Chapter 1. Introduction
The IBM
®
BladeCenter
®
E Type 8677 unit is a high-density, high-performance
rack-mounted server system. The BladeCenter unit provides up to 14 bays for blade
servers and other BladeCenter devices, integrating common resources that are
shared by the blade servers. The use of common resources provides a small
server-system footprint that contains high-performing servers with minimal cabling.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, references to the BladeCenter unit apply to any
IBM BladeCenter units. The illustrations in this document might differ slightly
from your hardware.
The BladeCenter unit provides the following common resources:
v Hot-swap blade-server bays on the front of the BladeCenter unit and hot-swap
module bays on the rear of the BladeCenter unit. You can add, remove, or
replace blade servers, management modules, I/O modules, power modules, and
blower modules in hot-swap bays without removing power from the BladeCenter
unit.
v A midplane that is connected to all BladeCenter components.
v One or two management modules that perform system-management functions.
v Power modules that provide redundant power for all BladeCenter components.
There are four power modules that operate in redundant pairs. Each pair
provides power to selected BladeCenter components.
v Blowers that provide cooling for all BladeCenter components. There are two
blower modules.
v Four input/output (I/O) module bays that support external network interface
connections to network resources and other devices.
v A media tray that contains an optical drive (such as a CD or DVD drive) and a
Universal Serial Bus (USB) port that can be assigned to any blade server.
This Installation and User’s Guide provides information about the following tasks:
v Defining and recording your BladeCenter network configuration information
v Installing and cabling the BladeCenter unit
v Installing basic BladeCenter unit optional devices:
– Management module
– I/O module
– Blade server
v Performing basic troubleshooting of the BladeCenter unit
Packaged with the Installation and User’s Guide are software CDs that help you to
configure and manage the Type 8677 BladeCenter unit.
The BladeCenter comes with a limited warranty. For information about the terms of
the warranty and getting service and assistance, see the Warranty and Support
Information document for your BladeCenter on the IBM Documentation CD.
You can obtain up-to-date information about your BladeCenter and other IBM server
products at http://www.ibm.com/bladecenter/
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2010 1
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