Lenovo HX5 Configure-to-Order- User 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

April 2011

IBM BladeCenter HX5

Product Overview

CONTENTS

Product Overview

1

Selling Features

2

Key Features

6

Key Options

15

HX5 Images

17

HX5 Specifications

20

The Bottom Line

21

Server Comparison

22

For More Information

23

Legal Information

23

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 offer Intel

®

Xeon

®

processor-based systems that are expandable,

off er “big iron” reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) f eatures, with extremely competitive
price/performance.

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 family 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 for 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

10-core,

8-core, 6-core

,

or

4-core

Intel Xeon

E7

family or

7500

/

6500

series processors. The Xeon processors are

designed with up to

30MB

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

1066MHz

) to help provide the computing power you require to match your business needs and

growth. The new Xeon

E7-4800

and

E7-2800

series processors offer up to

40 %

greater

perf ormance than the previous-generation Intel 7500/6500 series processors.

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 / 40 cores

,

32 DIMMs

(

512GB

),

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 blade, with up to

40 DIMMs

(

640GB

) total. IBM

FlexNode partitioning

allows a

physical 4-socket 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 vSphere Hypervisor

(f ormerly ESXi)

preloaded

on a standard USB

flash drive. It operates in a diskless configuration, off ers a smaller memory f ootprint, extremely
high perf ormance, and stronger security, making getting a system up and running in a virtualized
environment faster and easier than ever bef ore. You can save money on software licensing by
using the huge memory capacity to virtualize the server into many VMs, rather than using
multiple servers. Huge amounts of memory also enable larger VMs and larger databases.

IBM’s eX5 technology-based systems are the ideal solution f or scale-up database-serving

®