IBM BladeCenter PS703 Technical Overview And Introduction

Also see for BladeCenter PS703: Service guide

Contents

140 IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introductionlocation codes, drawings of physical locations, concurrent maintenance status, or otherdata pertinent to a repair. Location diagrams are especially useful when multiplecomponents are installed, such as DIMMs, CPUs, processor books, fans, adapter cards,LEDs, and power supplies. The remove or replace procedure labels contain procedures often found on a cover of thesystem or in other spots accessible to the servicer. These labels provide systematicprocedures (including diagrams) detailing how to remove and replace certain serviceablehardware components. Numbered arrows are used to indicate the order of operation and the serviceabilitydirection of components. Certain serviceable parts (such as latches, levers, and touchpoints) must be pulled or pushed in a certain direction and certain order for the mechanicalmechanisms to engage or disengage. Arrows generally improve the ease of serviceability.The front panelThe front panel LEDs on the PS703 and PS704 blades indicate power status, error andinformational states, disk and network activity, and physical location within a BladeCenterchassis.Concurrent maintenanceThe BladeCenter supporting infrastructure is designed with the understanding that certaincomponents have higher intrinsic failure rates than others. The movement of fans, and powersupplies make them more susceptible to wearing down or burning out. Other devices (suchas I/O modules) might begin to experience wear on mechanical connectors from repeatedplugging and unplugging for example, or other unexpected failure. For this reason, thesedevices are designed to be concurrently maintainable when properly configured.Live Partition Mobility (LPM) provides the ability to move workload off the PS703 and PS704blades, allowing uninterrupted service when performing scheduled maintenance on a blade.LPM is not considered and should not be used as a high availability method.Firmware updatesIn a BladeCenter/Blade environment there are multiple areas to consider when looking atfirmware updates. In some cases, BladeCenter and infrastructure components can beupdated concurrently without disrupting blade operations.POWER processor-based blades require a supported operating system running on the bladeto update the system firmware. Starting with the POWER6 generation blades and continuingwith the POWER7-based blades, LPM can be used to avoid the disruptive nature of bladefirmware updates. Firmware updates can provide fixes to previous versions and can enablenew functions. Blade system firmware typically has a prerequisite AMM firmware level.A regular program of reviewing current firmware levels of the BladeCenter components andthe blades should be in place to ensure the best availability.Firmware updates for the AMM, I/O modules, and blades can be obtained from the IBM FixCentral web page:http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/Repair and verify systemRepair and verify (R&V) is a system used to guide a service provider through the process ofrepairing a system and verifying that the problem has been repaired. The steps arecustomized in the appropriate sequence for the particular repair for the specific system beingrepaired.