Blade server architecture by IBM From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014.[1]
BladeCenter E back side, showing on the left two FC switches and two Ethernet switches. On the right side a management module with VGA and PS/2 keyboard and mouse cables connected.Magerit supercomputer (CeSViMa) has 86 Blade Centers (6 Blade Center E on each computing rack)
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IBM BladeCenter
BladeCenter E front side: 8 blade servers (HS20) followed by 6 empty slots
x86 (HS/LS series) POWER (JS/PS series) CELL (QS series)
Successor
IBM Flex System
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Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM eServer BladeCenter was relatively late to the blade server market. It differed from prior offerings in that it offered a range of x86 Intel server processors and input/output (I/O) options.
The naming was changed to IBM BladeCenter in 2005. In February 2006, IBM introduced the BladeCenter H with switch capabilities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand 4X.
A web site called Blade.org was available for the blade computing community through about 2009.[2]
In 2012, the replacement Flex System was introduced.
IBM BladeCenter (E)
The original IBM BladeCenter was later marketed as BladeCenter E.[3] Power supplies have been upgraded through the life of the chassis from the original 1200 to 1400, 1800, 2000 and 2320 watt.
The BladeCenter (E) was co-developed by IBM and Intel and included:
Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, C19/C20 connectors
Two redundant high-speed blowers
IBM BladeCenter T
BladeCenter T is the telecommunications company version[4] of the original BladeCenter, available with either AC or DC (48 V)[5] power. Has 8 blade slots in 8U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter E. To keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special Network Equipment-Building System (NEBS) compliant blades are available.
IBM BladeCenter H
BladeCenter H
Upgraded BladeCenter design with high-speed fabric options, announced in 2006.[6] Backwards compatible with older BladeCenter switches and blades. Features:[7]
14 blade slots in 9U
Shared Media tray with Optical drive and USB 2.0 port
Two slots for Gigabit Ethernet switches (can also have optical or copper pass-through)
Two slots for optional switch or pass-through modules, can have additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand or Myrinet 2000 functions
Four slots for optional high-speed switches or pass-through modules, can have 10Gbit Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X.
Optional Hard-wired serial port capability
Power: Two (upgradable to four) power supplies, with Souriau UTG input connectors[8]
Two redundant high-speed blowers
IBM BladeCenter HT
BladeCenter HT chassis
BladeCenter HT is the telecommunications company version[9] of the BladeCenter H, available with either AC or DC (48V) power. Has 12 blade slots in 12U, but uses the same switches and blades as the regular BladeCenter H. But to keep NEBS Level 3 / ETSI compliant special NEBS compliant blades are available.
IBM BladeCenter S
Targets mid-sized customers by offering storage inside the BladeCenter chassis, so no separate external storage needs to be purchased. It can also use 120V power in the North American market, so it can be used outside the datacenter. When running at 120V, the total chassis capacity is reduced. Features:[10]
6 blade slots in 7U
Shared Media tray with optical drive and 2× USB 2.0 ports
Storage: Up to 12 hot-swap 3.5" (or 24 2.5") SAS or SATA drives with RAID 0, 1, and 1E capability (RAID 5 and SAN capabilities optional with two SAS RAID controllers)
Two optional Disk Storage Modules for HDDs, six 3.5" SAS/SATA drives each
4 hot-swap I/O switch module bays
Power: Two 950/1450-watt, hot-swap modules and ability to have two optional 950/1450-watt modules, offering redundancy and power for robust configurations; C19/C20 connectors
Four hot-swap redundant blowers (plus one fan in each power supply)
One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X)
HS21 XM
(2007–2008) This model can use the High-speed IO option of the BladeCenter H, but is backwards compatible with the regular BladeCenter. Features:
Processors: One or two Intel Xeon DP (dual or quad-core)
Memory: 8 DIMM slots
Option for one SAS 2.5" drive or one or two SAS-based Solid State drives
Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports
One expansion slot for up to two additional ports (Fibre Channel storage, additional Ethernet, Myrinet 2000 or InfiniBand)
One High-speed expansion slot for up to two additional ports (10Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand 4X as well as additional Fibre-Channel or Ethernet ports)
HS22
(2009–2011) Features:
Processors: One or two Intel Xeon 5500 or 5600 series (up to 3.6GHz 4-core or 3.46GHz 6-core)
Option for two hot swap SAS 2.5" drives or SSD (RAID 0 and 1 are possible)
Two 1Gbit/s Ethernet ports (Broadcom 5709S)
1 CIOv slot (standard PCI-Express daughter card) and 1 CFFh slot (high-speed PCI-Express daughter card) for a total of 8 ports of I/O to each blade, including 4 ports of high-speed I/O
Requires Advanced Management Module
HS22v
(2010–2011) Features are very similar to HS22 but:
User programmability using Eclipse-based IDE and RAVE open development language
Quad 1Gbit + quad 10Gbit Ethernet controllers
Up to 20Gbit/s DPI throughput per blade
Selective traffic capture, rewrite and redirect
Has LAN and WAN Interfaces
Switch modules
The BladeCenter can have a total of four switch modules, but two of the switch module bays can take only an Ethernet switch or Ethernet pass-though. To use the other switch module bays, a daughtercard needs to be installed on each blade that needs it, to provide the required SAN, Ethernet, InfiniBand or Myrinet function. Mixing of different type daughtercards in the same BladeCenter chassis is not allowed.
Gigabit Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet switch modules were produced by IBM, Nortel, and Cisco Systems.
BLADE Network Technologies produced some switches, and later was purchased by IBM.
In all cases speed internal to the BladeCenter, between the blades, is non-blocking. External Gigabit Ethernet ports vary from four to six and can be either copper or optical fiber.
Storage Area Network
A variety of SAN switch modules have been produced by QLogic, Cisco, McData (acquired by Brocade) and Brocade ranging in speeds of 1, 2, 4 and 8Gbit Fibre Channel. Speed from the SAN switch to the blade is determined by the lowest-common-denominator between the blade HBA daughtercard and the SAN switch. External port counts vary from two to six, depending on the switch module.
InfiniBand
A InfiniBand switch module has been produced by Cisco. Speed from the blade InfiniBand daughtercard to the switch is limited to IB 1X (2.5Gbit). Externally the switch has one IB 4X and one IB 12X port. The IB 12X port can be split to three IB 4X ports, giving a total of four IB 4X ports and a total theoretical external bandwidth of 40Gbit.
Pass-through
Two kinds of pass-through module are available: copper pass-through and fibre pass-through. The copper pass-through can be used only with Ethernet, while the Fibre pass-through can be used for Ethernet, SAN or Myrinet.
Bridge
Bridge modules are only compatible with BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT. They function like Ethernet or SAN switches and bridge the traffic to InfiniBand. The advantage is that from the Operating System on the blade everything seems normal (regular Ethernet or SAN connectivity), but inside the BladeCenter everything gets routed over the InfiniBand.
High-speed switch modules
High-speed switch modules are compatible only with the BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT. A blade that needs the function must have a high-speed daughtercard installed. Different high-speed daughtercards cannot be mixed in the same BladeCenter chassis.
10 Gigabit Ethernet
A 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch module was available from BLADE Network Technologies. This allowed 10Gbit/s connection to each blade, and to outside the BladeCenter.
InfiniBand 4X
There are several InfiniBand options:
A high-speed InfiniBand 4X SDR switch module from Cisco. This allows IB 4X connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has two IB 4X ports and two IB 12X ports. The 12X ports can be split to three 4X ports, providing a total of eight IB 4X ports or a theoretical bandwidth of 80Gbit. Internally between the blades, the switch is non-blocking.
A High-speed InfiniBand pass-through module to directly connect the blades to an external InfiniBand switch. This pass-though module is compatible with both SDR and DDR InfiniBand speeds.
A high-speed InfiniBand 4X QDR switch module from Voltaire (later acquired by Mellanox Technologies). This allows full IB 4X QDR connectivity to each blade. Externally the switch has 16 QSFP ports, all 4X QDR capable.
Roadrunner TriBlade (custom module)
A schematic description of the TriBlade module
The IBM Roadrunner supercomputer used a custom module called the TriBlade from 2008 through 2013. An expansion blade connects two QS22 modules with 8GB RAM each via 4 PCIe x8 links to a LS21 module with 16GB RAM, two links for each QS22. It also provides outside connectivity via an Infiniband 4x DDR adapter. This makes a total width of four slots for a single TriBlade. Three TriBlades fit into one BladeCenter H chassis.[22]
