HP c7000 Bladesystem enclosure with 16 server blades installed

BladeSystem is a line of blade server machines from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Hewlett-Packard before 2015) that was introduced in October 2004.[1][2][3]

The BladeSystem forms part of the HP Converged Systems, which use a common converged infrastructure architecture for server, storage, and networking products.[4] Designed for enterprise installations of 100 to more than 1,000 Virtual machines, the HP ConvergedSystem 700 is configured with BladeSystem servers.[5] When managing a software-defined data center, a System administrator can perform automated lifecycle management for BladeSystems using HP OneView for converged infrastructure management.[6]

The BladeSystem allows users to build a high density system, up to 128 servers in each rack.[7] As of Dec 01, 2015 HPE announced the upcoming next-generation bladed infrastructure HPE Synergy line of product that was to be released in Q2 of 2016[8].

HPE Synergy is a software-defined infrastructure architected to run traditional workloads that run on HPE BladeSystem today such as databases, email, and virtual server farms. HPE Synergy also supports more agility-focused operating models, such as DevOps and cloud native applications. It is a composable bladed infrastructure that powers any workload within a hybrid cloud environment.[9]


Components

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Enclosures

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HP c7000 enclosure

Currently[when?] HP offers 2 types of enclosures in its BladeSystem lineup.

c7000

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Initial Offering

    • 3Q-2006 4XXXXX-B21

Initial Update

    • 3Q-2007 4XXXXX-B22, B33 Initial Update

RoHS Enclosure

    • 2Q-2009 5XXXXX-B21, 68661X-B21

Platinum Enclosure

    • 1Q-2013 6XXXXX-B21, 7XXXXX-B21

HP c7000 enclosure was announced in June 2006. In 2007 there was a minor update including larger Onboard Administrator display (3 inches, up from 2 inches). The next update was in 2009 and brought RoHS compatibility, increased backplane speed (5Tbit/s, up from 4Tbit/s) and 1Gbit/s Onboard Administrator connectivity. Fourth version – c7000 Platinum was announced in February 2013. It features location discovery services, thermal discovery services and redesigned backplane. The new backplane increased aggregate bandwidth 40% from 5 to 7 Tbit/s to allow use newest high-speed interconnect modules (such as 16Gbit/s FC and 56Gbit/s FDR InfiniBand). Also the new Platinum Plus rating power supplies were announced with higher efficiency than previous Gold Plus rating power supplies.[10]

All versions of the enclosure occupy 10 rack units and can accommodate up to 16 half-height blade servers. It includes space for 6 power supplies (single-phase, three-phase or a −48V DC), 10 cooling fans, 8 single-wide (such as Gigabit Ethernet or FC) or 4 double-wide (such as 40Gb Ethernet or Infiniband) interconnect modules (that allows for up to 4 redundant interconnect fabrics)

c3000

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HP c3000 enclosure was announced in August 2007. Updated version of the enclosure called c3000 Platinum was announced in February 2013

All versions of the enclosure occupy 6 rack units or can be used as a standalone unit (with optional tower conversion kit) It can accommodate up to 8 half-height blade servers. It includes space for 6 power supplies (single-phase, or a -48V DC), 6 cooling fans, 4 single-wide or 2 single-wide and one double-wide interconnect modules

Server blades

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HP Proliant BL660 Gen8 server blade

HP offers general-purpose Proliant server blades as well as Integrity (based on Intel Itanium CPU) and specialized Proliant aimed at workstation virtualization. Servers can use half-height/full-height and single-wide/double-wide/quad-wide form factors. Apart from built-in Ethernet network adapters, optional mezzanine cards can be installed to further increase connectivity options.

In current generation (Gen9) half-height Proliant blade servers with up to 2 CPU and full-height 4 CPU servers are available.

Networking

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Several networking options are available for the HP Bladesystem:

  • HP's proprietary Virtual Connect modules
  • Cisco switches and fabric extenders
  • Gigabit networks switches
  • HP Procurve switches
  • HP Comware based switches
  • Passthrough modules
  • Mellanox Infiniband
  • Brocade SAN-switches
  • Cisco SAN-switches

Storage

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Storage options include:

  • Internal server HDDs (usually 2 to 4 with hot-swap capability)
  • Internal USB, SD or microSD slot (can be used for installing hypervisor)
  • Connecting to external SAN via FC, SAS or iSCSI mezzanine card
  • Storage blade (with large number of internal HDD's)
  • Tape blade (half-height blade unit hosting LTO tape drive and designed to connect to adjacent blade server)

References

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  1. ^ https://www.hpe.com/info/bladesystem
  2. ^ http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/042009-hp-bladesystem.html
  3. ^ https://archive.is/20120717211616/http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=1930905
  4. ^ Rouse, Margaret. (2013–12). “Definition: Converged Infrastructure,” TechTarget.com. [1]
  5. ^ Morgan, Timothy Prickett. (2013-4-29). “HP mashes up ProLiant, Integrity, BladeSystem, and Moonshot server business,” The Register.com. [2]
  6. ^ Tiano, Luigi. (2013-9-28). “HP OneView Managing the Converged Infrastructure Data Center,” 1CloudRoad. [3]
  7. ^ "HP Puts 1000 Cores in a Single Rack". Tom's Hardware. June 11, 2008. Retrieved 14 Apr 2013.
  8. ^ "HP News - Composable Infrastructure, hybrid infrastructure, HPE Synergy, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OneView, hybrid cloud, Discover". www8.hp.com. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  9. ^ HPE (05/22/2019). "HPE Synergy Composable Software Defined Infrastructure Platform". HPE Synergy Composable Software Defined Infrastructure Platform. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "HP cranks up bandwidth on BladeSystem sheaths, adds pretty platinum stripe". The Register.
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Category:Server hardware Category:HP servers Category:Ultra-dense servers Category:Computer-related introductions in 2004