IBM xSeries Architecture

8/8/2019 IBM xSeries Architecture

1/34

IBM X-Architecture Technology 2001

A design blueprint for Intel processor-based servers

Executive Summary1

IBM^ xSeries servers continue to build on the legacy of excellence and innovationexemplified by its predecessor IBM Netfinity servers, which first introduced X-Architecture

technology in September 1998 to incorporate state of the art technologies from otherindustry-leading IBM server platforms into xSeries. After surpassing our goals for deliveringleading-edge technologies that enhanced the mission-critical capabilities of the Netfinity server

product family, IBM is now accelerating the advancement of xSeries servers to support the rapidlychanging requirements for a new generation of applications and operating systems. In fact,X-Architecture technology is such an integral part of the xSeries product line that it evenincorporates the X from X-Architecture into its name.

The trend to pervasive computinginformation anywhere, anytimewill provide informationaccess to millions of new users and devices (cell phones and web-enabled PDAs included).These new services will require continuous uptime and will demand more from the systemssupporting them. Server infrastructures will require new capabilities for communicating andmanaging ever larger amounts of information in a more dynamic and cost-effective manner thanbefore.

In addition, the adoption of e-business technologies for business-to-consumer, business-to-

business and intrabusiness applications is accelerating, placing higher demands on technologyplatforms. More significantly, businesses are increasingly turning to industry-standardtechnologies such as Intel processors along with Microsoft Windows 2000, Novell NetWare,SCO Unixware and Linux operating systems for the new e-business foundation.

By building robust capabilities into xSeries servers and working on new technologies to enhanceour industry-leading capabilities for the future, IBM X-Architecture technology addresses theserequirements and helps prepare you for the next wave of e-business. The key to doing thissuccessfully is experienceexperience in software and hardware capabilities, experience inprocedures and practices, and experience in supporting high-availability platforms. IBM has a longheritage of experience in these areas and xSeries is leveraging that experience through IBMX-Architecture technology.

This paper describes many of the technology initiatives that IBM is building into xSeries servers to

help provide a reliable, scalable industry-standard platform and to accelerate xSeries servercapabilities now and in the future.

Technology vision for industry-standard computing

1

1 The technologies cited in this paper may not apply to allNetfinity and^ xSeries server models. See our Website athttp://ibm.com/eserver/xseriesfor model specifications. Forward-looking product statements are subject tochange without notice.
http://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/eserver/xseries


2/34

Table of Contents

34Additional Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31Quick Response When You Need It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30Technology-enabled Service and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

28IBM Director with Universal Manageability Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26Technology Enablers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26Systems Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23Netfinity Web Server Accelerator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22IBM Enterprise System Connectivity (ESCON) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22IBM Enterprise Storage Server (ESS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21IBM Fibre Array Storage Technology (FAStT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19Storage Area Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18Innovative Extensions to RAID Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17Designing Subsystems with I/O Bandwidth to Match Increasing Storage and NetworkRequirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16Enterprise Storage Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14I/O Subsystem Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13Memory Subsystem Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12System Partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11Active Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10Core Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9IBM xSeries Technology Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9Guiding Principles Delivered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7Guiding Principle #4 - Making Servers Easier to Deploy and Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6Guiding Principle #3 - Driving Industry Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6Guiding Principle #2 - Bringing Down the Cost of Enterprise Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5Guiding Principle #1 - OnForever Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5IBM X-Architecture Technology Guiding Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3The Impact of IBM X-Architecture Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3Designing a New Server Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


2


3/34

Designing a New Server ArchitectureIn designing the IBM X-Architecture technology, we listened intently to our customers. We beganby first understanding the trends that are shaping system purchases and then aligning ourinvestments to combine the right technologies to best meet your business needs. We found that

the most important trends for Intel processor-based servers in the near future may include thefollowing:

! 2001: Penalties for system downtime become severe and push requirements for availabilitytoward continuous operations. New operating system releases present opportunities forserver consolidation, enterprise database deployment, application rehosting and infrastructureredesign. Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions provide new capabilities to manage andprotect the explosive growth of mission-critical data.

! 2002: Companies demand access to a broad array of spectacular applications, developmenttools and middleware on an Intel IA-64 (64-bit) platform. Scalability requirements drivedemand for more massive and manageable data storage and ultradense rack-mountedservers that require high end power and cooling techniques.

! 2003: The Internet revolutionizes business transactions and information dissemination, and

drives massive data utilization requirements. The e-business trend moves into the phase ofpervasive computing. Structures for server I/Oderived from mainframe channel architecturefor processor-to-network/storage communicationsprovide the first truly balanced systemarchitecture for IA servers.

! 2004: IA-64 has widespread commercial appeal. Server and network functions blend morethoroughly, resulting in a single unified systems management architecture.

Businesses will become increasingly more reliant on their systems and will place ever-greaterdemands on them. At the same time, businesses will expect the same degree of performance,reliability, scalability and security as provided by traditional high-end systems, as well as systemsmanagement and control, cross-platform integration and interoperability. IBM X-Architecturetechnology is designed to address these trends and deliver the most reliable Intelprocessor-based server platforms for cost-effective operation of enterprises, large and small.

The Impact of IBM X-Architecture Technology

As introduced in 1998, IBM X-Architecture technology outlined capabilities for performanceleadership, technology innovation, increased reliability and business-critical service and supportcapabilities. Throughout the history of X-Architecture technology IBM has delivered thosecapabilities and many more ahead of schedule.Performance Leadership. Our focus on designing xSeries systems for enterprise-classreliability, availability and serviceability has led to significant achievements in performance as well.Benchmark records have come to be expected for IBM Intel architecture servers. In 1998,Netfinity systems achieved an impressive 23 benchmark records for Intel processor-basedservers. These benchmarks came from all application areas, including database, Internet, e-mail

and ERP applications. In 1999, Netfinity systems achieved 42 number-one benchmark records. In2000, Netfinity and xSeries servers added 33 more records to the tally.

IBM^ xSeries servers are continuing this impressive streak with additional benchmarkwins in 2001. In March 2001 a cluster of x370 servers with X-Architecture technology set a newTPC-C (TPC Benchmark C) record 2, shattering the previous record for any hardware, operatingsystem and database configuration. The x370 clusters TPC-C performance was 56 percent better


3

2 As of 3/19/01. The IBM x370 cluster (running Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and Microsoft SQL Server2000 Enterprise Edition) achieved a record TPC-C score of 688,220.90 transactions per minute C (tpmC) at $28.89 pertpmC. Go to http://www.tpc.orgfor details of the TPC-C benchmark.
http://www.tpc.org/http://www.tpc.org/


4/34

than the world record achieved by an IBM Netfinity 8500R cluster just eight months earlier (in July2000). If that wasnt enough, the IBM^ x350 alsoset a record, in the 4-way enterpriseserver class, beating the previous record for the TPC-H (TPC Benchmark H) benchmark ofBusiness Intelligence3 by a striking 46 percent.

Award-Winning Products. IBM Netfinity and IBM^ xSeries systems have receivedoutstanding recognition from customers, IBM partners and the industry for innovations andleadership in bringing enterprise levels of performance, scalability and reliability to this rapidlygrowing market. In January 2001, five IBM^ xSeries models won international designawards. The Industrie Forumawarded the xSeries 220, x260, x330, x340 and x350 with its sealfor outstanding quality of design. In May, the IBM x330 was awarded the Network ComputingEditors' Choice award. The x330 was recognized for its innovative features like C2TInterconnect, Light Path Diagnostics and the Advanced System Management processor. Inaddition, the x240 was recognized for its performance by making Smart BusinessmagazinesA-List four consecutive months this year. Here is a sampling of the many recent awards our visionand products have won (through May 2001):

May 2001^ x330Editors Choice 1Userver

Network Computingmagazine

January through April2001

^ x240Enterprise Server A-ListSmart Businessmagazine

January 2001^ x220, x260,

x330, x340, x350Design AwardIndustrie Forum

January 2001Netfinity familyBest Products of 2000 -Small BusinessSolutions

PC Magazine

December 2000Netfinity 8500REditors Award 4-wayServer of the Year

Windows 2000(Australia) magazine

December 2000^ x330Editors Award 2-wayServer of the Year

Windows 2000(Australia) magazine

November 2000Netfinity 7100Best ServerInfoExame(International)magazine

November 2000Netfinity 5100Editors ChoicePC Magazine

August 2000Netfinity familyUsers Choice AwardPC QuestInternational)magazine

July 2000Netfinity 5600Must 2-Way ServerPC ExpertInternational) magazine

May - December 2000Netfinity 5600Enterprise Server A-List

Smart Business

magazine

Award DateServerAwardPublication

These awards confirm that IBM is demonstrating a clear difference between xSeries servers andother Intel processor-based servers in the market. They are an important part of how we measurethe success of our product directions and the IBM X-Architecture technology strategy. Yet evenmore important is the faith our customers are placing in the xSeries products. IBM Intel processor-based server sales have grown dramatically since we introduced IBM X-Architecture technology.Such growth demonstrates that customers see the value xSeries servers deliver to businesses ofall sizes.


4

3 As of 3/23/01. The 4-way IBM x350 achieved a top TPC-H score of 1169 Queries/hour @100GB at a cost of$166/QphH@100GB. Configurations available as of 5/31/01. Go to http://www.tpc.org/for details of the TPC-Hbenchmark.
http://www.tpc.org/http://www.tpc.org/


5/34

IBM X-Architecture Technology Guiding PrinciplesOur customers have told us they want IBM to focus on a few key areas as we strive to improvethe capabilities of the Intel processor-based server as a business-application platform. Inresponse, we continue to build IBM X-Architecture technology into our systems and set the bar for

Intel processor-based servers across the industry. Our guiding principles include:! Designing xSeries servers with a goal of providing uninterrupted (OnForever) computing

! Bringing down the cost of enterprise computing

! Becoming a leader in establishing industry-wide collaboration

! Making servers easier to deploy and use

Guiding Principle #1 - OnForever Computing

When IBM designs an xSeries server, our goal is always to get as close as possible to a platformthat maintains continuous operation. Building highly available servers takes more than just usingreliable components or using redundant disk drives, fans and power supplies. Naturally, we dothose things. However, to truly improve operational efficiency it is important to address both

causes of downtimescheduled and unscheduled outages.

The following table lists OnForever technologies4 in the context of five dimensions of highavailability. Together they help to greatly reduce the occurrences of both types of outages, whilelessening the impact of those that do occur.

! BackupSolutions

!

Fibre ArrayStorageTechnology(FAStT)

! FlashCopy

! IBMServeRAID

! Fuel Gauge /PowerRedundancy

Monitoring

! Make IT

Easy

! Active Diagnostics(CommonDiagnostics Model)

! Active PCI

! Advanced SystemManagement

! C2T Interconnect

! Capacity Manager

! Electronic ServiceAgent

! Light Path

Diagnostics

! PFA

! Redundant cooling,power, disk drivesand adapters

! SoftwareRejuvenation

! AdvancedSystemManagement

! AutomaticServer Restart

! Clustering

! IBM Directorwith CapacityManager andSoftwareRejuvenation(PFA forsoftware)

! RAID storagemanagers forSCSI, IDE andFibre Channelarrays

! Active PCI

! Advanced System

Management! Automatic Server

Restart

! C2T Interconnect

! Chipkill memory

! Clustering

! Fibre Channel RAIDstorage

! Fuel Gauge / PowerRedundancyMonitoring

! Predictive FailureAnalysis(PFA)

! Redundant cooling,power, disk drivesand adapters

! ServeRAID storage

5thDimension

(DisasterRecovery)

4thDimension(User Error)

3rd Dimension(Diagnostics and

Maintenance)

2nd Dimension(Software)

1st Dimension(Hardware)

Table 1.OnForever high-availability dimensions


5

4 These technologies are described in the companion white paper entitled IBM^ xSeries OnForever Initiative,


6/34

Guiding Principle #2 - Bringing Down the Cost of Enterprise Computing

Many companies around the world enjoy the reliability, scalability and operational features of theIBM enterprise server platforms:^ iSeries(formerly AS/400), pSeries (previouslyRS/6000) and zSeries (formerly S/390). Our customers have told us they want capabilities in

xSeries servers (previously Netfinity and NUMA-Q

) that are similar to those they see in largersystems, but at a price in line with that of other industry-standard servers.

Our strategy for meeting this requirement is to leverage our proven investments in advancedserver technologies and skills. This strategy allows us to provide greater capability for Intelprocessor-based servers without having to reinvent technologies and methods. By using theproven capabilities of other IBM server families, we shorten development cycles, reducedevelopment costs and increase interoperability for your complex IT environments.

Guiding Principle #3 - Driving Industry Standards

Bringing advanced enterprise technology to xSeries systems is one challenge that IBM has theresources to deliver easily. However, our customers have stated very clearly that xSeries systemsmust be industry standard. If each server vendor uses similar components (many of them madeby IBM) and the same operating systems, customers have greater flexibility in technologymanagement.

To help ensure that this trend continues, IBM is working with industry leaders and standardsorganizations to drive new technologies in standards-based ways. Our innovative capabilities forxSeries servers provide initiatives that allow us to uniquely address customer applicationrequirements first, then to take it a step further. IBM works with industry consortiums andstandards bodies to have the leadership technologies we develop included in standardsspecifications, and to ensure that our development directions coincide with the direction of futurestandards.

Finally, we make these technologies available to the industry in accordance with those standards.This open technology approach has fueled the growth of industry-standard computing since its

inception, and the leadership role of xSeries systems is evident in the industry's adoption of theCommon Diagnostic Model, PCI-X and InfiniBand I/O and in our licensing of Active PCI to othercompanies.

On the software front, IBM not only supports Windows NT/2000 on xSeries servers but SCOUnixware, Novell NetWare and Linux as well. In fact, IBM offers the widest array of Linuxapplications and middleware of any vendor, including such IBM award-winning products as DB2Universal Database, WebSphere Application Server and MQSeries, as well as Lotus Domino

and several products from IBM subsidiary Tivoli.

Yet this is only part of the story. IBM is participating in Beowulf-class supercomputing studies oflarge-scale clustering using Linux on Netfinity and xSeries servers at the Universities of NewMexico and Illinois5. This year IBM announced new hardware and software technologies for Linux,

including plans for the IBM xSeries 430, designed as the first 64-wayserver that will run the newLinux Application Environment (LAE). This new software provides today's Linux applications withadditional scalability to better handle business growth. (To further demonstrate the commitmentthat IBM has to Linux, IBM also offers Linux for S/3906, for zSeries mainframe servers. This


6

6 Seehttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/8DBCCE974C9EBF6A852568E2004979E1for more information about Linux

5 Go to http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/3F4E88B102477AA5852568460067A52A andhttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/BFD0EBFDE86C7AF0852569D60082C21Ffor descriptions of thesesupercomputing partnerships.

available from the technical library on our Web site at http://ibm.com/eserver/xseries. From the xSeries home page,select Library for a list of the different types of documentation available.
http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/8DBCCE974C9EBF6A852568E2004979E1http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/8DBCCE974C9EBF6A852568E2004979E1http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/8DBCCE974C9EBF6A852568E2004979E1http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/3F4E88B102477AA5852568460067A52Ahttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/3F4E88B102477AA5852568460067A52Ahttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/3F4E88B102477AA5852568460067A52Ahttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/BFD0EBFDE86C7AF0852569D60082C21Fhttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/BFD0EBFDE86C7AF0852569D60082C21Fhttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/BFD0EBFDE86C7AF0852569D60082C21Fhttp://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/eserver/xserieshttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/BFD0EBFDE86C7AF0852569D60082C21Fhttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/3F4E88B102477AA5852568460067A52Ahttp://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/8DBCCE974C9EBF6A852568E2004979E1


7/34

means that IBM now has Linux offerings for^ xSeries, pSeries, and zSeries serversLinux support for iSeries will be available in Q3 2001.) In addition, IBM has announced plans todevote more than $1 billion to Linux development, marketing and consulting in 2001 alone.

Guiding Principle #4 - Making Servers Easier to Deploy and Use

IT managers routinely identify storage management as one of their primary challenges. In fact, itis estimated that the cost of manually managing direct-attached LAN storage can double everythree years. IBM system management software adds intelligence and combines leading-edge,proven capabilities that integrate into the enterprise to help provide world-class server and storagemanagement across your IT solution. All this is managed through a centralized infrastructure thatcan help businesses realize a reduction in management resource costs.

As we introduce more sophisticated features in xSeries servers, we know the importance ofmaking complex technology easy to use. Thats why our goal is to Make IT Easy. Being able todeploy a new server in less than an hour, or to accurately plan upgrades, is no simpletaskunless you are using xSeries servers.

IBM xSeries servers currently come with many management tools that Make IT Easy, including:

!

IBM Capacity Manager Part of IBM Director; for resource utilization tracking andautomated performance analysis. (For more information, see the IBM Director topic.)

! IBM ServerGuide An IBM server installation assistant that simplifies the process ofinstalling and configuring xSeries servers. ServerGuide goes beyond mere hardwareconfiguration by assisting with the installation of your operating system, system device driversand other system components with minimal user intervention.

! IBM Director with Universal Manageability Services A combination of server and clientmanageability software with a simple graphical user interface (GUI). It provides the applicationlogic and data store of management information in an SQL database, and it includes a GUIthat allows simple hardware management via single-click or drag-and-drop actions. UMServices tools include a system hardware and OS inventory capability, resource utilizationfeatures, an Alert on LAN switch, power management and a Security Manager. Optional UMServer Extensions, including Software Rejuvenation and Capacity Manager, extend themanageability of hardware and software.

! IBM FAStT RAID Manager For management of Fibre Array Storage Technology (FAStT)RAID Controllers. IBM Fibre Channel solutions offer storage connectivity of up to 10 km (6.2miles) at data transfer rates of up to 100MBps to enable efficient offsite storage access andbackup of critical data.

! IBM Light Path Diagnostics Working in conjunction with Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA)and environmental self-monitoring features, built-in LED indicators attached to individualcomponentsas well as an external service panelalert you to problems and help youquickly locate and replace failed or soon-to-be-failing components.

! IBM ServeRAID Manager For simpler deployment and integration of SCSI andfibre-based storage on the latest generation of ServeRAID SCSI controllers. ServeRAID

provides a cost-effective, reliable foundation for your business-critical storage. ServeRAIDadapters support nine levels of RAID, including enhanced RAID 1E, 1E0 and 5E, to enhanceintegrity and availability.

! IBM System Installation Tool Kit This includes three powerful system deployment andmigration software tools that can facilitate and expedite the deployment of Microsoft Windowsoperating systems to any network-connected and compliant computers in your enterprise. Thepackage consists of:


7

for S/390.


8/34

- IBM LANClient Control Manager (LCCM) LCCM is an automated, remote softwaremanagement and distribution tool. LCCM takes advantage of features implemented andintegrated into supported PCs to allow administrators to remotely perform many tasks thatpreviously required their presence at the desktop system PC. It simplifies the deploymentof client systems by allowing an administrator to preconfigure operating systems andapplication software and install them via the LAN. LCCM can be used to standardize

CMOS settings, flash the system BIOS, or even schedule any system to be turned on(using Wake on LAN) so changes can be distributed by network management softwareduring off hours. With LCCM, you can plug one or more new PCs with totally blank harddrives into the network and go home while LCCM sends the software image to eachdesktop, or launches an unattended operating system installation routine on the remotesystem using the industry-standard Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). LCCMsupports the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) industry standard and is aMicrosoft Management Console-enabled application.

Rapid Restore, which is part of LCCM, partitions the hard drive and loads softwareapplications and an extra copy of the operating system during the initial loading of theoperating system. If the OS should fail, Rapid Restore allows the user to restart the PCusing the extra copy of the operating system. The user can be up and running againquickly, without waiting for problem diagnosis or for a technical support person to be

dispatched.

- IBM Software Delivery Assistant (SDA) SDA virtually eliminates delays caused bywaiting for the IT staff to find time to update each user's system. It eliminates the cost ofuser downtime caused by the absence of necessary software on their systems. It alsoreduces disk storage costs, because the company needs to maintain only a single serverimage of all its applications. SDA accomplishes this by installing all applications requiredby a user's job description, including core applications (such as personal productivitytools) and others (including enterprise resource planning, customer care, financials,human resources, programming languages, etc.). SDA recognizes the user's profile andtherefore knows who that user is, what his or her job is, and what software is needed forthat person to accomplish the job.

- IBM System Migration Assistant (SMA) SMA enables custom settings, e-mail and

data to be migrated from a user's former PC to the new PC accurately, efficiently andeffectively. When older computers are refreshed or new computers are distributed,moving user data and system settings to the new system can be expensive andtime-consuming. Users who can't find the spreadsheet their boss sent them or who losethe valuable bookmarks they have been saving in their browser over the years are notonly frustrated, they are unproductive. SMA can help resolve these issues.

! IBM Update Connector Manager Another part of IBM Director, Update ConnectorManager helps ensure that your system software (BIOS, device drivers, firmware, etc.) isalways up-to-date and automates the process for you. Use Update Connector Manager toquickly and easily gather information about various updates that are available for yourmanaged systems. Once you find available updates you can apply them remotely either toindividual systems or to multiple systems, all from IBM Director.

! Tivoli Storage Manager Tivoli Storage Manager utilizes high-performance patentedtechnologies to protect and manage your mission-critical business information in anenterprise-wide Storage Area Network (SAN) and traditional network environment. Combinedwith Tivoli Storage Manager's host of optional products, Tivoli offers an end-to-end scalablesolution spanning palmtops to mainframes on over 35 platforms. Features include centralizedstorage management; SAN features such as LAN-free backup and tape sharing; automatednetwork incremental and subfile backup, archive and retrieval; the industry's fastest recoverytime; space management file migration; high-speed policy-based disaster recovery; and dataprotection for most popular groupware, e-mail, databases and applications.


8


9/34

These and many other tools and technologies, along with consulting service offerings to assistyou with many installation and operational procedures, provide a platform for industry-standardapplications that is both powerful and scalable but still remains simple to use.

One common customer desire is to simplify the complexities of e-business; that is, to makee-business easy. A tangible example of how xSeries servers can do this is with the^xSeries 130 and 135 Web hosting appliance servers, which allow you to be up and running withinminutes of the time you unpack them.

A great benefit to making IT easy is reducing total cost of ownership. IBM has made aconsiderable investment in these tools in order to create an extensive set of tools that help reducethe cost of deployment and support of systems in the enterprise.

Guiding Principles Delivered

Any company can have a strategy, but the proof is in the delivery. That is what sets IBMX-Architecture7 technology apart from other Intel processor-based server designs. The followingtable summarizes our delivery track record since 1998:

! Asset ID

! Electronic ServiceAgent (ESA)

! FAStT RAID Manager

! LANClient ControlManager (LCCM)

! Light PathDiagnostics

! RAID Logical Drive

Migration ServeRAIDManager

! ServerGuide

! System InstallationTool Kit

! Tivoli StorageManager

! Update Connector

! Common DiagnosticModel (CDM)

! Common InformationModel (CIM)

! Fibre Channel

! Hot-add/swap PCI

! InfiniBand I/O

! Intel IA-64

!Multiple NOS support(Linux, OS/2,NetWare, UnixWare,Windows)

! Open SourceSoftware

! PCI-X I/O

! Summit technology

! 8-node MSCSsupport

! Active Security

! C2T Interconnect

! Capacity Manager

! ESCONChannelConnection

! FlashCopy

!Integrated Netfinity forAS/400 (renamedIntegrated xSeriesServer for iSeries)

! LANClient ControlManager (LCCM)

! Memory eXpansionTechnology (MXT)

! Netfinity SP Switch

! RAID 1E, 1E0 and 5E

! Active Diagnostics

! Active PCI

! Advanced SystemManagement

! Automatic ServerRestart (ASR)

! Capacity Manager

! C2T Interconnect

!Chipkill memory

! Electronic ServiceAgent (ESA)

! Light PathDiagnostics

! Predictive FailureAnalysis / SoftwareRejuvenation

! SAF-TE (SCSIAccessedFault-TolerantEnclosure)

! SMART Reaction II

Make IT EasyDriving IndustryStandards

Low-cost EnterpriseTechnologies

OnForeverComputing

Table 2.OnForever technology track record


9

7 Visit the technical library on our Web site at http://ibm.com/eserver/xseries for more information on these and othertechnologies.


10/34


11/34

Summit technology truly shines in the multisystem environment, where Summit allows you toexercise pay as you grow scalability with our Active Scalability ports. In addition, the benefits toareas such as server consolidation and resource allocation are demonstrated by support forsystem partitioning and easy cluster cabling.

Summit technology is the culmination of decades of experience with mainframe and midrangeplatform designs. Yet it is packaged in a cost-effective, industry-standard design that provides

tangible high-availability benefits. In the future, Summit will allow investment protection through itsflexible design and, most importantly, offer benefits for todays IA-32 (32-bit) platform andleadership capabilities for the emerging 64-bit IA-64 platform.

Active Scalability

One of the challenges of optimizing performance is to provide memory and I/O subsystems thatallow new processor architectures to realize their performance potential. Traditionalmultiprocessor server designs begin to encounter performance bottlenecks beyond 4-way scalingdue to I/O bus congestion and inefficient memory utilization. Summit provides support foradvanced I/O architectures and includes a high-speed, shared-cache architecture. This is realizedusing an enhanced, high-performance 4-way SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) building block thatallows efficient scalability beyond the 4-way SMP.

Summit technology provides an effective way to scale systems from 4-way to 8-way to12-wayand even to 16-way SMP, using these 4-way building blocks to create compute nodes.Each node contains processors, memory and I/O support in an independent package. Nodes canrun an operating system different from the other nodes, if desired, via system partitioning.

Nodes are attached to one another through high-speed interconnections, called scalability ports,sharing resources for unmatched performance. We call this innovation Active Scalability. ActiveScalability will give your business the capacity to grow as never before, with unparalleled flexibility.A 16-way cluster is as easy as connecting four 4-way nodes using simple cabling. Thesehigh-speed scalability ports provide 3.2GB/second throughput per connection, with each nodesupporting up to threeconnections to other nodes, maximizing throughput between nodes. Figure1 illustrates how these nodes interconnect:

Figure 1.OnForever Active Scalability


11


12/34

Active Scalability represents revolutionary thinking for Intel processor-based servers. Youll beable to scale xSeries server performance without downtimeadding (or removing) nodes will notrequire taking down the other nodes (with the proper operating system support). In addition, thenode design offers the capability of failover between nodes, for maximum availability.

System PartitioningSystem partitioning is another of the many mainframe features that the combination ofX-Architecture technology and Summit brings to xSeries servers. Among the benefits of systempartitioning are hardware consolidation; software migration and coexistence; development, testingand maintenance; workload isolation and independent backup and recovery by partition.

Anyone who has worked with mainframes is familiar with the concept: System resources,including processor, memory, I/O and storage are virtualized so that all concurrent users appearto have complete access to the system. Yet each user is actually segmentedandprotectedfrom the actions of all other users. If one virtual partition were to lock up, it would notaffect the others. In a mission-critical environment, such as a worldwide airline reservationsystem, for example, it would be disastrous if one such errant partition could crash the entireserver. In many client-server environments, this capability is no less essential.

With staticsystem partitioning, enabled by Summit technology, a single xSeries server will be ableto simultaneously execute and run multiple operating systems as well as multiple versionsofoperating systems. The server will be able to have up to four nodesinterconnected cabinetscontaining independently running processors, memory and I/Oeach with its own operatingsystem and applications. (This is notthe same as having multiple hard disk partitions loaded withdifferent operating systems, where changing OSes requires rebooting to another partition. Systempartitioning refers to running one or more operating systems in different nodes on the same serversimultaneously. A partition can span nodeseven to the point of having all four nodes controlledby one OS.) Each node can be managed independently by software.

For example, an xSeries server can continue to run an operating system in one node while youinstall and test anotherversion of that operating system, or a different operating system entirely, in

another node on that serverall without having to take the server offline. Multiple operatingsystems can function on the same server without interfering with one another.

If you intend to consolidate servers, xSeries technology offers many benefits. With static systempartitioning, the multiple operating systems previously used by multiple servers could all berunning simultaneously on one xSeries server. System partitioning will allow you to eliminate theneed to use multiple servers to support different operating systems within your business. OnexSeries server with system partitioning could act as an application server, both for your marketingdepartment that runs on Windows and for your engineering department that requires a Linuxserver. Or you can continue to have most users hosted by Windows 2000 while you have a smalltest group accessing the upcoming Windows operating system (code-named Whistler) in anothersystem partition. One server replacing two or more equals potentially lower hardware costs andsimpler administration and maintenance.

In the future, xSeries servers running enhanced operating systems will be able to implementdynamicpartitioning, with even higher levels of flexibility and granularity in running concurrentoperating systems than static partitioning provides. Servers using dynamic partitioning will be ableto reconfigure a multinode hardware processing complex without shutting down and restartingthe hardware and software. More hardware can be added; or, a node of processors and memorycould be removed for maintenance without powering the system off. A simple user interface willguide you through the appropriate steps.


12


13/34

Memory Subsystem Enhancements

IBM has had a long history of pioneering advances in memory development, including the firstone-transistor memory cell (1966), the first use of cache memory (1968), the first 1 megabitmemory chip (1984), ECC-on-SIMM (1996), and IBM was active in the development of the DDR(double data rate) memory specification and was the first to ship servers containing DDR memory

(2000). Continuing along this path, IBM currently offers, or will shortly deliver the followingmemory technology breakthroughs:

IBM Chipkill memory. The more memory installed in a server, the higher the probability of amemory-related system error. IBM Chipkill8 ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) memory worksto minimize server outages due to memory errors, using industry-standardmemory.

Chipkill memory, initially developed for NASAs Pathfinder mission to Mars, is an excellentexample of the IBM commitment to provide robust, high-availability systems. The Chipkill memoryused in selected xSeries servers (while still using standard ECC DIMMs), protects you fromunplanned outages due to memory errors more effectively than standard ECC technology. It isable to do this because the memory controller provides a memory equivalent of RAID (RedundantArray of Independent Disks) technology, sharing the memory bits among multiple memory chipson the DIMM. In essence, each DIMM acts as a separate memory array. So if any one chip fails it

affects only a single bit from a byte of data, and the other bits are stored on other, working chips.The controller isthen able to reconstruct the missing bit from the failed chip and continueworking as usual.

Memory eXpansion Technology (MXT). MXT is another major delivery on the X-Architecturetechnology promise to implement IBM-developed advanced technology in the industry-standardserver market. MXT can provide not only improved memory capacity but also increasedperformance. The more efficient storage format provided by MXT can help you reduce cost byusing less memory, while achieving the same level of performance as other systems without MXT.With this capability, IBM estimates that MXT can help lower the cost and increase theperformance of your system by much as 40%, all while using industry-standard memory.

Throughout the industry, the rate of improvement in memory technology has not kept pace with

progress in disk storage, processor technologies and network bandwidth. According to IBMresearch, processor throughput is increasing at nearly 60% per year, and the cost of disk storageis decreasing at better than 60% per year. In contrast, memory cost has been improving at anaverage of barely 30% per year, and memory speeds have been improving at an even slowerrate. In relative terms, main memory is becoming slower and more expensive compared withmore rapidly improving processor, storage and network technologies. Consequently, memory isincreasingly becoming both a major cost (at 40-70% of the price of the system) and aperformance bottleneck for the system.

MXT, comingin the near futureto xSeries servers, helps improve this picture by first providinganother level of memory caching. The addition of a large L3 cache helps to reduce memorylatency and increase memory bandwidth and performance. Behind the L3 cache, MXT can doublethe effective capacity of main memory using a novel storage format invented by IBM Research.

Using compression techniques not unlike those used for disk storage, MXT memory storesinstructions and data in a compact, efficient format in main memory.

This has the effect of allowing MXT memory to hold roughly double the amount of information astraditional memory. In other words, a server using 1GB of MXT memory can process as muchinformation as another server with 2GB of standard memory, with no effective decrease inperformance. To look at it another way, a server with 1GB of MXT memory will run significantly


13

8 For more information on IBM Chipkill memory read the 1999 IBM MicroNewsmagazine article athttp://ibm.com/chips/micronews/vol5_no2/swietek.html and the IBM Chipkill Memory white paper atftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/pc_servers/chipkif1.pdf .
http://ibm.com/chips/micronews/vol5_no2/swietek.htmlhttp://ibm.com/chips/micronews/vol5_no2/swietek.htmlhttp://ibm.com/chips/micronews/vol5_no2/swietek.htmlftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/pc_servers/chipkif1.pdfftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/pc_servers/chipkif1.pdfhttp://ibm.com/chips/micronews/vol5_no2/swietek.html


14/34

faster than another server with 1GB of traditional memory that has a moderate amount of diskswapping. The ability to store more information in a given memory size further improvesperformance over the simple addition of an L3 cache by reducing the need to read from or write todisk. More data being held in memory means less performance-robbing disk I/O.

This improved storage format is completely transparent to software: Your off-the-shelf programswill continue to run as usual without modification.

There is another hidden benefit to MXT. All systems have constraints on the amount of memorythat can be installed, and these constraints may prevent a system from being populated withenough memory to achieve peak performance or even optimum performance. This is particularlya problem for space-optimized servers, which typically are limited to 3 or 4 DIMM (memory)sockets. If your server is limited only by available sockets to a maximum of 8GB of RAM, forexample, but you need more to keep your server from running out of steam, by using an IBMserver with MXT, that 8GB of RAM will give you the same performance advantages as a serverwith 16GB. This eliminates the need to replace the server with a larger one or to buy a secondone to share the workload. Thus, IBM Memory eXpansion Technology provides the ability to offerhigher performing servers in a smaller space, and makes IBM servers with MXT a cost-effectivesolution to the trade-off of small size and low price vs. expandability and high price.

Active Memory Extensions. Soon IBM will further enhance industry standard memoryfunctionality through Active Memory extensions to improve performance, reliability andserviceability of xSeries servers. Active Memory extensions offer several important newcapabilities for server memory subsystems, including memory mirroring, hot-swap memory andhot-add memory.

! Memory mirroring Memory mirroring is a key technology for increasing the availability ofthe memory subsystem. Memory mirroring conceptually works much like RAID 1 diskmirroring, in that data written to one memory card is also written to a mirrored memory card. Ifone DIMM begins producing excessive soft errors sufficient to trigger Predictive FailureAnalysis alerts, the system will automatically shift to the mirrored memory card until the failingDIMM is replaced. This allows the system to keep running until a convenient time to performmaintenance on the failing memory module.

!

Hot-swap/hot-add memory Hot-swapmemory will allow failing parts to be replaced on thefly, much like other hot-swap components, without requiring the server to be powered off.Likewise, hot-addsupport allows new DIMMs to be added to the server as memory demandsincrease. xSeries servers already allow service personnel to hot add new drives, adapters,power supplies and fans as needed. Future operating system releases will add support forhot-swap and hot-add memory on xSeries servers.

I/O Subsystem Enhancements9

The PCI bus has done an admirable job of keeping up with the I/O bandwidth needs of servers.PCI started out with a theoretical limit of 133MBps (megabytesper second), although the earlysystems could deliver only 30-40 MBps. The current state of the art in PC I/O buses allowsmultiple 64-bit 66Mhz PCI bus segments capable of delivering 400-500 MBps each. But even this

bandwidth is not sufficient for the emerging world of 10Gbps (gigabitsper second)orhigherI/O, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand. Without another performanceboost, PCI would soon be the bottleneck that keeps these high-speed networks from connectingto servers at the networks maximum speed. I/O bottlenecks prevent IA servers from thebalanced systems architecture that is a characteristic of high-end and mainframe systems.

Recognizing that the PCI bus is running out of steam as an I/O architecture for servers andbecoming a limitation to server performance, the industry developed an enhanced bus, called


14

9 See the white paper entitled IBM^ xSeries OnForever Initiative athttp://ibm.com/eserver/xseries for more onPCI-X and InfiniBand I/O.


15/34

PCI-X, to extend the useful life of PCI until the next generation I/O architectureInfiniBandisready to take over. PCI-X does not cure the underlying design limitations of PCI, but it doesextend the useful life of PCI for a few more years by increasing the available bandwidthconsiderably. InfiniBand was designed as a clean break from PCI, without the constraintsimposed by trying to incorporate mid-1990s PCI technology into the design.

PCI-X Bus. IBM was a leader in the definition of the PCI-X specification.PCI-X provides an extrageneration of capabilities for the PCI bus, including more efficient data transfers, more adaptersper bus segment andfaster bus speeds for server systems. PCI-X enhances the PCI standard bydoubling the throughput capability and providing new adapter-performance options whilemaintaining compatibility with PCI adapters. PCI-X allows all current 66MHz PCI adapterseither32-bit or 64-bitto operate normally in the new PCI-X bus. PCI-X adapters take advantage of thenew 100MHz and 133MHz bus speeds, which allow a single 64-bit adapter to move as much as1GB of data per second. Additionally, PCI-X supports twice as many 66MHz 64-bit adapters in asingle bus as PCI. Over the next few years, PCI-X may get one more speed increase, but as timegoes on it is less and less cost-effective to keep extending the aging PCI bus.

A limitation to the PCI and PCI-X design is that all adapter slots must be in the main systemchassis. This limits how small a server can be. The obvious solution is to limit the number of slotsinside the server chassis but find a way to extend additional bus segments to external card

cages for holding adapters. By putting most or all adapter slots outside of the main systemcabinet, the server can be made much smaller.

External I/O is something that the PCI-X bus doesnt explicitly support. Fortunately, IBM Summitchipset technology comes to the rescue by enabling a remote I/O drawer capability to provide ascalable I/O infrastructure for PCI-X. This allows IBM to continue to shrink server cabinets whileincreasing I/O scalability via external expansion units.

InfiniBand Architecture. InfiniBand is a robust new industry-standard design for a high-speed,redundant I/O architecture to supersede PCI and PCI-X in servers. IBM co-founded and co-chairsthe InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA), which announced InfiniBand Architecture specificationV1.0 on October 24, 2000. The IBTA consists of over 200 member companies, including Compaq,Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft and Sun.

InfiniBand is a new high-speed interconnect that redefines how servers communicate withnetworks, storage subsystems and other servers. It also moves all the data transfer and validationfunctions from software to hardware, making InfiniBand highly efficient. InfiniBand standardizeshow large numbers of server, storage and networking components should be joined and balancedinto a single integrated system. It does this without requiring any changes to how existingapplications access networks and storage.

Many of the technologies incorporated into this new architecture originated with IBM S/360 andS/370 mainframe systems, which were the first systems to use channel I/O as a means to achievea balanced systems architecture. InfiniBand is ideally suited for clustering, I/O extension andnative attachment in diverse network applications. InfiniBand technology can be used to connectto attached hosts, routers or disk arrays, or to build remote card cages. InfiniBand also featuresenhanced fault isolation, redundancy support and built-in failover capabilities to provide highnetwork reliability and availability. Enhancements even extend to cabling, with InfiniBandsupporting the concurrent use of both copper and fiber-optic cablescopper for low cost and fiberfor long distances.

For xSeries servers, InfiniBand will provide the framework to continue our drive toward highavailability, scalability, ease of use and reduced total cost of ownership embraced by theX-Architecture technology strategy. IBM intends to accomplish this through multiple, high-speed,low-latency and redundant network paths for server access to I/O, as well as through clustering.Servers and I/O devices incorporating InfiniBand technology are expected in 2002. However,


15


16/34

widespread adoption is not expected before 2003-2004, when the technology is integratedsufficiently to deliver comprehensive hardware and software solutions. In the meantime, PCI-X willbe the advanced I/O bus of choice.

Enterprise Storage SolutionsToday, management and storage of data has become an increasingly complex and critical aspectof pervasive computing. IBM addresses this with Enterprise Storage Solutions, using the IBMX-Architecture technology guiding principles of OnForever computing, cost containment, industrystandards leadership, Make IT Easy and the delivery of scalable, manageable, reliable,high-performance storage products. Enterprise Storage Solutions also support the IBMX-architecture technology agenda to leverage proven IBM technologies and bring enterprisecapabilities to the Intel processor-based server platform.

Enterprise Storage Solutions are designed to support the huge requirements on back-endsystems by using a building-block approach that improves the management and implementationof complex networked storage subsystems. Enterprise Storage Solutions also recognize the needfor infrastructure redesign and draw on 40 years of IBM experience in storage technologies,including hard disk drives and other storage technologies that were designed and tested in the

market on IBM S/390, RS/6000, NUMA-Q and AS/400 servers. Enterprise Storage Solutions offerdata availability, disaster recovery, scalability, high performance, increased bandwidth, substantialpower and investment protection.

The following table illustrates the rate at which storage infrastructure technology is beingenhanced:

InfiniBand1x (250MB/sec),4x (1GB/sec), or12x (3GB/sec)

PCI-X1GB/sec

PCI512MB/sec

PCI256-512MB/sec

MaximumInput/Output

20K15K15K10KHard disk drivemaximum RPMs

144GB+144GB72GB36GBHard disk drivemaximum capacity

WAN atperformance

WAN90KM withrepeaters

10KMFibre Channelmaximum distance

1000 MB/s200 MB/s100-200 MB/s100 MB/sFibre Channelmaximumperformance

Converts to FibreChannel

Ultra320Ultra160Ultra80SCSI

2002/20032001/200220001999

Table 3.Progress of storage infrastructure technology

With technology changing at such a rapid pace you need a company like IBM, with the capabilitiesand resources to keep up with the speed of the industry, to be your supplier for enterprise storagesolutions.


16


17/34

Designing Subsystems with I/O Bandwidth to Match Increasing Storageand Network Requirements

Implementing an enterprise storage solution can be a bewildering process. There are manyconsiderations, including scalability and management. IBM Enterprise Storage Solutions aredesigned around the concept that each solution is simple: scalable and secure, easily integrated

into existing infrastructures and easily managed across heterogeneous servers andstoragegiving you the ability to protect valuable data and allowing you to leverage e-businessinvestments. IBM Enterprise Storage Solutions are designed to be:

! Scalable. IBM Enterprise Storage Solutions can scale from entry-level storage configurationsutilizing direct-attached SCSI storage to complete end-to-end Fibre Channel solutions, andare expected to reach massive datacenter storage capabilities in excess of 22TB (terabytes,or thousand gigabytes) in 2001.

! Secure. In the e-business model, security is key to success. IBM has been making advancesin security for the S/390 (now^ zSeries) datacenter for many years. IBMX-Architecture technology is bringing some of those security technologies to Intelprocessor-based serverstechnologies like Remote Access Control Facility (RACF),cryptographic coprocessors and digital certificates. IBM has worked with Intel to develop the

Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA), and we will continue to drive this standard andmaintain leadership in data-storage security for industry-standard servers.

In addition, IBM has been working with Intel, Microsoft, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard in anopen alliance called Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA). The goal of this alliance isto create a new computing platform that will provide for improved trust in personal computersystems. As chair of the TCPA, IBM will continue to lead the industry in security for computingsystems.

! Interoperability. Integrating new hardware and software into your current IT environment iskey to an enterprise storage solution. IBM has invested millions of dollars developing theworld's most comprehensive interoperability test labs to help our customers deploy storagesolutions in mixed environments. Our solutions are designed to work with the most popularIntel processor-based servers. They are based on industry-standard technologies andcertified to run on industry-leading storage management and open-systems software,

including Tivoli, Legato, Veritas and Computer Associates.

! Manageability. IT managers routinely identify storage management as one of their primarychallenges. In fact, it is estimated that the cost of manually managing direct-attached LANstorage can double every three years. IBM Director systems management software addsintelligence and combines leading-edge, proven capabilities that seamlessly integrate into theenterprise. IBM Director RAID Manager, along with FAStT (Fibre Array Storage Technology)RAID Manager, ServeRAID Manager and Tivoli Storage Manager, help provide world-classserver and storage management across your IT solution. All this is managed through acentralized infrastructure that can help businesses realize a reduction in managementresource costs.

! Protection. Data protection at all levels becomes second only to management as achallenge for the IT manager. xSeries servers provide direct-attach and network-attached disk

and tape data protection and disaster-readiness storage solutions. Combined with remotemirroring clustering extensions, innovative IBM X-architecture technologies such asFlashCopy, RAID 1E, 1E0 and RAID 5E, and FAStT are designed to help keep your dataavailable all day, every day.

! Leveraginge-business investments. IBM is a leader in e-business solutions, and IBMX-Architecture technology, along with our simple storage vision, allows us to create solutionsfor the industry-standard server market that will help you make the most of your e-business.


17


18/34

Innovative Extensions to RAID Standards

As your storage capacity grows, your need for data integrity increases as well. Beyond a point,disk array technology becomes a necessity, providing both security against data loss and theprevention of costly downtime due to a disk crash. RAID technology can also produce aperformance boost in some configurations. For these reasons, IBM offers an industry-leading

SCSI RAID solution called IBM ServeRAID.

ServeRAID technology helps you build a reliable foundation for business-critical computing.ServeRAID is a combination of hardware, software and firmware for creating an array of disksusing Ultra160 SCSI devices. Through hardware and software functionality, multiple physicaldisks can be treated as one logical disk array. Data is stored redundantly in various ways, offeringninelevels of RAID to enhance integrity and availability of your data. (Soon IBM will begindelivering Ultra320 SCSI solutions.) The IBM ServeRAID solution consists of:

! ServeRAID adapters Currently, the flagship of xSeries SCSI controller offerings is theServeRAID-4 family of adapters. These 64-bit, Active PCI controllers are managed byServeRAID Manager, which allows you to administer all your ServeRAID subsystems acrossan entire enterprise from a single session. ServeRAID controllers offer additional capabilitiesthat are exclusive to ServeRAID or previously were found only in high-end sophisticated

storage subsystems, including FlashCopy, Logical Drive Migration, RAID 1E, 1E0 and 5E, andadapter and cluster failover. Through hardware and software functionality, multiple physicaldisks can be treated as one logical disk. Data is stored redundantly in various ways, offeringninelevels of RAID to increase performance and enhance the availability of your data. Thereare three models of ServeRAID adapters:

- ServeRAID-4His the high-performance version, with four Ultra160 SCSI channels,128MB of removablebattery-backed ECC cache memory, and an IBM copper-basedPowerPC 750 processor onboard. Up to 56 Ultra160 and Ultra2 SCSI devices aresupported.

- ServeRAID-4Mx is the midrange model, with two Ultra160 SCSI channels, 64MB ofbattery-backed ECC cache memory, and an Intel i80303 processor. Up to 28 Ultra160and Ultra2 SCSI devices are supported.

- ServeRAID-4Lxis the entry-level adapter, with one Ultra160 SCSI channel, 16MB of ECCcache memory, and an Intel i80303 processor. Up to 14 Ultra160 and Ultra2 SCSIdevices are supported.

Each ServeRAID adapter supports up to 14 devices (and 160MB per second throughput) perchannel(for an aggregate of up to 56 logical devices and 640MBps for the 4-channelServeRAID-4H adapter, for example). Multiple adapters can be installed as needs andavailable slots dictate.

! RAID 1-Enhanced (RAID 1E) Typical RAID 1 controllers allow the mirroring of data to twodrives concurrently, requiring that drives be added in pairsan odd drive would go unused.IBM ServeRAID adapters, by contrast, support an enhanced mode of RAID 1 called RAID 1E.RAID 1E allows the mirroring of data to either an even number of drives or an odd number, sothat you can increase drives one by one, if desired, rather than always in pairs.

! RAID 1E0 (1E+0) RAID 1E0 combines enhanced RAID 1E mirroring with RAID 0 stripingacross multiple 1E arrays.

! RAID 5-Enhanced (RAID 5E) Standard RAID 5 technology spreads data across all thedrives in the system except one, which is used as a hot spare, in case one of the otherdrives fails. (If a drive fails, the hot spare immediately and automatically replaces it.) Thismeans that one drive is always unused pending a failure, resulting in an inefficient use ofavailable drive space. By contrast, IBM Enhanced RAID 5, or RAID 5E, spreads all data,parity and hot-spare space across all of the drives, permitting 100 percent utilization of


18


19/34

available drive space. This offers not only more efficient use of drive space but also fasterthroughput (because there are more drives operating) than traditional RAID 5 arrays.

! Other RAID levels In addition to industry-standard RAID 0 (data striping), RAID 1(mirroring) and RAID 5, along with enhanced-RAID 1E, 1E0 and 5E (all IBM exclusives),ServeRAID adapters also support RAID 00 (striping across multiple arrays), RAID 10 (1+0,which combines RAID 1 mirroring and RAID 0 striping) and RAID 50 (5+0, striping across

multiple RAID 5 arrays). All but 0 and 00 offer fault-tolerance, and all but 00 support anoptional hot spare drive.

! ServeRAID Manager ServeRAID Manager is a combination of software and firmware thatsupports the enhanced functions of the ServeRAID adapter, including RAID 1E/1E0/5E,clustering, Active PCI and adapter failover capabilities. ServeRAID Manager integrates withIBM Director to provide management and control of the RAID array using a commoninterface.

! FlashCopy FlashCopy is high-availability software included with ServeRAID that providesan almost instantaneous copy of a logical volume. By supporting fast duplication, FlashCopyminimizes application downtime associated with performing backups and restores. FlashCopymakes it possible for you to access both the source and destination copies. This enablesapplications that use either the source or destination copy to operate almost without

interruption. In addition, FlashCopy can improve system performance by offloading hostresources. This tool takes a snapshot of the source drive and places it on the target drive,which can then be extracted and used in another server or placed on tape. Previously, thistype of technology was available only on high-end enterprise storage platforms.

ServeRAID 1E, 1E0 and 5E adapter technologies can significantly improve data transfer rates andat the same time be used as the cost-effective foundation of a business-critical storage strategy.The advanced fault tolerance of enhanced RAID technology lets you effectively implementnetworked business systems with large amounts of storage space that must be available for yourbusiness to continue operating. IBM ServeRAID provides an outstanding solution forimplementing RAID technology in xSeries servers.

Storage Area NetworksThe explosive growth of information as a result of e-business is forcing businesses to focus on theimportance of information management and storage. Information is quickly becoming a key asset,and most businesses face the challenge of finding an affordable way to store information andmanage it. Traditional LANs and WANs are not optimized for high-volume data access and havebecome a bottleneck for many companies with the need to store and move terabytes (TB) of datarapidly. Consequently, Storage Area Networks (SANs) are radically changing the way data isbeing accessed and managed. IBM is working with other industry leaders to reduce complexitywith SAN-ready solutions.

SANs allow storage devices to be attached to dedicated high-speed storage networks. The SANsin turn connect to LANs and WANs. Separating the storage devices from the general networktraffic allows us to improve LAN/WAN performance while greatly improving the control and

management of valuable data. The SAN strategy employed by IBM provides a building-blockapproach that builds on current investments in hardware, software and skills. The current xSeriesSAN building blocks are the xSeries Fibre Array Storage Technology (FAStT) devices, whichinclude host controllers, fibre switches and hubs, RAID controllers and disk drives. The buildingblock approach allows you to efficiently and cost-effectively scale your storage environment. Forlarge enterprise SAN environments with a requirement to support consolidation of storage acrossmultiple server platformssuch as IBM pSeries, iSeries, zSeries, and xSeries serversthe IBMEnterprise Storage Server is in many cases the optimum SAN storage solution.


19


20/34

However, to protect your current investments, SAN implementations can be staged, and manylegacy devices are supported. For example, existing SCSI devices such as SCSI attached tapedrives and libraries, can be used in a SAN through SCSI-to-Fibre bridges in order to consolidateand share data backup resources.

Overall, SANs provide greater bandwidth, speed and distance (up to 10km) than LANs, and theredundant nature of SANs allows for better disaster management.

Fibre-based SAN solutions protect the increasing value of corporate data assets. Businesses facethe need for greatly increased storage capacities generated by e-business, the need to backuplarge amounts of data, the ability to manage the data and make it accessible to all users, andhighly available data that is protected from unforeseen destruction such as viruses, user andadministrator errors, and environmental disasters like floods and fires.

Storage capacities. Data assets are increasing in value, and they are increasing substantially involume. SANs directly address the need for storage capacities previously believed to beunachievable. A SAN can be a single tape library attached through a SAN Data Gateway andFAStT hub to a single server and can scale to support massive data requirements. In theory,SANs can support millions of hard disk drives and many exabytes10 of data through thebuilding-block approach of an interconnected storage fabric.

Backup. While size and value are rising, the ability to protect data through backups is becomingmore problematic. Backing up 20TB of storage can be an unwieldy and time-consuming process.SANs offer the ability to move data backup and management off the LAN for improved network,system and storage performance, giving administrators the flexibility to schedule and performbackups when needed without interrupting service to the end user. Larger amounts of data needto be protected to support e-business, and live backupwhich SANs provideprevents lostbusiness in the event of a disaster.

Management. SANs enable implementation of advanced management functions with improvedscalability and performance by offloading storage traffic from LANs to yield higher service levels.SANs provide for large-scale storage expansion without disruption and improve asset utilization bybringing the benefits of legacy, host-centric storage to distributed environments. SANs enable the

creation of a true information utility and support integrated e-business applications to effectivelyleverage information. Access and data sharing are improved via heterogeneous, any-to-anyconnectivity for higher system availability through switched fabric and component redundancy toeliminate single points of failure. Fault isolation and automatic failover provide better protection ofcritical data assets.

Centralized management for not only local but also remote storage reduces costs by providing aglobal view of enterprise storage resources. This allows for minimized management complexity,streamlined training, reduced data duplication, enhanced capacity planning and consistentmanagement policies.

High availability and disaster tolerance and recovery. High availability and disaster-tolerantdevices help reduce the risk of downtime. SANs facilitate a more cost-effective disaster recoverysolution through remote capabilities. Improved performance provides faster data recovery. Theexpense of a SAN can be offset through the cost savings derived from reduced downtime andbusiness productivity losses.

Disaster recovery usually requires physically transporting media to an offsite data vault. Studiesindicate that a majority of established enterprises do not have adequate protection against loss oftheir valuable data assets through accidental or malicious deletion, corruption, system crashes,viruses or environmental disasters. SANs allow users to build a consistent, cost-effective disasterrecovery plan for backed-up data.


20

10When referring to storage capacity, an exabyte equals one millionterabytes, or a thousand million gigabytes.


21/34

Improved performance provides faster data recovery. In storage islands, such as those createdwith direct-attach storage, data is dependent on the reliability of a dedicated subsystem. Arraymirroring opens up high-availability methods of failover or data recovery instead of lengthyrestores, which cause more downtime. Remote array mirroring places an additional array offsiteand keeps it dynamically synchronized in case of a site-wide failure.

SAN solutions are expected to include the capability for tape backup pooling; disk-to-tape backupover Fibre Channel, with its accompanying speed and savings in time and money; and diskpooling, data mirroring and data sharing between multiple host systems. For solutions requiringextremely high bandwidth, cabling distance and high availability, xSeries FAStT subsystemsprovide scalability to exabytes of storage, 100MBps (1Gbps) throughput and distances of up to10km (6.2 miles) between the server and external disk storage to provide additional protection ofdata.

Future direction. IBM, which invented the hard disk drive in 1956, the diskette drive (1971), themodern Winchester disk drive (1973), the first 1GB hard drive (1991) and more recently the1-inch 1GB Microdrive (used in notebook computers, PDAs, camcorders, digital cameras andMP3 players), and the first 75GB 3.5 hard drive in the industry, continues to pioneer new storagetechnologies.

In December 2000, IBM announced the Storage Tank initiative, which will deliver the promise ofstorage networkinga universal storage system capable of sharing data across any storagehardware, platform or operating system. Currently, disk and tape storage subsystems aredesigned to work with specific host systems, logical volumes or file systems. This fragmentedarrangement results in an inefficient usage of storage resources on a network. By using StorageTank to create a consolidated storage environment, each storage subsystem can be madeavailable across the network, enhancing performance and data availability. Storage Tank11 is justthe latest technology breakthrough in a storied history for IBM. Recently, the White Houseawarded IBM the National Medal of Technology for the company's leadership in developing andcommercializing data storage technology.

IBM Fibre Array Storage Technology (FAStT)The IBM FAStT family of storage solutions is designed for the high-availability requirements ofyour business. The long distance capabilities, high data transfer rates and wide range of storageconfigurations offer the power and reliability you need to protect your valuable data assets and tokeep your business-critical applications and information available. Because IBM FAStT FibreChannel storage solutions can support transfers over distances up to 10km (6.2 miles) at rates of100MBps, companies can more easily configure offsite xSeries servers and storage systems tokeep critical data available around the clockeven in the event of a catastrophe.

IBM FAStT hot-swappable and redundant RAID controllers support the uninterrupted flow of yourbusiness, thus helping to keep your systems available. Using a single IBM FAStT Host BusAdapter connected to an IBM FAStT 500 Storage Server, you can configure a Storage AreaNetwork (SAN) to support your massive data requirements, with up to 220 hard disk drives in 22

FAStT EXP500 Storage Expansion Units using a dual-loop configuration. If that isnt enough, justadd more FAStT adapters. (The IBM FAStT 200 Storage Server is available for more modestSAN needs, supporting up to 30 drives using two FAStT EXP500 units.) The EXP500 expansionunit includes hot-swap redundant power supplies and dual-cooling fans, along with IBM Light PathDiagnostics to warn of faults, excessive temperature and other environmental concerns. Up to 143U EXP500 units can be installed in a standard 42U rack for ease of configuration and servicing.


21

11Read the press release at http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/71894C55F2BCCE52852569AC0057DD49for moreon the Storage Tank initiative.
http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/71894C55F2BCCE52852569AC0057DD49http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/71894C55F2BCCE52852569AC0057DD49http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/71894C55F2BCCE52852569AC0057DD49http://ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/71894C55F2BCCE52852569AC0057DD49


22/34

If you have clustering requirements, configure your IBM FAStT storage solution for the highestavailability with redundant IBM FAStT adapters, hubs and RAID controllers. Add long-wavecabling between your IBM FAStT hubs to build disaster recovery into your enterprise storagesystem. In the event of a catastrophic failure or natural disaster your work can be transferred toyour failover location immediately, without interruption or loss of data. Hot-swappable, redundantfans and power supplies help increase system uptime and ease of installation, while batterybackup RAID circuitry helps protect against loss of data in the event of a power failure. All of thisprovides still another level of availability for your business-critical applications and data, movingyou closer to continuous access and availability.

IBM Enterprise Storage Server (ESS)12

ESS, sometimes referred to by its code name of Shark, provides integrated caching and RAIDsupport for the attached disk devices. ESS can be configured in a variety of ways to providescalability in capacity and performance. One ESS can support in excess of 11TB, and produce I/Orates in excess of 45,000 operations per second. (Of course, many ESS units can be used asneeded.)Redundancy within ESS provides continuous availability. It is packaged in one or moreenclosures, each with dual line cords and redundant power. The redundant power system allows

ESS to continue normal operation when one of the line cords is deactivated.ESS provides an image of a set of logical disk devices to attached servers. The logical devicesare configured to emulate disk device types that are compatible with the attached servers. Thelogical devices access a logical volume that is implemented using multiple disk drives. This allowsESS to connect to all IBM servers, from zSeries to iSeries, pSeries and xSeries, directly orthorough a SAN. ESS offers several choices of host I/O interface attachment methods, includingSCSI and Fibre Channel for xSeries, iSeries and pSeries, along with ESCON (Enterprise SystemConnection) and FICON (Fiber ConnectivityESCON protocol over a Fibre Channel connection)for zSeries servers, either individually or concurrently.

Sharing devices among various types of servers can result in lower hardware costs because youdont have to buy unique storage devices (and provide redundancy) for each server. Nor do you

have to worry about having too much capacity for one server and not enough for another. Onepool of devices serves all servers and offers not only redundancy and failover, but automatic I/Oload balancing as well.

IBM Enterprise System Connectivity(ESCON)

Business-critical applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and BusinessIntelligence (BI) have traditionally run on mainframe servers. These applications are nowmigrating to a new generation of client-server applications centered around powerful, reliable Intelprocessor-based servers. xSeries servers acting as application servers can be directlychannel-attached to IBM zSeries enterprise servers using the IBM industry-leading,high-throughput IBM ESCON adapter. xSeries servers have also proven to be ideal platforms asgateways to the mainframe for many customers.

The ESCON adapter provides a 200Mbps path between an xSeries server and a zSeriesmainframe. In addition, it reduces potential latencies due to protocol conversions, LAN congestionand retransmission, which can be introduced with alternative methods of connectivity. This allowsxSeries servers to be used as high-performance application coprocessors for mainframe systems,creating a three-tier client/server environment. The ESCON adapter fully implements theMulti-Path Channel (MPC+) protocol, which enhances performance, reliability and availability.


22

12Go to http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/ess.htm for additional information about IBM ESS/Shark.
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/ess.htmhttp://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/ess.htmhttp://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/ess.htmhttp://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/products/ess/ess.htm


23/34

Netfinity Web Server Accelerator

While one way to achieve scalability is through hardware, IBM is also focused on scalabilitythrough software called Netfinity Web Server Accelerator (NWSA). Web hosting, whether done byan individual company for its customers, business partners, employees and suppliers, or by anInternet Service Provider (ISP) for several companies, is a complex and demanding undertaking.

Many companies now recognize the benefits of hosting their own Web site, which allows forreal-time updates to company information and controlled security. This can also help reduce oreliminate outsourcing fees for these services.

Regardless of the size of your business, you need a Web-hosting solution that is simple to installand deploy, is cost-effective and gives you the high performance that cannot be attained by astandard server. Netfinity Web Server Accelerator V2.0 provides these benefits. IBM xSeriesservers using NWSAreverse proxy caching software developed by IBMcan decrease the timea servers processor spends responding to requests for static Web page content. This allows theserver to handle more static Web page content or, alternatively, frees the processors to spendmore time on other tasks such as processing dynamic content. This improvement is related to filesize: the smaller the file, the greater the acceleration improvement.

You need an infrastructure that can help you provide additional applications and host more sites at

an affordable price, but perhaps you cant afford the time and expense of continually adding newservers to handle your rapid growth. Yet your customers are demanding that Web sites bebrought online in days or weeks, not months. In addition, current levels of service must bemaintained if not improved to retain customers and attract more.

NWSA V2.0 can help you compete in this environment of ever-increasing price and performancepressures. You can host the same amount of Web content with fewer servers, decreasing thecost of server capacity; or you can host more Web content with the same number of servers.NWSA allows end users to access static and dynamic Web pages quickly. This helps increaseproductivity for end users and offers a way for you to improve service levels on each individualserver. Increased capacity and customer satisfaction pave the way for an increased customerbase.

AvailabilityYour need for server availability includes the ability to avoid expensive downtime and failures. IBMX-Architecture technology includes such high-availability features for xSeries systems as ActiveDiagnostics, Active PCI, Advanced System Management (ASM), Automatic Server Restart,Chipkill memory (described previously), Electronic Service Agent (ESA), Light Path Diagnostics,Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) and Software Rejuvenation. (ASM, ESA and SoftwareRejuvenation will be discussed in later sections.)

Active Diagnostics. Concurrent diagnostics, as used on mainframe servers such as the IBM^ zSeries (formerly S/390), can test system resources while the operating system isrunning without affecting users of the system. This is a capability that has been sorely lacking in

the Intel processor-based server market.

IBM, working with Intel and PC-Doctor, introduced industry-standard extensions to the CommonInformation Model (CIM) to support concurrent diagnostics. CIM is being developed by theDistributed Management Task Force (DMTF), which officially adopted these diagnostic extensionsas part of CIM in 1999. This Common Diagnostic Model (CDM) standardizes how hardwarevendors will interface their concurrent diagnostics (also called OS-Present Diagnostics or On-LineDiagnostics) with the operating system, making the diagnostic routines available to all CIM-awarediagnostic applications. With the diagnostic extensions to CIM now defined, IBM is working with


23


24/34

independent hardware vendors to define methods and create concurrent diagnostic tools andutilities to keep xSeries servers up and running.

For example, with IBM Active Diagnostics (our implementation of CDM) a LAN adapter withPredictive Failure Analysis (PFA) capabilities could automatically trigger concurrent diagnostics(without disturbing the users of that server) when certain soft error thresholds are exceeded. If afault is detected by the diagnostics, the adapter could automatically fail over to a redundant spare.(If the server is also equipped with Active PCI adapter slots, the failing LAN adapter could then bereplaced with a new one without ever taking the server down.) These health monitoring activitieswill be concurrently running along with user programs. The combination of PFA, ActiveDiagnostics and hot-swap components means that you may never again have to shut down yourxSeries server to run diagnostics or replace failing components.

New xSeries servers incorporating Active Diagnostics are scheduled to appear sometime in thesecond half of 2001.

Active PCI. Active PCI provides another IBM solution to increase total server availability by lettingyou add or replace Active PCI-capable cards and make other changes to your servers withouthaving to shut down your xSeries servers. Active PCI features, which are designed to increasetotal server availability, can be categorized as follows:

! Hot-swap Allows you to replace failed or soon-to-be-failing adapters in the system, withoutrestarting.

! Hot-add Allows you to add new adapters to the server while it is running. (IBM was the firstin the industry to offer this.)

! Failover If one adapter fails, a second, backup, adapter can pick up the workload on thefly.

IBM Active PCI13 for Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows NT and Novell NetWare promotes highavailability for xSeries servers. IBM also plans Active PCI support for Linux in 2002. The WindowsNT solution includes the following tools: IBM Fault Tolerant Management Interface (FTMI), IBMPCI Hot Plug wizard and IBM PCI Hot Swap wizard. The two wizards provide clear, step-by-stepguidance for adding or swapping adapters. (Windows 2000 support for FTMI is planned, but is notyet available.) Using IBM Active PCI, you can upgrade your server, replace adapters and makeother changes without having to shut down your xSeries servers.

IBM FTMI for Windows works with fault-tolerant pairs or groups of adapters to manage thefailover operation of those adapters in servers that support Active PCI, from a consistent userinterface.

Automatic Server Restart. When a server locks up due to an operating system crash or atransitory hardware eventsuch as a power flickeroften all that is needed to rectify the problemis to restart the server. Typically, if there is no one physically present to flip the power switch orpress Ctrl-Alt-Del, the server remains offline until someone is able to get there to restart it. In ane-commerce environment, even a few minutes of downtime can result in the loss of tens ofthousands of dollars in revenues. The obvious solution is to design a w

Documents

IBM xSeries Architecture