Beginners to take you to know Blade server technology

&http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/37954.html ">nbsp; The so-called Blade server (which is precisely called a blade server) means that multiple, modular server units can be plugged into a standard, rack-mounted chassis to achieve high availability and high-density. Each "blade" is actually a system motherboard. They can start their own operating systems via a "onboard" hard disk, such as Windows nt/2000, Linux, and so on, similar to a separate server in which each motherboard runs its own system, serves the different user groups specified, and is not associated with each other. However, administrators can use system software to assemble these boards into a single server cluster. In cluster mode, all of the motherboard can be connected to provide a high-speed network environment, and simultaneously share resources for the same user group services. By inserting a new "blade" into the cluster, you can improve overall performance. Because each "blade" is hot-swappable, the system can be easily replaced, and the maintenance time minimized.

These blade servers at the beginning of the design have low power consumption, small space, the price of a single machine, and it also inherits some of the traditional server's technical indicators, such as the use of hot Plug and redundancy in the blade server, these designs meet the dense computing environment for server performance requirements Some of them also improve the stability of the server and the core network performance through the built-in load balancing technology. From the appearance, compared with the traditional rack/tower server, Blade Server can maximize the use of the server space and cost, and provide users with flexible, convenient means of extending the upgrade.

As a film fan, we have for the "hero" magnificent scenes of joy, for the "Lord of the Rings," The magnificent picture of the stunning, they at their respective awards ceremony out of the limelight. But did you ever think that for us to provide these, the main contributor to the technology is actually the blade server. In charge of the hero computer stunt is one of the most advanced and innovative digital content Creation center in Asia, the digital Media Center in Hong Kong's Cyberport, with HP blade servers and workstations, and it was the 588 IBM blades that played the role of computer stunts in The Lord of the Rings. It is these knife-like servers that have completed the image synthesis and rendering of the special effects scene.

This is just a small example of server-valued and an area! Petrobras, Brazil's largest oil company, employs a Linux-based grid system made up of IBM eserver BladeCenter blade servers. The Dagang branch of the China Petroleum Group Oriental Geophysical Corporation adopts the HP ProLiant bl20p G2 blade Server as the compute node's high performance computing cluster system. Starting with the introduction of a single processor blade server from RLX in the late 2000, it has now hit the global IT industry as a "server industry supernova" and will slowly dominate the server market. Gartner's forecasts also show that market share for blade servers will reach 20% in 2006, compared with less than 1% in 2003. With such an explosion of excitement about it, let's get to know the new star.

What is a "blade"?

It is mainly because of the blade shape like a blade of the name, it is the birth of the network in depth and the user cluster management, expanding the demand. It was originally a low-cost server platform called "HAHD (high availability density, highly available high-density)", with small footprint and easy management, designed for special applications and high-density computer environments. More compact in structure than rack-mount servers, each "blade" is highly integrated with CPUs, hard drives, memory, network interfaces, and control chips, and is thin like a blade, inserted on the back panel of the blade server chassis.

But to be exact, each "blade" is a separate motherboard that can start the same or different operating systems, with no association to each other, similar to a separate server, and each CPU can be configured as a different subsystem; they can also be multiple, relatively independent "blade" Server systems, Using system software to synthesize them into a cluster, in which all "blades" are connected to provide a high-speed network environment for the same user group service. Based on these two points, the biggest purchase point for the blade server is its "highly simplified and flexible expansion" and its continued challenge to low costs.