Welcome to IBM System x ™ Technical Principles - Systems Management . This is Topic 9 of the System x Technical Principles Course series – XTW01.
After completing this topic, you should be able: Define the key functions in Systems Director 6.1 List the three types of agents in Systems Director 6.1 Identify the base and advanced plug-in managers in Systems Director 6.1 Identify the systems management framework and topology in System Director 5.2 List hardware based systems management options Describe the major components of the Cool Blue Portfolio
In this topic, we will introduce the new IBM Systems Director 6.1 and its features, provides an overview of IBM System Director 5.2 and its system management topology. We will also list the available systems management hardware based-options. Finally, we will provide an overview of the IBM Cool Blue Portfolio. We will begin with introducing the new IBM System Director 6.1
Virtualization has completely transformed enterprise-class IT. Virtualized solutions unlock technological resources, such as processing power and storage, from specific hardware, redelivering them in a fluid form that can be allocated dynamically to business goals and strategies in real time. Next-generation virtualized infrastructures, however, require next-generation management tools. Older tools generally lack the modern feature set and focus required to achieve the highest performance and most flexible response from virtualized solutions. As a result, the overall business value that these outdated tools generate is also suboptimal. Furthermore, when different tools are used to manage different virtual technologies, management complexity increases. A superior solution would empower administrators to manage both virtual servers and virtual storage under a single pane of glass.
IBM offers a platform management solution that can help address major concerns associated with next generation virtualized infrastructures: reducing operational complexity, cost management, energy management. IBM Systems Director 6.1 is a platform management solution that streamlines the way physical and virtual systems are managed across a multi-system environment while supporting easy to use, point-and-click interface. At the core of an IT management strategy it can reduce the costs of IT service delivery, improve business resiliency and security, and help meet energy usage requirements. Reducing complexity with integrated platform and enterprise service management Many different tools can be used separately to help improve IT efficiency on a per component basis, but only when the tools are integrated can you truly optimize for IT efficiency. Integration enables sharing of data and for a consolidated, single view of the IT infrastructure which reduces complexity and helps make the IT administrators more productive. IBM Systems Director offers a competitive, integrated solution that manages both physical and virtual servers at a platform level and at an enterprise level. Deploying and managing virtual servers to control datacenter space IBM Systems Director 6.1 helps with deploying and managing virtualized and consolidated servers so that one can avoid the expense of upgrading existing facilities or building new ones. Controlling energy helps meet green initiatives and cost objectives IBM Systems Director 6.1 delivers the base to enable energy management tools to help see and manage energy usage on supported servers.
IBM Systems Director 6.1 is a platform-management foundation that streamlines the way you manage physical and virtual systems across a heterogeneous environment. By using industry standards, IBM Systems Director 6.1 supports multiple operating systems and virtualization technologies across IBM and non-IBM x86 platforms. Through a single user interface, IBM Systems Director 6.1 provides consistent views for viewing managed systems, determining how these systems relate to one another, and identifying their statuses, thus helping to correlate technical resources with business needs. A set of common tasks included with IBM Systems Director 6.1 provides many of the core capabilities required for basic management, which means instant out-of-the-box business value. These common tasks include discovery, inventory, configuration, system health, monitoring, updates, event notification and automation across managed systems.
IBM Systems Director 6.1 is a critical part of the overall IBM end-end management strategy. By leveraging industry standards, Systems Director supports multiple operating systems and virtualization technologies across IBM and non-IBM platforms. Through a single user interface, Systems Director 6.1 provides consistent views for visualizing managed systems, determining how these systems relate to one another and identifying their status, thus helping to correlate technical resources with business needs. IBM Systems Director 6.1 itself can be divided into two areas: Base Systems Director Managers and Hardware Platform Managers provided with IBM Systems Director 6.1 deliver core capabilities to manage the full lifecycle of IBM server, storage, network and virtualization systems. Advanced Managers and Priced Plug-Ins - IBM Systems Director 6.1 enables you to extend the base platform with additional plug-ins, separately installed. By following design guidelines, a plug-in of this type can deliver key new functionalities while retaining a consistent user experience with the base offering by taking advantage of the common tasks and capabilities. IBM Systems Director 6.1 also complements and integrates with higher-level enterprise management software such as Tivoli. IBM Systems Director 6.1, a hardware platform management solution, and Tivoli Software are complementary and can be used either individually or together to deliver superior end-to-end IT management.
You can access the IBM Systems Director 6.1 Web interface using the following URL listed in this slide. The System_name represents the name of the system on which IBM Systems Director 6.1 Server is installed. The Port_number represents the first (lower) of two consecutive port numbers that you specified the Web server to use. (Default ports for the Web server are 8421 and 8422). If you choose to use port 8422, make sure you use https to use a secure port. You will log in simply using ‘userid’ and ‘password’ IBM Systems Director Web interface requires one of the following supported Web browsers. Firefox versions 2.0 and 3.0 Microsoft Internet Explorer® versions 6.0 and 7.0
IBM Systems Director 6.1 console is an easy to use, point and click Web interface that offers simplified management solutions . This is different from the previous versions of IBM System Director which used a Java interface. The first time you login you will be presented with the following welcome page. The Web interface is divided into six areas, which are highlighted. Some of these areas are self-explained, the others are as follows: 1. Navigation area provides categories of tasks that can vary depending on your IBM Systems Director installation. The navigation provides links to tasks you can perform on your resources. Examples of typical tasks might include Navigate Resources, Inventory, Health Summary, Automation and Settings. 2. Select Action List: This list provides the following ways to work with task pages: – My Startup Pages displays customizes the pages that are started automatically when you log in to IBM Systems Director, the page that is displayed first of these automatically started pages, and the default navigation area view. – Manage Open Pages provides a way to manage and close one or more open pages. – Close Page closes the page that you are viewing. 3. The Content area changes depending on the item you select in the navigation area. You can customize aspects of the content area using the Navigation Preferences.
What new in Systems Director 6.1: Simplified deployment, installation and update process Single point of control from a consistent Web-based user interface Easy-to-learn new tasks with intuitive wizards, tutorials and integrated help Topology views to simplify troubleshooting across server, storage and network resources Streamlined lifecycle management of a virtual environment across multiple platforms Increased platform support through leveraged industry standards Support for embedded agents included with a platform or deployed by other systems management tools A consistent access point to integrate and extend platform management throughout the infrastructure Comprehensive system navigation through groups, search, status and relationships.
The IBM Systems Director 6.1 Base is the foundation for platform lifecycle management. It’s primary goal is to support 3 areas: Consolidation of Platform Management Tools - Provide a single consistent cross-platform management tool, enable simplified tasks via Web based interface, and manage many systems from one console Integrated Physical and Virtual Management - Support discovery and inventory of physical and virtual resources, support configuration and provisioning of platform resources, track and display status, health, and monitoring of platform resources, enable visualization of server resource topologies, and provide support to move virtual servers between systems without disruption to running workloads Platform Update Management - delivers a simplified consistent cross-platform tools to acquire, distribute and install firmware and OS updates
This chart identities the IBM System Director 6.1 base plug-ins: Discovery Manager—Discovers virtual and physical systems and related resources Status Manager—Provides health status, alerts and monitors of system resources Update Manager—Notifies, downloads, and installs updates for systems Automation Manager—Performs actions based on system events
Configuration Manager—Configures one or more systems resource settings Remote Access Manager—Provides a remote console, a command line and file transfer features to target systems Virtualization Manager—Creates, edits, relocates and deletes virtual resources Hardware Platform Managers - provide unique support for IBM Systems such as: Power Systems, System z, System x, BladeCenter and Storage Systems)
IBM Systems Director 6.1 enables you to extend the base platform with additional plug-ins, separately installed. A plug-in to IBM Systems Director 6.1 is defined as software that is installed on top of the base which delivers key additional functionalities while retaining a consistent user experience with the IBM Systems Director base offering by taking advantage of the common tasks and capabilities. IBM intends to provide the following over time: Image Manager provides a single, unified view of all system templates and server images to help customers manage and deploy their systems. It allows customers to easily deploy new physical and virtual servers based on system templates and images. Active Energy Manager - measures, monitors and manages the energy components built into IBM systems, enabling a cross-platform management solution while also extending the scope of energy management to include facility providers, thus enabling a more complete view of energy consumption within the data center. Service and Support Manager - identifies and reports hardware-related problems. These problems are integrated into Status Manager to extend the system health status via a new service category. The automated Electronic Service Agent capabilities are used to gather service information and report problems to IBM.
BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager (BOFM) - allows for the assignment and reassignment of Ethernet MAC and Fibre Channel WWN addresses used by the I/O ports on server blades in the IBM BladeCenter chassis. Workload Partition Manager (WPAR) - used to deliver consistent response times, automatically adjusting resources for utilization spikes in Power systems IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Operating System Deployment (TPMfOSD) - a best-in-class tool designed to provision an operating system via a library of disk images to supported systems on the network. Along with Systems Director, this tool dramatically simplifies the server configuration and operating system installation, BIOS updates and disposal of retired systems for both IBM and non-IBM systems.
IBM Systems Director 6.1 Agent features: Common Agent which provides: A single agent management system for status reporting and operations Director Agent is now cross-compatible with certain Tivoli® products, such as Tivoli Provisioning Manager Shared, single incoming port (firewall friendly) Common authentication and credential management Availability using watchdog restart service Subagent add/remove/update/start/stop remote capabilities Replaces the previous IBM Director 5.x Level 2 Agent while providing Seamless integration of Platform Agent Other agents include: Platform Agent Provides a subset of Common Agent functions used to communicate with and administer the managed system, including hardware alerts and status information Improved interoperability through open standards, rather than through proprietary technologies Firmware and driver updates and remote deployment Agent-less Management Agent-less managed systems are best for environments that require very small footprints and are used for specific tasks, such as one-time inventory collection, firmware and driver updates, and remote deployment.
IBM Systems Director 6.1 console builds upon industry-standard technologies (AJAX, Web 2.0, JSR 168 portlets) and leverages existing components to provide a powerful and extensible Web-based console. It allows you to carry out many essential platform tasks spanning a broad range of resources. The flexible and intuitive Web-based interface helps you to carry out tasks such as: Setup and deployment Searching for necessary tasks and resources Dynamically tracking system status Visually mapping the relationships between resources Creating a health summary prioritized for your business needs.
A review of some of the added features of IBM Systems Director 6.1 is provided here: Web-based user interface with resource navigation for easy task management Welcome page educates and informs administrators Advanced discovery and inventory features find and utilize resources Health summary view and status monitors track changes in the infrastructure Easier Director Agent deployment and configuration Update management to drive compliance and cross-system consistency Enhanced security limits resource control to appropriate staff Enhanced and increased Director command-line coverage for scripting operations to management server Configuration management speeds and simplifies setup Storage management integrates storage resources Integrated virtualization management New Director Agent features
This slide list the overall benefits of IBM Systems Director 6.1.
This section provides an outline of task comparison for the IBM Systems Director 6.1 and 5.20x
These next three chart provide an outline of the features available with the IBM System Director 6.1 base plug-ins in comparisons to System Director 5.20x features. IBM System 6.1 plug-ins are designed to simply management solutions.
This is a continuous of the IBM Systems Director 6.1 base plug-ins.
This is a continuous of the IBM Systems Director 6.1 base plug-ins.
This section provides an overview of IBM Systems Director 5.20x Systems Management Topology.
IBM Systems Director 5.20 is an integrated, easy-to-use suite of solution tools that is based on industry standards that works with a variety of platforms, operating systems and network protocols enabling systems administrators to manage heterogeneous environments. This includes: Inventory of hardware features and settings System health notification Proactive and automated systems management It can be used on most Intel microprocessor-based systems and certain IBM System i, System p, System x, and System z servers that support Windows, Linux, AIX 5L, and i5/OS, including IBM BladeCenter chassis, IBM blade servers, IBM IntelliStation workstations, IBM Netvista, IBM ThinkCentre, IBM Thinkpad, IBM System Storage products, IBM SurePOS (point-of-sale) systems, IBM System Storage Network Attached Storage (NAS) products, and Lenovo systems. Based on industry standards, IBM Director can be integrated with robust workgroup and enterprise management software from IBM (such as Tivoli), Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, NetIQ, and BMC Software. IBM Director Agent is also supported on non-IBM Intel or AMD based systems with SMBIOS 2.1 or later that meet the Intel Wired for Management (WfM) 2.0 specification.
IBM itself produces the Tivoli Enterprise suite, which can seamlessly integrate in an IBM Director managed environment. As the IBM Director product has been built with an open design/modular concept and with full support for industry standards that provides more choices and more capabilities from a consistent, single interface. There are several System x specific extensions exist to complement the offering. As many customers prefer to rely on centralized, enterprise-level management suites, IBM offers them the Upward Integration Modules, as plug-ins for the most popular suites. These special extensions enable those management suites to discover the IBM Director managed machines, and to receive inventory information, hardware status and alerts. The IBM Director base product offers core capabilities required for basic management. These common tasks include discovery, inventory, configuration, system health, monitoring, updates, event notification and automation across managed systems. In System x servers, many of the IBM Director functionalities are enabled by the presence of dedicate hardware components: the service processors. The Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) comes as standard in nearly all of the products, and in traditional systems, can be complemented by an optional Remote Supervisor Adapter. In a BladeCenter environment, the additional remote functionalities are instead provided by the Management Module, as we will discuss in later slides.
This powerful suite of tools and utilities are accessed from a single Java-based user interface. IBM System Director automates many of the processes required to manage systems proactively throughout their life-cycle. This includes capacity planning, asset tracking, preventive maintenance, diagnostic monitoring, troubleshooting, and more, helping realize maximum system availability, and lower IT costs. The streamlined interface is designed to boost productivity and can allow for advanced hardware management of each specific IBM eServer platform through additional extensions. IBM Director 5.20 is designed to manage a complex environment that contains numerous servers, desktop computers, workstations, mobile (notebook) computers, and assorted devices up to a total of 5,000 systems, and is the common thread across IBM Virtualization Engine to provide consistent management of multiple platforms. The IBM Director V5.20 product is available in multiple languages. National language supported includes the following: English French German Spanish Japanese Korean Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese
The IBM Systems Director 5.20 console interface consists of three panes of information – the Groups pane on the left, the Tasks pane on the right, and the Group Contents pane which displays the Managed Objects in the center. As different Groups are selected, the Group Contents pane information is updated based on that input. The Groups pane lists all the groups available, including the default groups and any groups that have been defined by a user. Clicking a group selects that group for certain tasks performed from the toolbar or the menu. There are two types of groups that you can create in IBM Systems Director: Static groups : These groups contain a specified set of managed systems. IBM Systems Director Server does not automatically update the contents of a static group and the members of a static group are fixed unless you change them through the IBM Director Console or an event action plan. Dynamic groups : These groups are based on specified inventory or task criteria. You can create a dynamic group by specifying criteria that the attributes and properties of the managed systems must match. IBM Director automatically adds or removes managed systems to or from the group when their attributes and properties change, affecting their match to the group criteria. You also can create a dynamic group based on the types of tasks for which the group of managed systems is enabled.
The Group Contents pane lists the managed objects included in the group selected in the Groups pane. The title of the Group Contents pane indicates which group is selected. Clicking the title opens a menu from which you can select a group to display. Clicking a listed object selects that object for certain tasks performed from the toolbar or the menu. Right-clicking an object selects that object and displays a context menu allowing tasks to be performed on the object. The icon for each managed object indicates both the type of managed object and its online status: icons for online objects appear in color, while icons for offline objects appear in gray. The Tasks pane lists tasks which can be performed in IBM Systems Director. Please note that the list of tasks in the Task pane is static, but not all tasks are available for all groups or managed objects. Right-clicking blank space in any pane displays a context menu from which you can change the pane’s appearance or sorting, or perform tasks specific to that pane. For example, in the Group Contents pane you can create new managed objects manually, find and view objects, or perform actions on the selected group.
The IBM Systems Director 5.20 software has three main components (Server, Agent, and Console) which are deployed on systems according to their function: A system on which IBM Systems Director Server is installed is called the Management Server. The Management Server is at the core of this three tier-architecture as it is the one that initiates the tasks against the managed systems. When you install the server component, the IBM Systems Director Agent and Console are also automatically installed. IBM Systems Director Server requires a license. All IBM System x servers and BladeCenter chassis come with an IBM Systems Director Server license. Customers can purchase additional IBM Systems Director Server licenses for installation on non-IBM servers. Servers, workstations, desktop computers, and mobile computers with the IBM Systems Director Agent installed become Managed Systems. Network devices, printers, or computers that have SNMP agents installed or embedded can also be managed as SNMP devices. As well, additional components such as physical platforms, chassis, and storage devices compliant to the SMI-S standard can be discovered and managed. Collectively, all managed systems, devices, and objects are referred to as managed objects .
IBM Systems Director 5.20 console is the graphical user interface (GUI) for IBM Systems Director Server. Data is transferred between IBM Systems Director Console and IBM Systems Director Server through TCP/IP. Using IBM Systems Director Console, systems administrators can conduct comprehensive systems management using either a drag-and-drop action or a single click. A system on which IBM Systems Director Console is installed is called a Management Console. From it, a system administrator remotely accesses the management server and perform tasks on System x, i, p and z servers. When IBM Systems Director Console is installed on a system, IBM Systems Director Agent is not installed automatically. If users want to manage the system on which IBM Systems Director Console (a management console) has been installed, they must also install IBM Systems Director Agent on the same system. Customers may install IBM Systems Director Console on as many systems as needed. IBM Systems Director includes an unlimited-use license for IBM Systems Director Console. As an alternative to the GUI, systems administrators can also use a command-line interface (DIRCLI) to access, control, and gather information from IBM Systems Director Server.
IBM Systems Director Agent provides management data to IBM Systems Director Server. Data can be transferred using TCP/IP, NetBIOS, or IPX network protocols. IBM Systems Director Agent permits IBM Systems Director Server to communicate with all managed systems on the network. The IBM Systems Director agent three-tiered approach is designed to provide customers with the capability of running a reduced or no-memory footprint agent. The following classification can be adopted: Level-0: Management through the network services that are native to the operating system: Secure Shell (SSH) or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). No IBM Systems Director software is installed. Level-1: Management through installation of IBM Systems Director Core Services, which provides a subset of IBM Systems Director Agent functionality, including Remote Session, Power Control, Hardware Status, Event Log, hardware-only inventory data, and distribution of system level updates. Level-2: Management through installation of the “full” IBM Systems Director Agent, which provides added functionality for administering the system. The functionality of IBM Systems Director Agent on the managed system will vary depending on the operating system and platform. This level is limited to 5,000 licenses.
Customers willing to only have a subset of features (i.e.: “basic” alerting features or Upward integration capabilities) can opt to do so without having to install the full featured Agent. As well, customers can easily promote the agents from one level to a higher one. This includes the capability of using IBM Systems Director Server mass deployment capabilities to also push an agent to systems that did not contain any, therefore providing a source for savings on time and resources.
Note that each successive level of IBM Systems Director Agent functionality builds on the functions of the previous levels. That way customers can choose what level of systems management features and functions that would be appropriate to their individual situation. As their management needs change, they can easily update the agents to increase their management capability.
This diagram illustrates the inter-connection of all the components of IBM Systems Director 5.20.
IBM Systems Director 5.20 contains a set of core and additional services that can be installed from the base product. However, the suite can be further extended for even greater management and optimization of IBM server systems with optional tools that integrate into the IBM Systems Director interface for consistent, single point of management. IBM Systems Director 5.20 capabilities can be further augmented by installing any of the IBM Systems Director Extensions. We will discuss some of the extension in the next slides.
This chart identifies the IBM System Director 5.20 extensions: Capacity Manager is a fee-based extension for IBM Systems Director 5.20 that provides administrators with a resource-management planning tool that monitors managed-system performance. It identifies bottlenecks and potential (latent) bottlenecks, recommends ways to improve performance through performance-analysis reports, and forecasts performance trends. Similar to the Resource Monitors task, which users also can use to monitor resource utilization. Capacity Manager can be used for longer-term resource-utilization monitoring and to capture resource-monitor trends. System Availability tool can be freely downloaded and used to analyze the availability of a managed system or group. Customers can view statistics about managed systems uptime and downtime through reports and graphical representations. They can identify problematic managed systems that have had too many unplanned outages over a given period of time or a managed system that has availability data that is too old or fails to report data to IBM Systems Director Server. When a System Availability report is generated, managed systems that meet specified criteria as being problematic are flagged as such. IBM Virtualization Manager is an extension to IBM Director that allows you to discover, visualize, and manage both physical and virtual systems from a single console. Virtualization Manager simplifies management of VMware, Xen Microsoft® and POWER based Virtual Server environments. Virtualization Manager also integrates with and complements VMware VirtualCenter, linking together management for physical and virtual resources. The ServeRAID Manager extension enables you to remotely manage IBM ServeRAID controllers. You can: View controller status (arrays & LUNs) Scan for new or removed drives Manage (create, delete, increase) arrays and LUNs Manage drives - change status (online/offline), assign hot spares View the details and status of the external enclosure (if present) View the event log The ServeRAID Manager extension requires Agent Level 1 or 2.
IBM Virtualization Manager is an extension to IBM Director that allows you to discover, visualize, and manage both physical and virtual systems from a single console. Virtualization Manager simplifies management of VMware, Xen Microsoft® and POWER based Virtual Server environments. Virtualization Manager also integrates with and complements VMware VirtualCenter, linking together management for physical and virtual resources. The ServeRAID Manager extension enables you to remotely manage IBM ServeRAID controllers. You can: - View controller status (arrays & LUNs) - Scan for new or removed drives - Manage (create, delete, increase) arrays and LUNs - Manage drives - change status (online/offline), assign hot spares - View the details and status of the external enclosure (if present) - View the event log The ServeRAID Manager extension requires Agent Level 1 or 2.
IBM Remote Deployment Manager (RDM) is a powerful and flexible IBM Systems Director extension. When installed in an IBM Systems Director environment, RDM adds tools for configuring, deploying, and retiring systems. RDM integrates seamlessly with IBM Systems Director. Customers can access management and deployment functions through the same administrative console. Software Distribution allows users to import applications and data, build a software package, and distribute the package to IBM Systems Director managed systems. There are two editions of software distribution: standard and premium. With the standard edition, customers can only import software distributed by IBM and build a software package using the Systems Director Update Assistant wizard. With the premium edition, they can greatly extend the capabilities of the tool up to the creation of fully customized packages. The Active Energy Manager extension enables management of actual power consumption and resulting thermal loads. It has the intelligence to control and manage datacenter server power utilization using: - Hardware, embedded management logic - Sensors and alerts exist to warn the user if limiting power to this server is affecting performance It provides more accurate data center planning by gathering actual power draw instead of conservative “label/spec power” estimates.
The following section details hardware-based Systems Management Options available for use with System x servers.
This chart list the various hardware management options available for IBM System x servers. They include the mini-BMC, the BMC, the Remote Supervisor Adapter, and the BladeCenter Advanced Management Module. Each section lists some of the capabilities of each option.
This table lists the features available through the BMC on the systems where the RSA II Slimline is supported, and the additions that are available when this card is installed on them.
The IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II is the follow on of the original RSA product, from which it has inherited most of its features. Dedicated Ethernet Interface - The card has a dedicated Ethernet interface which can be accessed through a LAN connection by using a standard web browser or a Telnet client. The Remote Supervisor Adapter II contains a secure Web server, allowing secure Web-based management from a standard Web browser. The integrated Web server includes an easy-to-use GUI (based on HTML pages) accessible from Microsoft(R) Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Mozilla Web browsers. The presence of a serial interface also allows for the card to be accessed through a modem. The two serial ports support pager alerts via a modem and PPP access.
User Administration - Multiple users with individual passwords can be defined in the card with a discrimination of who has Read or Read/Write access. By default, the card comes preconfigured with an administrative account combination of USERID/PASSW0RD (with a zero instead of a letter “O”). External Power Backup - The Remote Supervisor Adapter II is powered independently of the system either through continuous power provided by the system power supplies on systems supporting it, or through an external AC adapter shipped standard with the option. The external AC adapter may also connect the RSA II to a UPS for battery backup. Full Remote Control - Independent of the host server status, full remote management of the system is possible. Power status can be changed at any time. As well, a remote graphical console can be launched to observe the bootstrap process (interacting with ROM based configuration utilities) or to access the operating system. In addition, power-on and restart statistics are captured and displayed to show the availability of server hardware.
Troubleshooting/Alerting/Monitoring - The RSA II continuously monitors: System environmentals (temperatures and voltages) Operating system status Critical system components, where supported by the system, such as: - Processors - Voltage regulator modules (VRMs) - Memory - Fans - Power supplies - Power back planes The adapter determines the overall server health and automatically takes corrective actions if applicable by incrementally controlling: System power (for example, by automatically restarting the server if the operating system hangs) System components (for example, increasing fan speed if temperatures exceed the warning threshold) If the Automatic Server Restart option is configured, it will monitor the operating system health status. As a watchdog timer expires, the adapter can automatically restart the system. In addition, the server can be automatically restarted if POST or the operating system loader fails. Using its own independent real-time clock, the adapter time-stamps all events, logs them in the non-volatile event log, and automatically notifies the administrator by sending out alerts (if configured to do so by the administrator via SNMP, IBM Systems Director, e-mail, or pager ). Incremental control includes warning thresholds, warning reset, and critical thresholds with controlled and immediate shutdown capabilities. For inventory management purposes, after server bootup, the Remote Supervisor Adapter II collects vital product data of system, BIOS, and server components (as supported by the server and its options) and stores it in non-volatile memory. This information is available remotely at any time and from anywhere to assist in problem resolution and to enhance serviceability.
Remote firmware update - The Remote Supervisor Adapter II supports remote firmware updating. Reliability features help prevent system downtime if remote connections should fail during remote firmware updates or if updates are not transferred correctly. This feature is supported only through a Web browser. Windows “Blue Screen” Capture - The Remote Supervisor Adapter II automatically captures the most recent Windows operating system failure screen to enable problem diagnosis without having to restart the system to reproduce the error. Backup/Restore Configuration file - The Remote Supervisor II configuration file can be saved on the remote administrator workstation, transferred to another adapter, and restored and edited before it is applied to the new system. This makes it easier to initially deploy multiple managed systems without having to re-enter all data for all the systems. This is supported only via a Web browser.
It is important to note that the RSA II card disables the planar video and provides a video card to the monitor. The RSA II card supports up to 32-bit color and up to 1024 x 768 resolution. You’ll need to install the latest supported video driver on the host server. The video driver comes with the RSA II card a on CD.
The advanced management module is a hot-swap BladeCenter module that you use to configure and manage all installed BladeCenter components. The advanced management module provides system-management functions and keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) multiplexing for all the blade servers in a BladeCenter chassis that support KVM. It controls a serial port for remote connection; the external keyboard, mouse, and video connections for use by a local console; and a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet remote-management connection Additional features include: Remote drive USB Virtualization Concurrent Keyboard/Video/Mouse Concurrent Remote Drive Concurrent Media Tray
Under the Login Profile section of the BladeCenter Advanced Management Module, the administrator is able to assign Roles and Scopes for each user based on their level of access. It also allows for better control of groups who share a common chassis.
The light path diagnostics allow you to quickly identify the type of system error that occurred by monitoring and reporting the health of the processors, main memory, hard disk drives, PCI adapters, fans, power supplies, Voltage Regulator Modules ( VRM), and the internal system temperature. The server is designed so that any LEDs that are illuminated remain illuminated when the server shuts down as long as the power source is good. This feature helps you isolate the problem if an error causes the server to shut down. The system board also contains LEDs beside specific components—such as DIMM slots and identifies the failed part. The light path diagnostics works even when the server is unplugged. The two buttons shown on the light path panel are: Remind - You can use the remind button on the light path diagnostics panel to put the system-error LED on the operator information panel into Remind mode. When you press the remind button, you acknowledge the error but indicate that you will not take immediate action. The system-error LED flashes while it is in Remind mode and stays in Remind mode until one of the following conditions occurs: - All known errors are corrected. - The server is restarted. - A new error occurs, causing the system-error LED to be lit again Reset - Use this button to force an immediate system restart
Our final section provides an overview of the IBM Cool Blue initiative.
IBM developed the Cool Blue portfolio of technologies and solutions to address the challenges of power and cooling in the System x server line. These solutions are designed to improve power efficiency and management in the datacenter without compromising throughput or compute performance. IBM offers a range of products and services through the three stages it has identified for a successful corporate power management strategy. These stages include: IBM Power Configurator: A tool to deliver better sizing information Active Energy Manager: A powerful software suite designed to give users better information over their consumption Rear Door Heat eXchanger: An effective solution to the Datacenters looking to limit server cooling consumption requirements.
Cool Blue Energy Management has three levels of operation effectiveness which it’s components fall under: Budget: Power Configurator Plan: Active Energy Manager Save: Rear Door Heat Exchanger
IBM Power Configurator is a tool that will provide better data center sizing information for specific configurations of BladeCenter and System x servers for the following information: Power input (watts) PDU sizing information (Amps=Advanced Minuteman Platform ) Heat Output (BTU=British Thermal Unit) Airflow requirements through chassis (CFM-cubic feet per minute) VA Rating (VA) Leakage current (mA=milli-Amps) Peak inrush current (Amps)
IBM Active Energy Manager is a System x solution building block which enables customers to manage actual power consumption and the resulting thermal loads IBM System x and BladeCenter servers place on the data center. IBM Active Energy Manager tool facilitates monitoring and tracking of trends within the server, including power, cooling and trends over time. You can also download the IBM BladeCenter Power Calculator tool that provide estimation of power consumption for the specific configuration. It shows power consumption for each power domain and overall powers consumption as well as other characteristics. This tool can be downloaded from IBM System x and BladeCenter Support site.
How does Active Energy Manager work? Hardware, firmware, and systems management software in servers and blades can take inventory of components IBM Active Energy Manager adds the power draw up for each server/blade and tracks that usage over time When power is constrained, IBM Active Energy Manager allows power to be allocated on a server-by-server basis - Care should be taken that limiting power consumption does not affect performance - Sensors and alerts can warn the user if limiting power to this server is affecting performance. In the future, group power policies may be developed across groups of servers and reallocated dynamically.
In a “traditional data center thermal control”, cold air is pumped from the AC units through the raised floor of the data center and into the cold aisles between facing server racks. Air-conditioned air is pulled from the cold aisle through the racks and exits the back of the servers. The heat from the server racks exhausts into the hot aisles where it is returned to the AC units to be chilled. However, as many more high-powered datacom components are introduced into these rows of racks, the heated air may eventually exceed the capabilities of the AC units and hot spots develop. Most “hot spots” form from clustered components, fully populated racks and racks filled with components such as Blade servers.
With Rear Door Heat eXchanger many of the issues with “hot spots” are eliminated through key components such as: No fans or electricity is needed. No chance for mechanical failure. It is a passive system – Systems can air cool without opening/removing the door It is designed to prevent condensation It attaches to the back of the rack- only adding 5”, so in places where you have 3 racks today, you will still have 3 racks tomorrow. This design does not require a total rearrangement of the datacenter
This slide presents a glossary of terms used in this topic.
Having completed this topic, you should be able to: Define the key functions in Systems Director 6.1 List the three types of agents in Systems Director 6.1 Identify the base and advanced plug-in managers in Systems Director 6.1 Identify the systems management framework and topology in System Director 5.2 List hardware based systems management options Describe the major components of the Cool Blue Portfolio
Listed are some additional resources that will help you learn more about IBM System x. IBM offers a rich library of resources on a variety of topics - from customized Web-based education to downloadable brochures, planning and installation guides on popular solutions, as well as maintaining IBM Systems.
