A highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket SMP server, for application
serving in Web environments
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3
Manageability
Powerful systems management features simplify local and remote management of the x3550:
•
The x3550 includes a
Baseboard Management Controller (BMC)
to monitor server
availability, perform Predictive Failure Analysis, etc., and trigger IBM Director alerts. The BMC
enables service personnel to use sophisticated diagnostic tools, such as light path
diagnostics, to resolve problems quickly.
•
Integrated
IPMI 2.0
support alerts IBM Director to anomalous environmental factors, such as
voltage and thermal conditions. It also supports
highly secure remote power control
using
data encryption.
•
IBM
Systems Director Active Energy Manager for x86
, an IBM-exclusive, is designed to
take advantage of new system power management features, by providing power monitoring
and power capping features.
•
Text Console Redirection
support allows the administrator to remotely view x3550 text
messages over Serial or LAN.
•
IBM
Director
is included for proactive systems management and works with both the blade’s
internal BMC and the chassis’ management module. IBM Director comes with a portfolio of
tools, including
Management Processor Assistant, Rack Manager, RAID Manager, Update
Assistant
and
Software Distribution
. In addition, IBM Director offers extended systems
management tools for additional server management and increased availability. When a
problem is encountered, IBM Director can issue administrator alerts via e-mail, pager, and
other methods.
•
An optional
Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine
provides additional systems
management capabilities, including
Web-based out-of-band control; virtual floppy and optical
drive support; Windows “blue screen” error capture; LDAP and SSL support;
and
remote
redirection of PCI video, text, keyboard and mouse
. And it does all this without consuming a
valuable adapter slot.
Availability and Serviceability
The x3550 provides many features to simplify serviceability and increase system uptime:
•
x3550 servers use
Chipkill-enabled fully buffered
memory DIMMs. Chipkill memory is up to
16X
better than standard ECC memory at correcting memory errors. This can help reduce
downtime caused by memory errors.
Fully buffered DIMMs
provide additional availability
features, including CRC (cyclic redundancy check) monitoring.
•
The x3550 offers selectable
online hot-spare memory
and
memory mirroring
for
redundancy in the event of a noncorrectable memory failure
•
Toolless
cover removal
provides easy access to upgrades and serviceable parts. Similarly,
the
Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine
and the
ServeRAID-8k
controller can be
installed and replaced without tools. This means less time (and therefore less money) spent
servicing the x3550. Similarly,
hot-swap/redundant HDDs, fans
and
power supplies
, as
well as
online hot-spare
and
mirrored
memory, mean greater system uptime while these
components are being serviced.
•
New
toolless slides
ship with the server, together with a
Cable Management Arm (CMA)
,
that allows the rack server to easily slide into place
•
IBM
Thermal Diagnostics
allows the administrator to evaluate thermal data on the server
without taking the hardware offline. This can provide greater server uptime.
•
The
drop-down light path diagnostics panel
and individual light path LEDs quickly lead the
technician to failed (or failing) components. This simplifies servicing, speeds up problem
resolution and helps improve network availability.
•
Integrated RAID-1 disk mirroring
and
RAID-10 striped mirrored arrays
standard enable
the server to keep operating in the event of a failure to any one drive.
•
IPMI 2.0
supports highly secure remote system power control using data encryption. This
allows an administrator to restart a server without having to visit it in person, saving travel time
and getting the server back up and running quickly and securely. It also adds new features to
those provided by IPMI 1.5, including
VLAN
support,
Serial over LAN
, enhanced
authentication and encryption algorithms (
RMCP+, SHA-1, AES
) and a
firmware firewall
.
•
Temperature-controlled fans
adjust to compensate for changing thermal characteristics. At
the lower speeds they draw less power and suffer less wear. Equally important in a crowded
data center, temperature-controlled fans produce less ambient noise in the data center than if
