Blade Server

The blade is defined in the standard height of rack mounted within the enclosure can be inserted in a plurality of cassette server unit, is a realization of HAHD (HighAvaiMabiMityHighDensity, high availability and high density ) of low cost server platform for special applications and high density computing environment is designed. Blade server like " blade ", each piece of " blade " is actually a system motherboard.

Blade server ( accurate to say should be called the blade server ) is defined in the standard height of rack mounted within the enclosure can be inserted in a plurality of cassette server unit, to achieve high availability and high density. Each piece of the "blade" is actually a system motherboard. They can use the " on board" hard starting their own operating system, such as Windows NT / 2000, Linux, similar to a separate server, in this model, each piece of the motherboard to run its own system, service to specify different user groups, there was no correlation between each other. However, administrators can use the system software will be the motherboard are assembled into a cluster of servers. In the cluster mode, all of the motherboard can be connected together to provide a high-speed network environment, and at the same time, the sharing of resources, for the same user services. In clusters in the insertion of a new "blade", can improve the overall performance. But because each "blade" is the hot plug, so the system can easily be replaced, and the maintenance time is reduced to a minimum.

These blades at the beginning of the design with low power consumption, small space and single price is low characteristic, at the same time it also inherit and carry forward the traditional server some technical indicators, such as the hot swap and redundancy is applied to the blade, the design meets the intensive computing environment on server performance requirements; some also built through the load equalization technology, effectively improve the server stability and core network performance. From the outside, and the traditional rack / tower servers, blade servers can maximally save server use space and cost, and to provide a flexible and convenient expansion upgrade means.

Main advantages

IBM Blade Center is a 7U 19 inch rack device for blade server with redundant power supply, redundant fan, management unit and the connecting plate, and installing a network switch module. Each Blade Center can be installed 14 blade servers, different CPU blade server can be mixed and inserted, and supports the blade server hot swap. The blade server, a single cabinet can accommodate a maximum of 84 blade servers, a total of 168 processor. At present, IBM blade support Intel Xeon, Opteron and PowerPC of different CPU types, as well as AIX, Linux, Windows, different operating system. As the blade center includes the switch module and independent management module, can greatly reduce the required cable and an external switch. Its advantages are as follows:

(1 ) greatly reduces management cost

(2 ) high capacity density, save valuable space and covers the cost

(3 ) low power consumption and lower power

(4 ) low heat to reduce air conditioning costs

(5 ) the reliability of design more perfect, reduce downtime

(6 ) redundant power and fan

(7 ) optical diagnosis

(8 ) cable connection points is greatly reduced

(9 ) the redundant switching module and the cable connection

Development and application of

Usually people in accordance with the shape structure of the different server into tower, frame type, the blade type server three types, then the three server between what difference, their proper application in what respect?

Tower server is generally seen most of all, its shape and structure and a conventional PC almost, just a slightly bigger, its size had no uniform standard.

Tower type server motherboard expansion of strong, slots are also many, and tower type server internal chassis often reserved for a lot of space, so that hard disk, power supply redundancy extensions. The server without the need for additional equipment, the placing space not many requirements and has good scalability, configuration can also be very high, thus the application range is very wide, can satisfy the general common server application requirements.

This type of server is particularly suitable for common entry-level and workgroup server applications, and the cost is relatively low, the performance can meet the majority of small and medium-sized enterprise user requirements, the market space is still very great.

But this type of server also has many limitations, the need to use multiple servers work together to meet higher server application demand, due to its more individual, more space, and convenient management, it is not suitable.

Frame server is actually industry standardization of products, its appearance according to unified standards to design, with the cabinet unified use, to meet the enterprise server intensive deployment needs. The server rack main role is to save space, due to multiple servers to a cabinet, not only can take up less space, but also is convenient for unified management. The server rack width is 19 inches high with U as unit ( 1U = 1.75 inches = 44.45 mm), usually with 1U, 2U, 3U, 4U, 5U, 7U several standard server. The most commonly used with 1U 2U. This server has the advantages of small occupied space, and is convenient for unified management, but due to the internal space constraints, scalability is limited, such as the 1U server are only 1 to 2 PCI expansion slot. In addition, cooling performance is also a need to pay attention to the problem, in addition to a cabinet and other equipment, so the server used for the number of servers and more large companies to use, there are also many enterprises to adopt this type of server, but the server for delivery to a dedicated server hosting institution to host, especially at present a lot of web server used in this way.

This server because the expansion and cooling problem is limited, so single performance comparison of limited scope of application is also subject to certain restrictions, often only focus on certain aspects of the application, such as a remote storage and network services.