Forget the specs for a minute
| Of course, they are important. And the specs of the HP BladeSystem are impressive – but you’d expect them to be. When each vendor releases a new generation, they try to leapfrog the competition in hardware terms. However, what is increasingly distinguishing blades is not hardware, it is the intelligence wrapped around them. |
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Intelligence is one aspect of the BladeSystem c-Class that can’t be underestimated. In the blades and their enclosure, core infrastructure support elements – power, cooling, connectivity, storage, redundancy, scalability and other compute resources – have been consolidated in innovative ways. Wrapped around this are intelligent applications and services to deliver pre-integrated, selfoptimising infrastructure building blocks.
This intelligence addresses everything from fast setup to the pressing issue of power and cooling. With the comprehensive automated solutions on offer, administrators can manage the c-Class with ease, and at device/ administrator ratios of up to 200 to one. Virtualisation has also been applied across the enclosure. All elements can be pooled and shared as virtual resources, but the resources are presented as one view to the rest of the data centre.
The intelligence presented in the c-Class is multifarious. To assist customers to distinguish between them, HP has grouped them under the captions of “cost-savvy, changeready, energy-efficient, time-smart.” These catchphrases provide a practical guide to appreciate the technology concentrated into this new generation of blades.
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The cost-savvy claim rests on the fact that the consolidated design is more affordable and cost-efficient than conventional IT. This is based on the lower purchase cost achieved by integrating and sharing components – such as cooling, network and power – and eliminating the need for other components. The added bonus is built-in redundancy with no single point of failure across power, cooling and interconnects.
The result is that less resources are needed to achieve more. A fully populated BladeSystem c-Class enclosure can save up to 60% of the space required by an equivalent number of 1U servers. It also requires less power, cooling and up to 94% less cabling; sinks LAN and SAN connectivity costs by up to 50%; and reduces the time needed to build and maintain the solution.
For example, a simple start-up is offered through the HP Onboard Administrator. This means up to 64 servers can be configured in 15 minutes – either locally or remotely. Such management features enhance cost savings.
Built-in management features also collect data from thousands of reference points so the system can monitor itself and warn administrators in time to pre-empt system failure. Such features as this and HP Insight Control (see time-smart section) greatly simplify administration. This increases the ratio of devices that administrators can easily handle and their overall productivity.
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The benefits of virtualisation – consolidation and flexibility – have long been proclaimed within the IT industry. Now HP has extended these benefits so all resources and connections can be shared flexibly.
HP Virtual Connect architecture includes a backplane that provides up to five terabits of aggregate bandwidth and eight interconnect ports that support four fully redundant fabrics at once. Up to four enclosures (64 servers) can appear as one server to the LAN and SAN. Virtual Connect also supports a wide choice of options from switches, such as Brocade 4 Gb SAN switch, to HP Virtual Connect modules.
HP Virtual Connect Modules create virtual SAN and LAN connections to servers, allowing rapid configuration changes without affecting other domains. This allows administrators to add, move or replace servers without affecting LANs or SANs.
Another outstanding feature is the modular, hot-plug expandability of so many resources. Hot-pluggable blades are not new. But combining them in the same enclosure with HP StorageWorks products is. The all-inone integrated design of the solution means you can readily add or remove server or storage blades and other components in the enclosure without having to power down – a great benefit.
Automated provisioning capabilities simplify the configuration of hardware, as well as the loading, changing or moving of applications on and between the server blades and virtual machines. This allows servers to be brought online, or for workloads to be quickly and easily moved, to meet changing demands and circumstances.
The approach of the Virtual Connect architecture improves the coordination and streamlines the processes between data centre management, servers, and the LAN and SAN to simplify change across multiple IT domains. This is what makes the c-Class “change-ready.”
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As blade servers became more powerful and ever more are racked into data centres, cooling has become an issue. In 2004, the Uptime Institute reported that the average heat density output in data centres as approximately 28 watts per square foot (0.0929 square metres). In some high-density blade environments with up to 80 racked blades, the figure was reaching 400 watts – and associated power costs were dramatic.
While the simplest solution is to add air conditioning capacity, this is expensive and counteracts the cost savings gained through consolidation. HP Thermal Logic technologies tackle the problem with instant thermal monitoring for real-time heat, power and cooling data at a system and rack level. The new generation of blades are contained within a cooling-optimised enclosure that can reduce cooling costs by up to 50% while allowing for a doubling in the density of blade deployment.
Other innovative technologies, such as an HP Modular Cooling System and Dynamic Power Saver, also contribute to energy savings. The Dynamic Power Saver automatically shifts power loads for maximum supply efficiency and reliability. HP Active Cool Fans can create tropical-storm strength winds to produce automatic cooling that matches changing demands, yet needs far less energy to do so when compared to traditional rack fans.
What is distinctive about the c-Class is that, although it offers tremendous processing power capacity, with these and other energy-saving technologies combined, it offers a solution that adapts and optimises energy-efficiency to the workload at hand. And, as things heat up, it puts more air where it’s needed while using less power to do so. Taken altogether, the energy-saving and cooling features offer a cooling capacity for a 50 kilowatt (50,000 watts) load. |
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Given the growing complexity of blade farms, management is a key factor that distinguishes vendor offerings. With HP Insight Control, there is a solution that manages all components of the infrastructure as one system and through one console. Advanced automation management applies active monitoring, correction and virtualisation processes to simplify operations. This not only saves time, it also helps ensure high-quality service levels.
Key features of Insight Control include the Onboard Administrator. This built-in management controller includes a simple LCD screen on the front for rapid setup and daily maintenance, as well as redundant modules in the rear for advanced system administration. Onboard Administrator also provides remote access through one link to all HP iLO 2 controllers built in to each server.
Insight Control features simple interfaces for total control and streamlined administration and management operation across virtual or physical environments. It is also expandable with ProLiant, Integrity and Storage Essentials, as well as HP OpenView, to enhance ease of administration further. |
| At a glance: HP BladeSystem c-Class |
HP ProLiant BL480c Server Blade
Industry’s only two-processor blade offering 12 DIMMs, four hot-plug drives and three I/O expansion slots. Features two dual-core Intel processors, up to 48 GB of EEC 667 MHz DDR2 memory, four NICs and four hot-plug SAS/SATA drives.
HP ProLiant BL460c Server Blade
Half-height blade optimised for space-constrained environments. Features DDR2 fully buffered DIMMs, serial-attached SAS/SATA hard-drives, support of multi-function NICs and multiple I/O cards. Extreme fault tolerance in a dense platform. HP BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure
Redesigned architecture provides superior performance, power and cooling capability. Intelligent management through OnBoard Administrator provides complete control of bladed infrastructure. Multi-terabit backplane supports Gigabit networks with easy migration to future 10 Gigabit solutions. Holds eight full-height or 16 half-height blades. |
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