IBM HX5 - Manual

Optimized for virtualization and database applications with maximum
memory and compute capacity in a blade

Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.

1.

Product Guide

August 2010

IBM BladeCenter HX5

Product Overview

CONTENTS

Product Overview

1

Selling Features

2

Key Features

6

Key Options

13

HX5 Images

15

HX5 Specifications

16

The Bottom Line

18

Server Comparison

20

For More Information

21

Legal Information

21

Scalable 2-to-4-socket blade server optimized for
virtualization/consolidation, database, and ERP

Suggested uses:

Front-end and mid-tier applications requiring high performance (CPU, memory

or I/O), enterprise-class availability, and extreme flexibility and power efficiency.

IBM

®

has been designing and implementing chipsets under the X-Architecture

®

name since

2001. eX5 technology represents the fifth generation of products based on the same design
principle IBM began with in 1997: to off er Intel

®

Xeon

®

processor-based systems that are

expandable, offer “big iron” reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) f eatures, with
extremely competitive price/perf ormance.

The eX5 technology is primarily designed around three major workloads: database servers,
server consolidation using virtualization services, and Enterprise Resource Planning (application
and database) servers.

If you’re using industry-standard servers to run business critical applications, the systems that
run these applications need the type of technology designed into IBM’s eX5 technology systems.
The eX5 chipset represents a $100M+ investment in designing a flagship off ering that can
harness the power of 4-socket-and-up 64-bit x86 (x64) Xeon processors. The eX5 f amily
includes a scalable perf ormance

blade server

with the ability to scale from a

single-wide blade

(30mm) to a

double-wide blade

(60mm). Maybe you’d like to start out with a 2-socket blade and

possibly add sockets later, if your needs change. Or perhaps you need more than a 2-socket
blade, but don’t want to get locked into a monolithic 4-socket blade—again, in case your
requirements change. W ith IBM, you can start at 2 sockets and grow to 4 if needed. And if you
require a variety of 2- and 4-socket servers in your data center, you only have to qualif y one
server f or all these workloads. This can save much time and effort and speed deployment. You
can also save money on software licensing by virtualizing a 4-processor server into many VMs,
rather than using multiple 2-processor servers. Huge amounts of memory also enable more or
larger VMs, and larger databases (especially databases stored entirely in memory).

Reducing an entire server into a little over

.5U

of rack space (i.e., up to 14 servers in 9U) does

not

mean trading away f eatures and capabilities f or smaller size. The

IBM BladeCenter

®

HX5

blade server offers f eatures comparable to many 1U rack-optimized full-f eatured servers, and
then some: The HX5 supports up to

two

of the latest high-perf ormance

8-core, 6-core

, or

4-core

Intel Xeon

7500

and

6500

Series processors. The Xeon processors are designed with up to

24MB

of shared cache and leading-edge memory perf ormance (up to

1066MHz

using

MAX5

,

depending on processor model) to help provide the computing power you require to match your
business needs and growth. In addition, the HX5 supports up to

128B

of

registered

double data

rate III (

DDR3

)

ECC

(Error Checking and Correcting) memory in

16

DIMM

slots, with multiple

levels of IBM Active Memory™ protection, f or the highest levels of performance and availability.
Active Memory protection includes IBM

Memory ProteXion

™

, IBM

Chipkill

™

memory,

memory

scrubbing

,

memory rank sparing

, and

memory mirroring

.

Because business requirements change and a 2-socket server that meets those needs today
may not meet them in the future, the HX5 was designed to be upgradeable to meet the diverse
needs of multiple workloads. For

compute-intensive workloads

, it can be configured as a 2-

wide blade server with up to

4 processors / 32 cores

,

32 DIMMs

(

256GB

),

4 PCIe cards

,

16 I/O

ports

, and

4 solid-state drives

(

SSDs

). Conversely, f or

memory-intensive workloads

, the

HX5 can be configured as a 2-wide server consisting of

1 blade server

and

1

MAX5

memory

expansion blades, with up to

40 DIMMs

(

320GB

), or as a 4-wide server comprising

2 blade

servers

and

2

MAX5

memory expansion blades, with up to

4 processors / 32 cores

,

80 DIMMs

(

640GB

),

4 PCIe cards

,

16 I/O ports

, and

4 SSDs

. IBM

FlexNode partitioning

allows a

physical 4-blade configuration to be remotely reconfigured by software into

two

logical 2-socket

servers, as needs change or f or daily peak and off-peak workloads.

The HX5 supports

VMware ESXi

preloaded

on a standard USB flash drive. It operates in a

diskless configuration, off ers a smaller memory f ootprint, extremely high performance, and
stronger security, making getting a system up and running in a virtualized environment f aster and
easier than ever bef ore.