Blade

Seminar 2013-14 BLADE SERVER

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank HOD Mrs. NJANAMBIKA .V.A Dept. of Computer Engineering for

giving me such an opportunity to do this seminar .

I would like tothank sincerely to Mrs. Thajbi, Mrs. Yamini who has been helpful and

cooperative for giving me the necessary guidelines for doing my seminar .I also express my

sincere gratitude to Ms. Navya , Mrs. Aiswarya&Mrs.Seena who has been helpful throughout

the Seminar presentation.

I would like to express my gracious gratitude to those other peoples who spent their

valuable time with me to discuss about the topic help me to collect all the relevant information’s

about the seminar topic and to give necessary advices . Over all these thanks to almighty for

blessings .

SARATH T.S

ABSTRACT

Dept. of Computer Engg. 1 MTI Thrissur


A blade server is a stripped down server computer with a modular

design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Whereas a

standard mount server can function with (at least) a power cord and network

cable, blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize

power consumption and other considerations, while still having all the functional

components to be considered a computer. A blade enclosure, which can hold

multiple blade servers, provides services such as power, cooling, networking,

various interconnects and management. Together, blades and the blade enclosure

form the blade system. (Different blade providers have differing principles

regarding what to include in the blade itself, and in the blade system altogether.)

In a standard server-rack configuration, 1U (one rack unit, 19" [48 cm] wide and

1.75" [4.45 cm] tall) defines the minimum possible size of any equipment. The

principal benefit and justification of blade computing relates to lifting this

restriction so as to reduce size requirements. The most common computer

rack form-factor is 42U high, which limits the number of discrete computer

devices directly mountable in a rack to 42 components. Blades do not have this

limitation; a

s of 2009, densities of up to 128 discrete servers per rack are achievable with

blade systems.

CONTENTS



1. INTRODUCTION

2. HISTORY

3. FEATURES

4.TYPES

5. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGE

6. APPLICATIONS

8. FUTURE SCOPE

9. CONCLUSION

10. REFERENCE



1. INTRODUCTION

With the high cost of data center floor space and current advances in technology, new

installations with denser cabinets that require more power and cooling continues to be

the trend. Besides the challenges that new installations present, equipment cabinet

upgrades can also be a problem as the existing power and cooling currently provided

may not support the new cabinet configuration. Surveys show that Information

Technology equipment is typically replaced every 2 to 5 years depending on the

individual organization and its needs. Surveys also show (See Chart 1) that when asked

about their top 3 concerns; Heat/Power Density is the number one concern of Data

Center Management.

High density applications like cluster server configurations have in some cases pushed

the kW power demands as high as 40 kW per cabinet. The required power depends on

the equipment, how dense the cabinet is and whether redundancy is required. This has



led to new and innovative solutions for providing cabinet level power utilizing CDU’s

(Cabinet distribution Units).Distributed server architectures based upon "blades" are

rapidly emerging in the data centers of corporations and Internet service providers.

Historically, servers only assumed the form factor of a re-purposed desktop computer or

rack-mountable appliance. These servers utilized high-quality components and leverage

additional memory and hard disk capacity. Now server form factors are evolving into

single PC cards that can be plugged into a chassis as a single module. Bladed servers

stack numerous independent lower-end servers within a single chassis. Chassis can

accept anywhere from eight to 24 blades. Each blade is an independent system with its

own memory, processor and network connection. Due to their compact size, multiple

blade servers can be placed in a single server rack or enclosure, allowing numerous

systems to share electricity and HVAC resources. Gartner Dataquest predicts that

worldwide server blade shipments will increase from 84,410 units in 2002 to more than

one million in 2006. The IT research firm anticipates that revenue from server blades

will reach at least $1.2 billion during this time period. Blades are thus becoming the one

major segment of the server market that is experiencing escalating growth. The

popularity and fast growth of the blade server can be attributed to cost-savings that the

device accrues to its users, especially hosting firms and service providers. Because more

than 250 blade servers can be effectively placed into a single rack, it is possible for

hosting firms with data center operations to quadruple their hosting capacity with the

devices. By comparison, most of today's low-end servers have only a single computer in

one enclosure, allowing only one 42 systems to fit in an industry-standard rack. Because

blade servers are small, consume less power and generate less heat than an average

server, they are emerging as an ever-popular option for niche Web hosting services.

With the cost of data center space at approximately $300 per square foot and with



energy costs increasing throughout continental North America due to deregulation, blade

servers have become the de facto standard for increasing data center profitability. The

systems are typically used as Web servers and caching servers that deliver Web pages to

Internet browsers, SSL servers for encrypted communication, and streaming servers for

audio and video transmissions. Most hosting companies and service providers appreciate

the devices because they are easy to install and employ dedicated software that improves

their administration, performance and reliability. The devices are also increasingly being

utilized as firewall devices and to increase capacity in corporate data centers. Blade

severs are excellent devices for hosting companies with large existing data center

deployments who want to capitalize upon existing PCI expansion space. The inclusion

of a single blade allows a hosting company to double its computing power or hosting

offering, utilizing the same amount of physical space. The main disadvantage

concerning PCI-based blade servers is that the processors are usually not as robust as

traditional high-end servers. This factor limits the use of the server to functions such as

low-end Web hosting. While blade severs have the capacity to serve streaming video

and other demanding applications, often the emerging technology is used for back up or

storage purposes. Lower-end models usually depend on server or operating system

virtualization, causing the server to run much slower than traditional equipment. It is

thus incumbent upon a reseller to determine whether a hosting company is utilizing

blade servers for mission-critical deployments and whether those servers can

accommodate demanding applications. Resellers who operate their own equipment

might want to consider utilizing blade servers as an effective technology to add firewall

or other security specific capacities to their collocated equipment.



2. HISTORY

Developers placed complete microcomputers on cards and packaged them in

standard 19-inch racks in the 1970s soon after the introduction of 8-bit microprocessors.

This architecture operated in the industrial process control industry as an alternative

to minicomputer control-systems. Early models stored programs in EPROM and were

limited to a single function with a small real-time executive.

The VME bus architecture (ca. 1981) defined a computer interface which included

implementation of a board-level computer installed in a chassis backplane with multiple

slots for pluggable boards to provide I/O, memory, or additional computing. The PCI

Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group PICMG developed a chassis/blade structure

for the then emerging Peripheral Component Interconnect bus PCI which is

called Compact PCI. Common among these chassis based computers was the fact that

the entire chassis was a single system. While a chassis might include multiple computing

elements to provide the desired level of performance and redundancy, there was always

one board in charge, one master board coordinating the operation of the entire system.

PICMG expanded the Compact PCI specification with the use of standard Ethernet

connectivity between boards across the backplane. The PICMG 2.16 Compact PCI

Packet Switching Backplane specification was adopted in Sept 2001 (PICMG

specifications). This provided the first open architecture for a multi-server chassis.

PICMG followed with the larger and more feature-rich Advanced TCA specification

targeting the telecom industry's need for a high availability and dense computing

platform with extended product life (10+ years). While Advanced TCA system and



boards typically sell for higher prices than blade servers, Advanced TCA suppliers claim

that low operating-expenses and total-cost-of-ownership can make Advanced TCA-

based solutions a cost-effective alternative for many building blocks of the next

generation telecom network.

The first commercialized blade server architecture was invented by Christopher

Hipp and David Kirkeby and their US 6411506was assigned to Houston-based RLX

Technologies. RLX, which consisted of mostly former Compaq Computer Corp

employees, including Hipp and Kirkeby, shipped the first commercial blade server in

2001 and were acquired by Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2005.

In February 2006, Blade.org was established to increase the number of blade platform

solutions available for customers and to accelerate the process of bringing them to

market. It is a collaborative organization and developer community focused on

accelerating the development and adoption of IBM blade server platforms.

The name blade server appeared when a card included the processor, memory, I/O and

non-volatile program storage (flash memory or small hard(s)). This allowed

manufacturers to package a complete server, with its operating system and applications,

on a single card / board / blade. These blades could then operate independently within a

common chassis, doing the work of multiple separate server boxes more efficiently. In

addition to the most obvious benefit of this packaging (less space-consumption),

additional efficiency benefits have become clear in power, cooling, management, and

networking due to the pooling or sharing of common infrastructure to supports the entire

chassis, rather than providing each of these on a per server box basis.



3. FEATURES

Essentially, blade servers are a card on the server: a single motherboard that contains a

complete computer system, including processors, memory, network connections and

related electronic devices. If you insert a number of blade server rack or cabinet in the

plane, then the rack or cabinet infrastructure can be shared, at the same time with

redundant features. Recognized the advantages of blade servers have two, one to

overcome the shortcomings of the cluster server chip, and the other is optimized to

achieve the cabinet.

Then choose the main blade server for several reasons to consider the following:

1.Lower Hardware Costs

Server with the traditional difference is that each blade server rack and does not need a

separate infrastructure, relatively low-cost blade servers. Multiple systems through the

sharing of power and cooling equipment, management of hardware and cabling systems

can greatly reduce the cost of each server.

2. Simplified Deployment and Maintenance

The deployment of multiple servers is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process.

Administrators need to be installed on each server rack for power and network cabling,



and to install the software. In high-density environment, in particular the deployment of

wiring is a headache in one of the problems. The use of blade servers, administrators

only need to be installed on the rack and wiring, no need to separate the blade server

routing. The addition of new computer resources or just insert a new blade server, just

like now to add a hard drive as easy. Because blade servers can share a number of

redundant power supply, so to minimize the wiring of the rack. In addition, the built-in

converter to Ethernet data and management networks, and even integrated with KVM

connection.

The use of automated software tools, administrators can operate through a network; we

can quickly and easily install the software to one or more blade servers. Upon

completion of the blade server software installed, the administrator will be able to use

remote management tools to conduct a comprehensive management.

3. To Maximize the Use of Data Center Space

According to the design and the different suppliers, blade servers can make the server

than the current density of rack-optimized 1U system increased 100% to 8000%.

4. To Reduce Power Consumption

Blade servers in order to reduce power consumption, the majority of suppliers will be in

some blade servers use low-power processor. Even if the blade server does not use low-



power processors, the power consumption is less than "comprehensive" server, blade

server power consumption because fewer components. In addition, suppliers can afford

to use high-efficiency power supply costs, because power will be shared across multiple

servers. In addition, blade servers as a result of lower power consumption, they produce

less heat, thus reducing the power consumption of the cooling system.

At present, such high-density blade server market prospects brought about by foreign

countries has been IBM, HP, SUN and DELL and other manufacturers of the value, they

have announced the launch of its own blade servers. Domestic dawn, Lenovo, and other

companies have also launched a wave of their respective products, as a result of the

overall performance of blade servers more performance, so blade servers will be more

business users of all ages.



4. TYPES

Since blade enclosures provide a standard method for delivering basic services to

computer devices, other types of devices can also utilize blade enclosures. Blades

providing switching, routing, storage, SAN and fiber-channel access can slot into the

enclosure to provide these services to all members of the enclosure.

Blade vs. Rack mount

Blade servers are outgrowing at a faster rate than traditional rack mount 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

rack mount servers, they require less power and fewer IT management resources are

required than with a rack mount. 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 an also proprietary interest 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. Rack mount — A Quick Comparison

Blade Servers Rack mount 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 rack mount server.

Large physical floor space required to

house rack mount.

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 rack mount.

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 rack mount 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 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

perfect 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 SERVER IMAGES

8U Rack mounts Blade Sever Chassis



HP ProLiant DL385

IBM eServer Blade Center T





5. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGE

ADVANTAGES

Condensed, high-density...

Blade servers allow more processing power in less space which simplifies cabling,

storage, and maintenance. Blades are often used for grid computing. The advantage of

blade servers is not only that one "cabinet" houses multiple servers that share power

source and other components, but also from the consolidation of related resources, such

as storage and networking equipment, into a smaller architecture than would be the case

with a farm of regular servers.

Load balancing and failover...

Like most clustering applications, another advantage of blade servers is that blade

servers can be managed to include load balancing and failover capabilities. This can be

done with a farm of regular servers as well, but since blade servers share much simpler

and slimmer infrastructure and often come designed for this task from the manufacturer,

load balancing and failover management tends to be easier with blades.

In case any hardware failure is found on a server blade or the chassis itself, self-

diagnostics function automatically starts and the faulty area can be identified by the

indicator display per server blade.



Power consumption & power management...

A blade server most importantly reduces power consumption and improves power

management. Consolidating power supplies into the blade chassis reduces the number of

separate power supplies needed and also reduces the power requirements per server.

Because individual server blades are stripped to bare minimum and do not have other

features found in conventional servers such as keyboard, graphic cards, and others, that

employ less devices that need to be powered. This reduces overall power consumption.

One blade server with 16 server blades uses much less power than 16 individual full-size

servers.

Lower management cost...

Another big advantage over traditional servers. Blade servers often come with a single

interface that is used to manage all individual servers within chassis. Server

consolidation and resource centralization also simplifies server deployment,

management, and administration.



Hardware configuration management, operation status monitoring, and fault monitoring

are centrally controlled, thus reducing the system administrator’s burden. Administrator

can be notified of an error by such means as e-mail in a timely manner

Network and other cabling...

Imagine that you have 16 individual stand-alone servers. Each of them needs to be

connected to the network which calls for yards or even miles of cabling. Blade servers

simplify cabling requirements and reduce wiring by a great percentage. Power cabling,

operator wiring (keyboard, mouse, etc.) and communications cabling (Ethernet, SAN

connections, and cluster connection) are greatly reduced as well.

Flexibility, modularity, and ease of upgrading...

Modern blade servers are designed in a way that it is possible to take out and add in

server blades while the system is up and running with just a minor configuration in the

admin interface. New processor, communications, storage and interconnect technology

can be implemented in blades that install into existing equipment with no or minimal

disruption to the functionality of the whole system. You can expand or reconfigure the

system without stopping your jobs other than those related to the server blade subject to

upgrade or replacement.

Modules can mix in the same blade server chassis. Server blades within a chassis do not

necessarily need to be identical. Depending on the particular type of your chassis, one

server blade can have for example Intel Xeon and the other Intel Itanium. You can have

one server blade with Windows and another one with Linux.



Deployment and scalability...

The same applies for adding new server blades into the system. Once a blade server

chassis has been installed, additional servers can be added by simply sliding them into

additional bays while the system as a whole is up and running.

Blades can be scaled up as needed by just simply adding a new server blade. It is

certainly easier to deploy additional server blade than a new stand-alone server.

Disaster management...

Even though the purpose of packing server blades into a single chassis is to share

servicing resources, chassis can be configured with redundant power modules for

failover.

DISADVANTAGES

As with anything, benefits do not come for free. Blades also include some

disadvantages.

Expensive configuration...

Although plugging in a new server blade into the blade server is easy once the system is

running, initial configuration can be labor-intensive and expensive in complex

application environments. This disadvantage comes with the fact that blade servers are

specialized computing equipment and their configuration and administration often

requires training provided by the vendor which may not be cheap unless you have a

special free-training deal with the vendor.



Expensive tool, i.e. economies of scale...

If you do not fill the blade chassis with server blades, you are not fully utilizing it. It

does not make much sense to purchase a blade chassis for $5,000 and then run the whole

system with just 2 server blades in it. Blade chassis are often made to hold 14 or 16

server blades.

The general rule of thumb is that blade servers are not suitable and economical for

applications requiring less than 5-10 servers. Applications requiring less than 5-10

server blades (10-20 CPUs) are best devoted to standalone server systems.

Vendor-lock...

Blade systems vary between manufacturers. Once you spend $50,000 on a blade server

from a particular vendor, it is not always easy to switch to another vendor because of

servicing agreements and also because a competitor is unlikely going to have the same

expertise in your equipment as your vendor.

You could theoretically use your server blades in competitor's blade chassis, but

practically blade chassis are not standardized. It is unlikely that IBM would get together

with Dell and HP to share chassis. Chassis is what makes their products unique. Server

blades are often designed to only run in the company's own chassis.

Business case...

Blade servers are not the best solution for everything. If you have a very large

transaction processing application requiring high read/write ratios, then you may run



into bottle neck with your bus speeds, memory limitations, disk access, and network I/O.

Email and Web serving are situations where blade computing suits well.

Heating and cooling...

One often forgotten disadvantage is HVAC. While individual stand-alone servers can be

distributed throughout the building and may not necessarily need special

accommodations for cooling, blade servers being very powerful these days produce

massive amounts of heat per square foot. If untreated, this could melt them down. When

purchasing blade servers, it is important to keep in mind that additional resources will be

needed also for HVAC.

6. APPLICATIONS

As blade servers pack increasingly more punch into smaller form-factors, their use is

spreading beyond data center applications. The integration of newer technologies makes

blades attractive for high-performance computing purposes such as distributed

computing, rendering/imaging and data analysis.

Blade servers have gained ground over the past few years as an efficient, condensed

computing solution in large data center implementations. They are widely used as

replacements for pizza box servers and large rack mounts (Figure 1).



The advantages inherent in blade server technology include smaller form-factors, denser

computing, expandability, hot-swap capabilities, flexible and fail-safe architecture,

reduced downtime, increased redundancy, simplified server management, easier

hardware and software integration, and lower heat dissipation and power requirements.

These improvements over traditional data center servers provide for a massive increase

in deployable resource density and an overall reduction in long-term costs.

Each blade in a chassis is typically a self-contained server. Data center consolidation,

advanced communications and remote management of servers required to run 24/7 are

just a few of the reasons for large-scale deployments. These deployments are becoming

more popular for telecom, telephone and cellular carriers, insurance companies, tax

preparers, state and local government agencies and educational institutions, among

others.

Although blade servers have a long way to go before they are the standard deployed

technology throughout the data center, they are beginning to appear in less traditional

implementations such as high-performance computing (HPC).



POWER SELECTION AND DISTRIBUTION FOR HIGH DENSITY CABINETS

There are many different circuit combinations that can be used to provide power to today’s

densely populated cabinets. Today’s total power requirements for rack mounted devices,

per cabinet, can be as low as a 2-3 kW’s but may exceed 40kW depending on the

application, whether redundant power is required and of course, the devices that are

installed within the cabinet. Many servers today are designed to take a large range of input

voltage from 120V to 208V. Typically smaller servers that may or may not be rack

mountable require 120 V. Most of today’s larger high density servers, such as blade

servers require 208V power. While the floor space required achieving a constant level of

computing and storage capacity has shrunk, the energy efficiency of the equipment has not

increased at the same rate. As a result, the power consumed and the heat dissipated has

increased significantly within the cabinet foot print. With increased power consumption (a

trend that is likely to continue) comes important decisions that must be made with regards

to cabinet level power requirements and selecting the proper CDU (Cabinet Distribution

Unit). Tough choices like what power is brought down to the cabinet level such as 120V 15

or 20A, 208V 20 or 30A, 208V 30A 3-Phase or even 208V 60A 3-Phase are important

decisions that affect costs, performance and the ability to provide for future expansion. The

number of power drops that must be run to each cabinet greatly affects the cost and

whether or not there is sufficient power available for current needs and expansion. This is

especially true in critical applications where redundant power is necessary. Each power

drop run to a cabinet costs $500 to $1,500 or more; as well as having other consequences

such as the number of CDU’s required or whether or not cable management is a problem.



8. FUTURE SCOPE

Only time will tell if future capacity demands will continue to increase power

consumption and cooling levels to higher and higher levels. Current ASHRAE

projections certainly predict that they will. Other technologies such as virtualization,

dual core processors, and new more efficient processor designs along with current and

future software solutions will ultimately determine the outcome.

Blades help enable virtualization. Virtualization allows data centers to tune resources

dynamically to business needs—as they change. Virtualization in the modular computing

paradigm decouples resources from any particular need: resources are seen as pools that can

be reconfigured and redeployed according to demand. Blade modularity plus virtualization

tools allow IT departments to step away from traditional data Center approaches and make

resources more pliable to changes in business activities and needs, while reducing

management burden. Resources can be dynamically optimized and adapted for any

application. Virtualization tools will enable automated redeployment of servers, operating

systems and application software and allow reconfiguration of switches on the fly, based on

data center policies, business planning and strategy and system monitors, threshold triggers

and control mechanisms. And it will happen without an administrator visiting the equipment.

For example, retail stores or airlines running special Web-only sales events can

automatically redeploy underutilized resources to the front-end Web services to maintain

service levels to customers. Also, if sales or service demands unexpectedly increase; policy-

driven, blades-based modular data center can shift resources in minutes instead of hours to

accommodate the loads while administrator is working on some other critical initiative.



9. CONCLUSION

It is clear that by close review of the application and it’s power requirements decisions

can be made that will allow for future expansion, denser cabinets, greatly reduced costs (in

many cases), power redundancy (if required) and will optimize cable and CDU

requirements. It is only through making the power requirements a priority at the beginning

of the project rather than an afterthought that these goals are achieved. This has become

especially important with today’s higher power demands and the ever increasing push for

lower costs, greater efficiencies and improved uptime availability.



10. REFERENCE

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-google-internet-beaming- BLADE SERVER

_1.html

www.RavenInd.com

www.google. // BLADE SERVER


http://phys.org/news/2013-06-google-internet-beaming-balloons_1.html

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-google-internet-beaming-balloons_1.html

http://www.google.com/


Project presented by SARATH THALEKKARA

Mob : 9567781224


Blade

Technology

blade enclosure

blade systems

blade serverabstract

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blade servercontents

blade server1

multiple blade servers

server blades