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v Large system memory
v Light path diagnostics
v PCI Express
v Power throttling
Reliability, availability, and serviceability features
Three of the most important features in server design are reliability, availability, and
serviceability (RAS). These RAS features help to ensure the integrity of the data
that is stored in the blade server, the availability of the blade server when you need
it, and the ease with which you can diagnose and correct problems.
The blade server has the following RAS features:
v Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)
v Automatic error retry or recovery
v Automatic server restart
v Built-in monitoring for temperature, voltage, and hard disk drives
v Chipkill
v Customer support center 24 hours per day, 7 days a week
v Customer-upgradeable basic input/output system (BIOS) code and diagnostics
v Diagnostic support of Ethernet controllers
v ECC memory
v ECC protection on the L2 cache
v Error codes and messages
v Failover Ethernet support
v Hot-swap drives on optional SAS storage expansion unit
v Light path diagnostics feature
v Microprocessor built-in self-test (BIST) during power-on self-test (POST)
v Microprocessor presence detection
1. Service availability will vary by country. Response time will vary depending on the number and nature of incoming calls.
Depending on the blade server model, it supports up to 16 GB (single-width
models) or 32 GB (double-width models) of system memory. The memory
controller in each microprocessor provides support for up to four
industry-standard VLP, DDR2, ECC SDRAM registered x4 (Chipkill) or x8
(non-Chipkill) DIMMs. For the most current list of supported DIMMs, see the
®
ServerProven
list at http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/
us/.
Light path diagnostics provides light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to help you diagnose
problems. For more information, see the Problem Determination and Service
Guide.
PCI Express is a fully-serial interface that can be used for universal connectivity
for use as a chip-to-chip interconnect, I/O interconnect for adapters, and an I/O
attachment point to Gigabit-networking devices. Using an expansion unit, you can
add additional LAN interfaces.
Each blade server is powered by two BladeCenter redundant power-supply
modules. By enforcing a power policy known as power domain oversubscription,
the BladeCenter unit can share the power load between two power modules to
ensure efficient power for each device in the BladeCenter unit. This policy is
enforced when the initial power is applied to the BladeCenter unit or when a
blade server is inserted into the BladeCenter unit. You can configure and monitor
the power environment by using the management module. For more information
about configuring and using power throttling, see the management-module
documentation or http://www.ibm.com/bladecenter/ and click Support.
™
memory for x4 DIMMs
1
9
Chapter 1. Introduction
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