IBM 787264U Product Manual

Also see for 787264U: Brochure & specs

Contents

Optimized for virtualization and database applications with maximummemory and compute capacity in a bladePlease see the Legal Information section for important notices and information. 1.Product GuideOctober 2010IBM BladeCenter HX5Product OverviewCONTENTSProduct Overview 1Selling Features 2Key Features 5Key Options 13HX5 Images 15HX5 Specifications 16The Bottom Line 18Server Comparison 20For More Information 21Legal Information 21Scalable 2-to-4-socket blade server optimized forvirtualization/consolidation, database, and ERPSuggested uses: Front-end and mid-tier applications requiring high performance (CPU, memoryor I/O), enterprise-class availability, and extreme flexibility and power efficiency.IBM® has been designing and implementing chipsets under the X-Architecture® name since2001. eX5 technology represents the fifth generation of products based on the same designprinciple IBM began with in 1997: to offer Intel® Xeon® processor-based systems that areexpandable, offer “big iron” reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features, withextremely competitive price/performance.The eX5 technology is primarily designed around three major workloads: database servers,server consolidation using virtualization services, and Enterprise Resource Planning (applicationand database) servers.If you’re using industry-standard servers to run business critical applications, the systems thatrun these applications need the type of technology designed into IBM’s eX5 technology systems.The eX5 chipset represents a $100M+ investment in designing a flagship offering that canharness the power of 4-socket-and-up 64-bit x86 (x64) Xeon processors. The eX5 familyincludes a scalable performance blade server with the ability to scale from a single-wide blade(30mm) to a double-wide blade (60mm). Maybe you’d like to start out with a 2-socket blade andpossibly add sockets later, if your needs change. Or perhaps you need more than a 2-socketblade, but don’t want to get locked into a monolithic 4-socket blade—again, in case yourrequirements change. With IBM, you can start at 2 sockets and grow to 4 if needed. And if yourequire a variety of 2- and 4-socket servers in your data center, you only have to qualify oneserver for all these workloads. This can save much time and effort and speed deployment. Youcan also save money on software licensing by virtualizing a 4-processor server into many VMs,rather than using multiple 2-processor servers. Huge amounts of memory also enable more orlarger VMs, and larger databases (especially databases stored entirely in memory).Reducing an entire server into a little over .5U of rack space (i.e., up to 14 servers in 9U) doesnot mean trading away features and capabilities for smaller size. The IBM BladeCenter® HX5blade server offers features comparable to many 1U rack-optimized full-featured servers, andthen some: The HX5 supports up to two of the latest high-performance 8-core, 6-core, or 4-coreIntel Xeon 7500 and 6500 Series processors. The Xeon processors are designed with up to24MB of shared cache and leading-edge memory performance (up to 1066MHz using MAX5,depending on processor model) to help provide the computing power you require to match yourbusiness needs and growth. In addition, the HX5 supports up to 128B of registered double datarate III (DDR3) ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) memory in 16 DIMM slots, with multiplelevels of IBM Active Memory™ protection, for the highest levels of performance and availability.Active Memory protection includes IBM Memory ProteXion™, IBM Chipkill™ memory, memoryscrubbing, memory rank sparing, and memory mirroring.Because business requirements change and a 2-socket server that meets those needs todaymay not meet them in the future, the HX5 was designed to be upgradeable to meet the diverseneeds of multiple workloads. For compute-intensive workloads, it can be configured as a 2-wide blade server with up to 4 processors / 32 cores, 32 DIMMs (256GB), 4 PCIe cards, 16 I/Oports, and 4 solid-state drives (SSDs). Conversely, for memory-intensive workloads, theHX5 can be configured as a 2-wide server consisting of 1 blade server and 1 MAX5 memoryexpansion blades, with up to 40 DIMMs (320GB). IBM FlexNode partitioning allows a physical4-socket configuration to be remotely reconfigured by software into two logical 2-socket servers,as needs change or for daily peak and off-peak workloads.The HX5 supports VMware vSphere Hypervisor (formerly ESXi) preloaded on a standard USBflash drive. It operates in a diskless configuration, offers a smaller memory footprint, extremelyhigh performance, and stronger security, making getting a system up and running in a virtualizedenvironment faster and easier than ever before.IBM’s eX5 technology-based systems are the ideal solution for scale-up database-servingapplications on Microsoft® Windows® with Microsoft SQL Server® or IBM DB2®, as well as Linux®