1. DL manuals
  2. IBM
  3. Server
  4. POWER 710
  5. Technical Overview And Introduction

IBM POWER 710 Technical Overview And Introduction - General Description

Other manuals for POWER 710: Overview, User Manual

Summary of POWER 710

  • Page 1

    Ibm.Com/redbooks red paper front cover ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction alexandre bicas caldeira carlo costantini steve harnett volker haug craig watson fabien willmann the 8231-e1c and 8231-e2c based on the latest power7 processor technology powervm, enterprise-level ras al...

  • Page 3

    International technical support organization ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction november 2011 redp-4796-00

  • Page 4

    © copyright international business machines corporation 2011. All rights reserved. Note to u.S. Government users restricted rights -- use, duplication or disclosure restricted by gsa adp schedule contract with ibm corp. First edition (november 2011) this edition applies to the ibm power 710 (8231-e1...

  • Page 5: Contents

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. Iii contents notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vii trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

  • Page 6

    Iv ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.1.5 flexible power7 processor packaging and offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2.1.6 on-chip l3 cache innovation and intelligent cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 2.1.7 power7 processor and intell...

  • Page 7

    Contents v 2.14.6 boost performance and productivity with ibm compilers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 2.15 energy management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 2.15.1 ibm energyscale technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

  • Page 8

    Vi ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction.

  • Page 9: Notices

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. Vii notices this information was developed for products and services offered in the u.S.A. Ibm may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult your local ibm representative for information on th...

  • Page 10: Trademarks

    Viii ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction trademarks ibm, the ibm logo, and ibm.Com are trademarks or registered trademarks of international business machines corporation in the united states, other countries, or both. These and other ibm trademarked terms are marked on their fi...

  • Page 11: Preface

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. Ix preface this ibm® redpaper™ publication is a comprehensive guide covering the ibm power 710 (8231-e1c) and power 730 (8231-e2c) servers supporting ibm aix®, ibm i, and linux operating systems. The goal of this paper is to introduce the innovative p...

  • Page 12

    X ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction products. He is also skilled with ibm system storage®, ibm tivoli® storage manager, ibm system x® and vmware. Carlo costantini is a certified it specialist for ibm and has over 33 years of experience with ibm and ibm business partners. He c...

  • Page 13: Comments Welcome

    Preface xi stephen lutz ibm germany tamikia barrow international technical support organization, poughkeepsie center now you can become a published author, too! Here’s an opportunity to spotlight your skills, grow your career, and become a published author—all at the same time! Join an itso residenc...

  • Page 14

    Xii ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction explore new redbooks publications, residencies, and workshops with the ibm redbooks weekly newsletter: https://www.Redbooks.Ibm.Com/redbooks.Nsf/subscribe?Openform stay current on recent redbooks publications with rss feeds: http://www.Re...

  • Page 15: General Description

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. 1 chapter 1. General description the ibm power 710 (8231-e1c) and ibm power 730 servers (8231-e2c) utilize the latest power7 processor technology designed to deliver unprecedented performance, scalability, reliability, and manageability for demanding ...

  • Page 16: 1.1  Systems Overview

    2 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 1.1 systems overview the following sections provide detailed information about the power 710 and power 730 systems. 1.1.1 the power 710 server the ibm power 710 server is a 2u rack-mount server with one processor socket offering 4-core 3.0 ...

  • Page 17: 1.2  Operating Environment

    Chapter 1. General description 3 the power 730 server supports a maximum of 16 ddr3 dimm slots, with four dimm slots included in the base configuration. A maximum of three additional memory riser cards, each containing four dimm slots, can be installed, allowing maximum system memory of 256 gb. The ...

  • Page 18: 1.3  Physical Package

    4 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 1.3 physical package table 1-2 shows the physical dimensions of the power 710 and power 730 chassis. Both servers are available only in a rack-mounted form factor. Each takes 2u (2 eia units) of rack space. Table 1-2 physical dimensions ope...

  • Page 19: 1.4  System Features

    Chapter 1. General description 5 figure 1-3 shows the rear view of a power 730 system. Figure 1-3 rear view of a power 730 system 1.4 system features the system chassis contains one processor module (power 710) or two processor modules (power 730). Each power7 processor module has either 4 cores, 6 ...

  • Page 20

    6 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction integrated: – service processor – energyscale technology – hot-swap and redundant cooling – three usb ports – two system ports – two hmc ports optional redundant, 1725 watt ac hot-swap power supplies 1.4.2 power 730 system features this sum...

  • Page 21

    Chapter 1. General description 7 the minimum power 730 initial order must include two processor modules, processor activations, memory, one hdd/ssd, a storage backplane, two power supplies and power cords, an operating system indicator, a chassis indicator, and a language group specify. If ibm i is ...

  • Page 22

    8 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 1.4.6 memory features in power7 processor-based systems, ddr3 memory is used throughout. The power7 ddr3 memory uses a new memory architecture to provide greater bandwidth and capacity. This enables operating at a higher data rate for large...

  • Page 23

    Chapter 1. General description 9 table 1-6 shows the available disk drive feature codes that can be installed in the in the power 710 and power 730. Table 1-6 disk drive feature code description table 1-7 shows the available disk drive feature codes to be installed in an i/o enclosure external to th...

  • Page 24

    10 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction table 1-7 non cec disk drive feature code description if you need more disks than available with the internal disk bays, you can attach additional external disk subsystems. For more detailed information about the available external disk su...

  • Page 25

    Chapter 1. General description 11 the power 710 and power 730 have a slim media bay that can contain an optional dvd-ram (#5762). If feature #ej0e has been selected for the storage backplane, a tape bay is available that can contain a tape drive or removable disk drive. Table 1-8 shows the available...

  • Page 26

    12 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the #5802 i/o drawer has these attributes: eighteen sas hot-swap sff disk bays ten pcie based blind-swap i/o adapter slots redundant hot-swappable power and cooling units the #5877 drawer is the same as #5802 except that it does not suppor...

  • Page 27: 1.7  Build to Order

    Chapter 1. General description 13 1.7 build to order you can perform a build to order or a la carte configuration using the ibm configurator for e-business (e-config), where you specify each configuration feature that you want on the system. You build on top of the base required features, such as th...

  • Page 28: 1.10  System Racks

    14 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction also, a minimum of two hdds, or two ssds, or two fibre channel adapters, or two fcoe adapters is required. You only need to meet one of these disk/ssd/fc/fcoe criteria. Partial criteria cannot be combined. 1.9 server and virtualization man...

  • Page 29

    Chapter 1. General description 15 if a system is to be installed in a non-ibm rack or cabinet, ensure that the rack meets the requirements described in 1.10.10, “oem rack” on page 21. 1.10.1 ibm 7014 model s25 rack the 1.3 meter (49-inch) model s25 rack has these features: 25 eia units weights – bas...

  • Page 30

    16 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 1.10.3 ibm 7014 model t42 rack the 2.0 meter (79.3-inch) model t42 addresses the client requirement for a tall enclosure to house the maximum amount of equipment in the smallest possible floor space. The following features differ in the mo...

  • Page 31

    Chapter 1. General description 17 four pdus can be mounted vertically in the back of the t00 and t42 racks. See figure 1-4 for the placement of the four vertically mounted pdus. In the rear of the rack, two additional pdus can be installed horizontally in the t00 rack and three in the t42 rack. The ...

  • Page 32

    18 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the #5889 and #7109 pdus are identical to the #9188 and #7188 pdus but are equipped with one ethernet port, one console serial port, and one rs232 serial port for power monitoring. The pdu receives power through a utg0247 power line connec...

  • Page 33

    Chapter 1. General description 19 the two bays of the ibm system storage 7214 tape and dvd enclosure can accommodate the following tape or dvd drives for ibm power servers: dat72 36 gb tape drive - up to two drives (#1400) dat160 80 gb tape drive - up to two drives (1401) half-high lto ultrium 4 800...

  • Page 34

    20 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the two drive slots of the 7216 enclosure can hold the following drive combinations: one tape drive (dat160 sas or half-high lto ultrium 5 sas) with second bay empty two tape drives (dat160 sas or half-high lto ultrium 5 sas) in any combin...

  • Page 35

    Chapter 1. General description 21 the ability to mount the ibm travel keyboard in the 7316-tf3 rack keyboard tray support for the ibm keyboard/video/mouse (kvm) switches that provide control of as many as 128 servers, and support of both usb and ps/2 server-side keyboard and mouse connections 1.10.1...

  • Page 36

    22 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the vertical distance between the mounting holes must consist of sets of three holes spaced (from bottom to top) 15.9 mm (0.625 in.), 15.9 mm (0.625 in.), and 12.67 mm (0.5 in.) on center, making each three-hole set of vertical hole spacin...

  • Page 37: Architecture and Technical

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. 23 chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview this chapter discusses the overall system architecture for the ibm power 710 and power 730, represented by figure 2-1 on page 24 and figure 2-2 on page 25. The bandwidths that are provided throughout t...

  • Page 38

    24 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 2-1 shows the logical system diagram of the power 710. Figure 2-1 ibm power 710 logical system diagram power7 chip 1 4-6-8 cores p7-ioc buffer buffer dim m # 1 dim m # 3 memory card #1 memory card #2 gx++ slot #2 pcie gen2 x8 (fh/hl...

  • Page 39

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 25 figure 2-2 shows the logical system diagram of the power 730. Figure 2-2 ibm power 730 logical system diagram p7-ioc buffer buffer dimm # 1 dimm # 3 memory card #1 memory card #2 memory card #3 memory card #4 gx++ slot #2 gx++ slot #1 pcie gen2 x8 (f...

  • Page 40

    26 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.1 the ibm power7 processor the ibm power7 processor represents a leap forward in technology achievement and associated computing capability. The multi-core architecture of the power7 processor has been matched with innovation across a wi...

  • Page 41

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 27 figure 2-3 shows the power7 processor die layout with these major areas identified: processor cores l2 cache l3 cache and chip interconnection symmetric multi processing (smp) links memory controllers figure 2-3 power7 processor die with key areas in...

  • Page 42

    28 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction table 2-1 summarizes the technology characteristics of the power7 processor. Table 2-1 summary of power7 processor technology 2.1.2 power7 processor core each power7 processor core implements aggressive out-of-order (ooo) instruction execu...

  • Page 43

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 29 2.1.3 simultaneous multithreading an enhancement in the power7 processor is the addition of the smt4 mode to enable four instruction threads to execute simultaneously in each power7 processor core. Thus, the instruction thread execution modes of the ...

  • Page 44

    30 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.1.4 memory access each power7 processor chip has two ddr3 memory controllers, each with four memory channels (enabling eight memory channels per power7 processor chip). Each channel operates at 6.4 ghz and can address up to 32 gb of memo...

  • Page 45

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 31 figure 2-6 outlines the physical packaging options that are supported with power7 processors. Figure 2-6 outline of the power7 processor physical packaging power7 processors have the unique ability to optimize to various workload types. For example, ...

  • Page 46

    32 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.1.6 on-chip l3 cache innovation and intelligent cache a breakthrough in material engineering and microprocessor fabrication has enabled ibm to implement the l3 cache in edram and place it on the power7 processor die. L3 cache is critical...

  • Page 47

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 33 no off-chip driver or receivers removing drivers or receivers from the l3 access path lowers interface requirements, conserves energy, and lowers latency. Small physical footprint the edram l3 cache requires far less physical space than an equivalent...

  • Page 48

    34 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.2 power7 processor modules the power 710 and power 730 server chassis house power7 processor modules that host power7 processor sockets (scm) and eight ddr3 memory dimm slots for each processor module. The power 710 server houses one pro...

  • Page 49

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 35 2.2.2 power 710 and power 730 systems power 710 and power 730 systems support power7 processor chips with various core counts. Table 2-3 summarizes power7 processor options for the power 710 system. Table 2-3 summary of power7 processor options for t...

  • Page 50: 2.3  Memory Subsystem

    36 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.3 memory subsystem the power 710 is a one-socket system supporting a single power7 processor module. The server supports a maximum of eight ddr3 dimm slots, with four dimm slots included in the base configuration and four dimm slots avai...

  • Page 51

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 37 figure 2-9 shows the physical memory dimm topology. Figure 2-9 memory dimm topology for the power 730 the memory-placement rules are as follows: the base machine contains one memory riser card with four dimm sockets. Memory features occupy two memory...

  • Page 52

    38 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction compared to balancing memory exactly evenly, typically has a very small performance difference. Take into account any plans for future memory upgrades when deciding which memory feature size to use at the time of initial system order. Tabl...

  • Page 53: 2.4  Capacity On Demand

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 39 figure 2-10 shows the dimm slot positions on the memory riser cards. Figure 2-10 memory riser card for the power 710 and power 730 systems 2.3.3 memory bandwidth the power7 processor has exceptional cache, memory, and interconnect bandwidths. Table 2...

  • Page 54: 2.6  System Bus

    40 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.5 factory deconfiguration of processor cores the power 710 and power 730 servers have the capability to be shipped with part of the installed cores deconfigured at the factory. The primary use for this feature is to assist with optimizat...

  • Page 55: 2.7  Internal I/o Subsystem

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 41 2.7 internal i/o subsystem the internal i/o subsystem resides on the system planar, which supports pcie slots. Pcie slots on the power 710 and power 730 are not hot pluggable. Pcie and pci-x slots on the i/o drawers are hot-pluggable. All pcie slots ...

  • Page 56: 2.8  Pci Adapters

    42 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.8 pci adapters this section covers the various types and functionality of the pci cards supported with the ibm power 710 and power 730 systems. 2.8.1 pcie gen1 and gen2 peripheral component interconnect express (pcie) uses a serial inter...

  • Page 57

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 43 2.8.2 pcie adapter form factors ibm power7 processor based servers are able to support two different form factors of pcie adapters: pcie low profile (lp) cards, which are used with the power 710 and power 730 pcie slots. Low profile adapters are also...

  • Page 58

    44 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction table 2-9 is a list of low profile adapter cards and their equivalent in full heighth. Table 2-9 equivalent adapter cards before adding or rearranging adapters, you can use the system planning tool to validate the new adapter configuration...

  • Page 59

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 45 2.8.3 lan adapters to connect the power 710 and power 730 to a local area network (lan), you can use the following lan adapters supported in the system enclosure pcie slots. Table 2-10 lists the additional lan adapters that are available. Table 2-10 ...

  • Page 60

    46 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.8.4 graphics accelerator adapters table 2-11 lists the available graphics accelerator. It can be configured to operate in either 8-bit or 24-bit color modes. The adapter supports both analog and digital monitors. Table 2-11 available gra...

  • Page 61

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 47 figure 2-12 the pcie raid and ssd sas adapter and 177 gb ssd modules table 2-13 shows the available raid and ssd sas adapters for the power 710 and power 730. Table 2-13 available pcie raid and ssd sas adapters the 177 gb ssd module with enterprise m...

  • Page 62

    48 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction table 2-14 available fibre channel adapters 2.8.8 fibre channel over ethernet fibre channel over ethernet (fcoe) allows for the convergence of fibre channel and ethernet traffic onto a single adapter and converged fabric. Figure 2-13 shows...

  • Page 63

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 49 table 2-15 available fcoe adapters for more information about fcoe, read an introduction to fibre channel over ethernet, and fibre channel over convergence enhanced ethernet, redp-4493. 2.8.9 infiniband host channel adapter the infiniband architectur...

  • Page 64: 2.9  Internal Storage

    50 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 2.8.10 asynchronous adapters asynchronous pci adapters provide connection of asynchronous eia-232 or rs-422 devices. If you have a cluster configuration or high-availability configuration and plan to connect the ibm power systems using a s...

  • Page 65

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 51 figure 2-14 internal topology overview for #ej0e dasd backplane figure 2-15 shows the internal topology overview for the #ej0d backplane. Figure 2-15 internal topology overview for the #ej0d dasd backplane tape drive disk #3 disk #2 disk #1 slim dvd ...

  • Page 66

    52 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 2-16 shows the details of the internal topology overview for the #5268 backplane. Figure 2-16 internal topology overview for the #ej0f dasd backplane 2.9.1 raid support there are multiple protection options for hdd/ssd drives in the...

  • Page 67

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 53 table 2-18 lists the raid support by backplane. Table 2-18 raid support configurations aix and linux can use disk drives formatted with 512-byte blocks when being mirrored by the operating system. These disk drives must be reformatted to 528-byte sec...

  • Page 68

    54 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the external sas port is used for expansion to external sas devices or drawer such as the exp 12s sas drawer, the exp24s sff gen2-bay drawer, and the ibm system storage 7214 tape and dvd enclosure express (model 1u2). 2.9.3 media bays the ...

  • Page 69

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 55 a maximum of two #5802 drawers can be placed on the same 12x loop. Feature #5877 is the same as #5802 except that it does not support any disk bays. Feature #5877 can be on the same loop as #5802. Feature #5877 cannot be upgraded to #5802. The physic...

  • Page 70

    56 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 2-18 shows the rear view of the 12x i/o drawer pcie (#5802). Figure 2-18 rear view of the 12x i/o drawer pcie 2.10.2 dividing sff drive bays in a 12x i/o drawer pcie disk drive bays in a 12x i/o drawer pcie can be configured as a se...

  • Page 71

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 57 figure 2-19 disk bay partitioning in #5802 pcie 12x i/o drawer the sas ports, as associated with the mode selector switch map to the disk bays, have the mappings shown in table 2-20. Table 2-20 sas connection mappings location codes for #5802 i/o dra...

  • Page 72

    58 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 2-21 5802 i/o drawer rear view location codes configuring the #5802 disk drive subsystem the #5802 sas disk drive enclosure can hold up 18 disk drives. The disks in this enclosure can be organized in various configurations depending...

  • Page 73

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 59 figure 2-22 shows typical 12x i/o loop port connections. Figure 2-22 typical 12x i/o loop port connections table 2-21 shows various 12x cables to satisfy the various length requirements. Table 2-21 12x connection cables general rules for 12x i/o draw...

  • Page 74

    60 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 2-23 spcn cabling examples table 2-22 shows spcn cables to satisfy various length requirements. Table 2-22 spcn cables 2.11 external disk subsystems the power 710 and power 730 servers support the attachment of i/o drawers. The powe...

  • Page 75

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 61 one set of 12 drives, which is run by one sas controller or one pair of sas controllers, it has two sas attachment ports and two service managers for redundancy. The exp 12s takes up a two-eia space in a 19-inch rack. The sas controller can be a sas ...

  • Page 76

    62 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction a second exp12s sas expansion drawer can be attached to another drawer using two sas ee cables, providing 24 sas bays instead of 12 bays for the same sas controller port. This arrangement is called cascading. In this configuration, all 24 ...

  • Page 77

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 63 the exp24s can be ordered in one of three possible manufacturing-configured mode settings (not customer set-up): 1, 2, or 4 sets of disk bays. With ibm aix, linux, and virtual i/o server, the exp24s can be ordered with four sets of six bays (mode 4),...

  • Page 78

    64 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the following cabling options for the exp 24s drawer are available: x cables for #5278 – 3 m (#3661) – 6 m (#3662) – 15 m (#3663) x cables for #5913 (all 6 gb except for 15 m cable) – 3 m (#3454) – 6 m (#3455) – 10 m (#3456) yo cables for ...

  • Page 79

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 65 ibm system storage n series the ibm system storage n series is a network attached storage (nas) solution and provides the latest technology to customers to help them improve performance, virtualization manageability, and system efficiency at a reduce...

  • Page 80

    66 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction support, and virtualization features, the ds8000 family is well suited for simplifying the storage environment by consolidating data from multiple storage systems on a single system. The high-end model ds8800 is the most advanced model in ...

  • Page 81

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 67 2.12.1 hmc functional overview the hmc provides three groups of functions: server virtualization hmc management server management the first group contains all functions related to the management of the physical servers under the control of the hmc: s...

  • Page 82

    68 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction scheduled operations back-up and restore updates, upgrades customizable message of the day the hmc provides both a graphical interface and a command-line interface (cli) for all management tasks. Remote connection to the hmc using a web br...

  • Page 83

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 69 for more details about hmc and the possible network connections, see hardware management console v7 handbook, sg24-7491. The default mechanism for allocation of the ip addresses for the service processor hmc ports is dynamic. The hmc can be configure...

  • Page 84

    70 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction syncronization of functionality. Depending on your environment, you have multiple options to configure the network. Figure 2-27 shows one possible highly available hmc configuration managing two servers. These servers have only one cec and...

  • Page 85

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 71 if you want to migrate an lpar from a power6 processor-based server onto a power7 processor-based server using powervm live partition mobility, consider that if the source server is managed by one hmc and the destination server is managed by a differ...

  • Page 86

    72 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the sdmc can be obtained as a hardware appliance in the same manner as an hmc. Hardware appliances support managing all power systems servers. The sdmc can optionally be obtained in a virtual appliance format capable of running on vmware (...

  • Page 87

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 73 the ibm sdmc virtual appliance requires ibm systems director management console v6.7.3 (5765-mcv). The sdmc on power6 processor-based servers and blades requires efirmware level 3.5.7. A sdmc on power systems power7 processor-based servers and blades...

  • Page 88

    74 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction ibm periodically releases maintenance packages (service packs or technology levels) for the aix operating system. Information about these packages, downloading, and obtaining the cd-rom is on the fix central website: http://www-933.Ibm.Com...

  • Page 89

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 75 2.14.4 linux operating system linux is an open source operating system that runs on numerous platforms from embedded systems to mainframe computers. It provides a unix-like implementation across many computer architectures. The supported versions of ...

  • Page 90

    76 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction processors, through to the power4+™, power5™, power5+™ and power6® processors, and now including the new power7 processors. With the support of the latest power7 processor chip, ibm advances a more than 20-year investment in the xl compile...

  • Page 91: 2.15  Energy Management

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 77 2.15 energy management the power 710 and 730 servers are designed with features to help clients become more energy efficient. The ibm systems director active energy manager exploits energyscale technology, enabling advanced energy management features...

  • Page 92

    78 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction when a system is idle, the system firmware will lower the frequency and voltage to power energy saver mode values. When fully utilized, the maximum frequency will vary, depending on whether the user favors power savings or system performan...

  • Page 93

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 79 operate in worst-case environments, in hot ambient temperatures, at high altitudes, and with high power components. In a typical case, one or more of these constraints are not valid. When no power savings setting is enabled, fan speed is based on amb...

  • Page 94

    80 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction in addition to the two dynamic power saver options, the customer can select to have no power savings on a given partition. This option will leave the processor cores assigned to the partition running at their nominal frequencies and voltag...

  • Page 95

    Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 81 for information about ibm energyscale technology, go to: http://www.Ibm.Com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?Infotype=sa&subtype=wh&appname=stge _po_po_usen&htmlfid=pow03039usen&attachment=pow03039usen.Pdf.

  • Page 96

    82 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction.

  • Page 97: Virtualization

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. 83 chapter 3. Virtualization as you look for ways to maximize the return on your it infrastructure investments, consolidating workloads becomes an attractive proposition. Ibm power systems combined with powervm technology are designed to help you cons...

  • Page 98: 3.1  Power Hypervisor

    84 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 3.1 power hypervisor combined with features designed into the power7 processors, the power hypervisor delivers functions that enable other system technologies, including logical partitioning technology, virtualized processors, ieee vlan co...

  • Page 99

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 85 virtual scsi the power hypervisor provides a virtual scsi mechanism for virtualization of storage devices. The storage virtualization is accomplished using two paired, adapters: a virtual scsi server adapter a virtual scsi client adapter a virtual i/o server partition or...

  • Page 100: 3.2  Power Processor Modes

    86 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction virtual fibre channel a virtual fibre channel adapter is a virtual adapter that provides client logical partitions with a fibre channel connection to a storage area network through the virtual i/o server logical partition. The virtual i/o ...

  • Page 101

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 87 on power system servers, partitions can be configured to run in several modes, including: power6 compatibility mode this execution mode is compatible with version 2.05 of the power instruction set architecture (isa). For more information, visit the following address: htt...

  • Page 102

    88 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction table 3-2 lists the differences between these modes. Table 3-2 differences between power6 and power7 mode 3.3 active memory expansion power active memory expansion enablement is an optional feature of power7 processor-based servers that mu...

  • Page 103

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 89 capacity available for this compression/decompression. Tests in ibm laboratories, using sample work loads, showed excellent results for many workloads in terms of memory expansion per additional cpu utilized. Other test workloads had more modest results. Clients have muc...

  • Page 104

    90 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction to help you perform this study, a planning tool is included with aix 6.1 technology level 4, allowing you to sample actual workloads and estimate how expandable the partition's memory is and how much cpu resource is needed. Any model power...

  • Page 105

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 91 after you select the value of the memory expansion factor that you want to achieve, you can use this value to configure the partition from the hmc (figure 3-5). Figure 3-5 using the planning tool result to configure the partition on the hmc menu describing the partition,...

  • Page 106: 3.4  Powervm

    92 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction from the hmc, you can view whether the active memory expansion feature has been activated (figure 3-6). Figure 3-6 server capabilities listed from the hmc for detailed information regarding active memory expansion, you can download the act...

  • Page 107

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 93 3.4.1 powervm editions this section provides information about the virtualization capabilities of the powervm. The three editions of powervm are suited for various purposes, as follows: powervm express edition powervm express edition is designed for customers looking for...

  • Page 108

    94 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction micro-partitioning micro-partitioning technology allows you to allocate fractions of processors to a logical partition. This technology was introduced with power5 processor-based systems. A logical partition using fractions of processors i...

  • Page 109

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 95 the ibm power 710 supports up to eight cores, and has the following maximums: up to eight dedicated partitions up to 80 micro-partitions (10 micro-partitions per physical active core) the power 730 allows up to 16 cores in a single system, supporting the following maximu...

  • Page 110

    96 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction processing mode when you create a logical partition you can assign entire processors for dedicated use, or you can assign partial processing units from a shared processor pool. This setting defines the processing mode of the logical partit...

  • Page 111

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 97 shared mode in shared mode, logical partitions use virtual processors to access fractions of physical processors. Shared partitions can define any number of virtual processors (the maximum number is 10 times the number of processing units assigned to the partition). From...

  • Page 112

    98 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction micro-partitions are created and then identified as members of either the default shared-processor pool 0 or a user-defined shared-processor pool n . The virtual processors that exist within the set of micro-partitions are monitored by the...

  • Page 113

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 99 levels of processor capacity resolution the two levels of processor capacity resolution implemented by the power hypervisor and multiple shared processor pools are: level 0 the first level, level 0 , is the resolution of capacity within the same shared-processor pool. Un...

  • Page 114

    100 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction harvested and then redistributed to uncapped micro-partitions within the same shared-processor pool. This level of processor capacity management is sometimes referred to as level 0 capacity resolution. At a higher level, the power hypervi...

  • Page 115

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 101 dynamic movement between shared-processor pools a micro-partition can be moved dynamically from one shared-processor pool to another using the managed console using either the graphical interface or cli. Because the entitled pool capacity is partly made up of the sum of...

  • Page 116

    102 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 3-10 shows an overview of a virtual i/o server configuration. Figure 3-10 architectural view of the virtual i/o server because the virtual i/o server is an operating system-based appliance server, redundancy for physical devices at...

  • Page 117

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 103 figure 3-11 shows a configuration example of an sea with one physical and two virtual ethernet adapters. An sea can include up to 16 virtual ethernet adapters on the virtual i/o server that share the same physical access. Figure 3-11 architectural view of a shared ether...

  • Page 118

    104 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction virtual scsi virtual scsi is used to refer to a virtualized implementation of the scsi protocol. Virtual scsi is based on a client/server relationship. The virtual i/o server logical partition owns the physical resources and acts as serve...

  • Page 119

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 105 at the time of writing, virtual scsi supports fibre channel, parallel scsi, iscsi, sas, scsi raid devices and optical devices, including dvd-ram and dvd-rom. Other protocols such as ssa and tape devices are not supported. For more information about the specific storage ...

  • Page 120

    106 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction partition mobility provides systems management flexibility and improves system availability, as follows: avoid planned outages for hardware or firmware maintenance by moving logical partitions to another server and then performing the mai...

  • Page 121

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 107 3. Restart the logical partition on the power7 processor-based server. The hypervisor evaluates the configuration. Because the preferred mode is set to default and the logical partition now runs on a power7 processor-based server, the highest mode available is the power...

  • Page 122

    108 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 3.4.6 active memory sharing active memory sharing is an ibm powervm advanced memory virtualization technology that provides system memory virtualization capabilities to ibm power systems, allowing multiple partitions to share a common poo...

  • Page 123

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 109 figure 3-13 shows the standard behavior of a system without active memory deduplication (amd) enabled on its ams shared memory pool. Identical pages within the same or different lpars each require their own unique physical memory page, consuming space with repeated info...

  • Page 124

    110 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 3-14 shows the behavior of a system with active memory deduplication enabled on its ams shared memory pool. Duplicated pages from different lpars are stored just once, providing the ams pool with more free memory. Figure 3-14 ident...

  • Page 125

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 111 figure 3-15 shows two pages being written in the ams memory pool and having its signatures matched on the deduplication table. Figure 3-15 memory pages having their signatures matched by active memory deduplication from the lpar point of view, the amd feature is complet...

  • Page 126

    112 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction figure 3-16 shows the active memory deduplication being enabled to a shared memory pool. Figure 3-16 enabling the active memory deduplication for a shared memory pool the active memory deduplication feature requires the following minimum ...

  • Page 127

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 113 3.4.9 operating system support for powervm table 3-5 summarizes the powervm features supported by the operating systems compatible with the power7 processor-based servers. Table 3-5 powervm features supported by aix, ibm i and linux feature aix v5.3 aix v6.1 aix v7.1 ib...

  • Page 128

    114 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 3.4.10 power7 linux programming support ibm linux technology center (ltc) contributes to the development of linux by providing support for ibm hardware in linux distributions. In particular, the ltc makes tools and code available to the l...

  • Page 129: 3.5  System Planning Tool

    Chapter 3. Virtualization 115 for information regarding advance toolchain, see this website: http://www.Ibm.Com/developerworks/wikis/display/hpccentral/how+to+use+advance+tool chain+for+linux+on+power you can also visit the university of illinois linux on power open source repository: http://ppclinu...

  • Page 130

    116 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction you can use the spt before you order a system to determine what you must order to support your workload. You can also use the spt to determine how you can partition a system that you already have. The system planning tool is an effective ...

  • Page 131: Continuous Availability and

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. 117 chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability this chapter provides information about ibm reliability, availability, and serviceability (ras) design and features. This set of technologies, implemented on ibm power systems servers, provides ...

  • Page 132: 4.1  Reliability

    118 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 4.1 reliability highly reliable systems are built with highly reliable components. On ibm power processor-based systems, this basic principle is expanded upon with a clear design for reliability architecture and methodology. A concentrate...

  • Page 133: 4.2  Availability

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 119 4.1.2 placement of components packaging is designed to deliver both high performance and high reliability. For example, the reliability of electronic components is directly related to their thermal environment. That is, large decreases in comp...

  • Page 134

    120 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction throughout this chapter we describe ibm power7 processor-based systems technologies focused on keeping a system up and running. For a specific set of functions focused on detecting errors before they become serious enough to stop computin...

  • Page 135

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 121 in addition, runtime unrecoverable hardware faults can be deconfigured from the system after the first occurrence. The system can be rebooted immediately after failure and resume operation on the remaining stable hardware. This way prevents th...

  • Page 136

    122 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction even with all these availability enhancements to prevent processor errors from affecting system-wide availability into play, there will be errors that can result in a system-wide outage. 4.2.3 memory protection a memory protection archite...

  • Page 137

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 123 when a fault occurs. In addition, the memory bus has spare capacity to substitute a spare data bit-line for one that is determined to be faulty. Figure 4-2 shows a power7 processor chip, with its memory interface, consisting of two controllers...

  • Page 138

    124 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction finally, if an uncorrectable error in memory is discovered, the logical memory block associated with the address with the uncorrectable error is marked for deallocation by the power hypervisor. This deallocation will take effect on a part...

  • Page 139

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 125 memory to reload the cache line from main memory. Modified data is handled through special uncorrectable error handling. L2 and l3 deleted cache lines are marked for persistent deconfiguration on subsequent system reboots until they can be rep...

  • Page 140

    126 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 4.2.6 pci extended error handling ibm estimates that pci adapters can account for a significant portion of the hardware-based errors on a large server. Whereas servers that rely on boot-time diagnostics can identify failing components to ...

  • Page 141: 4.3  Serviceability

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 127 figure 4-3 shows the location and various mechanisms used throughout the i/o subsystem for pci extended error handling. Figure 4-3 pci extended error handling 4.3 serviceability ibm power systems design considers both ibm and client needs. The...

  • Page 142

    128 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction client control of the service environment extends to firmware maintenance on all of the power processor-based systems. This strategy contributes to higher systems availability with reduced maintenance costs. This section provides an overv...

  • Page 143

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 129 mutual surveillance the service processor monitors the operation of the power hypervisor firmware during the boot process and watches for loss of control during system operation. It also allows the power hypervisor to monitor service processor...

  • Page 144

    130 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the operating system completes booting, the information is passed from the nvram to the system error log where it is analyzed by error log analysis (ela) routines. Appropriate actions are taken to report the boot-time error for subsequent...

  • Page 145

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 131 this proactive diagnostic strategy is a significant improvement over the classic, less accurate reboot and diagnose service approaches. Figure 4-5 shows a schematic of a fault isolation register implementation. Figure 4-5 schematic of fir impl...

  • Page 146

    132 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction boot time when an ibm power systems server powers up, the service processor initializes the system hardware. Boot-time diagnostic testing uses a multi-tier approach for system validation, starting with managed low-level diagnostics that a...

  • Page 147

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 133 result is stored in system nvram. Error log analysis (ela) can be used to display the failure cause and the physical location of the failing hardware. With the integrated service processor, the system has the ability to automatically send out ...

  • Page 148

    134 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction when a local or globally reported service request is made to the operating system, the operating system diagnostic subsystem uses the remote management and control subsystem (rmc) to relay error information to the hardware management cons...

  • Page 149

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 135 client notify when an event is important enough to report, but does not indicate the need for a repair action or the need to call home to ibm service and support, it is classified as client notify. Clients are notified because these events mig...

  • Page 150

    136 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction packaging for service the following service enhancements are included in the physical packaging of the systems to facilitate service: color coding (touch points): – terracotta-colored touch points indicate that a component (fru or cru) ca...

  • Page 151

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 137 service labels service providers use these labels to assist them in performing maintenance actions. Service labels are found in various formats and positions and are intended to transmit readily available information to the servicer during the...

  • Page 152

    138 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction models. Upgrading to a higher release level is disruptive to customer operations. Ibm intends to introduce no more than two new release levels per year. These release levels will be supported by service packs. Service packs are intended t...

  • Page 153: 4.4  Manageability

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 139 service action is always performed from the operating system of the partition owning that resource. Clients can subscribe through the subscription services to obtain the notifications about the latest updates available for service-related docu...

  • Page 154

    140 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the ability to view and manage the machine-wide settings by using the asmi, and enables complete system and partition management from the hmc. The service processor uses two ethernet 10/100mbps ports. Note the following information: both ...

  • Page 155

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 141 c. From the system management tasks list, select operations advanced system management (asm). Access the asmi by using a web browser. The web interface to the asmi is accessible through running microsoft internet explorer 7.0, opera 9.24, or m...

  • Page 156

    142 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction the operator panel can be accessed in two ways: by using the normal operational front view by pulling it out to access the switches and view the lcd display. Figure 4-6 shows that the operator panel on a power 710 and 730 is pulled out. F...

  • Page 157

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 143 error log and the aix configuration data. Ibm i has a service tools problem log, ibm i history log (qhst), and ibm i problem log. These are the available modes: service mode service mode requires a service mode boot of the system. It enables t...

  • Page 158

    144 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction depending on the operating system, these are the service-level functions that you typically see when using the operating system service menus: product activity log trace licensed internal code work with communications trace display/alter/...

  • Page 159

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 145 for access to the initial web pages that address this capability, see the support for ibm systems web page: http://www.Ibm.Com/systems/support for power systems, select the power link. Figure 4-7 shows an example. Figure 4-7 support for power ...

  • Page 160

    146 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction if there is an hmc to manage the server, the hmc interface can be use to view the levels of server firmware and power subsystem firmware that are installed and that are available to download and install. Each ibm power systems server has ...

  • Page 161

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 147 the following example uses the convention: 01al710_086 = power7 entry systems firmware for 8233-e8b and 8236-e8b an installation is disruptive if the following statements are true: the release levels (sss) of currently installed and new firmwa...

  • Page 162

    148 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction 4.5 operating system support for ras features table 4-2 gives an overview of a number of features for continuous availability that are supported by the various operating systems running on the power 710, power 720, power 730, and power 74...

  • Page 163

    Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability 149 dynamic trace x x x x - - x operating system ffdc - x x x - - - error log analysis x x x x x x x service processor support for: built-in-self-tests (bist) for logic and arrays x x x x x x x wire tests x x x x x x x component initialization x x...

  • Page 164

    150 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction redundant hmcs x x x x x x x automated server recovery/restart x x x x x x x high availability clustering support x x x x x x x repair and verify guided maintenance x x x x most most most concurrent kernel update - x x x x x x a. Electron...

  • Page 165: Related Publications

    © copyright ibm corp. 2011. All rights reserved. 151 related publications the publications listed in this section are considered particularly suitable for a more detailed discussion of the topics covered in this paper. Ibm redbooks the following ibm redbooks publications provide additional informati...

  • Page 166: Online Resources

    152 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction specific storage devices supported for virtual i/o server http://www14.Software.Ibm.Com/webapp/set2/sas/f/vios/documentation/datasheet.Html ibm power 710 server data sheet http://public.Dhe.Ibm.Com/common/ssi/ecm/en/pod03048usen/pod03048u...

  • Page 167: Help From Ibm

    Related publications 153 support for ibm systems website http://www.Ibm.Com/support/entry/portal/overview?Brandind=hardware~systems~power ibm power systems website http://www.Ibm.Com/systems/power/ ibm storage website http://www.Ibm.Com/systems/storage/ help from ibm ibm support and downloads ibm.Co...

  • Page 168

    154 ibm power 710 and 730 technical overview and introduction.

  • Page 170: Red

    ® redp-4796-00 international technical support organization building technical information based on practical experience ibm redbooks are developed by the ibm international technical support organization. Experts from ibm, customers and partners from around the world create timely technical informat...