《Sun Fire X4140、X4240 和 X4440 服务器 Windows 操作系统安 …€¦ · AaBbCc123 保留未译的新词或术语以及要强 调的词。要使用实名或值替换的 命令行变量。
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 Server Architecture · SUN FIRE™ X4140, X4240, AND X4440 SERVER...
Transcript of Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 Server Architecture · SUN FIRE™ X4140, X4240, AND X4440 SERVER...
SUN FIRE™ X4140, X4240, AND X4440
SERVER ARCHITECTURE
Compact, Dense, and Scalable Systems Based on Powerful Dual-Core and Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ Processors
White PaperMay 2008
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Evolution of x64 Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Sun Fire™ X4140, X4240, and X4440 Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
System Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
A Choice of Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Innovative and Consistent System Design for the Datacenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Server Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
System-Level Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Sun Fire X4140 Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Sun Fire X4240 Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Sun Fire X4440 Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Solaris™ Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Integrated Lights Out Management (ILOM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Sun xVM Ops Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Fore More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Executive Summary
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Executive Summary
Explosive growth in a wide range of computing disciplines is putting immense pressures
on the datacenter. Applications from Web services to high performance computing
(HPC) are calling for ever-increasing resources, even as they demand robust IT
infrastructure that is truly mission critical. As servers grow in number, it becomes ever
more important to deploy systems that consider datacenter needs as a fundamental
aspect of design.
Regrettably, deploying and administering dynamic compute and storage infrastructure
can be fraught with complexity. Administrative, energy, and real estate costs continue
to grow unabated, and sprawl within the datacenter can severely strain IT budgets.
Many are responding with consolidation strategies that combine ever more powerful
standard x64 systems with innovative new approaches to virtualization. Not only does
consolidation offer to improve vital resource utilization, but it can also greatly enhance
business agility by providing computational resources where they are needed most.
Sun Fire™ X4140, X4120, and X4440 servers combine the latest high-performance AMD
Opteron™ processors with Sun's proven datacenter-centric design focus. Ideal for high-
performance and mission-critical applications alike, these systems deliver scalable and
manageable x64 computing in dense and servicable rackmount enclosures. Using the
latest Dual-Core and Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and
X4440 servers are ideal for HPC, database, and Web infrastructure, as well as
consolidation and virtualization initiatives. These systems offer compelling compute,
memory, storage, and I/O density, as well as considerable energy efficiency to help
organizations live within their means. Sun Fire X4140, X4120, and X4440 servers also
share innovative rackmount packaging with Sun™'s other volume x64 and SPARC
®
servers
With a choice of operating systems — including the Solaris™ Operating System (Solaris
OS), Linux, Microsoft Windows, and VMware — these servers effectively combine Dual-
Core and Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with balanced system designs. Large
memory support, large numbers of internal disks, large I/O bandwidth, and up to four
processor sockets give these systems the capacity to handle the most demanding
applications. With datacenter operation as a fundamental design assumption, these
systems offer redundant and hot-swappable components, efficient front-to-back air
flow, highly-efficient power supplies, and built-in system management tools. Sun Fire
X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are engineered for mission-critical application
availability, conserve valuable energy resources, and lower operational expenses —
even as they deliver performance and agility in a dense and effective package.
This document details the systems architecture of Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440
servers, along with key software components.
2
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Chapter 1
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Modern IT infrastructure is under near-constant strain. Compute and storage demands
have caused datacenters to grow exponentially in recent years to support new Web
services, high-performance computing (HPC), and other compute-hungry applications.
To stay competitive, organizations must deploy applications quickly, delivering compute
power where it is needed most, all with increasingly little margin for error. As a result,
many datacenters have become sprawling and complex, and most are up against very
real constraints in terms of power, cooling, and real estate.
Consolidation through virtualization has emerged as an effective strategy for
addressing the very real need for computing scalability while increasing the work that
can be done in a given power, thermal, and physical footprint. Consolidation can
improve resource utilization, reduce administrative complexity, and drive down IT costs.
Consolidating many smaller legacy servers into fewer more powerful systems can also
help to minimize administrative workloads while increasing capacity and conserving
valuable datacenter floor space. Energy costs can be drastically reduced, vastly
improving available performance relative to the amount of energy consumed. Perhaps
more importantly, consolidation through virtualization often gives organizations the
agility they need to apply key resources to their most important and business-critical
applications.
Sun Fire™ X4140, X4240, and X4440 Servers
To help IT managers address the challenge of increasing capacity while managing
datacenter growth, Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X440 servers provide a range of dense
and scalable systems based on the latest AMD Opteron processors. These systems
feature high performance and unprecedented density in energy-efficient and compact
1U and 2U form-factors. With capabilities that complement the rest of the Sun server
product line, the Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers raise the bar for 32- and 64-
bit enterprise-class computing. These systems offer:
• Best-in-Class Performance
The Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers feature Dual-Core and Quad-Core
AMD Opteron processors. With a sophisticated cache hierarchy, and on-chip
memory management, these processors offer high system performance and
throughput compared with systems based on earlier-generation x86 chipsets. In
high-end configurations, these servers can house multiple Quad-Core AMD
Opteron processors — for example, the Sun Fire X4440 server supports up to four
Third-Generation Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, for a maximum of 16 cores
and impressive performance in a compact 2U chassis.
3
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• Remarkable Density
Density is the cornerstone of the Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 server designs.
When populated in a 40-rack unit (RU) enclosure, these 1U and 2U servers
facilitate a single rack with up to 320 cores, 640 DIMM slots, and 120 PCI Express
slots. In addition, a single 1U or 2U system can house up to 2.3 TB internally using
16 2.5-inch SAS drives (via a PCI Express Host Bus Adapter). Sun Fire X4140, X4240,
and X4440 servers provide the densities needed to achieve consolidation and
virtualization efficiencies. Such density facilitates the consolidation of many
smaller servers, helping to conserve real estate, lower energy expense, and
reduce costly administrative talent. In addition, these servers support multiple
operating systems, which helps to simplify consolidation efforts and diminish
server sprawl.
• Extensive System Expandability
The ability to expand a server over time reduces the need for additional capital
acquisitions and lowers application lifecycle costs. Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and
X4440 servers feature either two or four processor sockets per system and provide
maximum memory configurations of either 64 GB or 128 GB (using 4 GB DIMMs),
along with a maximum of 2.3 TB of internal storage. Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
are standard, as are five USB ports (two front, two back, one internal), and one
video port (HD-15). Because of breakthrough system densities, these servers are
designed to scale to support new users, more transactions, or new 32-bit or 64-bit
applications, enhancing system longevity and increasing overall return on
investment (ROI).
• Improved Energy Efficiency
Sun offers a portfolio of eco-responsible products and computing solutions to
address a broad range of infrastructure requirements. In Sun Fire X4140, X4240,
and X4440 servers, AMD Opteron processors incorporate new technologies that
minimize power use and enhance energy efficiency.
AMD PowerNow!
technology
optimizes processor performance relative to the power consumed, allowing CPU
clock frequency to be adjusted to the needs of applications. Enhanced AMD
PowerNow! features in Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors offer features such as
Independent Dynamic Core technology
and
Dual Dynamic Power Management
.
High-efficiency power supplies in the server chassis lessen overall power
consumption. Variable-speed fans, effective disk carrier design, and front-to-back
air flow in the chassis help to effectively cool the system and maintain appropriate
ambient temperatures for both the processor and the system.
• Enterprise-Class High Availability
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are designed with enterprise-class
reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features. To maximize uptime,
systems include redundant hot-swappable fans and can be configured with
redundant hot-swappable power supplies. Using a Sun StorageTek™ Host Bus
4
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Adapter (HBA), internal SAS disk drives can be configured for RAID 0, 1, 1E, 10, 5,
5EE, 50, 6, and 60. Disk drives are also hot-swappable. Four integrated Gigabit
Ethernet ports enhance network availability and can be installed in failover
configurations. On-board system management tools encourage proactive remote
monitoring and intervention.
• Tightly-Integrated Management
To support out-of-band management, Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
incorporate an Integrated Lights Out Management (ILOM) service processor . This
built-in hardware-based management functionality allows administrators to
monitor and manage systems remotely, letting them take corrective action as
necessary to minimize unplanned downtime.
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers combine best-in-class performance with
noteworthy compute, memory, and I/O capacities. As a result, these systems are
designed to scale up, scale out, and scale within, enabling deployment in a wide range
of application architectures:
•
Scale-up architectures
— With up to 16 cores available, these servers are well suited
to scale for growing workloads that deliver Web, database, and other key
infrastructure services.
•
Scale-out architectures
— With large memory capacities, significant internal storage,
four Gigabit Ethernet ports, and high-bandwidth PCI Express expansion, these servers
can scale to solve complex computing problems that demand intensive computing
power and data bandwidth.
•
Scale-within capabilities
— With the ability to support Solaris 10 virtualization
technology and VMware, Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are ideal systems
to consolidate multiple applications within a single extensible platform.
5
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Figure 1 illustrates the 1U Sun Fire X4140 and the 2U Sun Fire X4240 and X4440 server
enclosures.
Figure 1. Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
Sun Fire X4140 server
Sun Fire X4240 server
Sun Fire X4440 server
6
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
System Comparisons
Table 1 compares the features of Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers.
Table 1. Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 server features
Features in all systems include:
• Support for multiple Dual-Core or Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
• Large memory capacities (up to 128 GB in the Sun Fire X4440 server)
• Large-capacity internal storage, with support for either eight or 16 internal SAS disk
drives
• RAID support provided with host bus adaptors
• PCI Express expandability
• Built-in quad Gigabit Ethernet support
• Integrated Lights Out Management (ILOM) service processor and firmware
• Support for multiple operating systems
Multiple off-the-shelf configurations of each platform are available, along with a wide
spectrum of options to tailor each system for specific workload requirements.
Feature Sun Fire X4140 Server Sun Fire X4240 Server Sun Fire X4440 Server
Processors One or two Dual-Core or Quad-Core AMD Opteron series 2000 processors
One or two Dual-Core or Quad-Core AMD Opteron Series 2000 processors
Two or four Dual-Core or Quad-core AMD Opteron Series 8000 processors
Memory capacity Up to 64 GB (1, 2, or 4 GB DDR2 DIMMs)
Up to 64 GB (1, 2, or 4 GB DDR2 DIMMs)
Up to 128 GB(1, 2, of 4 GB DDR2 DIMMs)
Maximum internal disk drives
Up to eight SFF 2.5-inch SAS 73 or 146 GB disk drives, choice of RAID HBAs
a
Up to 16 SFF 2.5-inch SAS 73 or 146 GB disk drives, choice of RAID HBAs
a
Up to eight SFF 2.5-inch SAS 73 or 146 GB disk drives, choice of RAID HBAs
a
RAID Hardware RAID
0, 1, 1E, 10, 5, 5EE, 50, 6, and 60
with SAS RAID HBA
Hardware RAID
0, 1, 1E, 10, 5, 5EE, 50, 6, and 60
with SAS RAID HBA
Hardware
0, 1, 1E, 10, 5, 5EE, 50, 6, and 60
with SAS RAID HBA
Removable and pluggable I/O
Slimline DVD+/-RWFive USB 2.0 ports (Two front, two rear, one internal)
Slimline DVD-RFive USB 2.0 ports (Two front, two rear, one internal)
Slimline DVD-RFive USB 2.0 ports (Two front, two rear, one internal)
PCI Two x8 PCI Express slots, One x16 PCI Express slot
One x4 PCI Express slot,Four x8 PCI Express slotsOne x16 PCI Express slot
One x4 PCI Express slot,Four x8 PCI Express slots,One x16 PCI Express slot
Ethernet Four on-board Gigabit Ethernet ports (10/100/1000)
Four on-board Gigabit Ethernet ports (10/100/1000)
Four on-board Gigabit Ethernet ports (10/100/1000)
Power supplies Dual redundant hot-swappable AC 650 W power supply units (N+N redundancy)
Dual redundant hot-swappable AC 1050 W power supply units (N+N redundancy)
Dual redundant hot-swappable AC 1050 W power supply units(N+N redundancy)
Fans Redundant, hot-swappable fan modules (N+1 redundancy)
Redundant, hot-swappable fan modules (N+1 redundancy)
Redundant, hot-swappable fan modules (N+1 redundancy)
Form factor 1 rack unit (1U) 2 rack units (2U) 2 rack units (2U)
a.The RAID HBA consumes a single PCI Express slot
7
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
A Choice of Operating Systems
In order to provide maximum flexibility and investment protection, Sun Fire X4140,
X4240, and X4440 servers support a choice of operating systems, including:
• The Solaris Operating System
• The Linux operating system (64-bit Red Hat or SuSE Linux)
• Microsoft Windows Server
• VMware ESX Server
Table 2 lists supported OS releases supported by the Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440
servers as of this writing. Please see
sun.com/x64
for the latest supported operating
systems and environments.
Table 2. Supported OS releases for Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
The Solaris™ Operating System
Distributed under a commercial and open source licensing model, the Solaris 10 OS
offers many innovative technologies that change the equation for organizations
needing to reduce costs, minimize complexity, and help eliminate risk. The Solaris 10
OS is optimized for Sun systems and is supported on over one thousand third-party x86/
x64 systems. In addition, the Solaris 10 OS is free for download without requirement to
purchase a support contract, providing an economic advantage over other community-
based operating system offerings.
Taking advantage of the Solaris 10 OS can bring added flexibility and power to the
enterprise. Supporting systems from laptops and single-board computers to datacenter
and cluster installations, the Solaris 10 OS serves applications ranging from military
command and control systems, to telecommunication switch gear, to stock trading. The
Solaris 10 OS also includes more than 180 applications from the free and open source
software (F/OSS) community, and thousands of others are freely available for download
over the Internet.
Provided on all Sun systems at no charge, the Solaris OS delivers performance, security,
scalability, and reliability advantages for scale-out computing environments.
Underlying technologies, such as a high-performance networking stack, advanced file
Operating System Minimum Version
Solaris OS
Solaris 10 OS Update 4 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, SP2, (32-bit/64-bit)
Red Hat Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, Update 5 (32-bit/64-bit)Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (32-bit/64-bit)
SuSE Linux
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, SP1 (64-bit)
VMware
VMware ESX 3.0.2 (64-bit) or higher or ESX 3.5 Update 1 or higher (please see
sun.com/software/vmware f
or the latest information on support of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors)
8
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
system, and modern memory model combine to optimize the performance of hosted
applications. A suite of security features previously only found in Sun’s military-grade
Trusted Solaris™ operating system are now included to fortify the commercial
enterprise. The Solaris OS supports near linear scalability from 1 to 72 CPUs and
addressability of up to 2
64
bytes of memory, well beyond the physical memory limits of
even Sun’s largest server. In addition, by providing the ability to automatically recover
from hardware faults, the Solaris OS provides maximum data and application
availability.systems. The Solaris 10 OS is free for download without requirement to
purchase a support contract, offering an economic advantage over other community-
based operating system offerings.
Linux Environments
Sun offers and supports the leading Linux variants on Sun Fire x64 servers, including
Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. As the leader in
enterprise services for UNIX®, Sun brings decades of expertise to Linux environments.
Sun support contracts for Linux provide all front-line support and transparent access to
back-line support from Red Hat and Novell.
Sun is one of the largest contributors to the open-source community. Areas of
contribution include OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, GNOME, and X.org. In addition, Sun
provides key software offerings for Linux including
• Lustre™ parallel file system
• Sun Ray™ Server Software
• Sun xVM software
• StarOffice™ productivity suite
• Java™ Desktop Powered Program
• Sun Studio, Sun Java Studio Creator, and NetBeans™ IDE software
• MySQL™ database
Microsoft Windows Environments
Organizations are constantly seeking to reduce the variety of platforms in the
datacenter, even when a wide range of workloads are present. To help this effort, Sun
Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers can run the Microsoft Windows operating
environment. These servers have passed stringent Microsoft compatibility test suites,
achieving the Designed for Windows certification and a listing in Microsoft Windows
catalogs. Support contracts for Microsoft Windows are also available from Sun. This
certification and support demonstrates Sun’s commitment to providing the best
platforms to run not only the Solaris OS and Linux, but Microsoft Windows as well.
9
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
VMware
Ground-breaking virtualization solutions from VMware help improve asset utilization,
operational efficiency, and business agility. Sun offers the VMware Infrastructure
product suite on Sun hardware systems with full support from Sun. VMware
virtualization technology also combines with key Solaris 10 OS features such as DTrace,
Solaris Containers, and Solaris Predictive Self Healing software. As a result,
organizations can create breakthrough approaches to virtualization. In fact, utilizing
VMware virtual infrastructure software with the Solaris 10 OS for consolidation projects
can increase system utilization by up to ten times.
Innovative and Consistent System Design for the Datacenter
Beyond the capabilities of individual systems, Sun understands that datacenters have
unique and pressing needs that require attention on the part of system designers.
Density, performance, and scalability are all essential considerations, but systems must
also be serviceable and fit in with modern datacenter strategies that consider power,
cooling, and serviceability. Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers share an
innovative design philosophy that extends across Sun’s volume x64 and SPARC server
platforms. Principals of this philosophy include:
•
Common chassis design
— Shared chassis design leverages key system innovations
across multiple architectures, provides for common components and subassemblies,
and greatly simplifies administration for those deploying multiple processor
architectures.
•
Maximum Compute Density
— Sun’s volume servers provide leading density in terms
of CPU cores, memory, storage and I/O. This focus on density often lets Sun’s 1 rack
unit (1 RU) rackmount servers replace competitive 2U rackmount servers, for a 50-
percent space savings.
•
Leading Storage Capacity
— Sun’s volume servers provide leading density and
flexible RAID options. Smaller disk drives and innovations in structure, airway, and
carrier design allow more disk capacity in smaller spaces, while enhancing system
airflow.
•
Common, Shared Management
— Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are
designed for ease of management and serviceability with service processors shared
by other Sun volume server platforms. Systems and components are designed for
easy identification and hot-swap components facilitate on-line replacement.
•
Continued Investment Protection
— Sun designs for maximum investment
protection. Even with breakthrough x64 technology, Sun’s Solaris Binary
Compatibility Guarantee means that applications simply run without modification.
10
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Chassis Design Innovations
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers share basic chassis design with other Sun x64
and SPARC server platforms. This approach not only provides a consistent look and feel
across the product line, but it simplifies administration through consistent component
placement and shared components. Beyond mere consistency, this approach provides a
datacenter design focus that places key technology where it can make a difference for
the operations.
• Enhanced System and Component Serviceability
Finding and identifying servers and components in a modern datacenter can be a
challenge. Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are optimized for lights-out
datacenter configurations with easy-to-identify servers and modules. Color-coded
operator panels provide straightforward diagnostics. Systems are designed for
deployment in hot-isle / cold-isle multiracked deployments with both front and
rear diagnostic LEDs and Fault Remind features to help identify faulty or failed
components.
Consistent connector layouts for power, networking, and management make
moving between Sun’s systems straightforward. All hot-plug components are tool-
less and easily available for serviceability. For instance, an integral hinged lid
provides access to dual fan modules so that fans can be serviced without exposing
sensitive components, or causing unnecessary downtime.
• Robust Chassis, Component, and Subassembly Design
Sun’s volume servers share chassis that are carefully designed to provide
reliability and cool operation. Even features such as the hexagonal chassis
ventilation holes are designed to provide the best compromise for high strength,
maximum air flow, and maximum reductions in EMI emissions. Next-generation
hard disk drive carriers share the hexagonal ventilation holes of the chassis and
provide a seven-percent smaller front plate for greater storage density while
increasing airflow to the system.
A removable disk cage in each system plugs directly in front of the fan tray
assemblies, allowing airflow to be directed both above and below disk drives, and
then above and below memory DIMMs and mezzanine boards to efficiently cool
the system. Dual fan modules are isolated from chassis to avoid transfer of
rotational vibration to other system components. Also, integration of the fan
power board into the Fan Tray assembly protects users from electrical shock during
fan removal/insertion.
In spite of their computational, I/O, and storage density, Sun’s servers are able to
maintain adequate cooling using conventional technologies. Efficient modular fan
assemblies keep the chassis within an effective operating temperature range.
Minimized DC-DC power conversions also contribute to overall system efficiency.
11
The Evolution of x64 Systems
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
By providing 12 volt power to the motherboard, power conversion stages are
eliminated. This approach reduces generated heat, and introduces further
efficiencies to the system.
• Minimized Cabling for Maximized Airflow
To minimize cabling and increase reliability, a variety of smaller boards and riser
cards are employed on both SPARC and x64 servers, appropriate to each chassis.
These infrastructure boards serve various functions in the Sun Fire X4140, X4240,
and X4440 servers.
– Power distribution boards (PDBs) distribute system power from the dual power
supplies to the motherboard and to the disk backplane (via a connector board)
– Connector boards eliminate the need for many discrete cables, providing a direct
card plug-in interconnect to distribute control and most data signals to the disk
backplane, fan boards, and the PDB.
– Fan boards provide connections for power and control for both the primary and
secondary fans in the front of the chassis. No cables are required since every
dual fan module plugs directly into one of these PDBs which, in turn, plugs into
the Connector Board.
– PCI Express riser cards plug directly into the motherboard, allowing PCI Express
cards to be installed.
– The disk backplane mounts to the disk cages in the two chassis, delivering disk
data through two 4-channel discrete mini-SAS cables from the installed host bus
adapter (HBA) card. An 8-disk backplane is offered for the Sun Fire X4140 and
X4440 servers while the Sun Fire X4240 server supports a 16-disk backplane.
– Also provided via the disk backplane, are two USB connections to the front of the
system.
12
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Chapter 2
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are powered by AMD Opteron processors,
utilizing AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture and NVIDIA chipsets for scalability and fast
I/O throughput. These servers support both Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors as well
as Third-Generation Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. The sections that follow
describe the architecture and feature set of AMD Opteron processors.
Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processors
Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors are native Dual-Core AMD Opteron
processors that feature AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture. These processors offer a
common core architecture that is consistent across 1-socket, 2-socket, and 4-socket
systems, and is also consistent with previous AMD Opteron processors. This strategy
helps organizations minimize the cost of transitions while they maximize past
investments in software and hardware optimization. AMD Opteron processors are
offered in three series:
• 1000 Series — Single socket
• 2000 Series — Up to two sockets
• 8000 Series — Four to Eight sockets
Innovative Processor Technology
The AMD Opteron processor extends the ubiquitous x86 architecture to accommodate
64-bit processing. Formerly known as x86-64, AMD’s enhancements to the x86
architecture allow seamless migration to the superior performance of 64-bit
technology. Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors offer considerable advantages,
including:
•
AMD64 technology
— AMD64 technology lets 64-bit operating systems provide full,
transparent, and simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit platform application multitasking.
This approach lets systems run the existing installed-base of 32-bit applications and
operating systems at peak performance, while providing a 64-bit migration path.
•
Direct Connect Architecture
— AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture helps to reduce the
very real challenges and bottlenecks of system architecture.
– Memory is directly connected to the processor, optimizing memory performance
– I/O is directly connected to the processor, for more balanced throughput and I/O
– Processors are directly connected to other processors, allowing for more linear
symmetrical multiprocessing
•
Integrated DDR2 memory controller
— A 144-bit wide, on-chip DDR2 memory
controller provides 128 bits for data and 16 bits for ECC and Enhanced ECC
technologies, while providing low-latency memory bandwidth that scales as
processors are added.
13
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
•
AMD HyperTransport technology
— AMD HyperTransport Technology provides a
scalable bandwidth interconnect between processors, I/O subsystems, and other
chipsets.
•
Quad-Core upgradeability
— AMD Opteron processors with DDR2 memory are
designed to offer a seamless upgrade path from dual-core to quad-core processors.
Similar power and thermal envelops help protect investments, letting organizations
upgrade to Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors while realizing similar power
efficiencies.
•
AMD Virtualization (AMD-V)
— AMD Virtualization reduces overhead by selectively
intercepting instructions destined for guest environments while the Direct Connect
Architecture helps guest operating systems run at near native speed. A virtualization-
aware integrated memory controller provides efficient isolation of virtual machine
memory.
•
Enhanced performance per watt
— Energy-efficient DDR2 memory uses up to 30
percent less power than DDR1 memory, and up to 58 percent less power than FB-
DIMM memory. In addition, AMD PowerNow! technology with Optimized Power
Management can deliver performance on demand, while minimizing power
consumption.
Dual-Core Processor Architecture
The AMD Opteron processor (Figure 2) was designed from the start for multicore
functionality, with a crossbar switch and system request interface. This approach
defines a new class of computing by combining full x86 compatibility, a high-
performance 64-bit architecture, and the economics of an industry-standard processor.
Figure 2. High-level architectural perspective of a Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor
Enhancements of the AMD Opteron processor over the legacy x86 architecture include:
• 16 64-bit general-purpose integer registers that quadruple the general-purpose
register space available to applications and device drivers as compared to x86
systems
DDR2Memory
Controller
HyperTransport 0
HyperTransport 1
HyperTransport 2
System Request Interface
Crossbar Switch
Second-Generation Dual-Core AMD Opteron
Core 1 Core 2
128 KB L1 Cache
1MB L2 Cache
128 KB L1 Cache
1MB L2 Cache
14
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• 16 128-bit XMM registers provide enhanced multimedia performance to double the
register space of any current SSE/SSE2 implementation
• A full 64-bit virtual address space offers 40 bits of physical memory addressing and 48
bits of virtual addressing that can support systems with up to 256 terabytes of
physical memory
Each processor core has a dedicated 1 MB Level-2 cache, and both cores use the System
Request Interface and Crossbar Switch to share the Memory Controller and access the
three HyperTransport links. This sharing represents an effective approach since
performance characterizations of single-core based systems have revealed that the
memory and HyperTransport bandwidths are typically under-utilized, even while
running high-end server workloads.
The Second-Generation AMD Opteron processor integrates three HyperTransport
technology links, providing a scalable bandwidth interconnect among processors, I/O
subsystems, and other chip-sets. HyperTransport technology interconnects help
increase overall system performance by removing I/O bottlenecks and efficiently
integrating with legacy buses, increasing bandwidth and speed, and reducing processor
latency. At 16 x 16 bits and 1 GHz operation, HyperTransport technology provides
support for up to 8 GB/s bandwidth per link.
HyperTransport Technology
HyperTransport technology is a high-speed, low-latency, point-to-point link designed to
increase the communication speed between integrated circuits in computers, servers,
embedded systems, and networking and telecommunications equipment. Second-
Generation and Third-Generation AMD Opteron processors continue to use
HyperTransport technology links to provide a scalable bandwidth interconnect among
processors, I/O subsystems, and other chip sets. HyperTransport technology:
• Helps increase overall system performance by removing I/O bottlenecks typically
found in Front Side Bus (FSB) architectures, efficiently integrating with legacy buses,
increasing bandwidth and speed, and reducing latency of processors.
• Provides up to 8 GB/second bandwidth per link at 16 x 16 bits, 1 GHz operation,
offering significantly more bandwidth than most current technologies, and sufficient
bandwidth for supporting new interconnects such as PCI Express
• Uses low-latency responses and low pin counts for enhanced performance and
reliability
• Maintains compatibility with legacy PC buses while being extensible to new Systems
Network Architecture (SNA) buses
• Appears transparent to operating systems, so that peripheral drivers continue to
operate
15
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Quad-Core AMD Opteron Processors
Unlike multichip package technology (MCP), native Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
incorporate four processor cores on a single silicon die. Despite this innovation, Quad-
Core AMD Opteron processors are electrically, thermally, and socket-compatible with
Second-Generation AMD Opteron Socket F (1207) processors. Figure 3 provides a block-
level diagram of the third-generation Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor.
Figure 3. Third-Generation Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor block-level diagram
Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors go beyond simply adding two additional cores.
With a native multicore design, all four cores share the same silicon, and are directly
connected via AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture. Processors, I/O, and memory
controller logic are all connected to each other, aiding performance and reducing
bottlenecks. Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors provide a broad set of significant
enhancements, described in the sections that follow.
• Enhanced AMD PowerNow! Technology
Enhanced AMD PowerNow! technology provides significant power-management
advancements.
AMD CoolCore technology
can reduce energy consumption and
heat generation by turning off unused parts of the processor.
Independent
Dynamic Core technology
allows each core to vary its clock frequency depending
on the specific performance requirements of the applications it is supporting,
helping to reduce power consumption.
Dual Dynamic Power Management
(formerly called “splitplane”) provides an independent power supply to the cores
and to the memory controller, allowing them to operate on different voltages,
depending on usage.
DDR2Memory
Controller
HyperTransport 0
HyperTransport 1
HyperTransport 2
System Request Interface
Crossbar Switch
2 MB L3 Cache
512 KB L2 Cache
Core 1 Core 2 Core 4Core 3
128 KBL1 Cache
512 KBL2 Cache
128 KBL1 Cache
128 KBL1 Cache
128 KBL1 Cache
512 KBL2 Cache
512 KBL2 Cache
512 KBL2 Cache
Third-Generation Quad-Core AMD Opteron
16
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• Investment Protection
Not only are Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors the first native x86 quad-core
processors, but they are the first quad-core processors designed to operate within
similar thermal and power envelops as AMD’s current Second-Generation
processors. This consistency allows simplified upgradeability and protects
organizations investments in AMD Opteron based systems with a seamless
upgrade path.
• Virtualization Enhancements
Virtualization is memory intensive, and Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
provide exceptional memory throughput with an integrated memory controller.
AMD Virtualization introduces Rapid Virtualization Indexing (formerly called
“nested page tables”) and a tagged translation look-a-side buffer (TLB). While TLBs
exist in almost every processor architecture, AMD implemented tagged TLBs to
improve virtual to physical memory lookups from one virtual machine to another.
AMD’s Rapid Virtualization Indexing feature is designed to reduce the overhead
penalty associated with virtualization technologies by moving the process of
managing virtual memory from software to hardware. This approach reduces the
complexity of existing x86 virtualization solutions and facilitates increased
performance and efficiency for many virtualized workloads.
• Support for High Performance Computing (HPC)
A variety of features coalesce in Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors to make them
ideal for HPC workloads.
AMD Memory Optimizer Technology
increases memory
throughput by up to 50 percent compared to previous generations of the AMD
Opteron processor.
AMD Wide Floating Point Accelerator
provides 128-bit
Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) floating point capabilities, letting each core
simultaneously execute up to four floating point operations (FLOPS) per clock —
four times the floating-point computations of previous-generation AMD opteron
processors.
AMD Balanced Smart Cache
provides significant cache enhancements
with 128 KB of Level-1 cache, and 512 KB of Level-2 cache per core, combined with
2 MB of shared Level-3 cache shared across all cores.
Processor Design for Energy Efficiency
Power consumption continues to be one of the top concerns for managing today's
datacenters. Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors address this concern by providing
industry-leading overall power-efficiency that can deliver significant performance gains
over Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors while operating in the same thermal envelope.
All AMD Opteron processor series — current Single-Core, Dual-Core, Quad-Core, and
future AMD Opteron processors — have been designed to a consistent power and
thermal specification.
17
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Average CPU Power (ACP)
Average CPU Power (ACP) is a metric that offers a relevant estimation of the power
consumption for AMD Opteron processors. ACP is determined by breaking down
multiple components of the power consumed within the processor, including the power
dedicated to the cores, the integrated memory controller, and to HyperTransport
technology links. In contrast, thermal design power (TDP) refers to the power that
processors are capable of consuming, and is the specification that system designers
typically follow. ACP and TDP are both valid indicators of processor power.
AMD has referenced processor power consumption based on TDP values to date.
However, ACP represents a relevant measure that reflects power consumption while
running server-class enterprise workloads. In particular, ACP is a useful metric for
datacenter operators to use when estimating power budgets to size their datacenters,
while TDP is more useful and relevant to system designers. Table 3 illustrates both TDP
and ACP for Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors.
Table 3. TDP and ADP for Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
Enhanced AMD PowerNow! and Independent Dynamic Core Technology
Enhanced AMD PowerNow! Technology is designed to reduce power consumption of
the entire quad-core processor. The native quad-core design of Third-Generation AMD
Opteron processors lets enhanced power management address each of the four cores
independently. Independent Dynamic Core technology allows each core to vary its
frequency, based on the specific needs of the application. This ability allows for more
precise power management to reduce datacenter energy consumption and thereby
reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
Power consumption is related to the voltage level of the voltage supply to the processor
as well as the frequency of operation. General purpose systems are designed to operate
at a voltage level and frequency level that meets their peak computational
performance. Unfortunately, this level of operation can consume significant amounts of
power, especially when peak processor performance is not required. Power is typically
saved by reducing the supply voltage of the processor when peak performance is not
needed. With this approach, the sections of the processor which are unused have the
clock frequency reduced which reduces power consumption.
AMD Opteron Processor Low Power CPU Modules (HE)
Standard Power Modules
Performance Optimized Power (SE)
Quad-core processors TDP 75 W 115 W 137 W
ACP 55 W 75 W 105 W
18
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
As shown in Figure 5, the core frequency with the Dual-Core AMD Opteron processor is
locked based on the load characteristics of Core 0. Core 1 will operate at the same core
frequency even though it's load characteristics are low. With Independent Dynamic
Core Technology, the native quad-core processor can operate each of the cores at
different frequencies based on the load characteristics of that particular core.
Figure 4. Independent Dynamic Core technology adjusts frequency on a per-core basis
Dual Dynamic Power Management
Dual Dynamic Power Management (formally “splitplane”) allows each processor to
maximize the power-saving benefits of AMD PowerNow! technology without
compromising performance. Dual Dynamic Power Management can reduce idle power
consumption and allow for per-processor power management in multisocket systems to
decrease power consumption. Figure 5 illustrates a Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor
powered by both a conventional unified power supply, as well as powered from
independent voltage supplies.
Figure 5. With Dual Dynamic Power Management system motherboards can deliver separate power for the processor cores and memory controller
Core 0 Core 1
Idle MHzMHzIdle
75% 1%Idle
Idle
IdleCore 0
MHzMHz
Core 1
IdleMHzMHzCore 2 Core 3
Dual-Core Native Quad-Core
75% 35%
1%10%
MHz and Voltage are lockedto the highest utilized
core’s p-state.
MHz is independently adjustedseparately per core.
DDR2Memory
Controller
HyperTransport 0
HyperTransport 1
HyperTransport 2
System Request Interface
Crossbar Switch
2 MB L3 Cache
Core 1 Core 2 Core 4Core 3
Unified PowerSupply
DDR2Memory
Controller
HyperTransport 0
HyperTransport 1
HyperTransport 2
System Request Interface
Crossbar Switch
2 MB L3 Cache
Core 1 Core 2 Core 4Core 3CPU Power
Memory ControllerPowerr
19
AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
The illustration shows that power for the CPU and Memory Controller on Third-
Generation AMD Opteron processors can be powered from independent voltage
supplies — if supported by the system motherboard — offering greater performance
and better power management. These same processors can also run in legacy systems
with a unified power supply. Second-Generation AMD Opteron processors use a unified
voltage plane for the memory and processor cores. These processors are still
compatible with motherboards designed to support Dual Dynamic Power Management
but they will deliver the same voltage to the CPU and Memory Controller power.
High-Bandwidth Chip-Level I/O for High Performance Computing
Implementing a multicore processor is only one part of providing fast and reliable
performance. In addition to computational performance, high performance computing
and other demanding applications require the ability to move data between processors,
memory, and I/O with a minimum of bottlenecks. Third-Generation Quad-Core AMD
Opteron processors are designed to provide high-bandwidth chip-level interconnects to
other processors, memory, and system I/O. Multiple HyperTransport links connect
between multiple processors and to system I/O bridges. Integrated memory controllers
provide fast low-latency access to memory.
HyperTransport Dual Link
Hypertransport Dual Link refers to two-socket or four-socket system configurations in
which the processors are connected by a pair of HyperTransport Technology links. Each
link represents a HyperTransport path that runs at speeds up to 1 GHz for up to 8 GB/s
of theoretical bandwidth between each processor and each processor's attached
controllers.
The Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor has one (2000 Series) or three (8000 Series)
coherent Hypertransport links that allow each processor to access another processor’s
memory. HyperTransport Dual Link works by “ganging” a coherent and non-coherent
HyperTransport link together. With HyperTransport Dual Link the peak available
bandwidth between the two processors doubles to 16 GB/s — which can provide up to
three to five percent better system performance.
Integrated Memory Technology
AMD Opteron processors integrate a DDR memory controller directly into the processor.
The memory controller runs close to the processor’s core frequency and greatly
increases bandwidth to the processor at significantly reduced latencies. The
performance-enhancing effect is even more dramatic within multisocket AMD Opteron
systems, because each additional processor has its own memory controller, allowing
memory bandwidth to scale within the server.
20 AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology Sun Microsystems, Inc.
AMD Opteron processors are designed to work with Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM.
Similar to first-generation DDR memory, DDR2 memory cells transfer data both on the
rising and falling edge of the clock (a technique called “dual pumping”). The key
difference between DDR and DDR2 is that in DDR2 the bus is clocked at twice the speed
of the memory cells, so four words of data can be transferred per memory cell cycle. As
a result, DDR2 can effectively operate at twice the bus speed of DDR, without speeding
up the memory cells themselves.
Figure 3 illustrates the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor architecture featuring the
cache controller and three stages of caches. The dedicated per-core 128 KB L1 cache
provides a 64 KB instruction cache and a 64KB for data, and is capable of delivering two
data loads per cycle instead of one load per cycle of competing x86 processors. The
latency for the L1 cache is three clock cycles with very fast access time.
The quad-core architecture also features a dedicated per-core 512 KB L2 cache to
eliminate conflicts common in shared caches. These caches are 16-way set associative,
and the latency for each core to retrieve data from its L2 cache is 12 clock cycles. A
large, 2 MB L3 cache is shared between all processor cores in Quad-Core AMD Opteron
processors. The L3 cache is 32-way set associative and is based on a non-inclusive victim
cache architecture. The latency for any core to retrieve data from the L3 cache is less
than 38 clock cycles.
The L2 cache was designed for those applications that are running on a single core and
consume most or all of the 2 MB L3 cache. This situation can cause a problem on other
processor architectures that do not have three levels of cache, since the shared cache
can be busy serving one core while the others are starved. In AMD Opteron processors,
even if one thread is consuming the L3 cache, other threads run effectively from the
core’s L2 cache, which is sized to accommodate the majority of modern working sets.
AMD Virtualization Technology
Virtualization technology lets organizations achieve higher levels of efficiency,
utilization, and flexibility by dividing a given system into several virtual machines —
allowing the consolidation of many legacy systems onto one physical machine. AMD's
Virtualization (AMD-V) technology provides an enhanced AMD Opteron instruction set
that subsumes some tasks that virtual machine managers (VMMs) typically perform
through software emulation.
Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture help enable
industry leading virtualization platform efficiency. Featuring AMD-V technology with
Rapid Virtualization Indexing, Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors can accelerate the
performance of virtualized applications and improve the efficiency of switching among
virtual machines. This feature allows organizations to host more virtual machines and
users per system to maximize the consolidation and power-saving benefits of
virtualization.
21 AMD Opteron™ Processor Technology Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Third-Generation Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors offer enhancements to AMD-V
that provide a balanced approach to improve virtualization performance and help
enable near-native performance for virtualized applications. AMD Opteron processors
also provide silicon feature-set enhancements that are designed to improve
performance, reliability, and security of existing and future virtualization environments
to support more users. Some of the AMD-V enhancements that are built into the Third-
Generation AMD Opteron architecture include:
• Direct Connect Architecture to Host More Virtual Machines (VMs) Per Server
AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture helps improve application performance within
a virtual machine. This architecture provides direct CPU-to-memory, CPU-to-I/O,
and CPU-to-CPU connections to streamline server virtualization. The Integrated
Memory Controller is designed to improve performance on memory-intensive
virtualization environments through high bandwidth, low latency, and scalable
access to memory. HyperTransport technology optimizes the movement of data
and the sharing of resources among VMs and I/O for greater system scalability.
• Tagged Translation Look-aside Buffer for Increased Responsiveness
Unique to AMD Opteron processors, the Tagged Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB)
allows for faster switching times between virtual machines by maintaining a
mapping to the VM’s individual memory spaces. Competing solutions cannot
distinguish one VM's memory space from another’s, resulting in additional
memory management overhead and reduced responsiveness when switching
between virtual machines.
• Device Exclusion Vector (DEV) for More Efficient Security
Device Exclusion Vector (DEV) performs security checks in hardware, protecting
memory access to un-authorized requests from external devices. The DEV controls
access to virtual machine memory based on permission, isolating virtual
machines for secure operation. The DEV performs these security checks in
hardware, rather than software — resulting in efficiency. The DEV creates
Protection Domains that deny memory access for unauthorized requests from
external devices, such as hard disks, network controllers, and other devices.
• Rapid Virtualization Indexing for Better Performance in a Virtualization Environment
Rapid Virtualization Indexing is an enhancement to AMD-V technology in Quad-
Core AMD Opteron processors. This feature is designed to dramatically increase
the performance of virtualized applications while providing faster switching
between virtual machines. Rapid Virtualization Indexing allows users to host more
VMs per server and maximize the benefits of virtualization. This feature must be
supported in the virtualization software.
22 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Chapter 3
Server Architecture
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are designed to provide high performance
with high reliability and low power consumption. The sections that follow detail
physical and architectural aspects of the systems, highlighting similarities and
differences between the three server platforms.
System-Level ArchitectureSun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers all employ the same motherboard, but offer
different functionality depending on the system, as determined by both chassis and
supported system modules. Though they occupy different chassis, the Sun Fire X4140
and Sun Fire X4440 both share a similar system architecture, illustrated in Figure 6.
Shaded boxes in the diagram indicate functionality only provided on Sun Fire X4440
servers.
Figure 6. Sun Fire X4140 and X4440 motherboard block-level diagram
Sun Fire X4140 servers support one or two AMD Opteron processors and up to 16 DDR2
DIMM slots. Sun Fire X4440 servers support up to four AMD Opteron processors with the
addition of a mezzanine card that connects via dual Hypertransport links. As shown in
IO55
USBto IDE
(4) SAS Lanes
(4) SAS Lanes
USB 2.0
(8) Disk Backplane
MCP55
USB Hub
(4) SAS Lanes Cable
USB 2.0
USB 2.0
PCI
(4) SAS HDDs
(4) SAS HDDs
DVD/CD/RW
4x 1GbEthernet
PCI Express
Slot 5 x8Slot 4 x8Slot 3 x8
Slot 2 x16Slot 1 x8Slot 0 x8
RAID card
USB 2.0
Serial RJ-45
Management10/100 Ethernet
VGA Video
RearRearFrontFront
Internal
x8x8
x16
x8x8
Hypertransport8 GB/s
10.7GB/s
10.7GB/s
10.7GB/s
10.7GB/s
Sun Fire X4440Server only
AST2000
Q62611.1 GP
0608 TAN A2
Mezzanine Card
CPU-1
CPU-0
CPU-3
CPU-2
DDR2
DDR2
DDR2
DDR2
Electrical Lanes x4
23 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
the illustration, the Sun Fire X4440 server provides HyperTransport Dual Link technology
on the optional mezzanine card. Both the Sun Fire X4140 and X4440 servers provide an
eight-disk backplane driven by a RAID host bus adapter (HBA) expansion card that
occupies one of the PCI Express slots. Two SAS cables with four lanes each connect form
the RAID HBA card to the eight-disk backplane.
Figure 8 illustrates the Sun Fire X4240 server block-level diagram. Like the Sun Fire
X4140 server, the Sun Fire X4240 provides support for up to two AMD Opteron
processors. The two rack-unit chassis allows deployment of a 16-disk backplane that
attaches to a RAID HBA card residing in one of the PCI Express slots.
Figure 7. Sun Fire X4240 motherboard block-level diagram
Memory Subsystem
The AMD Opteron processor’s integrated DDR2 memory controller improves the way
that typical x64 processors access main memory, resulting in increased bandwidth,
reduced memory latencies, and increased processor performance. The dual-channel
DDR2 memory controller on each processor is capable of yielding a memory bandwidth
of 10.7 GB per second (two 5.35 GB per second channels). Each AMD Opteron processor
IO55
USBto IDE
(4) SAS Lanes
(4) SAS Lanes
USB 2.0
(16) Disk Backplane
MCP55
USB Hub
(4) SAS Lanes Cable
USB 2.0
USB 2.0
PCI
(4) SAS HDDs
(4) SAS HDDs
DVD/CD/RW
4x 1GbEthernet
PCI ExpressSlot 5 x8Slot 4 x8Slot 3 x8
Slot 2 x16Slot 1 x8Slot 0 x8
RAID Card
USB 2.0
Serial RJ-45
Management10/100 Ethernet
VGA Video
RearRearFrontFront
Internal
x8x8
x16
x8x8
Hypertransport8 GB/s
10.7GB/s
10.7GB/s
AST2000
Q62611.1 GP
0608 TAN A2
CPU-1
CPU-0
DDR2
DDR2
28 Port
SAS Expander
+ +
+ +
(4) SAS Lanes
(4) SAS Lanes
(4) SAS HDDs
(4) SAS HDDs
Electrical Lanes x4
24 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
supports up to eight registered DDR2-667 DIMMs. Sun Fire X4140 and X4240 servers
support up to 64 GB of memory, and Sun Fire X4440 servers support up to 128 GB of
memory. 1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB DIMMs are available and supported.
I/O Subsystem
The I/O subsystem in Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers is designed to provide
maximum throughput and flexibility to suite a wide variety of server needs.
NVIDIA nForce Pro 3600 (MCP55) Chipset
In Sun Fire X4140, X4120, and X4440 servers, one AMD Opteron processor connects to
an NVIDIA nForce Pro 3600 (MCP55) chipset via a 1 GHz HyperTransport connection. The
servers utilize the NVIDIA nForce Pro 3600 chipset to provide a wealth of system I/O. The
MCP55 architecture facilitates full-featured motherboards that provide maximum
performance and low latency, along with lower levels of power consumption and heat
dissipation. The first CPU (CPU 0) connects with the chipset across a 1 GHz
HyperTransport link.
The NVIDIA nForce Pro 3600 chipset provides:
• Three PCI Express interfaces that extend to three of the PCI Express slots (one 16-lane
and two 8-lane interfaces1
• Dual IEEE 802.3 MACs for two 10/100/1000Base-T gigabit auto-negotiating Ethernet
interfaces
• Five USB 2.0 ports
• LPC bus interface connecting to the AST2000 and BIOS boot flash
• One 32-bit 33 MHz PCI bus connecting to the AST2000
• Integrated SATA 3.0 Gigabit per second controllers
• System power sequencing and monitoring of many of the systems’ power status
indicators
NVIDIA nForce Pro 3050 (IO-55) Chipset
The NVIDIA nForce Pro 3050 (IO-55) chipset augments the I/O capabilities of Sun Fire
X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers, connecting to CPU 1 via another dedicated 16-bit
HyperTransport interconnect operating at a 1 GHz clock rate.
1.Sun Fire X4140 servers provide three PCI Express slots total, comprised of one x16 port from theNVIDIA 10-55 chip and two x8 ports from the nVIDIA MCP55 chip. One physical PCI Express slot on allsystems is dedicated to house a low-profile RAID HBA card.
25 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
The NVIDIA nForce Pro 3050 chipset provides:
• Three PCI Express interfaces to low profile PCI Express slots (one 16-lane, one 8-lane,
and one 4-lane)
• Dual IEEE 802.3 MACs for two 10/100/1000Base-T gigabit auto-negotiating Ethernet
interfaces
• Integrated SATA 3.0 Gigabit per second controllers
I/O and RAID Options
Up to eight or 16 2.5-inch disk drives are supported per system, depending on the server
selected. The same disk drives can be used on Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
as on Sun’s latest x64 and SPARC servers. All of these drives share a next-generation
hard drive carrier design that is optimized for both airflow and density. Drives insert
into a modular disk tray and cable-free disk backplane that increases reliability and
serviceability.
In all three servers, SAS disks are controlled by a host bus adapter (HBA) that occupies
one of the systems x8 PCI Express slots. A choice of host bus adapters is provided, both
running easy-to-use Sun StorageTek RAID Manager software. Options include:
• The Sun StorageTek SAS RAID Host Bus Adapter, Internal — an 8-channel HBA card
that supports 3 Gb/second SAS and RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 1E, 5, 6, 5EE, and 50
• The Sun StorageTek PCI Express SAS Host Bus Adapter, Internal (LSI 3081E) — a HBA
card that supports RAID levels 0, 1, and 1EE
Two SAS cables with four lanes each connect to the disk backplane to control the disk
drives. In the case of the Sun Fire X4240, the four SAS links connect to a SAS expander in
the 16-disk backplane (the LSISASX28). The SAS expander then provides the 16 SAS links
to the individual disks in the drive tray.
Sun Fire X4140 ServerThe compact Sun Fire X4140 server provides significant computational power in a space-
efficient low-power 1U rackmount package. With high levels of price/performance and
a low acquisition cost, this server is ideally suited to the delivery of horizontally-scaled
transaction and Web services, and can function as a very capable HPC compute node.
The server is designed to address the challenges of today's datacenter with greatly
reduced power consumption and a small physical footprint.
Enclosure
The 1U Sun Fire X4140 server enclosure is designed for use in a standard 19-inch rack
(Table 4).
26 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Table 4. Dimensions and weight of the Sun Fire X4140 server
The Sun Fire X4140 server includes the following major components:
• One or two Dual-Core or Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
• From 2 GB up to 64 GB of memory in up to 16 DDR2 DIMM slots (1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB
DDR2 DIMMs supported)
• Four on-board 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ports
• Three internal MD2 Low Profile PCI Express slots (one x16 and two x8 slots)
• Five USB 2.0 ports (two forward facing, two rear facing, one internal)
• Up to eight small form factor (SFF) SAS hot-swappable 2.5-inch internal SAS disk
drives with add-on SAS Host Bus Adapter (diskless configurations also available)
• Integrated Lights out Management (ILOM) system controller
• Dual redundant (N+N) hot-swappable high-efficiency 650 watt power supply units
running at 8.2 Amps RMS at 100 VAC
• Seven fan assemblies (each with two fans), under environmental monitoring and
control, N+1 redundancy, accessed through a dedicated top panel door
Dimension U.S. International
Height 1.746 inches (1 RU) 44 millimeters
Width (not including ears) 16.75 inches 426 millimeters
Depth (not including PSU handle) 28.125 inches 714 millimeters
Weight (approximate, without PCI Express cards or rackmount slide rail kit)
36.49 pounds 16.55 kilograms
27 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Front and Rear Perspectives
Figure 8 illustrates the front and rear panels of the Sun Fire X4140 server.
Figure 8. Sun Fire X4140 server, front and rear panels
External features of the Sun Fire X4140 server include:
• Front and rear system and component status indicator lights provide locator (white),
service required (amber), and activity status (green) for the system
• A disk drive numbering map for easy access
• Eight hotplug SAS disk drives insert through the front panel of the system
• One slimline, slot-accessible DVD+/-RW is accessed through the front panel
• Five USB 2.0 ports are provided, two on the front panel, two on the rear, and one
internally
• Two hotplug/hotswap (N+N) power supplies with integral fans insert from the rear
• Rear power-supply indicator lights convey the status of each power supply
• A single AC plug is provided on each hotplug/hotswap power supply
• Four 10/100/1000Base-T autosensing Ethernet ports are provided
• An HD-15 video port is provided
• A total of three PCI Express card slots are provided
• Two management ports are provided for use with the ILOM system controller (The
RJ-45 serial management port provides the default connection to the ILOM controller
while the network management port supports an optional RJ-45/10/100Base-T
connection to the ILOM system controller.)
Hard disk drives
System status indicators
PCI Express slotsRedundant (N+N) power supply units
10/100/1000 Ethernet ports Video port (HD-15)
Serial and network
DVD+/-RW driveSystem status indicators
Component status indicators
USB ports
Management ports USB ports
Disk drive numbering map
28 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun Fire X4240 ServerThe expandable Sun Fire X4240 server is optimized to deliver a dual-socket Web and
virtualization platform with maximized expansion capabilities. In addition to the
capabilities of the Sun Fire X4140 server, the Sun Fire X4240 adds support for additional
PCI Express expansion and support for up to 16 disk drives.
Enclosure
The Sun Fire X4240 server features a compact yet expandable 2U rackmount chassis
(Table 5), giving organizations the flexibility to scale their I/O and storage needs
without wasting precious space.
Table 5. Dimensions and weight of the Sun Fire X4240 server
The Sun Fire X4240 server includes the following major components:
• Two Dual-Core or Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
• From 2 GB up to 64 GB of memory in up to 16 DDR2 DIMM slots (1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB
DDR2 DIMMs supported)
• Four on-board 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ports
• Six internal MD2 Low Profile PCI Express slots including one x16, four x8, and one x4
(x8 physically)
• Five USB 2.0 ports (two forward facing, two rear facing, one internal)
• Up to 16 SFF SAS hot-swappable 2.5-inch internal SAS disk drives with add-on SAS
Host Bus Adapter (diskless configurations also available)
• Integrated Lights out Management (ILOM) system controller
• Dual redundant (N+N) hot-swappable high-efficiency 1050 watt power supply units
running at 8.2 Amps RMS at 100 VAC
• Six fan assemblies (each with two fans), under environmental monitoring and
control, N+1 redundancy, accessed through a dedicated top panel door
Dimension U.S. International
Height 3.49 inches (1 RU) 88 millimeters
Width (not including ears) 16.75 inches 426 millimeters
Depth (not including PSU handle) 28 inches 711.25 millimeters
Weight (approximate, without PCI Express cards or rackmount slide rail kit)
45.53 pounds 20.65 kilograms
29 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Front and Rear Perspectives
Figure 9 illustrates the front and back panels of the Sun Fire X4240 server.
Figure 9. Sun Fire X4240 server, front and rear panels
External features of the Sun Fire X4240 server include:
• Front and rear system and component status indicator lights provide locator (white),
service required (amber), and activity status (green) for the system
• A disk drive numbering map for easy access
• Up to 16 hotplug SAS disk drives insert through the front panel of the system
• One slimline, slot-accessible DVD+/-RW is accessed through the front panel
• Five USB 2.0 ports (two forward facing, two rear facing, one internal)
• Two hotplug/hotswap (N+N) power supplies with integral fans insert from the rear
• Rear power-supply indicator lights convey the status of each power supply
• A single AC plug is provided on each hotplug/hotswap power supply
• Four 10/100/1000Base-T autosensing Ethernet ports are provided
• An HD-15 video port is provided
• A total of six PCI Express card slots are provided on the rear panel
• Two management ports are provided for use with the ILOM system controller (The
RJ-45 serial management port provides the default connection to the ILOM controller
while the network management port supports an optional RJ-45/10/100Base-T
connection to the ILOM system controller.)
System status indicators DVD+/-RW Drive
Disk drives
USB ports
PCI Express slotsRedundant (N+N)Power supply units
System status indicators10/100/1000 Ethernet ports Video port (HD-15)
Serial and networkManagement ports USB ports
Component status indicators
Disk drive numbering map
30 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun Fire X4440 ServerThe expandable Sun Fire X4440 server offers four sockets for AMD Opteron processors
and up to 128 GB of memory, making it ideal as a scalable datacenter compute engine.
Well suited as a database server and for consolidation of multiple less capable servers,
Sun Fire X4440 servers combine processor scalability with ample memory, I/O
expansion, and disk storage capacity. The Sun Fire X4440 server is also ideal for HPC
environments where delivering high-density floating point performance is critical.
Enclosure
The Sun Fire X4440 server is delivered in a compact 2U rackmount chassis (Table 6).
Table 6. Dimensions and weight of the Sun Fire X4440 server
The Sun Fire X4440 server includes the following major components:
• Two or four Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors or Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors
• Up to 128 GB of memory in up to 16 DDR2 DIMM slots (1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB DDR2
DIMMs are supported)
• Four on-board 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ports
• Six internal MD2 Low Profile PCI Express slots including one x16, four x8, and one x4
slot (x8 physically)
• Five USB 2.0 ports (two forward facing, two rear facing, one internal)
• Up to eight SFF SAS hot-swappable 2.5-inch internal SAS disk drives with add-on SAS
Host Bus Adapter (diskless configurations also available)
• Integrated Lights out Management (ILOM) system controller
• Dual redundant (N+N) high-efficiency 1,050 watt power supply units (hot swappable
in redundant configuration)
• Six fan assemblies (each with two fans), under environmental monitoring and
control, N+1 redundancy, accessed through a dedicated top-panel door
Dimension U.S. International
Height 3.46 inches (2 RU) 87.85 millimeters
Width (not including ears) 16.75 inches 425.5 millimeters
Depth (not including PSU handle) 28 inches 711.2 millimeters
Depth (with PSU handle) 28.99 inches 733.4 millimeters
Weight (approximate, withPCI Express cards but without rackmount slide rail kit)
63 pounds 28.6 kilograms
31 Server Architecture Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Front and Rear Perspectives
Figure 9 illustrates the front and back panels of the Sun Fire X4440 server.
Figure 10. Sun Fire X4440 server, front and rear panels
External features of the Sun Fire X4440 server include:
• Front and rear system and component status indicator lights provide locator (white),
service required (amber), and activity status (green) for the system
• A disk drive numbering map for easy access
• Up to eight hotplug SAS disk drives insert through the front panel of the system
• One slimline, slot-accessible DVD+/-RW accessed through the front panel
• Five USB 2.0 ports, two on the front panel, two on the rear, and one internal
• Two hotplug/hotswap (N+N) power supplies with integral fans insert from the rear
• Rear power-supply indicator lights that convey the status of each power supply
• A single AC plug provided on each hotplug/hotswap power supply
• Four 10/100/1000Base-T autosensing Ethernet ports
• An HD-15 video port
• A total of six PCI Express card slots are on the rear panel
• Two management ports for use with the ILOM system controller (The
RJ-45 serial management port provides the default connection to the ILOM controller
while the network management port supports an optional RJ-45/10/100Base-T
connection to the ILOM system controller.)
PCI Express slotsRedundant (N+N)Power supply units
System status indicators10/100/1000 Ethernet ports Video port (HD-15)
Serial and networkManagement ports USB ports
System status indicators DVD+/-RW Drive
Disk drives
USB ports Component status indicators
Disk drive numbering map
32 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Chapter 4
Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software
Unlike many x64 systems, Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers are ideally suited
for enterprise environments. Not only are the systems designed with the datacenter in
mind, but the operating system and management software provided with these
systems allow them to serve the most important and mission-critical applications. The
sections that follow describe the Solaris 10 OS and key enterprise-grade management
technology.
Solaris 10 OS SupportAmong the available operating systems, the Solaris OS is ideal for large-scale enterprise
deployments. Supported on all of Sun’s x64 and SPARC platforms, the Solaris OS has
specific features that can enhance flexibility and performance — with different features
affecting different processors as noted in the sections that follow.
• Solaris Containers for Consolidation, Secure Partitioning, and Virtualization
Solaris Containers comprise a group of technologies that work together to
efficiently manage system resources, virtualize the system, and provide a
complete, isolated, and secure runtime environment for applications. Solaris
Containers can be used to partition and allocate the considerable computational
resources of Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers. Solaris Zones and Solaris
Resource Management work together with the Solaris fair-share scheduler.
– Solaris Zones — Solaris Zones can be used to create an isolated and secure envi-
ronment for running applications. A zone is a virtualized operating system envi-
ronment created within a single instance of the Solaris OS. Zones can be used to
isolate applications and processes from the rest of the system. This isolation
helps enhance security and reliability since processes in one zone are prevented
from interfering with processes running in another zone.
– Resource Management — Resource management tools provided with the Solaris OS lets administrators dedicate resources such as CPU cycles to specific applications. CPUs in multicore multiprocessor systems — such as Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers — can be logically partitioned into processor sets and bound to a resource pool, and can ultimately be assigned to a Solaris zone. Resource pools provide the capability to separate workloads so that con-sumption of CPU resources does not overlap. Resource pools also provide a per-sistent configuration mechanism for processor sets and scheduling class assignment. In addition, the dynamic features of resource pools let administra-tors adjust system resources in response to changing workload demands.
33 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• Solaris Dynamic Tracing (DTrace) to Instrument and Tune Live Software Environments
When production systems exhibit nonfatal errors or sub-par performance, the
sheer complexity of modern distributed software environments can make accurate
root-cause diagnosis extremely difficult. Unfortunately, most traditional
approaches to solving this problem have proved time-consuming and inadequate,
leaving many applications languishing far from their potential performance levels.
The Solaris DTrace facility provides dynamic instrumentation and tracing for both
application and kernel activities — even allowing tracing of application
components running in a Java Virtual Machine (JVM™)1. DTrace lets developers and
administrators explore the entire system to understand how it works, track down
performance problems across many layers of software, or locate the cause of
aberrant behavior. Tracing is accomplished by dynamically modifying the
operating system kernel to record additional data at locations of interest. Best of
all, although DTrace is always available and ready to use, it has no impact on
system performance when not in use, making it particularly effective for
monitoring and analyzing production systems.
• NUMA Optimization in the Solaris OS
With memory managed by each processor on Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440
servers, the implementation represents a non-uniform memory access (NUMA)
architecture. In NUMA architectures, the speed needed for a processor to access
its own memory is slightly different than that required to access memory
managed by another processor. The Solaris OS provides technology that can
specifically help applications improve performance on NUMA architectures.
– Memory Placement Optimization (MPO) — The Solaris 10 OS uses MPO to
improve the placement of memory across the physical memory of a server,
resulting in increased performance. Through MPO, the Solaris 10 OS works to
help ensure that memory is as close as possible to the processors that access it,
while still maintaining enough balance within the system. As a result, many
database and HPC applications are able to run considerably faster with MPO.
– Hierarchical lgroup support (HLS) — HLS improves the MPO feature in the
Solaris OS. HLS helps the Solaris OS optimize performance for systems with
more complex memory latency hierarchies. HLS lets the Solaris OS distinguish
between the degrees of memory remoteness, allocating resources with the low-
est possible latency for applications. If local resources are not available by
default for a given application, HLS helps the Solaris OS allocate the nearest
remote resources.
• Solaris ZFS
Solaris ZFS offers a dramatic advance in data management, automating and
consolidating complicated storage administration concepts and providing
unlimited scalability with the world’s first 128-bit file system. ZFS is based on a
1.The terms "Java Virtual Machine" and "JVM" mean a Virtual Machine for the Java platform.
34 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
transactional object model that removes most of the traditional constraints on I/O
issue order, resulting in dramatic performance gains. ZFS also provides data
integrity, protecting all data with 64-bit checksums that detect and correct silent
data corruption.
• A Secure and Robust Enterprise-Class Environment
Best of all, the Solaris OS doesn’t require arbitrary sacrifices. The Solaris Binary
Compatibility Guarantee helps ensure that existing Solaris applications continue
to run unchanged, protecting investments. Certified multilevel security protects
Solaris environments from intrusion. Sun’s comprehensive Fault Management
Architecture means that elements such as Solaris Predictive Self Healing can
communicate directly with the hardware to help reduce both planned and
unplanned downtime.
Integrated Lights Out Management (ILOM)Each Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 server offers an Integrated Lights Out Manager
(ILOM) service processor, allowing remote management for all activities that do not
require physically touching the system. Industry standards are embraced throughout,
letting these systems easily integrate into existing environments. In addition, since the
ILOM service processor is a core component of Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440
systems, and there is no additional charge for this functionality.
On-Board ILOM Firmware and Connections
The ILOM service processor connects to all major components via on-board interfaces
such as I2C with a separate management network provided for remote access. Equipped
with field-upgradeable firmware, the ILOM service processor supplies management
functions for fan speed control and diagnostic LEDs, and provides a wealth of
connections to individual server components. Sensors can use the ILOM service
processor to generate entries in the system event log when the sensor crosses a certain
value. Examples in Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers include:
• Chassis sensors for intrusion, power supply failure, temperature failure, or fan failure
• Front and back panel sensors sensing the state of various LEDs and system locate
button
• Motherboard temperature sensors to monitor the ambient temperature chip on the
motherboard
• Power supply sensors to determine whether power supplies are present, connected
to AC power, and/or powering the system
• Hard disk drive backplane sensors to determine the presence and health of the disk
backplane
• Fan sensors to determine the presence of the fan tray, the speed of individual fans,
and to detect the failure of individual fans.
35 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
ILOM Communication Channels, User Management, and Security
Access to ILOM functionality on Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers can be made
through a variety of both out-of-band and in-band communication channels. Out-of-
band communication helps ensure that effective management can take place even in
the event of hardware or networking failures, and includes:
• A management serial port that provides direct console access via a command line
interface (CLI)
• A dedicated Ethernet port that provides a web-based GUI (over HTTPS), a CLI via SSH,
IPMI 2.0, and SNMP v1, v2c, and v3
In-band communication to the ILOM service processor is provided via the host OS
running on the server. A variety of management tools can be used to access
management information on individual servers:
• Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) with IPMItool
IPMItool is a simple command-line interface to systems that support the
Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) v2.0 specification. IPMItool
provides the ability to read the sensor data repository and print sensor values,
display the contents of the system event log, print field-replaceable unit
information, read and set LAN configuration parameters, and perform remote
chassis power control. IPMItool was originally written to take advantage of IPMI-
over-LAN interfaces but it is also capable of using the system interface as provided
by a Linux kernel device driver such as OpenIPMI or a Solaris OS driver called BMC
that is provided with the Solaris 10 OS. IPMItool is available under a
BSDcompatible license.
IPMItool is not designed to replace the OpenIPMI library but instead provides a
completely command-line oriented tool that can be used by administrators in
conjunction with other tools. Where possible, IPMItool supports comma-
separated values for output to facilitate parsing by other scripts or programs.
IPMItool is designed to run quick command-response functions that can be as
simple as turning the system on or off, or as complex as reading in the sensor data
records while extracting and printing detailed sensor information for each record.
• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Management
SNMP management provides remote access by SNMP-compliant entities to
monitor and control network devices and manage configurations including
statistics collection, performance, and security on a network. SNMP is a network
management protocol used almost exclusively in TCP/IP networks. Sun Fire X4140,
X4240, and X4440 servers provide SNMP MIBs to manage and monitor the servers
using any SNMP-capable network management system, such as HP OpenView
Network Node Manager (NNM), Tivoli, CA Unicenter, or IBM Director. The MIB
data describes the information being managed, reflects current and recent server
status and provides server statistics.
36 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
SNMP v1, v2c, and v3 are supported with v3 selected by default (v1 and v2c are
disabled by default). SNMP “sets” can be selected or disabled (default). An IPMI-
specific trap called a Platform Event Trap, or PET, may also be generated. The
following SNMP MIBs are supported:
– SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB
– SNMP-USER-BASED-SM-MIB
– SNMP-MPD-MIB
– ENTITY-MIB
– SUN-PLATFORM-MIB
• Role-Based Administration
Different management users can be defined with corresponding roles and
responsibilities. Up to 10 user IDs can be created locally on the service processor
with each user ID consisting of a user name and the roles that are allowed. By
default, Administrator and Operator roles are defined. Authentication is carried
out against a local service processor database. Alternately, an LDAP client is
implemented in the ILOM service processor as well to allow authentication
against an LDAP server (LDAP groups must be mapped to service processor roles).
Up to 10 concurrent active sessions are supported on the service processor,
including serial, secure shell and web clients. User accounts can be authenticated
through LDAP, Radius, and Active Directory.
Remote Keyboard, Video, Mouse, and Storage (RKVMS)
To facilitate effective and full-featured remote management, the ILOM service processor
provides remote keyboard, video, mouse, and storage (RKVMS) support that is tightly
integrated with Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers. Together these capabilities
allow the servers to be administered remotely, while accessing keyboard, mouse, video
and storage devices local to the administrator (Figure 11). ILOM Remote Console
support is provided on the ILOM service processor and can be downloaded and
37 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
executed on the management console. Input/output of virtual devices is handled
between ILOM on the server and ILOM Remote Console on the web-based client
management console.
Figure 11. Remote keyboard, video, mouse, and storage (RKVMS) support in the ILOM service processor allows full-featured remote management for Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
• Remote Keyboard and Mouse Support
Through the ILOM service processor, the Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
detect a USB keyboard and mouse. ILOM Remote Console captures mouse and
keyboard input on the management console and sends it to the ILOM service
processor. The service processor then transmits mouse and keyboard inputs on the
respective USB buses on the server. The server receives keyboard entries and
mouse movements as if they were generated by local USB devices.
• Remote Video Support
Each server incorporates a VGA graphics controller, provided by the AST2000 chip.
Graphics from the ATI graphics controller is sent to the ILOM service processor. The
service processor then redirects the video signal to ILOM Remote Console running
on the management system over a network connection, where the video is
displayed on the management console. ILOM Remote Console supports 16-bit
video to accommodate higher quality.
ManagementConsole
CDROM, DVDROMor .iso Image
Keyboard, Mouse, CDROM,and Floppy are Seen as
USB Devices by BIOS and OS
ILOM Remote ConsoleDisplays Remote Video in
Application Window
Video(Up to 1024x768@60Hz)
ILOM Remote ConsoleConnected to ILOM OverManagement Ethernet
Local Mouse andKeyboard
Sun FireX4140/X4240/X4440
Server
Graphics Redirect Over Ethernet
Floppy Disk orFloppy Image
Remote Keyboard, Mouse and StorageEmulated as USB Devices by ILOM
38 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• Remote Virtual Storage
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers detect two USB storage devices through
the ILOM service processor that can be set up in the BIOS as floppy, CD/DVDROM,
or disk image (floppy and CD/DVDROM by default). When the server tries to access
either the virtual floppy disk or the virtual CDROM, the ILOM service processor
redirects the request over the Ethernet connection to ILOM Remote Console on the
management console. ILOM Remote Console accesses the content from the
physical floppy disk drive, CD/DVDROM, or disk image, returning it across the
network to the server. The ILOM service processor presents the data to the server
as if it were coming from a local USB storage device. This capability allows the
server to boot remotely from a virtual USB storage device. The content of the
storage device can be an actual CD, floppy disk, or disk image (ISO or IMG).
Sun xVM Ops CenterBeyond local and remote management capabilities, datacenter infrastructure needs to
be agile and flexible, allowing not only fast deployment but streamlined redeployment
of resources as required. Sun xVM Ops Center technology (formerly Sun N1™ System
Manager and Sun Connection) provides an IT infrastructure management platform for
integrating and automating management of thousands of heterogeneous systems. To
improve life-cycle and change management, Sun xVM Ops Center supports the
management of applications and the servers on which they run, including the Sun Fire
X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
Sun xVM Ops Center simplifies infrastructure life-cycle management by letting
administrators perform standardized actions across logical groups of systems. Sun xVM
Ops Center can automatically discover and group bare-metal systems, performing
actions on the entire group as easily as operating on a single system. Sun xVM Ops
Center remotely installs and updates firmware and operating systems, including
support for:
• Solaris 8, 9, and 10 on SPARC systems
• Solaris 10 on x86/x64 platforms
• Red Hat and SuSE Linux distributions
In addition, the software provides considerable lights-out monitoring of both hardware
and software, including fans, temperature, disk and voltage levels — as well as swap
space, CPU utilization, memory capacity, and file systems. Role-based access control
lets IT staff grant specific management permissions to specific users. A convenient
hybrid user interface integrates both a command-line interface (CLI) and an easy-to-use
graphical user interface (GUI), providing remote access to manage systems from
virtually anywhere.
39 Enterprise-Class Operating System and Management Software Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun xVM Ops Center provides advanced management and monitoring features to the
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers. The remote management interface discovers
and presents the the servers, making operations, detailed inventory, and status pages
available to administrators. Servers can be discovered and organized into logical
groups. Organizing servers into groups also allows features such as OS deployment
across multiple servers.
Some of the functions available through Sun xVM Ops Center software include
operating system provisioning, firmware updates (for both the BIOS and ILOM service
processor firmware), and health monitoring. In addition, Sun xVM Ops Center includes
a framework allowing administrators to easily access inventory information, simplify
the task of running jobs on multiple servers with server grouping functionality.
40 Conclusion Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Chapter 5
Conclusion
As datacenter pressures continue to escalate, organizations need effective, scalable,
and flexible infrastructure that responds to meet their changing needs. More than fast
or inexpensive servers, organizations require systems that are designed for enterprise
scale, with feature sets that anticipate datacenter requirements. Systems must provide
balanced design, with an effective mixture of processor performance, memory capacity,
and I/O throughput.
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers feature advanced enterprise-class designs
based on Sun’s long history serving enterprise customers. Based on innovative Dual-
Core and Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, these servers can provide powerful
building blocks to help scale, virtualize, and consolidate datacenter infrastructure.
Offering best-in-class performance, remarkable density, and extensive system
expandability, Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers make the most of constrained
datacenter resources. In addition, these servers offer extensive reliability, availability,
and serviceability features along with improved energy efficiency. Integrated Lights Out
Management technology in each server provides advanced monitoring and
management — at no extra cost.
Ultimately, even the most capable servers require enterprise-class operating systems
and tools. With a choice of the Solaris OS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, and VMware
virtualization software, these servers provide a wealth of popular options. The Solaris
OS in particular offers advanced and innovative features such as Solaris Containers and
DTrace that can help consolidate and tune enterprise deployments. With powerful
management tools such as Sun xVM Ops Center, organizations can deploy Sun Fire
X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers quickly with confidence, knowing that their choices
can improve their results as well as the bottom line.
41 Conclusion Sun Microsystems, Inc.
For More InformationTo learn more about Sun products and the benefits of Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440
servers, contact a Sun sales representative, or consult the related documents and Web
sites listed in Table 7.
Table 7. Related Websites
Web Site URL Description
sun.com/x64 Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 servers
sun.com/solaris The Solaris Operating System
sun.com/xvm Sun xVM Ops Center
sun.com/vmware VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) on Sun x64 servers
sun.com/software/products/sunmanagementcenter Sun Management Center
Sun Fire X4140, X4240, and X4440 Server Architecture On the Web sun.com/x64
Sun Microsystems, Inc. 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA Phone 1-650-960-1300 or 1-800-555-9SUN (9786) Web sun.com
© 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems, Java, JVM, Lustre, MySQL, NetBeans, N1, Solaris, StarOffice, Sun Fire, Sun Ray, Sun StorageTek, and Trusted Solaris are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the US and other
countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Information subject to change without notice. AMD and Opteron are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Printed in USA SunWIN #: 509874 05/08