many servers and interconnect modules as possible for the available power.

Onboard Administrator includes logic to manage multiple enclosures in a rack. The Onboard Administrator version 2.0x and later allows single-point access for up to seven enclosures. Thus, an administrator can use a single sign-on to log into a single Onboard Administrator and use the webGUI to graphically view and manage all the c-Class components within the linked enclosures. Forexample, an IT administrator could automatically propagate management commandssuch asputting an upper limit on power levels for all server bladesthroughout the linked enclosures.

A major advantage of the HP BladeSystem c-Class is its configuration flexibility. The configurationlogic resides in the management controller module in the rear of the enclosure. The Onboard

Administrator module communicates with the iLO 2 management processor on each server blade toform the core of the management architecture for HP BladeSystem c-Class. The configuration logicpowers up the interconnect modules first. Server blades are not powered up until the Onboard

Administrator has verified that the configuration is correct. If there is a configuration issue, the InsigDisplay identifies the issue and possible remedies. To assist IT administrators in the configuration asetup process, the Onboard Administrator verifies four attributes for each server blade andinterconnect module as they are added to the enclosure: Electronic keyingThe Onboard Administrator automatically queries all mezzanine cards and

interconnect modules as they are deployed to check that the I/O fabric types match. If they do notthe Onboard Administrator issues a warning with suggested corrective action.

PowerThe Onboard Administrator ensures that sufficient power is available to power up a serve

blade or interconnect module. CoolingThe Onboard Administrator makes sure there is sufficient cooling capacity for the blad

or interconnect module by retrieving thermal information from all of the server blades, powersupplies, Active Cool fans, and interconnect modules in the enclosure.

LocationThe Onboard Administrator checks the locations of server blades, Active Cool fans, anpower supplies to determine if they are placed to receive proper cooling and to support the chosenpower configuration. For example, if the administrator is installing only two server blades in thec7000 enclosure, they must be in server bays 1, 2, 9, or 10. Similarly, fans must go into fan bays4, 5, 9, and 10.

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Table 3. Comparison of ProLiant c-Class Server Blades

Model BL460c BL465c BL480c BL685c

Processors(maximum)

2 Intel Xeon 5000or 5100 dual-coreor2 Intel Xeon 5300

quad-core

2 dual-core AMDOpteron Rev. F2000 series

2 Intel Xeon 5000or 5100 dual-coreor2 Intel Xeon 5300

quad-core

4 dual-core AMDOpteron Rev. F8000 series

Front sidebus

Up to 1333 MHz Up to 1333 MHz

L2 cache Xeon 5000 2 x2MBXeon 5100 1 x4MBXeon 5300 2 x4MB

AMD Opteron2000 series 2 x1MB

Xeon 5000 2 x2MBXeon 5100 1 x4MBXeon 5300 2 x4MB

AMD Opteron8000 series 2 x1MB

Chipset Intel 5000P ServerWorks HT-

2100 Northbridge

Intel 5000P nVidia CK8-04,

IO-04Memory PC2-5300

FB DDR28 DIMM sockets32 GB

PC2-5300 (DDR2-667)8 DIMM sockets32 GB

PC2-5300FB DDR212 DIMM sockets48 GB

PC2-5300 (DDR2-667)16 DIMM sockets64 GB

Internalstorage

2 SAS or SATA SFFSmart Array E200i


4 SAS or SATA SFFSmart Array P400i


Mezzanineslots

2 PCIe 2 PCIe 3 PCIe 3 PCIe

EmbeddedNetworkControllers

2 NC373iMultifunctionGigabit Adapterwith TOE1 10/100 NIC foriLO 2

2 NC370iMultifunctionGigabit Adapter1 10/100 NIC foriLO 2

1 NC326i DualPort Gigabit

Adapter2 NC373iMultifunctionGigabit Adapterwith TOE1 10/100 NIC foriLO 2

1 NC326i DualPort Gigabit

Adapter2 NC373iMultifunctionGigabit Adapterwith TOE1 10/100 NIC foriLO 2

Density 16 server bladesper 10U enclosure

16 server bladesper 10U enclosure

8 server blades per10U enclosure

8 server blades per10U enclosure

ConclusionHP has designed a completely new BladeSystem architecture using full-featured server blades in ahighly dense form factor to accommodate new technologies such as serialized I/O technologies,multi-core architectures, virtualization, higher power loads, and memory formats requiring morepower. HP took the opportunity in this new architecture to make the compute, network, and storageresources extremely modular, enabling a truly adaptive infrastructure that can accommodatecontinually changing business needs. HP also designed the HP ProLiant c-Class Server Blades to

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address the growing concern of balancing compute performance with the power and coolingcapacity of the data center.

For more informationFor additional information, refer to the resources listed below.

Resource description Web address

The AMD processor roadmap forindustry-standard servers technologybrief

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00428708/c00428708.pdf

The Intel processor roadmap forindustry-standard servers technologybrief


Server virtualization technologies forx86-based HP BladeSystem and HPProLiant servers technology brief


General HP BladeSystem information http://www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/

HP BladeSystem c-Classdocumentation

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/316735-0-0-0-121.html

HP BladeSystem c-Class EnclosureSetup and Installation Guide


HP BladeSystem c-Class interconnects www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/interconnects

Technology briefs about HPBladeSystem

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/technology/whitepapers/proliant-servers.html

HP BladeSystem Power Sizer http://www.hp.com/go/bladesystem/powercalculator

Serial ATA technology technology

brief

http://www.hp.com/servers/technology

Serial-Attached SCSI technologytechnology brief

http://www.hp.com/servers/technology

Fully Buffered DIMM technology inHP ProLiant servers technology brief

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/technology/whitepapers/adv-technology.html#mem

Call to actionSend comments about this paper [email protected].

2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information containedherein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products andservices are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying suchproducts and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting anadditional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors oromissions contained herein.

Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Intel and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in theU.S. and other countries and are used under license.

AMD and Opteron are trademarks and AMD-8000 is a mark of Advanced MicroDevices, Inc.

HyperTransport is a licensed trademark of the HyperTransport TechnologyConsortium.

TC070807TB, August 2007
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Documents

Blade c Class