Blade Servers
A Quick Reference
Whether you call it a server blade or blade server, there is no denying that these cost-efficient, slim and less power-consuming servers are a hit for high-performance computing as well as for the small and midsize business (SMB). A blade server is
essentially a single
circuit board populated with components such as
processors,
memory, and
network connections that are usually found on
multiple boards. Since they use
laptop technology, blades are usually thin
and require less power and cooling than traditional
rackmount servers.
Blades are also designed to
slide into existing servers (chassis) and overall are more
cost-efficient, smaller and tend to consume less power than traditional
box-based servers.
The individual blades in the chassis
(also called a
cabinet) are connected using a
bus system
. Combined
they form a blade server and all share a common network connection,
power supply and
cooling resources. Each blade will have its own
software and
operating
system installed on it. Blades such as storage blades with
hard disk drives or those
supporting
Gigabit Ethernet switches and
Fibre Channel storage switches
can be added to a blade server. A blade server also works well with
thin client
devices (a
client/server architecture in which no data is stored).
rackmount:
The term rackmount is
used to describe electronic equipment and devices designed to fit
industry-standard-sized computer racks and cabinets (19" wide).
Rackmount devices are also standard 1.75 inch units.
server blade:
A single circuit
board populated with components such as processors, memory, and
network connections that are usually found on multiple boards.
Blade Vs. Rackmount
Blade servers are outgrowing at a faster rate than traditional rackmount servers.
A recent Gartner study found that blade servers are the fastest growing
segment of the server market. One reason is simply because blades are
easy to configure and manage. Using a blade can be as easy as using an
expansion card — only this "expansion card" comes with one to four
processors, memory and disk storage. Blades are considered to be
hot-swappable, which means you can add new blades or remove existing
ones while the system is powered on. Traditionally, blade servers have
been deployed in
data
centers and large
enterprise environments,
but the small business is looking
at blades for the same reason enterprise has previously: They take up less floor
space than traditional rackmount servers, they require less power
and fewer IT management resources
are required than with a rackmount. Blade servers are scalable
to any physical infrastructure.
It is important to remember that blades
are not suited to all applications and cannot replace a large-scale
server in all instances. There is also
proprietary interests at stake.
An HP blade, for example, cannot be plugged into an
IBM blade chassis.
As a result, third-party vendor blades have to be designed for specific
branded chassis.
|
Blade vs.
Rackmount — A Quick Comparison
|
|
Blade Servers |
Rackmount Servers |
Shared
infrastructure for fans, power supplies, Ethernet switching,
storage. Networking and storage is built into the chassis,
which eliminates cables.
|
Each has its
own power supply, fan and cables. |
Small form
factor can use up to half the space of a rackmount server.
|
Large physical
floor space required to house rackmount. |
Installation
requires no special tools or expertise, semi-technical or
non-technical staff can deploy the blades. Able to hot-swap.
|
More difficult
deployment. SMB may require on-site technicians to make
additions to the rackmount. |
Proprietary
nature limits the ability to mix and match components from
multiple suppliers in one chassis.
|
More choice in
system suppliers for acquisitions. Multiple components
from different suppliers can be used in one chassis. |
Many blades still have cooling issues due to shared cooling
on the chassis
|
A
variety of rackmount coolers are available. Separate fans
help cooling issues. |
Virtualization & Common Blade Server Computing Environments
Virtualization is another area of computing that has been a driving
force behind blades. Virtualization involves emulating multiple servers
on one hardware platform. Running multiple operating systems on a single
computer or
storage virtualization where you have the the amalgamation of multiple network storage devices into
what appears to be a single storage unit are examples of virtualization.
With a blade server you have the option to combine blades with
virtualization software to consolidate workloads, each running on its
own instance of the OS (using the same or a different OS). With blades, separate operating systems and applications can co-exist on
one server and users of the system are able to access more memory and
processing power as their workload demands it.
Blades are frequently deployed in data centers and high-performance
computing environments (a branch of computer science that concentrates
on developing supercomputers and software to run on supercomputers.), and can serve as
application servers,
databases,
e-mail or
Web servers, and more. Large data centers and
telecommunications service providers benefit from the use of blades as
they provide the means for a large business to respond quickly to
changes in business conditions. High-traffic Web sites are another
example of where blades can help — if you plan to host an online event,
broadcast events live or something of that nature blades are a prefect
solution as they allow you to quickly add memory and processing power to
compensate for unusually high traffic to the Web site.
Overall, where a business or
group would use several different servers for different applications, it
makes sense to combine the multiple servers into one blade server to
make for better manageability. Blades are often viewed as a solution for
large enterprise, but really the IT cost and manageability of a blade
solution makes it well-suited for smaller businesses and organizations. To this end, many
of the main blade vendors market specific blade solutions and
packages to the SMB.
Blade Images
A few sample images showing different aspects and types of blades &
blade servers.
Blade Vendors - A Reference List of Blade Brands
- May 2006
HP BladeSystem (Proliant)
IBM BladeCenter
Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMERGY
Blade Server
Dell PowerEdge Blade Server
Egenera BladeFrame System
Vangie 'Aurora' Beal -
Writer, www.Webopedia.com
Last updated: May 19, 2005
HP
BladeSystem (PDF)
The business case for adopting the HP BladeSystem in the data center.
Blades Sharpen Storage Focus
The pairing of server blades and storage seems to be all the rage these
days.
Blade
Adoption Goes Beyond Space Saving
IDC reports that the blade server market accounted for $440 million in
sales last quarter. Although this is still only 4 percent of total
server sales, blade sales rose 67 percent in the same period. And that
pace is expected to continue for some time.
Server Consolidation and Virtualization
First and foremost, many application providers had gone on record in the
past about not supporting their applications on virtual machines.
Secondly, in the case of blade servers, the high cost of entry for the
initial blade server enclosure made it difficult to justify on a
project-by-project basis.
Blade Server Benefits: Reducing Cable Sprawl
The blade server chassis greatly simplifies the cabling process by
aggregating cabling of ten servers at once. Up to 70% of network, power,
and KVM cabling required for ten 1U servers can be reduced by moving to
blade servers in a single chassis.
Virtualization: What's In It For You?
It seems as if every storage vendor is either bringing virtualization
products to market, or talking about their plans to do so. With all the
talk about this new technology, the question naturally arises: Is
virtualization useful to you in your environment, and if so, how should
you use it?
IBM case study on Flight Centre, Fujitsu
Managing servers took up vast amounts of Flight Centre's time and data
centre space was limited. Standardising on xSeries and BladeCenter,
Flight Centre used IBM Director to automate management / deployment and
VMware for consolidation. They expanded computing capacity, shrunk their
data centre and saved on hardware costs. |
