Technical Essentials of HP Servers, Rev. 11.41

Technical Essentials of HP Servers, Rev. 11.41 Course objectives Upon completion of this course, you should be able to: • • • • • • •

Explain the HP server vision, including high availability, viritualization and partitioning Explain HP server technologies including subsystems Describe the HP ProLiant server portfolio Describe the HP Integrity server portfolio Describe the HP BladeSystem server blades Describe HP server software List the various options available for HP servers

Course overview This course contains the following lessons that discuss HP servers. For a brief description of each lesson, select one of the following links. HP server vision HP server technologies HP ProLiant entry-level servers HP Integrity entry-level servers HP ProLiant mid-range servers HP Integrity mid-range servers HP ProLiant and HP Integrity BL servers HP Integrity NonStop and Superdome 2 Servers HP server software

HP server vision: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: • • • •

Provide an overview of high availability and some of its elements and technologies Describe clustering and its advantages, as well cluster models and configurations Describe how HP implements virtualization List four types of partitions and some of the benefits an IT organization gains through partitioning

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Availability overview Availability is both a measure of the time that a server system or component is functioning normally and of its ability to maintain services despite hardware or software failures. Availability is also expressed as a percentage and is measured against a period of one year. The best possible rating, 100%, indicates that the system is available all the time.

Critical applications can be classified as either mission-critical or business-critical. • •

Mission-critical applications — Require 100% uptime. The unavailability of one of these systems can have tragic consequences. Business-critical applications — Can tolerate minimal interruptions. A businesscritical application is extremely important to a company, but small amounts of downtime are allowed.

Availability levels Availability is a relative term. Availability of 99% in a 24 x 7 operation might sound like a lot, but it translates to more than 87 hours of downtime a year. In a system that is 99% available, the following can occur: • • •

One failure during the year that lasts three days 10 failures, each lasting for a little over eight hours 87 outages of about one hour each

A company might be able to tolerate 87 one-hour outages over one year, but an outage that shuts down a business for two consecutive days could be extremely costly—if not fatal. A useful matrix for evaluating system availability refers to uptime as a number of nines. One nine is 90%, two are 99%, three are 99.9%, and so on. Most vendors use nines to quote system availability as the percentage of time the system is up and running. The industry has constructed a three-level availability model to compare availability needs and features: •

Standard availability (95–99% uptime) — Some unplanned downtime can be tolerated. This type of solution might include stand-alone ProLiant servers with fault-tolerant features such as advanced memory protection and mirrored Smart Array controllers.

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High availability (99.9–99.99% uptime) — Applications can tolerate minimal interruptions, planned or unplanned. This type of solution might include industry-standard ProLiant clusters. Continuous availability (99.999–100% uptime) — This is often referred to as five nines of availability. Applications require 100% uptime. This type of solution can be achieved with HP NonStop server systems. Guaranteed uptimes require HP Services.

Mean time between failures (MTBF)

After you know the downtime an organization can tolerate, you can calculate availability for components and systems to determine if a solution meets their requirements. The following simple equation and measurements can be used to calculate component or system availability:

MTBF equates to uptime, and mean time to repair (MTTR) is the time it takes to resolve a particular problem. • • •

As MTTR approaches zero, availability increases toward 100%. As the MTBF gets larger, MTTR has less impact on availability. The equation Availability = MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR) represents total time.

The measurement mean time to detect (MTTD) is the average time to detect a failure. Means are trends or averages. If it takes a system administrator 20 minutes to recover from a particular problem, that does not mean it will take 20 minutes every time. A good rule of thumb is to know the longest period an organization can afford to be down and the worst-case time to fix a problem.

Designing for high availability When designing a highly available system, you must take into account all elements that can cause failure and plan them into the design. Procedures must be designed and followed to ensure that business practices do not negatively impact availability. This includes items such as change control and disaster recovery procedures. Causes of downtime Downtime has several primary causes:

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Hardware faults — Errors caused by faulty or damaged equipment Software faults — Faulty interactions between the operating system and third-party applications or drivers Planned service events — Upgrading hardware (such as adding memory) or upgrading software (such as installing a patch) Operator errors — Errors caused by humans, including: o Setting configurations incorrectly o Shutting down the wrong server o Omitting a procedural step Environmental factors — Natural disasters, air conditioning, power grids, and other environmental factors Security breaches — Unauthorized users breaking into your system and deleting files, changing configurations, or shutting down the system and making it unavailable

Primary downtime causes

Clustering Clustering is a high-availability solution for rapid recovery of a system failure. Clustering can also be a solution for improved processor performance, I/O performance, and storage capacity.

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A cluster is a set of loosely coupled servers, or nodes, used as a single, unified computing resource. Clusters keep server-based applications highly available, regardless of individual component failures. They also ensure minimal interruption of operations and can increase processing capacity and I/O bandwidth. If any component in the system fails (hardware or software), the user might see degraded performance but will not lose access to the service. HP clusters with industry-standard HP ProLiant servers do not require special hardware for clustering. A cluster kit provides additional software and documentation specific to the cluster solution selected. These cluster kits assist in configuring and maintaining cluster solutions.

Cluster technology Although clustering can take many forms, typically, a cluster is a set of standard servers interconnected by Ethernet. Additional systems can be added as needed to process more complex requests or an increasing number of requests from the clients. If one system in a cluster fails, its work load can be automatically dispersed among the remaining systems. This transfer is frequently transparent to the client. Common clustering concepts include: • • •

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Nodes — Members of a cluster. The terms "nodes" and "members" are used interchangeably. Cluster service — Collection of node software that manages all cluster-specific activity. Resources — Recognized items managed by the cluster service that sees all resources as identical objects. They might include physical hardware devices (such as disk drives and network cards) or logical items (such as logical disk volumes, IP addresses, applications, and databases). Resources are online when they provide services to specific nodes. Group — Collection of resources managed as a single unit. A group usually contains all elements needed to run a specific application and for client systems to connect to the service provided by the application. Groups enable an administrator to combine resources into larger logical units and manage them as a unit. Operations performed on a group affect all resources contained within that group. Heartbeat — Communication protocol used within a cluster to determine whether a node is operational. The lack of heartbeat can initiate a failover. Interconnect — Communication link between the cluster nodes. It can be used for the heartbeat or data exchange between cluster nodes. Failover — Process of moving applications, services, and data from the primary server node to a secondary server node, either manually or automatically. Automatic failover is normally the result of an unexpected hardware or software failure in a cluster node. Failback — Process of returning the operation of a previously failed server node, application, service, or data to its preferred owner. After servicing is performed and the primary server node is reintegrated into the cluster, the system can manually or automatically fail back the applications and data to the preferred server node.

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Advantages of clustering Clustering provides these advantages: • • • • •

High availability of resources Scalability for growth Centralized administration Load balancing Cluster-aware applications

High availability of resources

Clustering ensures the high availability of resources. If one node in a cluster either fails or is taken offline by the administrator, the resources can fail over to a surviving node. During failover, the remaining servers automatically redistribute the tasks of the node that is down or failed. This process is transparent to clients in the network and enables network resources to remain highly available. When a node that failed or was taken offline is ready, the resources can fail back to the original node. This failback can be performed manually or can be configured to happen automatically. » To top Scalability for growth

In addition to providing high availability, clusters can be highly scalable. Through clustering, the processor, I/O, storage, and application resources can be incrementally and efficiently expanded. Scalability provides reliable access to system resources and data as well as investment protection for hardware and software resources. Clusters are also scalable in terms of investment. By clustering existing hardware with new computers, customers can protect their investments in both hardware and software. Instead of replacing a stand-alone computer, they can add another computer of equal capacity. » To top Centralized administration

In a typical server environment, various administrative tools identify the servers on the network and monitor their contents and activities. However, in the cluster environment, the administration of applications and services is centralized, providing more control over resources, services, and applications. » To top

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Load balancing

Clusters not only provide high availability, scalability, and centralized administration, but also load balancing. During normal operation, most clustering software allows manual or automatic load balancing of resources. Environments that are not resource-intensive (such as web servers) are perfect for server farms, which are made up of multiple, independent servers. Each server can handle simultaneous connections and distribute incoming requests using a load balancer. Load balancers can be hardware or software. Hardware load balancers have the following benefits: • • •

Greater scalability than software load balancers Ease of management No processor load on the application server farms

Software load balancers have these characteristics: • • •

Up to 32 systems in a load balancing cluster All servers must be on the same network segment Load balancing performed on the same server as the application

Software balancers do not need external hardware, so they are less expensive than hardware load balancers. » To top Cluster-aware applications

A noncluster-aware application must be manually configured for failover, but a cluster-aware application recognizes that it is being installed on a cluster and creates the necessary resources that it requires for clustering. A cluster-aware application can be clustered and managed easily and can generally recover from more faults than a noncluster-aware application. » To top

Cluster models There is a variety of common cluster models such as: •

Shared-nothing — The shared-nothing model is the classic clustering architecture in which server nodes have access to a shared physical storage system, but they cannot access the same logical drives at the same time. In the shared-nothing software model, each system within the cluster owns a subset of the cluster resources. Only one system can own and access a particular resource at a time, although in the event of a failure, another dynamically determined system can take ownership of the resource. In 7

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addition, requests from clients are automatically routed to the system that owns the resource. Shared-disk — In the shared-disk model, software running on any system in the cluster can access any resource connected to any system in the cluster. If two systems must see the same data, the data must either be read twice from the disk or copied from one system to another. The application must synchronize and serialize its access to shared data. Shared-everything — A shared-everything cluster is also referred to as a single system image cluster. The administrator, clients, and operating system see the system as one unit. The cluster nodes share memory, processors, and disks.

Cluster configurations Clusters can be configured in one of two configurations, active/standby or active/active. • •

Active/standby Active/active

Active/standby

An active/standby configuration includes a standby server and an active server. A standby server is one that is not being used for anything other than offering a standby service by waiting for downtime switchovers from the active server. The active server is the primary server. Active/standby configurations can also have two or more active servers and one standby server. Failover is transparent in a mirrored configuration because one server copies the activities of the other. When one server fails, the other executes the operating system and the applications continue.

Active/standby configuration » To top Active/active

In an active/active configuration, each server is processing a work load simultaneously. Each node can process independent loads or share the same load. 8

An active/active configuration is more cost-effective than an active/standby configuration because all active servers provide services. All servers in an active/active cluster are powerful because each server must be able to cover all of the services of a failed server.

Active/active configuration

HP Integrity servers: Reliability and highavailability servers Dynamic processor resilience and dynamic memory resilience The processors in Integrity servers use software within the operating system to perform dynamic processor resilience (DPR) and dynamic memory resilience (DMR), which are designed to keep systems up and running while de-allocating failed memory or CPUs. With DPR, any CPU generating correctable cache errors at a rate deemed unacceptable is deallocated from use by the system. This feature helps prevent a CPU from degrading to the point where it can cause system crashes. DMR isolates faulty memory areas with single-bit errors, providing system "self-healing" in systems where CPU errors are common because of chip complexity, and memory errors are common because of sheer array size. Smart, accurate fault management of processor and memory errors is critical to meet mission-critical objectives. Benefits of DPR and DMR include: 1. 2. 3. 4.

No system crashes No performance loss No resource loss Completely transparent to users

DMR and DPR are key differentiators that separate HP from competitive systems for both hardware and software because most hardware and software do not deal with such errors correctly. HP field data has shown that DMR and DPR practically eliminate system failures that result from memory problems.

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HP ProLiant servers: Reliability and highavailability servers HP ProLiant high availability features range from technologies such as DDR3 memory, advanced-error checking and correcting (ECC) memory, fully buffered DIMMs (FB-DIMM), hot-plug mirrored memory and hot-plug RAID memory to virtualization solutions that employ industry-leading virtualization environments such as VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft HyperV. These solutions are tested, certified, and supported on leading HP ProLiant platforms, and integrated with Insight Control and the Matrix Operating Environment (OE) delivered through Insight software.

Virtualization implementation Virtualization is a cornerstone of the HP approach to helping customers achieve business and IT synchronization. Server virtualization creates a new level of integration between business and IT, enabling a business to pool and share IT resources so utilization is optimized and supply automatically meets demand. Virtualization makes server resources available dynamically for use across the organization. The logical functions of these elements are separated from their physical functions (for example, processor, memory, I/O, controllers, disks, and switches). Servers can be aggregated into independent pools of resources. Some elements can be further subdivided into network zones to provide an even more granular level of control or security. Elements from these pools can then be allocated, provisioned, and managed—manually or automatically—to meet the changing needs and priorities of business. • •

Pooling — Can be thought of as "many-to-one" (for example, clustering a number of Integrity rx2660 or rx3600 servers to act as one virtual server) Sharing — Can be thought of as "one-to-many" (for example, using a single Integrity rx6600 server for multiple users or applications in an optimized way)

The ability to grow the business while reducing costs depends on how the underlying resources are managed. With a virtual infrastructure, IT organizations can provision new services and change the amount of resources dedicated to a software service. Hardware management is completely separated from software management, and hardware equipment can be treated as a single pool of processing power to be allocated and de-allocated as needed to various software services. The HP approach to virtualization Virtualization is more than just the implementation of technology. It is an approach—a way of thinking about IT infrastructure. To truly take advantage of the technological innovations that are coming to market, enterprises need to address their people and processes. Although enterprises can start virtualizing at any stage of the spectrum, be aware of two key points:

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Choices made at an earlier stage can hinder or enhance an enterprise’s ability to move to the next or later stage. The later stages require enterprises to think more strategically about these solutions and to go beyond technology to have a greater impact on people and process issues.

Virtualization target customers Many enterprises choose to incorporate virtualization into their infrastructures as part of IT consolidation projects. A comprehensive consolidation plan ensures that the business demands for servers, storage, and network infrastructure have been considered and concrete steps have already been taken to optimize these resources. Virtualization is a way to enhance the consolidation program to further optimize return on IT investments, improve service levels, and increase the agility of the IT infrastructure. Typically, when you are compiling a virtualization plan, the first areas to look at are servers and storage for improving work flow and utilization. Some customers might want to virtualize the entire data center concurrently, but the majority undertakes a building block approach, virtualizing their enterprise in three progressive steps: 1. Virtualize elements, including servers, storage, software, and networks. 2. Enable integrated virtualization of multiple infrastructure elements to automatically meet service levels. 3. Push for cost reduction as well as increased agility by creating a completely virtualized IT utility.

Partitioning types Partitions are physical or logical mechanisms for isolating operational environments within single or multiple servers. An increasingly popular approach to confronting the provisioning challenges of 24x7 computing has been to implement partitioning of the server’s computing resources. HP offers a wide range of partitioning technologies that you can use either on their own or in conjunction with other partitioning products. The types of partitions are: • • • •

Hard partitions (nPars) with multiple nodes Hard partitions (nPars) within a node Virtual partitions within a hard partition (vPars) Resource partitions

Note: Not all types of partitions are supported on all HP Integrity servers.

Partitioning benefits 11

Partitioning enables IT managers to dynamically resize an application’s resource footprint and ensure that all applications enjoy protection from disruptive events that could cause service interruption or performance degradation. Partitioning provides a number of benefits: • •

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Increased system utilization by partitioning previously unused portions of the server. Typically, a server is only using 50% of its capacity. Greater flexibility of resources through: o Multiple but independent operating environments per server. o The dynamic movement of processor power depending on workload requirements. Increased isolation of applications, their operating systems, and assigned resources (processor, memory, and I/O), with individual reconfiguration and rebooting of the individual partitions without affecting other partitions and their applications. Server consolidation by running multiple workloads with their unique operating system configuration needs on the same server at the same time. IT administrators can dynamically create test platforms without investing in more hardware. Activation of reserve processor capacity that is already on a system through HP instant Capacity on Demand (iCAP). Customers do not pay for the iCAP processors until they are activated. They can activate the iCAP processors to increase the active processor capacity on the system with no waiting for new processors to arrive, because the iCAP processors are already on the system.

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Server technologies: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: 15

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Provide a basic comparison of complex instruction-set computing (CISC), RISC, and Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) processing Provide an overview of the HP processor roadmap List HP chipsets and describe some of the advantages they offer Provide a brief description of the subsystems that comprise HP ProLiant servers

Servers and desktops Servers can be differentiated from desktop computers based on hardware and technology. Although some customers use high-end desktop computers to perform traditional server functions, a desktop computer does not provide the necessary reliability and availability to ensure business continuity. To improve reliability and availability, many servers include: • • •

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Hot plug hard drives and memory — Allow drive or memory removal and replacement or upgrade without shutting down the server. Redundant and hot plug fans — Provide advanced cooling systems, and allow fan removal and replacement without shutting down the server. Redundant and hot plug power supplies — Eliminate the power supply as a single point of failure, and allow power supply removal and replacement without shutting down the server. Hot plug PCI slots — Allow PCI card replacement without shutting down the server. Management tools — Enable local and remote server management.

Other characteristics of server design include: • • •

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Multiple processors — Servers support multiple processors, whereas desktop computers support only one processor. Larger amounts of memory — Servers support significantly larger amounts of memory than desktop computers. More internal and external storage — Servers are designed for more internal and external storage. Desktop computers are not designed for large amounts of either type of storage. System architecture designed to minimize bottlenecks — Servers are designed to minimize bottlenecks that can be encountered when multiple users access a server simultaneously. Reduced video and sound capabilities — Desktop computers typically contain more advanced video and sound technologies than servers because they are more often used for running and viewing graphics-intensive games and programs.

Server environments Business computing requires servers that perform a variety of functions. HP engineers work closely with customers and software partners to design, integrate, and test servers. This collaboration enables HP to produce a comprehensive line of servers and solutions that best address business computing needs.

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Some server functions include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Application server — Provides client access to applications. Back-end server — Holds at least one database to which front-end servers connect when relaying requests from clients. Bridgehead server — Filters and forwards network traffic. Database server — Stores, retrieves, and manages data. Domain Name Server (DNS) — Provides resolution from hostnames to IP addresses and so forth. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server — Assigns IP addresses to clients on the network. Fax server — Manages, sends, and receives faxes from client workstations. File server — Stores files for clients. Firewall server — Monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and prevents unauthorized access. File transfer protocol (FTP) server — Enables downloading and uploading of files. Front-end server — Receives requests from clients and relays them to the appropriate back-end server. Gateway server — Connects dissimilar networks. Mail server — Manages incoming and outgoing mail. Print server — Manages print jobs from clients. Proxy server — Filters outgoing network requests. Remote Access Server (RAS) — Allows users to remotely access networks. Router server — Manages traffic between networks. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server — Routes email messages through an organization or the Internet to their final destination. Web server — Delivers web pages. Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) server — Provides network name resolution.

Subsystems: Introduction Servers have three main subsystems: •

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Processor (central processing unit or CPU) – Is a portion of the computer system that carries out instructions of a computer program, such as those carrying out arithmetical, logical, and I/O operations. I/O subsystem – Is a subsystem that transfers data between components of a computer or between computers. It includes devices such as disks, processors, input devices (keyboards, mice, card readers, scanners, etc.), output devices (printers, plotters, etc.), and networking. Storage – Is a computer component that stores, temporarily or permanently, information manipulated by that computer. This storage includes memory (ROM, RAM, NVRAM, etc.), disk (PATA, SATA, SAS, SCSI disk drives), flash storage, and tape storage.

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Three main subsystems of a server

Buses The subsystems are connected by buses. A bus is a group of electrical traces or wires that are etched on a circuit board. Signals, in the form of electrical pulses, travel on the buses between the components.

System bus Each server bus is made up of two electrical lines, which are also called buses. •

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Address/control bus — This bus identifies the desired location within a target device where data might reside. It also carries control signals that indicate the purpose of the data transfer, such as whether a device is supposed to read or write the data. Data bus — Data moves between any two devices over the data bus. The data can be instructions for the microprocessor or information the microprocessor is transmitting. This information can pass to or from the memory or I/O subsystem.

Collectively, the address/control bus and data bus are known as the system bus. • •

Wires System clock

Wires

Each bus is composed of many wires. Each wire carries one bit of data. Buses can be described by the number of wires they contain and the bus width. For instance, a 32-bit bus contains 32 wires and will transfer 32 bits (or 4 bytes) of data at one time.

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Bus wires » To top System clock

Only one chunk of data can travel on a bus at a time, so a system clock synchronizes the transfer of data among the subsystems. The clock is a crystal that vibrates at a certain frequency when electricity is applied to it. The time between each vibration is known as a clock cycle. One subsystem sends data to another at the beginning of a clock cycle. If another subsystem must use the bus, it must wait until the beginning of the next clock cycle when the bus is free. The subsystems also use the system clock to synchronize the work they do. For instance, it takes several steps for a processor to process one piece of data. Each step occurs during one clock cycle.

System clock

Storage One of the early media used for storage was magnetic tape. It was soon apparent that magnetic tape was a bottleneck. When the processor needed data, the tape had to wind or rewind until it got to the portion of the tape that contained the data. In the meantime, the processor had to wait, wasting clock cycles. Engineers designed hard disk drives to relieve that bottleneck. A hard disk drive has a magnetic platter that spins. A read/write head moves over the face of the disk to transfer data. The disk drive can find data much faster than the tape drive could. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are a newer storage technology. An SSD is a device that stores persistent data on solid-state flash memory and provides access to the data in the same way that a traditional hard drive does. SSDs are not really hard drives at all, because there are no 19

moving parts involved. Instead, an SSD uses microchips with integrated circuits rather than magnetic or optical media.

Storage Memory Despite the fact that hard disk drives increased the speed of the storage system, processors continued to outpace disk drives in the amount of work they could do in the clock cycle. To remedy this inefficiency, DRAM chips were developed to sit between the processor and the storage system. DRAM is also called memory. Memory holds data in capacitors instead of on a magnetic media like a disk drive. The processor can store data in and retrieve data from memory much faster than it can from disk drives. However, when a computer is turned off, the data in memory is lost.

Storage memory and I/O I/O Adding memory increased the speed of computers significantly. In fact, over 96% of all bus traffic was between the processor and memory. The bottleneck was now in the I/O system. When data was sent to the I/O system, the processor and memory had to wait a long time for the I/O system to respond. To reduce this bottleneck, engineers split the system bus into two buses. The system bus continued to run at a fast speed. The I/O bus ran at a slower speed. An I/O controller buffered the data from the I/O devices and sent it out on the system bus.

Chipsets 20

Eventually, the system bus was divided into several buses. Components of similar speed were placed on the same bus. Controllers were added to negotiate communication among the different buses. Together, these controllers are known as the chipset.

Chipsets

Processors: Introduction The processor, or CPU, is the brain of the computer. It is made up of a group of components that execute instructions.

Processor components An instruction is an order (such as add, subtract, or compare) that a computer program gives to a processor. Components of processors include: • • • •

Prefetch unit — Searches the instruction cache and memory for the instruction needed to process input. Decode unit — Changes machine language into binary code. Control unit — Acts as a scheduler for the execution units. Execution unit — Performs the actual data processing, such as adding and subtracting. Two common execution units are the Arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and the Floating-point unit (FPU). 21

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Data cache — Provides a small, fast memory area that holds recently calculated data that other instructions might need. Instruction cache — Provides a small, fast memory area that holds recently executed instructions so they can be executed again quickly, if necessary. Together, the instruction cache and the data cache are known as the L1 cache. Registers — Used by the control and execution units to store data temporarily.

The following factors distinguish one processor type from another: • • • • •

Clock speed Cache size Microarchitecture Form factor Core number

HP ProLiant and Integrity processors HP uses several different processors in the HP ProLiant server line. Both Intel and AMD processors are used in HP ProLiant servers. HP ProLiant server model numbers ending in XX0 indicate Intel processors. Numbers ending in XX5 designate AMD processors. HP Integrity servers are based on the Itanium processor architecture. The type of processor, including the number of cores and other information, is listed in the QuickSpecs and on the HP website: http://www.hp.com.

Multiprocessor servers Including more than one processor in a server is one method for increasing computing power. The letter "P" is used to indicate the number of processors in a server. For instance, a 4P server such as the HP ProLiant DL585 Generation 7 (G7) Server has four processors. When designing a multiprocessor system, engineers must decide how the processors will share in regards to the software work load and hardware resources. • •

Sharing the software workload Sharing hardware resources

Sharing the software workload A multiprocessor server is often used to run several applications in addition to the operating system.

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The following two methods allow a multiprocessor system to share the workload: •

Asymmetric multiprocessing (ASMP) — ASMP assigns each application to a specific processor. This method has some drawbacks, for example: o The workload is not distributed evenly. One of the processors might not be able to keep up with the demands of its application, while another processor sits idle. o Adding a new processor in an ASMP system does not guarantee increased computing power. Even if an application is overwhelming an existing processor, that processor will not be able to share the workload with a new processor. Despite these drawbacks, keeping a particular application on one processor is preferable in specific cases.

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Symmetric multiprocessing — SMP shares applications across processors and executes the next task on the next-available processor. This method results in excellent load sharing. In addition, adding a new processor usually increases computing power. For SMP to work, the operating system must be able to support it. ProLiant multiprocessor servers are SMP servers.

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Sharing hardware resources

A multiprocessor system will have a tightly coupled or loosely coupled architecture. These terms indicate how the server will share hardware resources.

Tightly coupled ProLiant servers are based on a tightly coupled architecture. In a tightly coupled system, all processors share all memory and I/O resources. The operating system manages all the resources. If memory fails, all processors are affected. This requires a system bus that is common between all the processors and shared components.

Loosely coupled In a loosely coupled system, each processor has memory and I/O resources assigned to it and, in a sense, acts as an independent computer. It does not share its resources with the other processors, but it does communicate and cooperate with them. If memory fails, only the processor using that memory is affected.

Input handling A processor generally goes through five stages when it receives input such as a keystroke from a user. Each stage takes one clock cycle to complete. • • •

Stage 1: Fetch instruction Stage 2: Decode instruction Stage 3: Execute instruction 24

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Stage 4: Transfer data Stage 5: Write data

Stage 1: Fetch instruction

Stage 1: Fetch instruction The prefetch unit searches for an instruction to handle the input using the following steps: 1. It searches the instruction cache to see if the processor recently executed the same instruction (a). 2. If it does not find the instruction in the instruction cache, the prefetch unit fetches it from main memory (b). 3. The prefetch unit stores a copy of the instruction in the instruction cache (c). 4. The instruction cache sends the instruction to the decode unit (d).

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Stage 2: Decode instruction

Stage 2: Decode instruction The decode unit breaks the instruction into its basic elements, and then sends the decoded result to the control unit. » To top

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Stage 3: Execute instruction

Stage 3: Execute instruction The control unit sends the decoded instruction to an execution unit. » To top

Stage 4: Transfer data

Stage 4: Transfer data If the instruction requires additional data to be completed, the data is transferred from the registers to the execution unit. » To top

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Stage 5: Write data

Stage 5: Write data The execution unit writes the result to a register and data cache.

Installing processors When installing processors with different steppings, customers must: 1. Keep within the guidelines of Intel, HP, and their operating system vendor so that they do not invalidate their warranties.

Trying to reconcile the guidelines from Intel, HP, and the operating system vendor for mixing processor steppings can be a daunting task. Each group has different testing programs, and sometimes the support policies are worded vaguely. To ease this burden, HP has done additional testing and developed a set of general guidelines for mixing processors with different steppings. In many cases, these guidelines provide more options than provided by Intel and the operating system vendor. If you follow the HP guidelines, HP guarantees the processor, regardless of the Intel and operating system vendor guidelines. 2. Update the ROM to a version that supports the new processor.

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Updating firmware on HP server For the server to recognize a processor stepping, each stepping requires changes to the system ROM. For each processor stepping that it produces, Intel provides a microcode patch for inclusion in the system ROM. If a customer installs a processor in a ProLiant server and the current system ROM does not contain the correct microcode for that processor, the ROM generates an error message and prevents the server from running. To remedy this problem, the customer must update, or flash, the ROM to one that includes the correct microcode before installing the new processors.

Memory components: Introduction Various memory technologies exist to keep up with processor demands for data. Memory definition Processor speed has increased faster than any other server component. As processor speed continues to increase, the challenge for system designers is to find ways to get data to the processor faster. Early on, it was obvious that magnetic storage technologies like tapes and hard drives would not be able to keep up with processor demands for data. Memory modules were developed to remedy this problem. Memory modules use DRAM technology to store and read data for the processor. A DRAM module stores bits of data in capacitors, which are electronic devices that can hold a charge. A capacitor holding a charge is equivalent to a binary 1. A capacitor without a charge is equivalent to a binary 0. Think of these as buckets that are either full or empty.

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Bits of data in capacitors The capacitors on a DRAM module are arranged in grids, sometimes called a memory matrix or memory chip. Each intersection of a row and column contains a capacitor.

DRAM memory module grid

Memory functionality Originally, memory chips were attached directly to the system board of a computer. The system board eventually became crowded as memory needs increased, so memory chips were mounted on cards called memory modules. Memory chips are located under the plastic caps at the top of the memory module. The electrical traces from the memory chips are routed from the memory chips to gold pins located at the bottom of the memory module. The pins snap into slots on the system board or memory board.

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Dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) HP uses DIMMs in industry-standard servers. DIMMs have memory chips on both sides of the memory module. Memory chips on one side are routed to one set of 72 gold pins, and memory chips on the other side are routed to another set of 72 gold pins. An additional 24 pins are available to handle error checking and correcting (ECC) capabilities. Some HP servers are using Fully Buffered DIMMs (FBDIMMs). A key component of the FBDIMM architecture is an Advanced Memory Buffer (AMB) chip that resides on each FBDIMM. Signals transmitted to and from the chipset are received and retransmitted in series by the AMB on each DIMM, creating a point-to-point architecture. The full-duplex interface allows simultaneous reads and writes, thus eliminating delays between data transfers.

Communicating with the memory module The paths between the memory controller and the gold pins on the memory module are collectively called the memory bus. The memory controller uses the memory bus to send information to specific gold pins on the DIMM. For instance, the Row Address Strobe (RAS) and Column Address Strobe (CAS) are pins used to communicate the address of the capacitor the memory wants to set. The memory controller communicates with the memory chip by changing the voltage of the RAS and CAS.

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Click the following links for more information: • • •

Writing data Reading data Storing data

Memory error For a server to work correctly, the data that is stored on a DIMM must be correct. Memory errors can corrupt data. Sometimes faulty DIMMs can cause the errors; even cosmic rays can cause errors. Regardless of where the error originates, the server cannot use corrupted data. HP uses error-detecting technology to find corrupted data and, in some cases, fix it so that it does not impair server operations. • • •

Parity ECC Advanced ECC

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Main memory failures are demonstrated to be a significant cause of hardware downtime. HP has taken great care to address this failure mode with these specific features: 1. "Chip spare" like memory — The ability of the system to continue to run in the face of any single or multibit chip error on a DRAM. 2. Memory scrubbing — The hardware feature that automatically removes single bit errors (SBE) that reside in main memory. This is far superior to software scrubbing mechanisms that omit locked memory locations. 3. Dynamic page de-allocation (DPD) — The system’s ability to de-allocate failed memory pages online. It is similar to Dynamic Processor Resiliency in that if a location in memory proves to be 'questionable' (in other words, exhibits persistent errors), that memory will be de-allocated online with no customer-visible impact. The number of spares is not limited by hardware as it is in other industry available systems. 4. Address control parity — A DIMM set is only de-allocated if a fatal error that effects the quad has been detected (that is, address/control parity error or multipath data error). This is done to protect against data corruption. HP is the only vendor to offer parity checking on the memory address/control bus.

DDR RAM Twice as much data can be sent to or received from the processor in one clock cycle in Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM. This type of RAM supports data transfers on both the rising and falling edges of each clock cycle, which doubles the data throughput of the memory chip.

DDR RAM

Cache 32

Increases in processor speeds continued to outpace increases in other components. Eventually, even memory could not send data to the processor fast enough. To eliminate the number of clock cycles that the processor had to wait for data, cache was added to the processor. Cache holds data in transistors and is able to feed data to the processor very quickly.

Processor cache Click the following links for more information: • • • • • • • •

Cache types Cache levels and placement Improving cache performance Reading from cache Cache/memory associations Comparing direct mapped to fully associated data Comparing set associative to direct mapped cache Writing to cache

Comparing CISC, RISC and EPIC CISC is an approach to computing that has been in existence since the 1970s. The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) VAX line of computers were CISC-based, with the VAX11/780 being capable of performing one million instructions per second (massive at the time).

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Processor evolution The X86 Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is CISC-based, and is used in both Intel and AMD X86 processors. Some of the complex CISC instructions take many machine cycles in their execution, and result in a small number of instructions being executed per clock cycle. In the 1990s, RISC designers decided that they could provide increased performance by reducing the number of clock cycles consumed by each instruction. The use of complex CISC-like instructions was avoided in favor of simpler instructions that could be executed in fewer clock cycles. Modern RISC architectures have multiple functional units, with some of these units handling integer calculations, and some handling floating point calculations. This “multiple functional unit” approach leads to what is known as superscalar architecture, where the functional units process instructions in parallel. A two-way superscalar processor would have two functional units; a four-way superscalar processor would have four, and so on. In 1994, HP and Intel announced a collaborative effort that resulted in the design of the EPIC architecture. The EPIC-based Intel Itanium processor Merced was released in 2001. The EPIC approach relies on the compiler to analyze the program source code and embed explicit information in the instruction stream to tell the processor which instructions can be safely executed in parallel for increased performance. Older approaches require the processor to make these decisions at run-time using dedicated hardware, which greatly complicates the design and hinders performance. The Intel Itanium processor includes enhancements that provide large memory addressability and bandwidth, and the ability to execute multiple instructions simultaneously. Circuitry simplifications made possible by EPIC, enabling additional resources to be included in the processor—most notably, a very large Level 3 (L3) cache memory. The evolving RISC architectures have been increasing in performance, but because of the complexity of the RISC chips: 34

• • •

The control support logic is increased exponentially as more units that are functional are added. Power consumption and heat output increase. RISC has limited performance headroom.

Superscalar RISC is designed to perform four instructions per cycle, but on the average, performs about 1.86 instructions per cycle of productive work after the overhead is subtracted. EPIC architecture and its 64-bit Instruction Architecture (IA-64) is a next-generation 64-bit technology that is a natural extension to PA-RISC. One major advantage of 64-bit technology is that it offers the ability to address more system RAM than 32-bit technology (such as CISC-based IA-32). • •

The maximum addressable RAM with IA-32 is 232 = 4GB. The maximum addressable RAM with IA-64 is 264 = 16 exabytes (EB).

Note: 1EB = 1 million terabytes (TB) One application area that benefits from a 64-bit architecture is high-performance computing (HPC).

HP processor roadmap overview The PA-8800 processor was the first dual-core PA-RISC processor introduced by HP, and the PA-8900 was the last dual-core PA-RISC processor. The first Intel Itanium processor, code named Merced, was released in 2001, and was followed in 2002 by the Intel Itanium processor, code named McKinley. This was followed by the Itanium 6M, code named Madison. Intel also produced a low-voltage version of the Itanium processor, code named Deerfield. The latest Intel Itanium processors are the Intel Itanium Processor 9000 series in single- and dual-core, with code names Montecito (9000 series) and Montvale (9100 series) respectively. Note: PA-8900 was the last PA-RISC microprocessor developed solely by HP. It was introduced on May 31, 2005 and was used in HP 9000 servers. PA-RISC processors were replaced by Itanium processors, which were jointly developed by HP and Intel.

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HP processor roadmap

HP chipsets overview Chipsets are the central building blocks of all servers. The HP chipsets provide the following benefits: • • •

Low latency High bandwidth Low cost

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HP chipsets

Firmware Firmware is a software program that is stored in Read-Only Memory (ROM) chip on the system board or on an add-on controller. Firmware is responsible for the behavior of the system when it is first switched on and for passing control of the server to the operating system. When referring to the firmware on the system board of the server, it is called the System ROM or the BIOS. When referring to the firmware on another piece of hardware configured in the server, it is called the Option ROM. In ProLiant servers, hard drives, Smart Array Controllers, Remote Insight Lights-Out Edition (RILOE), Remote Insight Lights-Out Edition II (RILOE II) and Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) options have firmware that can be updated. HP has developed several methods for updating the firmware in a ProLiant server and makes it easy to do so. HP ISS Engineering emphasizes the importance of regular firmware updates to ensure that a ProLiant server is running optimally, making the system and its data less vulnerable to critical hardware and software events.

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HP ProLiant entry-level servers: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: • • •

Describe HP ProLiant ML, DL and SL lines along with their major differences Describe the HP ProLiant 100, 300 and 500 series Describe the HP Multi Node and MicroServer series

HP ProLiant ML, DL, SL and MicroServer lines The HP ProLiant ML, DL, SL and MicroServer lines offer a wide range of features to businesses of all sizes, such as performance, scalability, reliability, and value. This broad portfolio of HP ProLiant servers enables you to evaluate your customer’s requirements and then select the most appropriate ProLiant servers. •

ML line — If space is not an issue, but internal expansion is, suggest a tower HP ProLiant ML server. These servers are: o Optimized for maximum internal system expansion o Designed with flexibility to increase the number of expansion slots and hard drives inside the server chassis o Designed with high-availability features to ensure maximum uptime 41

o o

Designed for remote and branch office environments Used for all-inclusive server and storage solutions

The HP ProLiant ML line represents servers that have defined ProLiant as the industry leader. HP continues to develop products within this line, giving customers the servers they need to run their businesses. Customers have shown great interest in this line, particularly businesses with remote and branch office sites. Most of these servers are offered in both tower and rack models. •

DL line — If space is an issue, suggest a rack-mountable HP ProLiant DL server. These servers are: o Optimized for density, stacking many servers in a rack o Designed to include more embedded features per unit of space o Designed for external storage o Designed as an excellent platform for Microsoft clusters

The HP ProLiant DL line represents an excellent market opportunity. HP invented the rack server and options market, and offers a distinctive line of servers clearly optimized for use in those environments. With the increasing number of ISP, Active Server Pages (ASP), and server farm businesses, there is significant potential to market the HP ProLiant DL line. •

SL line — The HP ProLiant SL server family offers a breakthrough in server architecture designed specifically for extreme-scale environments. The solution offers customers the following benefits: o Designed to consolidate the power and cooling infrastructure, the unique air flow design uses 28 percent less power per server than traditional rackmounted servers. o Optimized design uses less metal, which decreases server weight by 31 percent. o Swappable “compute trays” allow for rapid server installation and deployment.

The HP ProLiant SL line represents a new server family that enables a shared server infrastructure optimized for extreme scale-out deployments. •

MicroServer line — The HP ProLiant MicroServer server is designed to enable small companies to confidently grow their businesses while taking advantage of the reliability, performance and security of a server. The HP ProLiant MicroServer delivers affordability, energy and space-saving features. Designed for companies with fewer than ten employees, the HP ProLiant MicroServer enables them to share and secure critical business information. Ideal when needing to stay connected – whether in the office or on the road, the server simplifies how users access data differently than on desktop or notebook PCs. The HP ProLiant MicroServer's compact, quiet and sleek design is about half the size and 50 percent quieter than most entry-level servers. It also offers lower power consumption for energy-conscious businesses. 42

HP ProLiant G7 servers HP ProLiant G7 servers are designed with a balanced architecture that maximizes performance across a broad range of applications and workloads. These servers feature enhancements in the following areas: • • • •

•

Multi-core Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron processors DDR3 memory with an 8-bit prefetch buffer for storing data before the processor requests it Support for HP Smart Array technologies Advanced power and thermal technologies, including: o Thermal sensors and fan control o HP Common Slot Power Supplies o HP Intelligent Power Discovery o HP Insight Control power management software o HP Dynamic Power Capping o HP Enclosure Dynamic Power Capping o HP Power Regulator for ProLiant o Power meter for c-Class server blades Support for Infrastructure management technologies, including HP Insight Control (300 series and higher)

For more information refer to: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02675159/c02675159.pdf

HP ProLiant 100 Series The HP ProLiant 100 series offers affordable general-purpose servers with basic options and management tools. These affordable, entry-level rack and tower servers are ideal for SMBs, workgroups, remote sites, and high-performance computing (HPC) environments. • •

HP ProLiant ML 100 series servers are expandable and affordable for growing businesses. HP ProLiant DL 100 series servers are the best entry-level solution for dedicated groups and applications, and are designed for general purpose and compute-intensive environments

For more information on HP ProLiant DL100 servers, refer to: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF04a/15351-15351-3328412-2416443328421.html For the HP ProLiant server family guide, refer to: http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-0132ENW.pdf For the HP product selector, refer to: http://h10018.www1.hp.com/wwsolutions/selector/index_server.html 43

For the HP server guide, refer to: http://www.hp.com/cgibin/sbso/buyguides/tsg_product_select.cgi

HP ProLiant 300 Series HP ProLiant 300 series servers offer a cost-effective, single- and dual-processor architecture for use as file and print servers, domain servers, web servers, small database servers, and other applications for growing businesses or corporate data centers. Servers include DL ( Rack mount ProLiant server) and ML (ProLiant servers in a tower enclosures) types. The Intel-based ProLiant 300-series G6 servers include the DL320, ML330, ML350, and ML/DL370 servers. The Intel-based 300 series G7 servers include the DL360 and DL380 servers. HP ProLiant 300 series servers have been the focus of extensive engineering and development. These Intel-based G6 and G7 servers are characterized by increased performance, better power efficiency, and more powerful management tools. Several key technologies are included: • • • • • • • •

The Intel Xeon processor 5500 and 5600 Series DDR3 DIMMs Thermal sensors incorporated throughout the HP ProLiant 300 series G6 and G7 servers iLO 2 and iLO 3 that deliver power and temperature management through multiple sensors and fan control Dynamic Power Capping that limits peak power consumption without risk of overloading data center branch circuits I/O technologies such as PCIe 2.0 and faster Smart Array controllers that incorporate common form factor components Flash-backed write cache for Smart Array controllers Common slot power supplies to provide the required amount of power and improve power efficiency

For the HP ProLiant server family guide, refer to: http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-0132ENW.pdf For the HP product selector, refer to: http://h10018.www1.hp.com/wwsolutions/selector/index_server.html For the HP server guide, refer to: http://www.hp.com/cgibin/sbso/buyguides/tsg_product_select.cgi

HP ProLiant 500 Series The HP ProLiant 500 Series offers enterprise density and power efficiency by delivering high levels of four-way server performance for complex web applications, critical file server functions, and large databases.

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HP ProLiant DL580 G7 Server series Ideal for: Virtualization and consolidation environment, space constrained data centers and database/messaging applications Processor family Intel Xeon E7-4800 series Intel Xeon 7500 series Number of 4 or 2 processors Processor core 10 or 8 or 6 or 4 available Maximum 2 TB memory Memory slots 64 DIMM slots Memory type PC3-10600R DDR3 Expansion Slots 11 Network 1GbE NC375i Multifunction 4 Controller Ports Maximum drive 8 SFF SAS/SATA/SSD bays Supported drives Hot plug SFF SAS Hot plug SFF SATA Non-hot plug SSD Storage Controller 1 Smart Array P410i/1GB FBWC 1 Smart Array P410i/512MB FBWC Form Factor (fully 4U configured) Infrastructure Insight Control with iLO 3 management Advanced

HP ProLiant DL585 G7 Server series Ideal for: Server consolidation / virtualization, space constrained datacenters and database/messaging applications

AMD Opteron 6100 Series 4 or 2 12 or 8 1 TB 48 DIMM slots PC3-10600R DDR3 11 1GbE NC375i Multifunction 4 Ports 8 SFF SAS/SATA/SSD Hot plug 2.5-inch SAS Hot plug 2.5-inch SATA Hot plug SFF SDD 1 Smart Array P410i/1GB FBWC 1 Smart Array P410i/512MB FBWC 4U Insight Control with iLO 3 Advanced

HP ProLiant MicroServer The HP ProLiant MicroServer is a general-purpose server that can provide a platform to organize and safeguard business information, allow effective communication with customers and make the most of existing office equipment and resources. It can take a business to the next level of productivity and efficiency. The HP MicroServer is a cost-effective starter server for businesses with fewer than ten clients.

For more information on HP ProLiant MicroServer, refer to http://www.hp.com/go/servers and select HP ProLiant MicroServer.

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HP ProLiant Multi Node series The HP ProLiant DL2000 is positioned for companies that desire a more affordable and efficient computing solution with the flexibility to tailor it for different applications. The DL2000 can house up to four server nodes in a 2U chassis space with the effort of managing one. The DL2000 is optimized for efficiency, density and flexibility. A server node can be serviced individually without impacting the operation of other server nodes sharing the same chassis. The DL2000 was designed to double the density to maximize data center floor space, increase performance while lowering energy consumption, and provide flexible configurations that fit into existing industry-standard racks. The DL2000 incorporates advanced technologies in every subsystem (processors, memory, thermals, power, I/O, and storage). The DL2000 has the highest DIMM density for dualsocket servers in the industry.

HP Integrity entry-level servers: Objectives 46

After completing this module, you should be able to: • •

Identify, describe and position the HP Integrity entry-level servers Explain the operating system support on the HP Integrity entry-level servers

Introduction The Integrity entry-class servers, with 1 to 4 processors, provide the flexibility needed for diverse workloads, multiple operating environments, and future business growth, all at the price/performance a business demands.

Comparing HP Integrity entry-level servers This table compares the HP Integrity entry-level servers. Integrity rx2800 i2 Server Run the spectrum of entry-class Unix workloads with outstanding performance and scalability Quad-core Intel Processors Itanium processor supported (frequency/cache) 1.46 GHz/16 MB 1.73 GHz/20 MB Dual-core Intel Itanium processor 1.6 GHz/10 MB 1–2 Number of processors Number of cores 2–8 384 GB Memory 6 PCI slots Internal storage 7.2 TB (max) HP-UX 11i v3 Operating systems Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for Intel Itanium-based systems OpenVMS v8.4

Integrity rx2660 Server Entry-class value with incredible flexibility and high performance/watt

Integrity rx3600 Integrity rx6600 Server Server Powerful, scalable Highly expandable entry system for platform for demanding workload database and consolidation and application virtualization performance Dual-core Intel Dual-core Intel Itanium processor Itanium processor 1.42 GHz/12 MB 1.42 GHz/12 MB 1.66 GHz/18 MB 1.6 GHz/18 MB 1.6 GHz/24 MB

Dual-core Intel Itanium processor 1.42 GHz/12 MB 1.66 GHz/18 MB Single-core Intel Itanium processor 1.6 GHz/12 MB 1–2 1–2

1–4

1–4 32 GB 3 2.4 TB

2–8 384 GB 8 4.8 TB

2–4 192 GB 8 2.4 TB

HP-UX 11i v3 and HP-UX 11i v3 and HP-UX 11i v3 and HP-UX 11i v2 HP-UX 11i v2 HP-UX 11i v2 Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Windows Server Windows Server Windows Server 2008 for Intel 2008 for Intel 2008 for Intel Itanium-based Itanium-based Itanium-based systems systems systems OpenVMS v8.3; OpenVMS v8.3; OpenVMS v8.3; OpenVMS v8.3- OpenVMS v8.3- OpenVMS v8.31H1 1H1 1H1 47

Dimensions

Height: 3.5"/2U EIA Width: 19.0" Depth: 27.25"

Height: 3.4"/2U EIA Width: 19.0" Depth: 26.5"

Height: 6.8"/4U EIA Width: 17.32" Depth: 27.4"

Height: 12" /7U EIA Width: 17.32" Depth: 27.4"

Operating Systems HP-UX (Unix) HP understands that critical environments endure, and the HP-UX roadmap extends longer into the future than any other Unix operating system in the market. HP-UX 11i v3 is designed to simplify and unify IT, and deliver the always-on resiliency, dynamic optimization of resources,investment protection, and stability demanded in mission-critical computing. It integrates proven Unix functionality with advances in high availability, security, virtualization, workload management, and instant capacity. It delivers all this within the industry’s first mission-critical Converged Infrastructure, driving up flexibility, reducing risk, and delivering compelling value. Linux Linux provides a flexible, cost-effective foundation with a maturing ecosystem for mainstream business applications in a Converged Infrastructure. • •

HP certifies, resells, and globally supports the two leading commercial Linux distributions: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. HP does not certify or support any Linux distribution on Integrity servers based on the Intel Itanium processor 9300 series. HP only certifies and supports Linux on Integrity servers based on the Itanium Processor 9100 series.

Windows Windows on HP Integrity servers offers mission-critical performance, reliability, and scalability in a flexible, standards-based solution. The highly reliable HP Integrity systems that run Microsoft Windows Server and SQL Server can help meet these demands with a unique solution in a Converged Infrastructure that unifies business, application, and infrastructure functions. These systems also help administrators respond to market changes with unprecedented scalability and increased operational efficiency by delivering faster timeto-value, simplified management, increased utilisation, and lower power costs across an extensive and scalable set of applications.

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HP ProLiant mid-range servers: Objectives 49

After completing this module, you should be able to identify, describe and position the HP ProLiant mid-range servers.

HP ProLiant 700 Series The HP ProLiant 700 Series offers leading headroom and flexible expansion. The HP ProLiant 700 Series servers are highly expandable, eight processor, rackmount servers that are ideal for large virtualization and consolidation environments. HP ProLiant DL785 G6 Server series Processor family Number of processors Processor core available Maximum memory Memory slots Memory type Expansion slots Network controller Maximum drive bays Supported drives Storage controller Form factor (fully configured) Infrastructure management

AMD Opteron 8400 Series 4 or 8 6 512 GB 64 DIMM slots PC2-5300 or PC2-6400 Registered DDR 11 Two 1GbE NC371i Multifunction 2 ports 8 SFF SAS Hot plug 2.5-inch SAS One Smart Array P400i 7U Insight Control with iLO 3 Advanced

HP ProLiant 900 Series The configurable HP ProLiant DL980 G7 blends industry-standard economies with advanced mission-critical capabilities to deliver balanced scaling, self-healing resiliency, and breakthrough efficiencies needed in essential enterprise compute environments. HP ProLiant DL980 G7Server series Processor Intel Xeon 7500 series family Intel Xeon 6500 series Number of 4 or 8 processors Processor core 4 or 6 or 8 available Maximum 2 TB memory Memory slots 128 DIMM slots Memory type DDR3 RDIMM Expansion slots 16 Network 1GbE NC375i Multifunction 4 port controller Maximum drive 8 SFF SAS 50

bays Supported drives Storage controller Form factor (fully configured) Infrastructure management

Hot plug SFF SAS 1 Smart Array P410i Integrated 8U

Insight Control with iLO 3 Advanced

HP Integrity mid-range servers: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: • •

Identify, describe and position the HP Integrity mid-range servers Describe the HP-UX Workload Manager (WLM) and the HP Global Workload Manager (gWLM) and explain why these technologies are appropriate for the midrange server market

Introduction 51

Integrity mid-range servers offer flexibility and availability for business computing needs, incorporating high-end functionality in the mid-range market. They are ideal for multioperating system consolidation, scale-up, and performance applications. Integrity mid-range servers feature Itanium 9300 series processors, high-end cell-based technology, and the sx2000 chipset.

Comparing HP Integrity mid-range servers This table compares the HP Integrity mid-range servers. Integrity rx7640 Server Excellent performance and compute density for data center applications

Integrity rx8640 Server Ideal platform for scale-up, performance, and server consolidation workloads with low total cost of ownership 2-8 2-16 Processors Dual-core Intel Itanium Microprocessor Intel Itanium processor: 1.6 GHz/24 MB Dual-core Intel processor: 1.6 GHz / 18 MB; type Itanium processor: 1.6 GHz / 1.42 GHz / 12 MB; 1.6 GHz / 18 MB; 1.42 GHz / 12 MB 24 MB sx2000 sx2000 Chipset 256 GB 512 GB Memory 15 16 PCI slots HP-UX 11i v3 and HP-UX 11i HP-UX 11i v3 and HP-UX Operating v2 11i v2 systems Microsoft Windows Server Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for Intel Itanium-based 2008 for Intel Itanium-based systems systems

Dimensions

OpenVMS v8.3; OpenVMS v8.3-1H1 30" D 19" W 17.5" H height = 10 EIA units

OpenVMS v8.3; OpenVMS v8.3-1H1 30" D 19" W 29.75" H height = 17 EIA units

HP-UX Workload Manager and Global Workload Manager HP-UX Workload Manager The HP-UX Workload Manager (WLM) automatically adjusts the partition configuration based on application loads running in those partitions and the business priorities. WLM

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increases utilization while ensuring that mission-critical applications achieve their performance requirements. WLM is not a partitioning technology; it provides automatic movement of processor resources between partitions to meet service level objectives (SLOs). HP Global Workload Manager Designed to work across multiple HP-UX11i Integrity systems, Global Workload Manager (gWLM) is ideal for large, centralized IT environments that host applications for many departments. gWLM helps organizations pool and share IT resources to improve utilization and align supply with demand. gWLM monitors workloads based on policy goals and automatically migrates processors from idle resources to busy ones, and from lower priority workloads to higher ones to give critical applications the resources they need. gWLM makes it easier for IT organizations to act as service providers to the business and deliver IT as a utility.

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HP ProLiant and Integrity BL servers: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: • • •

•

Identify, describe, and position the HP BladeSystem c-Class BL200c, BL400c, BL600c, and BL800c Series server blades Describe advantages for implementing BladeSystems

HP ProLiant BL200c Series server blades The HP ProLiant BL200c series features several different models, allowing every business size to find one ideally suited to their needs. For instance, some ProLiant BL200c servers are ideal for large scale-out data centers, while others are ideal for cloud computing data centers or high performance computing customers. In addition to model varieties, the BL200c series also offers a wide selection of feature options such as multiple redundant features, various I/O options, a selection of network interconnect alternatives and technologies such as iLO 3 and HP Virtual Connect. To increase performance beyond what is allowed for in the broad range of available features, the BL200c series lends itself well to virtualization, which can be used to

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enhance server consolidation, increase efficiency, reduce costs and simplify management. ProLiant BL280c G6 Server series Processor family Intel Xeon 5600 series Intel Xeon 5500 series Number of processors 2 Processor core 6 or 4 or 2 available Maximum memory 192 GB Memory slots 12 DIMM slots Memory type PC3-10600 DDR3 RDIMMs and UDIMMs Expansion slots 2 Network controller Two 1GbE NC362i 2 ports Maximum drive bays Two SFF SAS/SATA/SSD Supported drives Non-hot plug SAS Non-hot plug Serial ATA Non-hot plug SATA SSD Storage Controller One integrated SATA RAID Form Factor (fully 8 (c3000) configured) 16 (c7000) Infrastructure iLO 2 management

ProLiant BL2x220c G7 Server series Intel Xeon 5600 series 2 2 96 GB 6 DIMM slots PC3-10600 DDR3 RDIMMs and UDIMMs

One 1GbE NC362i 2 port One 10GbE NC543i Flex-10/QDR IB 1 port One SFF SAS/SATA/SSD Non-hot plug SFF SATA Non-hot plug SATA SSD One integrated SATA 32 server nodes per 10U enclosure iLO 3 Standard for BladeSystem and HP Insight Foundation

• •

•

HP ProLiant BL400c Series server blades HP ProLiant c-Class server blades deliver the same capabilities, features, and benefits of HP ProLiant rack servers is a smaller, more power-efficient form factor. Designed in a half-height form factor, the HP BL400c series offers the same advantages of ProLiant tower and rack servers while being much more compact and power-efficient. Some specific advantages that the BL400c series offers includes high reliability, secure remote console and remote control, advanced Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory and improved uptime. With enterprise-class capabilities, the ProLiant BL400c series is ideal for high-performance applications such as running an infrastructure in heterogeneous data centers as well as database, messaging and virtualization applications.

ProLiant BL460c G7 Server Processor family Intel Xeon 5600 series Intel Xeon 5500 series Number of processors 2 Processor core available 6 or 4 or 2

ProLiant BL465c ProLiant BL490c G7 Server G7 Server AMD Opteron 6100 Intel Xeon 5600 series Series 2 2 8 or 12 6 or 4 55

Maximum memory Memory slots Memory type Expansion slots Network controller Maximum drive bays

Supported drives

Storage controller Form factor (fully configured) Infrastructure management

384 GB 12 DIMM slots PC3-10600 DDR3 RDIMMs and UDIMMs One 10GbE NC553i FlexFabric 2 Ports Two SFF SAS/SATA/SSD Hot plug Hot plug SFF SAS Hot plug SFF SATA Hot plug SFF SDD One Smart Array P410i Controller (RAID 0/1) 8 (c3000) 16 (c7000) HP iLO 3 Standard for BladeSystem and HP Insight Foundation

512 GB 384 GB 16 DIMM slots 18 DIMM slots DDR3 RDIMM or PC3-10600 DDR3 RDIMMs and UDIMMs UDIMM up to 2 2 I/O expansion mezzanine slots One 10GbE NC553i One 10GbE NC553i FlexFabric 2 Ports FlexFabric 2 Ports Two SFF Two SFF SSD SAS/SATA/SSD non-hot plug Hot plug SFF SAS Hot plug SFF SATA Hot plug SFF SDD One Smart Array P410i/1GB FBWC 8 (c3000) 16 (c7000) HP iLO 3 Standard for BladeSystem and HP Insight Foundation

Non-hot plug SATA SSD

One integrated SATA 8 (c3000) 16 (c7000) HP iLO 3 Standard for BladeSystem and HP Insight Foundation

• •

•

HP ProLiant BL600c Series server blades The server blades within the HP ProLiant BL600c series are designed with computerintense workloads in mind, and are particularly well-suited for a variety of enterprise applications including server consolidation, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), messaging, business integration and the deployment of multiple virtual machines. Some features of the HP ProLiant BL600c series that allow the servers to be optimized for High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications include a large memory footprint, exceptional I/O expandability, multiple network interconnect alternatives, and enhanced system redundancy capabilities. Additionally, HP BL600c series server blades are ideal for the virtualized environments of modern data centers due to their incomparable expansion capabilities as a 4-socket HP server blade, ranging from 3 to 7 expansion slots based upon the specifics of the model as well as overall enhanced scalability. BL620c G7 Server

BL680c G7 Server

BL685c G7 Server

Processor family

Intel Xeon E7-2800 series Intel Xeon E7-4800 series AMD Opteron 6100 Series Intel Xeon E7-8800 series Intel Xeon 7500 series Intel Xeon 6500 series Intel Xeon 7500 series Number of processors 1 or 2 2 or 3 or 4 4 Processor core available 4 or 6 or 8 or 10 4 or 6 or 8 or 10 8 or 12 Maximum memory 1.0 TB 2.0 TB 512 GB 56

Memory slots Memory type Expansion slots Network controller

Maximum drive bays Supported drives

Storage controller Form factor (fully configured) Infrastructure management

32 DIMM slots DDR3 RDIMM 3 Four 10GbE NC553i FlexFabric 4 Ports

64 DIMM slots DDR3 RDIMM 7 Six 10GbE NC553i FlexFabric 6 Ports

Two SFF SAS/SATA/SSD Hot plug SFF SAS Hot plug SFF SATA Hot plug SFF SDD One Smart Array P410i Integrated 8 (c7000) 4 (c3000) HP iLO 3 Standard for BladeSystem and HP Insight Foundation

32 DIMM slots DDR3 RDIMM Up to 3 Two 10GbE NC551i FlexFabric

Four SFF SAS/SATA/SSD Hot plug SFF SAS Hot plug SFF SATA Hot plug SFF SDD One Smart Array P410i Integrated 8 (c7000) 4 (c3000) HP iLO 3 Standard for BladeSystem and HP Insight Foundation

2 Ports per controller Two SFF SAS/SATA/SSD Hot plug SFF SAS Hot plug SFF SATA Hot plug SFF SDD One Smart Array P410i/1GB FBWC

8 (c7000) 4 (c3000) HP iLO 3 Standard for BladeSystem an Foundation

HP Integrity BL800c Series server blades HP Integrity server blades meet the demanding requirements of applications such as large data center workloads, application tier processing and transaction processing. Additionally, the flexibility of the HP Integrity server blades not only allows them to be a solution for the applications of every business size, but also to enable adaptability for future growth and changing demands. All HP Integrity BL800c series server blades are full-height. They provide 2.5x the computing density of traditional rack servers. They also provide advantages over previous generations of server blades, with up to a 20x increase in networking bandwidth. Additional advantages that HP Integrity server blades provide through the advanced technologies they integrate in their hardware and software include availability, resilience, and scalability. For example, HP Integrity server blades provide high availability through features such as redundant network paths and advanced ECC. BL860c i2 Processor family Number of processors Processor core available Maximum memory Memory type

Supported drives

BL870c i2

BL890c i2

Intel Itanium 9300 Series Intel Itanium 9300 Series Intel Itanium 9300 Series 1-2 2-4 4-8 4 or 2 4 or 2 4 or 2 384 GB PC3-10600R or PC310600E RDIMMs or UDIMMs DDR3 Two SFF SAS; hot plug

768 GB PC3-10600R or PC310600E RDIMMs or UDIMMs DDR3 Four SFF SAS; hot plug

1.5 TB PC3-10600R or PC3-10600E RDIMMs or UDIMMs DDR3 Eight SFF SAS; hot plug

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Advantages for Implementing BladeSystems The BladeSystem is a modular, integrated, automated environment that lets you manage a pool of infrastructure resources as easily as one machine. BladeSystem products are: • •

•

• • •

Innovative — HP was first to market with blades. Comprehensive — The HP portfolio offers deployment tools and management solutions that are unmatched in the market. Collaborative — HP has formed strategic alliances with industry leaders, which includes partnerships with: o Microsoft o Red Hat Linux o Novell o AMD o Oracle o SAP o Avaya o The SCO Group Economical — The densest dual-processor dual processor blades on the market lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Flexible — A full range of interconnect options, storage options, and server blades means unequaled flexibility for customers. Scalable — The BladeSystem is built with future expansion in mind.

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HP Integrity NonStop and Superdome 2 servers: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: • •

Identify, describe, and position the HP Integrity Superdome 2 servers Identify, describe, and position the HP Integrity NonStop servers

HP Integrity NonStop servers: Introduction HP Integrity NonStop systems deliver a mission-critical Converged Infrastructure, providing a flexible foundation for the IT environment of tomorrow. HP Integrity NonStop systems provide 24/7/365 application availability and offer the best choice for critical and complex enterprise applications. These systems are used by financial institutions, mobile operators, global manufacturing companies, hospitals and other public sector organizations for their most critical business processes. HP Integrity NonStop servers feature the highest levels of availability and scalability in the industry and are powered by Intel Itanium processors 9100 or 9300 series.

HP Integrity NonStop server family 59

NonStop NonStop NonStop NonStop BladeSystem BladeSystem NS2200 NS2000 NB54000c NB50000c Server Server Processor Intel Itanium Intel Itanium Intel Itanium Intel Itanium Processor processor processor Processor 9300 series 9100 series 9300 series 9100 series Processor 2 to 16 2 to 16 2 to 4 2 to 4 configurations processors processors processors processors per node Scalability 2 to 4080 2 to 4080 2 to 1020 2 to 1020 (cluster) processors processors processors processors Maximum 192 TB 192 TB 32 TB 64 TB memory (cluster) Internal hard SAS: 146 SAS: 146 GB SAS: 146 SAS: 146 GB 300 GB GB 300 GB disks GB FC: 300 GB 300 GB 300 GB FC: 300 GB Enterprise HP P9500 HP P9500 HP P9500 HP P9500 storage XP24000 XP24000 XP24000 XP24000 XP20000 XP20000 XP20000 XP20000

NonStop NS16200 NonStop NS14200 Server Server Intel Itanium Intel Itanium Processor 9100 series Processor 9100 series 2 to 16 2 to 8 processors processors 2 to 4080 processors 64 TB

2 to 2040 processors 32 TB

SAS: 146 GB FC: 300 GB 300 GB FC:300GB HP P9500 XP24000 XP20000

HP P9500 XP24000 XP20000

For more information on HP Integrity NonStop servers, refer to: http://www.hp.com/go/nonstop

HP Integrity Superdome 2 servers: Introduction Superdome 2 customers need the very highest levels of availability—minutes of downtime can mean millions of dollars lost. With Superdome 2, HP pioneers a new category of modular, mission-critical systems that scale up, out, and within to consolidate application tiers on a common platform. Superdome 2 includes: • • • • • • •

• •

Modular, bladed design, common components, and standard racks 100+ innovations to ensure reliability and resiliency 450 percent reliability boost, backed by a host of self-diagnosing and self-healing features Fault-tolerant Crossbar Fabric that intelligently routes transactions to the fastest, optimal pathways between blades and I/O Architected for 64-socket scalability; designed to scale from 8 to 256 cores and more A 4x improvement in performance, in half the size and at a lower entry price point Power-on-once technology with hot-swappable components, online replaceable crossbars, and the innovative Superdome 2 Analysis Engine for predictive error handling and analysis Flexible I/O scaling to precisely provision and repurpose capacity where needed Three packages for scale-as-you-grow flexibility, offered in 8-socket, 16-socket and 32-socket configurations 60

•

HP Integrity Superdome 2server family

•

Processors/Core per system Processor/Core per partition Microprocessor type Memory Min/Max

HP Integrity Superdome 2 – 8 Socket 16/64

HP Integrity Superdome 2 - 16 Socket 16/64

8/32

16/64

HP Integrity Superdome 2 – 32 Socket 32/128 designed to scale from 8 to 256 cores and more* 32/128

Intel Itanium 9350 4c Intel Itanium 9350 4c Intel Itanium 9350 4c Intel Itanium 9340 4c Intel Itanium 9340 4c Intel Itanium 9340 4c Minimum: 32GB (8 x Minimum: 32GB (8 x Minimum: 32GB (8 x 4GB) 4GB) 4GB) Maximum: 2TB (256 Maximum: 2TB (256 Maximum: 4 TB (512 x x 8GB) x 8GB) 8GB) External I/O slots 48 external PCIe x8 96 external PCIe x8 96 external PCIe x8 Gen2 Gen2 Gen2 24 PCIe Mezzanine 24 PCIe Mezzanine 48 PCIe Mezzanine Internal I/O slots 16 Type II and 8 16 Type II and 8 32 Type II and 16 Type I, Type I, PCIe x8 Gen2 Type I, PCIe x8 PCIe x8 Gen2 Gen2 32 10 GbE ports 64 10 GbE ports Built-in Networking 32 10 GbE ports Pass-through or Pass-through or Pass-through or Switch Switch interconnect Switch interconnect interconnect module module module HP-UX 11i v3 HP-UX 11i v3 Operating systems HP-UX 11i v3 •

For more information on Superdome 2 servers, refer to: http://www.hp.com/go/superdome2

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HP ProLiant server options: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: • •

Describe the HP Rack 1000 G2 series List and describe the HP Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) options

HP Rack 10000 G2 Series HP sets the standard for performance and value in the enterprise with the HP Rack 10000 G2 Series. This enterprise-class rack cabinet combines next-generation structural integrity cooling and cable management, ease of use capabilities, and choice of configuration options to deliver a best-in-class product. The HP Rack 10000 G2 Series is designated as an HP universal rack, ideal for all HP server and storage platforms, including HP ProLiant, Integrity, BladeSystem, NonStop, Storage Modular Smart Array (MSA), Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA), and XP. The HP 10000 G2 Series is specifically designed to ensure outstanding cooling and cable management, making the HP Rack 10000 G2 Series the best choice for enterprise racks.

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The HP Rack 10000 G2 Series also offers many improvements over the HP Rack 10000 Series racks, such as: • • • • • • •

•

Front door with updated design Front and rear door handles and lock bars for improved security Side panels come in three parts for easier manageability and mounting Cable management accessories Improved CTO pallet with offload metal ramp included Improved mounting of stabilization feet with expanded offering to include regular and heavy-duty stabilization feet in 600mm and 800mm wide Expanded offering of rack configurations including: o 36U and 42U Rack with rear extension kit included, mounted on a shock pallet for CTO o New rack tie-down kit and new grounding kit Three year limited warranty, parts only (3/0/0)

HP provides multiple rack options: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

HP 1x4 Console Switch HP 1x4 USB /PS2 KVM switch HP 1U Rackmount Keyboard with USB HP 42U Rear Extension kit for the 10000 Series Rack HP IP Console Switch with Virtual Media HP rack accessories HP Modular Cooling System G2 HP Rack and Power Manager HP rack top cable trays HP serial console server HP server console switches HP Server Console Switch with Virtual Media HP TFT7600 G2 KVM Console HP 1U Rackmount Keyboard with USB HP universal 2U locking drawer

HP UPS options HP offers a wide range of uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) in tower, rack and parallel form factors. The UPS provides several key benefits to a computing infrastructure. Planning and selecting the proper UPS system provides: • • • • •

Maximum system backup time in the event of a power loss Consistent power voltage levels Protection from damaging power spikes Increased power efficiency, reducing power loss through heat and harmonic frequencies Power management capabilities for your power protection system

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An HP UPS contains batteries that protect against power disturbances, natural or man-made, and circuitry that filters and enhances utility power to provide a more stable voltage. If a UPS determines that the utility voltage is within the nominal operating range, the UPS supplies the utility power to the output receptacles. If the utility voltage is outside the nominal operating range or has failed, the UPS supplies battery power to the output receptacles. HP UPSs are bundled with HP Power Management software, which includes HP Power Protector, Power Manager and HP Rack and Power Manager. This software uses load segment control to schedule startups and shutdowns of less-critical devices, extending the operation of mission-critical devices. The bundled Power Management software continuously manages and monitors HP UPSs.

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HP server management software: Objectives After completing this module, you should be able to: • •

Describe and position the HP Insight Management portfolio Identify and describe management products in: o HP Insight Foundation o HP Insight Control o HP Matrix Operating Environment

HP Insight Management HP Insight Management is a suite of integrated server management software for the infrastructure. HP Insight Management is the foundation of a Matrix Operating Environment and works together with HP platforms.

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For more information about HP Insight Management, visit http://www.hp.com/go/insight. http://www.hp.com/go/insight

HP Insight Foundation Insight Foundation provides management solutions that are designed to simplify server installation, deployment, configuration, and maintenance throughout their lifecycle and provide customers with higher levels of operational efficiency and highly reliable solutions. It delivers an easy-to-use easy set of tools engineered to address any setup scenario in addition to standard installer support for ProLiant servers. The Insight Foundation Suite contains the software you need to install, configure confi and manage ProLiant servers, including: • • • •

Simple system setup — Single server assisted configuration and operating system installation using CD, USB, or scripting Continuous server monitoring — Discovery, identification, and pre--failure alerting to facilitate ilitate server tracking and pre-empt pre downtime Precise system software update — Firmware and driver management to HP qualified baselines to ensure optimum reliability Automatic phone home alerts — Automated service dispatch and server warranty reporting too reduce support costs

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Insight Foundation supports Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Linux, and SuSE Linux operating systems. It ships standard with HP ProLiant ML/DL/SL 300, 500, and 700 series BTO servers. It is available for BladeSystem enclosures, not individual server blades, as an orderable CTO option. Note: HP ProLiant 100 series foundation products are treated differently and are not part of HP Insight Foundation Suite for ProLiant.

For more information about HP Insight Foundation, visit: http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/core-management-100.html

HP Insight Control HP Insight Control is essential server management that unlocks the management capabilities built into your HP ProLiant servers. Insight Control delivers powerful capabilities that enable you to proactively manage ProLiant server health — whether physical or virtual, deploy ProLiant servers quickly, optimize power consumption, and control ProLiant servers from anywhere. Insight Control ships as one, installs as one, and provides a single, integrated management solution for both physical and virtual servers. Insight Control uses a central management console, HP SIM, providing a comprehensive and intuitive interface for running an entire set of server management tasks. HP Insight Control also offers the flexibility to integrate seamlessly into Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter environments if your IT environment has already standardized on those management platforms. Use Insight Control extensions to enable best-in-class deployment, monitoring, remote control, and power optimization in concert with management consoles from HP Software, Microsoft, and VMware, or in a Linux-centric environment. Note: There is a specific version of Insight Control (with specific part numbers and license keys) for use in a Linux-centric environment.

For more information about HP Insight Control, visit http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/ice/index.html.

Matrix Operating Environment The HP Matrix Operating Environment is an advanced infrastructure lifecycle management software which allows you to instantly adjust to dynamic business demands — provision and modify a complex infrastructure in minutes. The Matrix Operating Environment includes:

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• • •

Integrated infrastructure design with automated activation of servers, storage and networking Built-in capacity planning and rebalancing tools Automated disaster recovery and failover capabilities

The Matrix Operating Environment is the infrastructure management at the core of the HP CloudSystem Matrix, a Converged Infrastructure solution spanning servers, storage, and network resources that is an ideal platform for delivering shared services. The Matrix Operating Environment is integrated by design and builds on the industry-leading HP infrastructure management portfolio including Insight Control and Systems Insight Manager. The Matrix Operating Environment lets you: • •

•

Provision infrastructure in minutes to automatically activate physical and virtual servers, storage, and networking from pools of shared resources Optimize infrastructure confidently over its lifecycle so you can predictably make changes without time-consuming analysis, and increase operational efficiency (capacity planning and re-balancing) Protect continuity of services with a wide spectrum of high availability and recovery solutions (automated availability and recovery)

The Matrix Operating Environment is available for ProLiant and Integrity servers: • •

HP Matrix Operating Environment for ProLiant and BladeSystem HP Matrix Operating Environment for HP-UX

For more information about HP Matrix Operating Environment, visit: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/solutions/insightdynamics/overview.html

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