Full contrast analysis of rack-and-blade server

First, rack server and its characteristics




A
rack server is a server that can be installed directly into a standard 19-inch cabinet, which is typically similar to a switch in size, so the rack server is actually a product of industrial standardization, and its appearance is designed in accordance with the unified standard, with the unified use of the cabinet, To meet the enterprise's server-intensive deployment requirements. The main role of the rack server is to save space, because the ability to put more than one server to a cabinet, not only can occupy a smaller space, but also easy to unified management. The height of a common cabinet is 42U (1u=1.75 inches or 4.4 centimeters), the rack server is 19 inches wide, and most rack servers are 1u-4u high.




The advantage of a
rack server is that it takes up less space and facilitates unified management, but because of the internal space constraints, extensibility is limited, for example, 1U of servers are mostly only 1 to 2 PCI expansion slots. In addition, thermal performance is also a need to pay attention to, in addition to the need for organic cabinets and other equipment, so this server for more server number of http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/15530.html "> Large Enterprises use , there are many enterprises that use this type of server, but the server delivered to the dedicated server hosting agencies to host, especially the current number of Web servers are in this way.





second, blade server and its characteristics




The
Blade server is a highly available, high-density, Low-cost server platform is specially for the special application industry and high-density computer environment design, its main structure is a large body chassis, inside can insert many "blades", where each blade is actually a system motherboard, similar to a separate server, They can start their own operating system from the local hard disk. Each blade can run its own system, serving a specified set of different user groups, with no association to each other. Also, you can use system software to assemble these boards into a single server cluster. In cluster mode, all blades can be connected to provide a high-speed network environment, share resources, and serve the same user base. By inserting new blades into the cluster, you can improve overall performance. Because each blade is hot-swappable, the system can easily be replaced and the maintenance time minimized.





Depending on the server capabilities required, blades are divided into server blades, network blades, storage blades, management blades, Fibre Channel SAN blades, extended I/O blades, and so on. Blade server has recognized two characteristics, one is to overcome the shortcomings of the chip server cluster, has become the Terminator of the cluster, the other is the implementation of the Cabinet optimization.





three, blade server and Rack Server advantages Full contrast





at present, Blade server products in multi-core, Low-power technology will be driven from the initial pursuit of high-density blade server, to emphasize the overall performance, high productivity of the next generation of blade products. The blades will focus on more high-density, agile deployment and maintenance, full monitoring management, high scalability, high availability, and become a mature mainstream product with rack-and-neck servers. At present, blade server in many industries has opened a breakthrough, market demand has been stimulated, blade server market in the future attention.





Currently, as a new star in the server field, this high-density blade server brings market prospects have been favored by major server manufacturers, including, of course, IBM, HP, SUN, Dell and other international brands such as Lenovo, Wave, Dawn and other well-known domestic brand. Let's compare blade server and Rack server advantages.





1, from space density to see blade server and Rack server




The
blade server is more space-saving than a rack server, and the blade server actually increases the space density of the rack server by 50%. When the cabinet system is configured well, the 1U rack optimized server system is transplanted to the blade server, and the space occupied is only the original 1/3~1/2. In a standard rack-and-cabinet environment, blade server processing density increased four to five times times. For example, in a high-density computing server environment that handles 1024 of nodes, if you are using all 1U-configured servers, you need 24 cabinets, excluding the cabinet space occupied by the Ethernet switching hub, and a blade with 8 blades, which requires only 9 cabinets, It includes the cabinet space of the Ethernet switching hub.





2, from the computer room wiring and management to see Blade server and Rack server





Blade server in the computer room wiring as long as the unified network cable, power cord, blade servers do not need artificial wiring, and the rack server to each server's network line, power cord for wiring, if a 42U cabinet installed more than 1U server, the cabinet behind the wiring is very much, looks more messy. If we need 10 highly reliable 1U rack servers, with KVM, network, and management capabilities, we need 20 power supplies (redundant power supplies), 10 KVM cables, at least 20 network cables (one for each server with management and network lines), This does not include cables connecting external storage and other devices. The cable wiring of Blade server scheme is obviously better than 1U rack scheme.





from a TCO perspective, blade servers are easier to manage, provide more processing power in smaller spaces, and cost less. Because many parts can be shared, unlike 1U servers. For example, in the above example, when we adopt the blade server, we no longer need 10 DVD optical drives, 10 different remote management modules and 20 power supplies.