Cluster 1600 - IBM p5 550 Technical Overview And Introduction

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3.4 Cluster 1600

Today's IT infrastructure requires that systems meet increasing demands, while offering the
flexibility and manageability to rapidly develop and deploy new services. IBM clustering
hardware and software provide the server, with availability, scalability, security, and
single-point-of-management control, to satisfy these needs.
IBM Sserver Cluster 1600 is a POWER-based AIX 5L and Linux Cluster targeting scientific
and technical computing, large-scale databases, and workload consolidation
IBM Cluster Systems Management (CSM) is designed to provide a robust, powerful, and
centralized way to manage a large number of POWER5-based systems all from one single
point of control. CSM can help lower the overall cost of IT ownership by helping to simplify the
tasks of installing, operating, and maintaining clusters of servers. CSM can provide one
consistent interface for managing both AIX and Linux nodes (physical systems or logical
partitions), with capabilities for remote parallel network install, remote hardware control, and
distributed command execution.
The p5-550 is supported with the Cluster 1600 running CSM for AIX, V1.3.1. To attach a
p5-550 to a Cluster 1600, an HMC is required. One HMC can also control several p5-550s
that are part of the cluster. If a p5-550 configured in partition mode (with physical or virtual
resources) is part of the cluster, all partitions must be part of the cluster.
It is not possible to use selected partitions as part of the cluster and use others for non-cluster
use. The HMC uses a dedicated connection to the p5-550 to provide the functions needed to
control the server, such as powering the system on and off. The HMC must have an Ethernet
connection to the Control Work Station (CWS). Each partition in p5-550 must have an
Ethernet adapter to connect to the CWS
Information regarding HMC control, cluster building block servers, and cluster software
available at:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/clusters/
The benefits of a clustered environment based on logical partitions
The evolution of processor and storage technologies has a great impact on the architecture of
IT infrastructures. This was the most significant challenge for the infrastructure in the past
and will also be in the future. During the first half of the 1990s, one single central instance of
an application per node was suitable, moreover, most productive systems needed
additionally associated nodes, so-called application servers.
Increasing performance and reliability by simply replicating application server nodes led to
complex environments that often resulted in poor system management. The reason for these
complex constructions was the limited computing power of a single node. This limitation was
softened during the second half of the 1990s.
Big symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) nodes with higher clock rates and increased memory
provided the possibility to install more than one system on a node. This had some side effects
regarding systems operations: Release planning processes had to pay attention to different
databases or application versions, or both, to avoid unresolved conflicts.
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p5-550 Technical Overview and Introduction
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