BLADE SERVER D GOKUL CHOWDARY 07 Q 61

BLADE SERVER D. GOKUL CHOWDARY 07 Q 61 A 1214

INTRODUCTION �A blade server is a stripped down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. � Blade servers is a card on the server: a single motherboard that contains a complete computer system, including processors, memory, network connections and related electronic devices IBM HS 20 blade server

8 U Rack mount Blade Sever Chassis Reduced Cable Sprawl HP Pro. Liant DL 385

BLADE SERVER � Blade servers allow more processing power in less rack space, simplifying cabling and reducing power consumption. � Blade servers can experience as much as an 85% reduction in cabling for blade installations over conventional 1 U or tower servers. With so much less cabling, IT administrators can spend less time managing the infrastructure and more time ensuring high availability.

� Blade typically comes with one or two local ATA or SCSI drives. For additional storage, blade servers can connect to a storage pool facilitated by a network-attached storage (NAS), Fiber Channel, or i. SCSI storage-area network (SAN). � The individual blades in the chassis (also called a cabinet) are connected using a bus system. Combined they form a blade server and all share a common network connection, power supply and cooling resources.

� Each blade will have its own software and operating system installed on it. Blades such as storage blades with hard disk drives or those supporting Gigabit Ethernet switches and Fiber Channel storage switches can be added to a blade server. �A blade server also works well with thin client devices (a client/server architecture in which no data is stored).

HISTORY � Blade server technology was initially developed in the early millennium through a partnership between IBM and Intel. � Later, a number of major companies, led by IBM, formed an “industry community” in February 2006, with a website base at blade. org. � The mission of the community is to “accelerate the growth and adoption of [blade] technologies in the market. ”

HARDWARE CONFIGERATION The hardware of blade server contains the following elements • Chassis (exterior): The components of blade servers are placed in a chassis. The chassis can hold a number of server blades. Components in chassis � Server blade � Switch blade • Management blade: The management blade is to manage the blades in the chassis. � CPU: Central processing unit � NIC: Network interface card

Middle plane: Middle plane is for connecting the switch blades. � NIC Hard disk � Memory � CPU •

FEATURES � Lower hardware costs : • Sharing of power and cooling equipment. • Management of hardware and cabling systems

� Simplified deployment and maintenance : • Time-consuming and resource-intensive process • Sharing a number of redundant power supply, so to minimize the wiring of the rack • Administrators can operate through a network

� To reduce power consumption : • Uses low-power processor. • Low power consumption because fewer components.

� To maximize the use of data center space: • Blade servers can make the server than the current density of rack-optimized 1 U system increased 100% to 800%.

USES Blade servers function well for specific purposes such as � File sharing � Web page serving and caching � SSL encrypting of Web communication � The trans-coding of Web page content for smaller displays � Streaming audio and video content

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES � Condensed, high-density � Load balancing and failover � Power consumption & power management � Lower management cost � Flexibility, modularity, and ease of upgrading � Deployment and scalability � Disaster management

DISADVANTAGES � Expensive configuration � Expensive tool � Vendor-lock � Business case � Heating and cooling

BLADE VS. RACKMOUNT Blade Servers Rack mount Servers Shared infrastructure for fans, power supplies, Ethernet switching, storage. Networking and storage is built into the chassis, which eliminates cables. Each has its own power supply, fan and cables. Small form factor can use up to half the space of a rack mount server. Large physical floor space required to house rack mount. Installation requires no special tools or expertise, semi-technical or non-technical staff can deploy the blades. Able to hotswap. More difficult deployment. SMB may require on-site technicians to make additions to the rack mount. Proprietary nature limits the ability to mix and match components from multiple suppliers in one chassis. More choice in system suppliers for acquisitions. Multiple components from different suppliers can be used in one chassis. Many blades still have cooling issues due to shared cooling on the chassis A variety of rack mount coolers are available. Separate fans help cooling issues.

VIRTUALIZATION � Virtualization involves emulating multiple servers on one hardware platform. � Running multiple operating systems on a single computer or storage virtualization where you have the amalgamation of multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage unit are examples of virtualization

� With a blade server you have the option to combine blades with virtualization software to consolidate workloads, each running on its own instance of the OS (using the same or a different OS).

Common Blade Server Computing Environments � Blades are frequently deployed in data centers and high-performance computing environments, and can serve as application servers, databases, e-mail or Web servers, and more. � Large data centers and telecommunications service providers benefit from the use of blades as they provide the means for a large business to respond quickly to changes in business conditions.

� Where a business or group would use several different servers for different applications, it makes sense to combine the multiple servers into one blade server to make for better manageability.

CURRENT RESEARCH � To Enables High-Performance Functionality: • blades are incorporating technology such as open standard architectures, multicore processors, PCI expansion for multiple I/O functionality, the ability to house multiple OSs, low-power processors and innovative cooling techniques, standard AC electrical connectivity, daisy-chaining and Gigabit Ethernet ports.

� HPC Blade Implementations: • Distributed computing, rendering/imaging, number-crunching processes, test and measurement data analysis, content manipulation, server appliances or gateways, and heterogeneous computing using mixed OSs are just a few of the areas expected to utilize blades for HPC

� Industry Adoption: • blade servers are well suited to seismic data analysis, data manipulation, visual rendering via Fire. Wire interfaces and data storage. • Military applications are beginning to utilize blades as well, such as signal detection and analysis, surveillance, data analysis and manipulation, and visual rendering of data.

� The Emergence of Fully Capable Blade Servers: • High-performance, open standard computing is becoming more commonplace across an increasing number of technology-rich industries.

FUTURE SCOPE � At the component level, there are improvements going on at the chip-level from Intel and AMD like quad-core and beyond. � Virtualization assist is now happening at the hardware level, which is making the next level up the server virtualization software run substantially faster.

� Continuing improvements in the power and cooling efficiencies and capabilities. � The newer generations of blades systems have improving substantially, to the point where a blade server generates less heat and is more efficient.

CONCLUSION � Blade servers can greatly improve the reliability of business systems. � It is clear that by close review of the application and it’s power requirements decisions can be made that will allow for future expansion, denser cabinets, greatly reduced costs. power redundancy and will optimize cable and CDU requirements.

� It is only through making the power requirements a priority at the beginning of the project rather than an after thought that these goals are achieved.

REFERENCES www. wikipedia. com www. ubiqcomputing. org www. teco. edu www. personalubicom. com www. cdtltd. co. uk/ www-3. ibm. com/ www. media. mit. edu/pia/Research/Anchored. Displays/ www. media. mit. edu/~r/academics/Ph. D/Generals/Haw ley. html � IEEE Computer magazine, Sep-2006 � IGI. Publishing. Advances. in. Ubiquitous. Computing. F uture. Paradigms. and. Directions. Mar. 2006 � � � � �

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