INTRODUCTION TO SERVER A server is a system (software and
suitable computer hardware) that responds to requests across a
computer network to provide, or help to provide, a network service.
Servers can be run on a dedicated computer, which is also often
referred to as "the server", but many networked computers are
capable of hosting servers. In many cases, a computer can provide
several services and have several servers running.Types of server
hardwareIn some situations, the type of server hardware you use is
the least of your concerns, but if you are setting up your own data
center, you will need to decide which type of server you prefer.
The three main types of servers are: towers, racks, and
blades.Towers You probably recognize towers, as they look very
similar to desktop PCs. If space is not a concern, you can usually
get more drives and more hardware into a single tower. If you need
scalability, however, space can become a real concern.Rack Servers
Racks are designed to hold multiple servers, and rack servers are
specially constructed to fit in these small spaces. They are
essentially stacked right on top of each other, which does make
cooling more difficult, while scaling is much easier.Blade Servers
Although they are very similar to rack servers in design, some
components have been removed from blade servers and are instead
shared among multiple ones. This makes blade servers even thinner,
but also more expensive.Ultimately, the type of server you choose
depends on your needs. If space is your main concern, you may opt
for racks. If cooling will be a problem but not space, you may
choose towers. If money is not a problem and you need space and
consolidation, blades are the way to goThere are three main choices
when it comes to buying a new server: tower, rack, or blade. Here
are some of the pros and cons about each kind of server, as well as
some of my experiences with each one.Tower serversTower servers
seem dated and look more like desktops than servers, but these
servers can pack a punch. In general, if you have a lot of servers,
you're probably not using a bunch of tower servers, because they
can take up a lot of space and are tough to physically manage since
you can't easily stack them on one another. In some cases as
organizations grow and move to rack servers, conversion kits can be
purchased to turn a tower server into a rack-mount server.As
implied, tower servers are probably found more often in smaller
environments than anywhere else, although you might find them in
point solutions in larger places.Tower servers are generally on the
lower end price-wise, although they can expand pretty decently and
become really expensive.Tower servers take up a lot of space and
require individual monitors, keyboards, and mice or a keyboard,
video, mouse (KVM) switch that allows them to be managed with a
single set of equipment. In addition, cabling can be no fun,
especially if you have a lot of network adapters and other I/O
needs. You'll have cables everywhere.I don't buy a lot of tower
servers these days, but they still have a place. My most recent
tower server purchase was to serve as my backup system running
Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2010.Rack serversIf you run a
data center of any reasonable size, you've probably used a lot of
industry standard 19" wide rack servers. Sized in Us (which is a
single 1.75" rack unit), rack servers can range from 1U "pizza
boxes" to 5U, 8U, and more. In general, the bigger the server, the
more expansion opportunities are available.Rack servers are
extremely common and make their home inside these racks along with
other critical data center equipment such as backup batteries,
switches, and storage arrays. Rack servers make it easy to keep
things neat and orderly since most racks include cable management
of some kind. However, rack servers don't really simplify the
cabling morass since you still need a lot of cabling to make
everything work it's just neater. I once worked in a data center in
which I had to deploy 42 2U Dell servers into three racks. Each
server had to have dual power cables, keyboard, video, and mouse
cables and six (yes, six) network cables (six colors with each
color denoting a specific network). It was a tough task to keep the
cabling under control, to put it mildly. Because everything was
racked, there was built-in cable management that made this
easier.Like tower servers, rack servers often need KVM capability
in order to be managed, although some organizations simply push a
monitor cart around and connect to video and USB ports on the front
of the server so that they don't need to worry about KVM.Rack
servers are very expandable; some include 12 or more disks right in
the chassis and support for four or more processors, each with
multiple cores. In addition, many rack servers support large
amounts of RAM, so these devices can be computing powerhouses.Blade
serversThere was a day when buying individual blade servers meant
trading expansion possibilities for compactness. Although this is
still true to some extent, today's blade servers pack quite a
wallop. I recently purchased a half-height Dell M610 blade server
with 96 GB of RAM and two six-core processors.There is still some
truth to the fact that blade servers have expansion challenges when
compared to the tower and rack-based options. For example, most
tower servers have pretty significant expansion options when it
comes to PCI/PCI Express slots and more disk drives. Many blade
servers are limited to two to four internal hard drives, although
organizations that use blade servers are likely to have shared
storage of some kind backing the blade system.Further, when it
comes to I/O expansion options, blade servers are a bit limited by
their lack of expansion slots. Some blade servers boast PCI or PCI
Express expansion slots, but for most blade servers, expansion is
achieved through the use of specially designed expansion cards. In
my case, the Dell M600 and M610 blades have three mezzanines. The
first mezzanine consists of dual Gigabit Ethernet adapters. The
remaining mezzanines are populated based on organizational need. In
my case, our blades have a second set of Gigabit Ethernet adapters
housed in the second mezzanine and Fibre Channel adapters in the
third. If necessary, I could also choose to use mezzanine cards
with four ports in some configurations. So, although the blade
server doesn't have quite the I/O selection of other server form
factors, it's no slouch, either.When raw computing power and server
density is the key drive, blade servers meet the need. For example,
in my environment, I have a 10U Dell M1000e blade chassis that can
support up to 16 servers. So, each server uses the equivalent of
0.625U of rack space. On top of that, the blade chassis holds four
gigabit Ethernet switches and two Fibre Channel switches, so there
is additional rack space savings since I don't need to rack mount
these devices to support different connectivity options. In
addition, the blade chassis has a built-in KVM switch so I don't
need to buy a third party and cable it up.Speaking of cabling, a
blade environment generally has much less of it than tower or rack
environments since a lot of the connectivity is handled internally.
You'll end up with a neater server room as a result.Another point
is adding a new server consists of simply sliding it into an
available slot in the chassis. There is no need to rack a new
server and deal with a bunch of new cabling. This small size makes
heat dissipation a challenge. Blade chassis can put out a lot of
heat.From a cost perspective, blade servers require some initial
infrastructure, such as the chassis, so the upfront cost is often
higher than for servers of other types.Bottom lineIf you need one
or two servers, a tower solution probably makes sense. If you need
three to 24 servers or massive scalability, then rack servers are
for you. When you go need more than 24 servers, I advise you to
consider a blade solution to meet your data center needs.
PRIMERGY Feature Story - Blade Server benefits
Blade Server Benefits: PRIMERGY Blade Servers can improve your
business efficiency. " Cables reduction by 87%", " CO2 emissions
reduced by 23%" and " Space requirements reduced by 50%"
Cables reduction by 87%
Blade servers can reduce the number of cables required to
one-eighth of those previously required. This eliminates cable
complexity and cabling problems. Maintainability is also
significantly improved due to the decrease in cable
connections.Based on a comparison between the number of cables
required for 10 PRIMERGY RX200 S3 rack-mount servers and that of 10
PRIMERGY BX620 S4 blade servers.
CO2 emissions reduced by 23%With their improved power
efficiency, blade servers help you reduce your energy use and
consequential CO2 emissions. Fujitsu blade servers are specifically
designed to reduce environmental load of our products.
Based on a comparison of CO2 emissions from 10 PRIMERGY RX200 S3
rack-mount servers and 10 PRIMERGY BX620 S4 blade servers.
Comparison includes Fujitsus LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), which
covers the entire product lifecycle. (Materials, manufacturing,
transportation, use
[24 hours x 5 years x 365days] and recycling)
Space requirements reduced by 50%
50% less space is required for blade server deployment.
Deploying the same number of servers in a smaller space means you
can fully optimize your data center space.
Based on a comparison of the space needed for 10 PRIMERGY RX200
S3 rack-mount servers and 10 PRIMERGY BX620 S4 blade servers.