Disk Controllers; Integrated Virtualization - IBM BladeCenter HS22 Product Manual

Versatile, easy-to-use blade optimized for performance, power and cooling
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Data transfer rates depend on many factors and are often less than the maximum possible.
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Reliability guidelines:
Using fewer, larger DIMMs (for example 6 x 4 GB DIMMs vs. 12 x 2GB DIMMs is generally more
reliable
Xeon 5500 and 5600 Series memory controllers support IBM Chipkill™ memory protection technology
with x4 DIMMs (x4 data width of rank), but not with x8 DIMMs
For increased availability, the HS22 offers an additional level of IBM Active Memory protection: memory
mirroring.
Memory mirroring works much like disk mirroring. The total memory is divided into two channels. Data is
written concurrently to both channels. (The third channel is unused.) If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs
in the primary channel, it is instantly disabled and the mirrored (backup) memory in the other channel
becomes active (primary) until the failing DIMM is replaced. With mirroring enabled, one-third of total
memory (4 DIMMs) is available for use. (Note: Due to the double writes to memory, performance is
affected.) Mirroring is handled at the hardware level; no operating system support is required.
DDR-3 memory is available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB DIMMs. DIMMs are installed individually (not in
pairs).
Flexible Internal Storage
The HS22 offers a choice of internal 2.5-inch storage: up to two hot-swap SAS or SATA drives
or two hot-swap solid-state drives:
• SAS 10K RPM 2.5-inch HDD — 73.4, 146.8, 300, or 500GB capacities (1TB maximum)
• SAS 15K RPM 2.5-inch HDD — 73.4 or 146.8GB capacity (293.6GB)
• SATA 10K RPM 2.5-inch HDD — 300GB capacities (600GB)
• SATA-based solid state —31.4GB (single) capacities (62.8GB maximum)
Due to the statistically higher failure rates for traditional spinning media, IBM recommends the
use of the solid state drives (SSDs) as an alternative. They store data on flash memory chips,
rather than on magnetic media. Like HDDs, SSDs can be used as boot media and for random
access storage. However, SSDs offer higher thresholds of shock and vibration, and a higher
operating temperature range (between 0 and 70 degrees C). This yields a failure rate only 1/3
that of HDDs (approximately 3,000,000 hours MTBF vs. 1,000,000 hours). In addition, the IBM
31.4GB 2.5" Solid State Drive requires only 2W. This reduces the storage power requirement
and heat output by as much as 80%, compared to 2.5-inch HDDs. If used as a boot device, no
special device drivers are required.
Additional storage is available via the BladeCenter S chassis.
If you need more storage space, terabyte capacities are possible with optional external iSCSI
and SAN storage solutions.

Disk Controllers

All HS22 models include an integrated LSI 1064E SAS/SATA controller. This controller supports
up to two internal SAS or SATA HDDs or two internal solid-state drives and offers hardware
RAID-0/1 support. 256MB of optional battery-backed cache memory is available.
An optional ServeRAID-MR10ie controller (CIOv form-factor) adds RAID-5/50/6/60 support for
direct-attach BladeCenter S storage or external System Storage EXP3000 access, along with
256MB of cache memory and battery backup. For SAN storage, use the optional IBM SAS
Connectivity Card (CIOv). For iSCSI storage, use an Ethernet Expansion Card (CIOv). For
Fibre Channel SAN storage, use an optional Fibre Channel Expansion Card (CIOv).
The SAS controller provides data transfer speeds of up to 300MB per second
(full-duplex) across the SAS bus, for an aggregate speed of 600MBps, nearly double that of
Ultra320 SCSI's 320MBps (half-duplex) bandwidth. The serial design of the SAS bus allows
maximum performance to be maintained as additional drives are added.

Integrated Virtualization

HS22 offers a separately orderable IBM 2GB standard USB Flash Drive option preloaded with
VMware ESXi. This is an embedded version of VMware ESX Server. It is fully contained on the
flash drive, without requiring any disk space. Rather than management through a Service
Console based on a Linux operating system, ESXi relies on aggregate management tools,
including VirtualCenter, the Remote Command Line interface and the introduction of CIM for
standards-based and agentless hardware monitoring.
VMware ESXi includes all the performance, scalability and compatibility features of ESX Server,
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in each direction
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