General |
| Q1. |
Does the ProLiant BL40p have PCI slots? |
| A1. |
Yes. The ProLiant BL40p server blades have two expansion PCI-X slots. The two slots will support SAN connectivity to HP StorageWorks, EMC, and Hitachi Data Systems, as well as Smart Array 6000-series controllers for DAS (Direct Attach Storage) support. |
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| Q2. |
Why did you include PCI slots instead of embedding the technology on the blade? |
| A2. |
While rapid deployment is easier without PCI slots, customers have not seen this as a major hindrance in the 4P space.
The following features have been embedded for the customer's typical use of PCI slots:
- ProLiant BL40p server has Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) technology, which is an embedded version of the popular RILOE PCI card.
- ProLiant BL40p has 5 embedded 10/100/1000T NICs plus a sixth embedded NIC dedicated to iLO.
- ProLiant BL40p has an embedded Smart Array 5i Plus RAID controller.
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| Q3. |
Do the BL p-Class server blades have redundant ROM? |
| A3. |
Yes. All ProLiant BL servers feature have a redundant ROM. |
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| Q4. |
Do the BL p-Class server blades have a blue unit identification light? |
| A4. |
Yes. The BL p-Class features the same LEDs that the ProLiant DL and ML lines feature including the blue unit identification LED. |
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| Q5. |
How are ProLiant BL servers cooled? |
| A5. |
Like all ProLiant servers, ProLiant BL servers are designed for front to back airflow Six redundant, hot-plug fans that are mounted in the front of the server as well as three internal fans cool ProLiant BL40p. As with all ProLiant DL (dense) servers, customer data centers will need to plan air flow through proper rack placement as well as adequate air cooling and circulation. |
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Software |
| Q1. |
Which operating systems will be supported? |
| A1. |
ProLiant BL servers support the following:
- Windows: 2000 Advanced Server and Windows Server 2003
- Linux: Red Hat and SuSE.
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| Q2. |
What kind of clustering solutions are supported with Blade servers? |
| A2. |
The ProLiant BL40p can support several different types of clustering, including the following:
- IP Failover/Network Load Balancing
- Application Servers
- IPC Clustering
- High Availability Failover Clustering
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| Q3. |
How can Blade servers be used in an IP Failover/Network Load Balancing environment? |
| A3. |
IP Failover and Network Load Balancing applications distribute incoming TCP/IP traffic between multiple servers, providing increased performance and faster response times. This is also a very scalable architecture because you can simply add more servers to increase capacity and performance. IP Failover and Network Load Balancing applications require a very small amount of disk space and several network connections, which make this kind of application an ideal match for Blade servers. Blades, as an "edge of the Web" solution for internet linkages and IP transaction routing, are very cost effective and provide tremendous scaling. Blades can operate as Web Servers and provide interconnect routing to application and data servers, which can coexist in the same rack making a very dense packaged solution for web application processing. |
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| Q4. |
What operating system support is provided for Blade servers in an IP Failover/Network Load Balancing environment? |
| A4. |
IP Failover and Network Load Balancing in the Linux environment can be accomplished by a number of tested and certified products on ProLiant Blades. For IP address failover and transaction load balancing, HP recommends Polyserve Application Manager or Rainfinity RainConnect. Windows NT Server and Windows 2000 Server provide the Network Load Balancing Service as an integral part of the operating system. |
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| Q5. |
How can Blade servers be used in an Application Server clustered environment? |
| A5. |
Application servers can provide software scaling and increase the capacity of an application by adding servers. A management application is used to coordinate the activities of the individual application servers. This typically involves managing the replication of data and applications across the applications servers so that they are all identical, and then routing incoming requests to achieve load balancing and availability across the application servers. Because the applications and data are stored locally on each server, Blade servers can provide an excellent platform for an application server environment. |
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| Q6. |
What operating system support is provided for Blade servers in an Application Server clustered environment? |
| A6. |
SteelEye Technology supports a Data Replication offering for Linux, and Windows environments. SteelEye Technology, our strategic High Availability partner, has a Data Replication Option which will write or mirror dynamic transaction data between two or more Blade servers and will not close the transaction until the mirrored write completes. This guarantees that new or updated data is not lost. In the event of a hardware or software failure, a failover will take place and the application will be restarted on a backup server and continue as IP connections are re-established. When the server Blade comes back into service, the data will be resynchronized.
In Microsoft application server environments, the applications can be managed by Microsoft Application Center 2000. Using Application Center 2000, administrators can quickly construct logical groupings including the contents, components, and configuration of applications. These groupings can be easily managed throughout the cluster, reducing application complexity. When changes are made to a server, Application Center can automatically apply those changes to the other servers in the cluster. Applications can also be written to take advantage of the distributed computing features found in Microsoft's COM+ (Common Object Model) and DCOM (Distributed COM) programming model. |
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| Q7. |
Will there be a way of resetting the blade in case of a software lockup without taking the blade out of the enclosure? |
| A7. |
If a software lockup were to occur, the best way to reset the blade is via the Insight Lights Out (iLO) ASIC in the ProLiant BL40p server. The ASIC is powered off Auxiliary Power and isolated from the rest of the system. Other methods include:
- Resetting or powering off the server through its Remote Console.
- Resetting or powering off the server through the power button, which will be located on the front of the server. If the hardware is locked up, a five second push on the power button will result in a power-off override.
- Pulling the server out of its bay will cause the entire server to lose power. The iLO ASIC will have to be reassigned another IP address before further communication can be established.
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Storage |
| Q1. |
Is there support for SAN connectivity? |
| A1. |
The BL40p has 2 PCI-X slots for customers who want redundant SAN connectivity. SAN connectivity is also available on the ProLiant BL20p G2. |
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| Q2. |
What versions of RAID are supported across the different p-Class blades? |
| A2. |
ProLiant BL20p has two hot pluggable SCSI hard drives and the onboard Smart Array 5i controller, so mirroring (RAID 0, 1 and 1+0) is supported. The ProLiant BL40p has 4 hot plug drives and an embedded Smart Array controller, so levels up to RAID 5, RAID 0, 1 and 1+0, 5, hot spare) is possible. |
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