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Servers and Storage Technology for the Adaptive Enterprise

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Issue 1/2006

Extending blade benefits to UNIX

Blades are poised to go mainstream. And the HP Integrity BL60p is one of the products leading the way. It is the first server to offer 64-bit processing on Intel Itanium 2-based blades to UNIX environments. And it continues to provide a cost-efficient and versatile blade server computing opportunity.

For a long time, the blade market under-served UNIX environments. While there has been a broad range of x86-based, industry-standard Windows or Linux blade servers, there were few UNIX-based blades available. IT departments seeking a powerful platform for consolidation were forced to wait until a suitable solution appeared. The launch of the HP Integrity BL60p dual-socket blade server in November 2005 presents an opportunity for enterprises seeking to consolidate onto an Intel Itanium 2-based UNIX platform.

Featuring a dense form factor that allows up to eight server blades in a 6U enclosure, the server lets customers consolidate three leading operating systems – Windows, Linux and HP-UX 11i – within a single HP BladeSystem p-Class Enclosure. The Itanium 2-based blades support HP-UX 11i and functions side by side with Opteron™ and Xeon®-based blades.

Performance proven

Suited for distributed sites, such as remote and branch offices, and UNIX infrastructure consolidation projects, the BL60p provides Integrity enterprise-class features coupled with the price/performance benefits of blades. In benchmark testing conducted by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation in November 2005, the BL60p outperformed its nearest two-core competitor, the IBM JS20, by 60%. SPEC JB2000 evaluates the performance of servers running typical Java™ business applications by simulating an order processor for a wholesale supplier.

The powerful performance of the BL60p means multiple UNIX servers can consolidate on one blade. With the HP Integrity Virtual Machines application, the BL60p blade can be partitioned into running up to six separate instances of HP-UX 11i v2 on a single blade without compromising performance.

HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) software provides a single point of control for managing comprehensive server, storage and network solutions across various operating systems. It presents a unified infrastructure management for all virtual and physical systems on HP Integrity and ProLiant servers. HP Integrated Lights- Out (iLO) Advanced, a comprehensive, remote management software solution, complements SIM.

Migration toolsets are available to assist customers to transition from proprietary platforms, such as Sun Solaris, to the industry-standard environment of HP-UX 11i.

At a glance: HP Integrity BL60p blade server

Processor

Up to 2 x Intel Itanium 2 1.6GHz 3 MB L3 cache (Madison)

Memory

0 or 1 GB ECC PC2100 DDR as standard; 8 GB max.

Storage

2 x 3.5-inch SCSI hot plug drive bays (none shipped standard)

Connection to Fibre Channel Storage

Yes

Networking