Specifications

Configuring the Hardware and Installing Windows NT 39
The system will then disable the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) and release
its system resources for every installed ServeRAID adapter except the BIOS of
the ServeRAID adapter with the highest boot order priority. That is especially true
in the case of the ServeRAID adapter and the Netfinity 7000 this one plugged in
the PCI Slot with the lowest number. This is also the adapter where your
operating system is booted.
For the highest boot order priority, see 2.5.2, “Boot Order Netfinity 7000” on page
37.
As the BIOS of the other ServeRAID adapters is disabled, you cannot boot from
these adapters. Nor can you boot if there no hard disks are connected to the
ServeRAID adapter with the remaining BIOS or if you remove this adapter. If you
want to remove the ServeRAID adapter with the remaining BIOS and boot from
another one or you want to install a ServeRAID adapter with disabled BIOS in
another server, you have to reinstall the adapter BIOS.
This is done with the current
IBM ServeRAID and ServeRAID II BIOS flash
update diskette
. To reload the BIOS code select only the option Upgrade/Add
BIOS - all adapters. You do not need to select the option BIOS and Firmware
update.
See 2.10.2, “ServeRAID BIOS and Firmware Update” on page 49 for the update
procedure.
2.5.4 Network Interfaces and SAP R/3
The SAP R/3 systems requires various network communications between client
and application server and application server and database server, depending on
whether you use a
three-tier or a two-tier solution. The transport protocol needed
for SAP R/3 on Windows NT servers is TCP/IP.
The connection from the client to the application server can be established using
a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). All the different
network types such as Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, token-ring, Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI) and ATM, can be used, depending on your network structure
needs, such as the number of clients and number of different locations, distance
between the locations, etc.
To handle the communication traffic between the database server and the
application servers for small configurations, 10 Mbps Ethernet or 16 Mbps
Token-Ring Network Interface Card (NIC) should be sufficient. Larger
configurations should use high speed links with FDDI or Fast Ethernet. We
recommend that you always implement high-speed links with 100 Mbps Fast
Ethernet or FDDI NICs for your configurations.
Select an appropriate Fast Ethernet switch which delivers the 100 Mbps
collision-free and full-duplex to every of its network ports to exploit the 100 Mbps
Fast Ethernet NICs in the database server and the application server. We don't
recommend to use a 100 Mbps hub or switch which distribute the 100 Mbps
bandwidth over all its network ports.
If you want to use an IBM S/390 as database server and your Netfinity 7000s as
application servers you will need an FDDI NIC for the connection between the
S/390 and the Netfinity 7000. The ESCON Channel is not supported yet.