WCS Operations Training: Operations Procedures 29/12/2013 Slide number 1 WhiteCross Systems WX9020 - System Overview Wx9020 Database Server.

WCS Operations Training: Operations Procedures04/10/23

Slide number 1

WhiteCross Systems

WX9020 - System Overview

Wx9

020

Dat

abas

e S

erve

r


Slide number 2

System Overview

Principles of Server Operation How is data stored? How do users get access?

The WX9020 Server What is behind the doors? Main components of rack Rack communications


Slide number 3

System Overview

The WX9000CP The Daemon

Thermal management

Power & batteries

Monitoring server operations

The next stage...


Slide number 4

Principles of Server Operation

The WX9020 Server is designed to be a high-capacity, high workload database server for use in data centres

Large datasets are loaded down on to the disks fitted to the server from a source elsewhere on the network

Parallel processing of large datasets gives phenomenal processing speeds

User access to the server is via a standard network connection


Slide number 5

Data in Memory (RAM)

To get the fastest processing performance, the user tables are copied from the disks and shared out among the processors which go to make up the processing network within the WX9020 server


Slide number 6

The User Environment

Users

System Administrator/DBA

Data source(s)

WX9000CP

Modem


Slide number 7

The WX9020 Server

Redundancy built into hardware - for reliability and availability

Power supplies (3) Battery back-up Temperature sensors (10) Fans (4) Software monitoring of hardware

components (fan speed, temp, power supplies etc.)


Slide number 8

Opening the Front Door

Acrylic panels assist in thermal management

Access to power supplies & batteries restricted

System Controller Subrack

Two configurable Subracks

Fan trays

Upper Fan Tray

Lower Fan TrayPower Supply Units


Slide number 9

Opening the Rear Door

Acrylic panels assist in thermal management

Access to power controls restricted

Three configurable Subracks

Fan trays Power ON/OFF

controls External connections to

power and WX9000CP

External connections

Upper Fan Tray

Lower Fan TrayAC Power Indicators

and switches


Slide number 10

Side View

Side panels can be easily removed

Removal not necessary for normal maintenance

Fro

nt

Rea

r

Cooling Fans

Cooling FansPower subsystem

System Controller

Subrack Subrack

Subrack Subrack

Subrack Subrack

(side-view)

PowerSwitch


Slide number 11

Configuring the WX9020

Choose the hardware configuration that most suits current needs - expand as needs grow

Each rack must contain a System Controller Subrack Hardware is configurable e.g. the BT system comprises:

1 Disk Subrack (below System Controller Subrack)

Four HCDMs = 8 x 2G IBM disks 16 Processor cards

9 in Processor Subrack (rear door, upper Subrack) 4 in System Controller Subrack 3 in Disk Subrack

WX9000CP connects via PE card in the Disk Subrack


Slide number 12

WX9020 Subracks

Subracks can be: System Controller

System Management Processor Subracks

Containing Processor cards Disk Subracks

Containing HCDMs & PS cards, Processor cards and PE card


Slide number 13

WX9020 Thermal Management

Rack contains two pairs of fans numbered 0,1,2,3 Rack contains ten temperature sensors numbered 0

- 9 Air is pulled through in two “chimneys” over contents

of cabinet Air inlet filter in rear door (bottom) Air outlet vents in rear door (top) Monitor hardware as part of regular maintenance


Slide number 14

The System Controller Subrack

Responsible for system management Booting up & shutting down Checks for system failure Communicates with outside world via WX9000CP Handles front panel messages Handles diagnostics Manages software upgrade


Slide number 15

The System Controller Subrack (2) A dual rack containing several different cards:

System Controller cards Processor cards HSL cards Front Panels

Key switches LCD displays

Everything doubled for failure resilience


Slide number 16

Layout of the System Controller Subrack A fault-resilient, dual ring System Controller

Subrack contains: 2 System Controller cards 4 High Speed Link cards 4 Processor cards 2 Front panels + LCD

displays


Slide number 17

Layout of the System Controller Subrack


Slide number 18

How do Subracks Communicate? All communication inside the rack is via fibre optics All data and control signals are passed along fibres

This gives speed and bandwidth 125 Mbits/sec

All Subracks are interlinked in a fibre optic ring Second ring gives added protection against component failure

High Speed Link (HSL) cards in each Subrack act as links in this chain


Slide number 19

Rack/Subrack Communications

The main communications ring is handled by the Active Controller (A ring)

The secondary communications ring is handled by the Passive Controller (B ring)

The HSL cards provide a virtual link between system components


Slide number 20

The Processor Subrack

Must contain at least one Processor card and one HSL card

A dual ring WX9020 must contain:

2 Processor cards 2 High Speed Link cards

Fully configured holds 19 Processor cards


Slide number 21

Layout of the Processor Subrack


Slide number 22

Processor Card

• Small board (233mm x 280mm) contains:• LED status lights

• 6 transputers - INMOS T4 (60 MIPS)

• 96 Mbytes local RAM (6x16Mb)

• Error correcting DRAM

• DC - DC Voltage converters

• Components are surface-mounted (on both sides of the board) for higher reliability and density.

Front edge


Slide number 23

The Disk Subrack

Must contain at least two HCDMs, two Processor cards and a HSL card

A fully-configured, dual ring WX9020 contains:

4 HCDMs 4 Processor cards

or 3 Processor cards + 1 PE card

2 High Speed Link cards


Slide number 24

Layout of the Disk Subrack

Note: slots 4 and 5 can contain either a Processor card or a PE card


Slide number 25

The High Capacity Disk Module

Contains two disks of 2 Gbytes each

Has two fully-independent SCSI 2 disk controllers

Each controller holds its own processor and 16 Mbytes of RAM

No internal cabling - designed to be hot-pluggable (R4)


Slide number 26

Data on Disk - RAID 3

Free space

Data disks

Free space

Parity disk

Free space

Free space

Given a cluster of 4 disks, 3 are designated data disks and 1 is designated the parity (or XOR) disk


Slide number 27

Disk Recreation

At boot-up server will check data and parity disks for consistency

Any inconsistency recorded in error log and the disk(s) recreated automatically

Boot-up operations are configurable Recreation can lengthen the time taken to boot-up Auto disk recreate can be done manually


Slide number 28

External Connectivity An interface is required to

connect the WX9000 server to the LAN so that it can communicate with clients on the same (or different) network

WCS does this via the WX9000CP communications processor

Provides modem connection CP is a SPARC-based

workstation. Choice of connectivity options. CP channels the SQL queries,

results and data.

LAN

Clients

CPServer


Slide number 29

WX Server

The RDA Daemon The Daemon provides the communications

software to control the connection between the WX9020 server and the network

CPLAN

Client PC


Slide number 30

Power Controls Power is switched on/off via a three phase

contactor Controlled by single pole breaker

The breaker contains a voltage-driven trip If auto shutdown enabled, the system can trip the breaker

and so switch off when required Switched power output from the three phase

contactor is distributed to power supplies and battery charging circuits


Slide number 31

DC Power

Three Farnell PSUs (with in-built redundancy) Generate internal 56v rail AC to each PSU protected by 20amp circuit breaker

Allows live changes 56v negative rail fused with 63amp fuse 56v positive fed via diodes to common bus bar Positive rail tied to Earth


Slide number 32

In the event of a complete power failure, batteries deliver +48v

Normally draw no current from the system-wide 56v rail Batteries connected in the same way as PSUs

Negative rail fused with 120amp fuse Positive rail fed via diode

Contactor on the +ve rail for disconnect when required Trickle-charge feeds to batteries to maintain charge

level Battery life expectancy = 4 years

Batteries - Overview


Slide number 33

Power supply on Power Monitor card produces 55.2v for trickle-charge

Powered directly from the AC supply When batteries not fully charged, circuitry switches to

constant-current charging to deliver 2amps WX9020 has in-built circuitry to derive 50v for this charging

Batteries - Charging


Slide number 34

Monitoring Server Operations

Useful messages on front panel display: During normal running During re-boot sequence

Indicator lights fitted to each card Running / warning lights fitted to HCDMs In software:

Accessing system tables directly using SQL Using WCS front end tool e.g. SQL Console From scripts


Slide number 35

The Front Panel

Two front panels are fitted to the WX9020 In a dual ring system both front panels are connected

and the LCD displays will indicate current status of server - one each for the A and B ring controllers

Three key switches: Re-boot Operation mode SYS/RACK switch

RE-BOOT

SYS

AUX1

AUX2

RACK

EXT

INT DEBUG

0 1 2 3


Slide number 36

RE-BOOT

SYS

AUX1

AUX2

RACK

EXT

INT DEBUG

0 1 2 3

The Front Panel

Two-line, liquid-crystal

textual display Reboot key switch

SYS/RACK switch (only

relevant in a multi-rack

system) Disk activity LEDs

Key switch for mode of

operation


Slide number 37

The Front Panel - Key Switches

Re-boot key Used to re-boot server

SYS/RACK switch Always set to SYS in a single cabinet WX9020

Mode key - used to determine “bootmode” or mode of operation

‘INT’ernal mode is the normal mode of operation DEBUG mode is for diagnostics & remote access ‘EXT’ernal mode is used for installing new versions of

software


Slide number 38

The LCD Display

Shows useful information about status of server: Software version number always displayed Pages of information are displayed in continuous cycle Updates every ten seconds

P 6: V 3.2.32 Running

Procs: 100 Disks: 8


Slide number 39

The WhiteCross HelpDesk


Slide number 42

Questions?

WCS Operations Training: Operations Procedures 29/12/2013 Slide number 1 WhiteCross Systems WX9020 - System Overview Wx9020 Database Server.

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