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IBM 71413SU - System x3950 M2 Reference - Summary Of Changes

Manual is about: Technical Reference

Summary of 71413SU - System x3950 M2

  • Page 1

    © copyright ibm corp. 2007, 2008. All rights reserved. Ibm.Com/redbooks 1 red paper ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction table of contents summary of changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 overview . ...

  • Page 2: Summary Of Changes

    2 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction summary of changes this edition of this paper reflects the changes that are summarized here. Revision bars throughout the paper indicate where the changes have been made. New information the new ibm® system x3950 m2, page 3 table comparing th...

  • Page 3: Overview

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 3 overview this paper introduces the new ibm system x3950 m2 and the previously announced system x3850 m2, and provides you with detailed technical information about their major subsystems. Delivering an industry-leading, 64-bit framework for h...

  • Page 4

    4 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction three servers: a three-node complex comprised of three x3950 m2 servers, with six or 12 processors and up to 768 gb ram installed four servers: a four-node complex comprised of four x3950 m2 servers, with eight or 16 processors and up to 1 tb...

  • Page 5

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 5 table 1 major differences between x3850 and x3850 m2 comparing the x3950 m2 with the x3950 table 2 shows the major differences between the x3950 and the x3950 m2. Table 2 major differences between x3950 and x3950 m2 feature system x3850 serve...

  • Page 6: Ibm Scalexpander Option Kit

    6 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction ibm scalexpander option kit unlike the x3850, the x3850 m2 can be converted to an x3950 m2 through the use of the scalexpander option kit, part number 44e4249. After this kit is installed the x3850 m2 functionally becomes an x3950 m2, and is ...

  • Page 7: Multinode Configurations

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 7 larger cable management arm (replaces the existing arm to allow the easy installation of the scalability cables) scalexpander chip (transforms the x3850 m2 into an x3950 m2) x3950 m2 bezel (replaces the existing bezel, and shows that the x385...

  • Page 8

    8 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction the x3950 m2 can form a multinode configuration by adding one or more x3950 m2 servers. The following configurations are possible, as shown in figure 3: a two-node complex comprised of two x3950 m2 servers, with four or eight processors and u...

  • Page 9

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 9 updating the system bios in every node in a scalable system can be performed from the primary node. The server diagnostics, as well as the rsa ii and bmc firmware, must be individually updated on each node, but this can be performed remotely,...

  • Page 10

    10 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction currently, only one-node and two-node configurations are supported, although plans are in place to support three-node and four-node configurations in 2q08. The scalability cabling needed to form a two-node complex is shown in figure 4. Figur...

  • Page 11: Front and Rear Layouts

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 11 front and rear layouts figure 5 shows the major components at the front of the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2. Figure 5 front panel of the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 figure 6 shows the major components at the rear of the server. Figure 6 rear panel of the...

  • Page 12: Current Models

    12 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction current models table 3 shows the x3850 m2 models that were announced in october 2007. Table 3 the x3850 m2 models announced in october 2007 table 4 shows the models of the x3950 m2 that were announced in january 2008. Table 4 x3950 m2 models...

  • Page 13

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 13 server proven and microsoft cluster certified. This offering leverages the industry solution integration skills of ibm and microsoft and is the ideal solution for a customer that wants a best practices type of solution environment and does n...

  • Page 14

    14 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction table 6 certified models for the ibm datacenter unlimited virtualization offering ibm xa-64e fourth-generation chipset the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 uses the fourth generation of the ibm xa-64e chipset. The architecture consists of the following...

  • Page 15

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 15 figure 7 x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 system block diagram each memory port out of the memory controller has a peak read throughput of 4.26 gbps and a peak write throughput of 2.13 gbps. Dimms are installed in matched pairs, two-way interleaving, t...

  • Page 16: Processors

    16 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction processors the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 models use either the intel xeon processor e7210 dual-core or the intel xeon processor e7300 series dual or quad-core tigerton processors. Refer to “current models” on page 12 for more detail. All models ...

  • Page 17

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 17 figure 9 layout and installation sequence of the four processors and four memory cards the vrms for processors 1 and 2 come standard with the server; the vrms for processors 3 and 4 come with the processor options. The x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 ...

  • Page 18

    18 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction table 9 lists the processors used in the x3950 m2 datacenter models announced in january 2008. Table 9 processor used in the x3950 m2 datacenter models announced january 2008 all processors used in an x3850 m2 or x3950 m2 must be of the same...

  • Page 19

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 19 figure 10 compares the layout of the tigerton dual-core and quad-core processors. Figure 10 comparing the dual-core and quad-core tigerton key features of the processors used in the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 include: models with dual-core or qua...

  • Page 20

    20 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction a quad-pumped 266 mhz bus therefore results in a 1066 mhz front-side bus. The bus is eight bytes wide, which means it has an effective burst throughput of 8.53 gbps. This can have a substantial impact, especially on tcp/ip-based lan traffic....

  • Page 21: Xcel4V Dynamic Server Cache

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 21 applications that run in full 64-bit mode will have access to the full physical memory range, depending on the operating system, and will also have access to the new gprs as well as to the expanded gprs. However, it is important to understan...

  • Page 22

    22 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction conversely, for any processor, some memory is considered local and other memory is remote . The system’s partition descriptor table is used to ensure that memory is used in the most optimal way. The memory is two-way interleaved, meaning tha...

  • Page 23

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 23 figure 12 x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 memory card and location note the following key configuration rules: because the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 use two-way interleaving memory, dimms must be installed in matched pairs. Memory cards have part number 4...

  • Page 24

    24 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction there are a number of advanced features implemented in the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 memory subsystem, collectively known as active memory : memory protexion the memory protexion feature (also known as redundant bit steering ) provides the equiv...

  • Page 25

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 25 chipkill™ memory chipkill is integrated into the xa-64e chipset, so it does not require special chipkill dimms and is transparent to the operating system. When combining chipkill with memory protexion and active memory, the x3850 m2 and x395...

  • Page 26

    26 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction figure 13 memory hardware on the x3850 m2 and x3950 m2 mirroring takes place across two memory cards. The memory dimms in card 1 are mirrored to the memory dimms in card 2. The memory dimms in card 3 are mirrored to the memory dimms in card ...

  • Page 27

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 27 if memory mirroring is enabled, then the mirrored copy of the data from the damaged dimm is used until the dimm replaced. After the damaged dimm is replaced, memory mirroring will copy the mirrored data back onto the new dimm. Key configurat...

  • Page 28

    28 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction the requirements are as follows: operating system support: adding usable system memory to a running operating system requires operating system support. This is done with an acpi sequence. Currently, the only operating system that has this ca...

  • Page 29: Sas Disk Subsystem

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 29 the memory configuration mode you select depends on what memory features you want to use: select hpma if you are not using mirroring, hot-swap, or hot-add. This is now the default or standard setting. Select famm to enable memory mirroring a...

  • Page 30

    30 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction figure 14 serveraid-mr10k installed the use of serveraid-mr10k sas raid controller enables the following raid levels: raid-0 raid-1 raid-5 raid-6 raid-10 raid-50 raid-60 the serveraid-mr10k supports stripe sizes from 16 kb to 1024 kb. The de...

  • Page 31

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 31 a raid array created with the sas lsi 1078 can be migrated for use with the serveraid-mr10k, but the reverse is not possible. This means that if you create raid-0 and raid-1 arrays using the onboard lsi 1078 integrated raid controller and la...

  • Page 32: Pci Subsystem

    32 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction the documents are available on the serveraid mr10 support cd, which can be downloaded in iso format from: http://www.Ibm.Com/support/docview.Wss?Uid=psg1migr-5073160 pci subsystem as shown in figure 7 on page 15, there are five half-length, ...

  • Page 33

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 33 as shown in figure 15, there are seven pci express x8 slots. Slots 6 and 7 support hot-plug pci express adapters. Figure 15 pci express slots note the following configuration information: full-length cards are not supported. Half-length card...

  • Page 34: Redundancy

    34 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction the system scans pci express slots to assign system resources. The system attempts to start the first device found, with the search order as follows: a. Dvd-rom. B. Optional usb diskette drive. C. Integrated sas devices. D. Internal pci slot...

  • Page 35: Light Path Diagnostics

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 35 hot-swapped by the it administrator. In general, failed fans should be replaced within 48 hours following failure. The two gigabit ethernet ports can be configured as a team to form a redundant pair. The memory subsystem has a number of redu...

  • Page 36

    36 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction figure 17 light path diagnostic panel baseboard management service processor the baseboard management controller (bmc) is a small, independent micro-controller used to perform low-level system monitoring and control functions, as well as rem...

  • Page 37: Remote Supervisor Adapter II

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 37 the bmc monitors the system and reports when the bios and post phases are complete and the operating system has booted. System event monitoring during runtime, the bmc continually monitors critical system items such as fans, power supplies, ...

  • Page 38: Trusted Platform Module

    38 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction continuous health monitoring and control the rsa ii continuously monitors all important system parameters (such as temperature, voltage, and so on). So if, for example, a fan fails, the rsa ii forces the remaining fans to increase speed to c...

  • Page 39

    Ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction 39 the team that wrote this ibm redpaper this paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the international technical support organization, raleigh center. David watts is a consulting it specialist at the ibm it...

  • Page 40

    40 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction randy kolvick mark kapoor dan kelaher colin mckerrell vinod menon jim rix bill schwartz ketan shah karen taylor steve zaharias ibm marketing craig alexander jay bretzmann mark chapman kyle hampton beth mcelroy brian sanders novell adam spier...

  • Page 41: Notices

    © copyright international business machines corporation 2007, 2008. All rights reserved. Note to u.S. Government users restricted rights -- use, duplication or disclosure restricted by gsa adp schedule contract with ibm corp. 41 notices this information was developed for products and services offere...

  • Page 42: Red

    42 ibm system x3950 m2 and x3850 m2 technical introduction ® red paper ™ send us your comments in one of the following ways: use the online contact us review redbooks form found at: ibm.Com/redbooks send your comments in an e-mail to: redbooks@us.Ibm.Com mail your comments to: ibm corporation, inter...