Planning And Cabling Your Interconnect Network; Forwarding Alerts - IBM xSeries 330 Hardware Maintenance Manual

Planning and cabling your interconnect network

The newest Remote Supervisor Adapter must be the main interconnect gateway to
your ASM interconnect bus.
Note: To ensure the stability of your system, be sure to have the latest level of
The latest level of firmware is available on the IBM Support Web site at
http//:www.ibm.com/support. The Remote Supervisor Adapter forwards the ASM
information generated by the servers attached to the ASM interconnect bus to
other servers on your Ethernet network. The connected ASM processors and ASM
PCI Adapters are managed through the new user interface and Web browser access
of the Remote Supervisor Adapter.
You must install an ASM Interconnect module on the Remote Supervisor Adapter
and on each of the servers that you plan to connect to the ASM interconnect
network bus. If your server has an integrated RS-485 ASM interconnect port (the
xSeries 330 server has an integrated ASM interconnect port) you do not need to
install an ASM Interconnect module between servers. However, you still need to
install an ASM Interconnect module to connect the Remote Supervisor Adapter to
the ASM processor.
To connect your servers, note the following setup and configuration considerations:
v Make sure that the ASM interconnect network is set up as a bus, not as a ring.
v Make sure that the total combined length of all Ethernet cables connecting the
v Each Remote Supervisor Adapter, ASM PCI adapter, or ASM processor that is
v Be sure that the latest level of firmware is installed on the Remote Supervisor

Forwarding alerts

Remote Supervisor Adapters, ASM PCI adapters, and ASM processors that are
connected to an ASM interconnect network share resources and
system-management information. This section provides information on how alerts
are forwarded in the ASM interconnect network.
One benefit of an ASM interconnect network is remote access and alert redundancy
for several managed servers at the same location. Alerts are typically sent only
once (per connection type), but the alert is forwarded again in certain situations.
For example, on a 3 ASM processor network where ASM processor 1 generates a
modem alert, but does not have a modem and the remaining ASM processors have
modems, the following might occur:
firmware installed on the Remote Supervisor Adapter that is the main
interconnect gateway for the ASM interconnect network.
You must connect the servers to the ASM interconnect network in a series, with
terminated beginning and end points.
server in the ASM interconnect network does not exceed 91.4 M (300 ft).
connected to the ASM interconnect network bus counts as one connection. For
example, if an ASM PCI adapter is installed in a server that has an ASM
processor, the processor and the adapter are connected to each other using one
ASM interconnect connection but the processor and the adapter count as two
connections on the ASM interconnect network bus.
Adapter that is the entry for the interconnect network. For more information on
updating firmware, see "Updating the Remote Supervisor Adapter firmware" on
page 68.
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Installing options