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Performance, ease of use, reliability (NEBS3/ETSI compliance), and expansion
capabilities were key considerations during the design of the BladeCenter T system.
These design features make it possible for you to customize the system hardware
to meet your needs today, while providing flexible expansion capabilities for the
future.
What the BladeCenter T unit offers
The design of the BladeCenter T unit takes advantage of advances in server
technology. It provides up to eight functionally separate servers and their shared
resources combined in a single center. The BladeCenter T unit with blade servers
has the following features:
v IBM Enterprise X-Architecture Technology
v Expansion capabilities
v Hot-swap capabilities
v Redundancy capabilities
2
BladeCenter T Types 8720 and 8730: Planning and Installation Guide
IBM Enterprise X-Architecture Technology leverages proven innovative IBM
technologies to build powerful, scalable, reliable Intel
IBM Enterprise Technology includes features such as IBM Predictive Failure
®
Analysis
(PFA), scalability, and real-time diagnostics.
Blades can be added to the BladeCenter T unit as needed, up to a maximum of
eight blades.
Note: If any blade server or option is in blade bays 5 through 8 or if an I/O
module is in I/O-module bays 3 and 4, power modules must be present in
all four power-module bays.
Some blade servers have connectors for options that can be used to add
capabilities to the blade server, such as an I/O expansion card to add a network
interface or a storage expansion unit to add SCSI hard disk drives.
The front bays on the BladeCenter T unit are hot-swap blade, power module, and
management module bays; the rear bays on the BladeCenter T unit are hot-swap
I/O, keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM), LAN, and blower-module bays. You can
add, remove, or replace blades servers or power, management, I/O, KVM, LAN,
and blower modules in hot-swap bays within specific time limits and without
removing power from the BladeCenter T unit.
Attention: To maintain proper system cooling, each unoccupied bay must
contain a filler blade or filler module.
The redundant components in the BladeCenter T unit enable continued operation
if one of the components fails.
– Power modules: In normal operation, the redundant power modules provide
redundant power feeds to share the system load. If one of the power modules
fails, the working power module handles the entire load. You can then replace
the failed power module without shutting down the BladeCenter T unit.
– Blowers: In normal operation, the redundant blower modules share the system
load. If one of the blowers fails, the other three working blowers handle the
entire load. You can then replace the failed blower without shutting down the
BladeCenter T unit.
– Management module: Only one management module is active at a time. If a
second management module has been installed, and the active management
module fails, then the secondary (redundant) management module becomes
the active management module containing the current BladeCenter T
configuration and status information. You can then replace the failed
management module without shutting down the BladeCenter T unit.
®
-processor-based servers.
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