Reliability, Availability, And Serviceability Features - IBM BladeCenter T 8720 Installation And User Manual

Reliability, availability, and serviceability features

Three of the most important features in server design are reliability, availability, and
serviceability (RAS). These factors help to ensure the integrity of the data that is
stored on your blade server; that your blade server is available when you want to
use it; and that should a failure occur, you can easily diagnose and correct the
failure with minimal inconvenience.
The BladeCenter T unit has the following RAS features:
v Shared key components, such as power, cooling, backplane, and I/O
v All components serviced from the front or rear of the BladeCenter T unit
v Automatic error retry and recovery
v Automatic restart after a power failure
v Built-in monitoring for blower, power, temperature, and voltage
v Built-in monitoring for module redundancy
v Customer support center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
v Error codes and messages
v Fault-resistant startup
v Remote system management through the management module
v Remote management module firmware upgrade
v Remote upgrade of blade server service processor microcode
v Built-in self-test (BIST)
v Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) alerts
v Redundant components
v Redundant system features in the backplane
v Hot-swap components
v System automatic inventory at startup
v System error logging
1. Service availability will vary by country. Response time varies; may exclude holidays.
– Blowers with speed-sensing capability
– I/O modules
– Management modules
– Power modules
– Blade servers
– Blowers with speed-sensing capability
– I/O modules
– KVM module
– LAN module
– Management module
– Media tray
– Power modules
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Chapter 1. Introduction