Specifications

Chapter 1. Introduction to IBM System Networking 10Gb Ethernet products 39
򐂰 High-speed redundant midplane connections: Based on 4X InfiniBand, the midplane
supports up to 40 Gb bandwidth and provides four 10 Gb data channels to each blade. By
giving each blade two physical connections to the midplane that connects all blades and
modules together internally, a failure of one connector alone cannot bring down
the server.
򐂰 Fourteen 30 mm blade slots: These hot-swap slots can support any combination of 14
blade servers, or seven double-wide (60 mm) blade servers, or a mixture of 30 mm and 60
mm blades. It also supports multiple optional 30 mm Expansion Units in combination with
the blade servers, using the same blade slots. Up to four chassis can be installed in an
industry-standard 42U rack, for a total of up to 56 30 mm blade servers per rack.
򐂰 Up to 10 module bays for communication and I/O switches or bridges: The modules
interface with all of the blade servers in the chassis and alleviate the need for external
switches or expensive, cumbersome, and error-prone cabling. All connections are done
internally through the midplane. Two module slots are reserved for hot-swap/redundant
Gigabit Ethernet switch modules. Two slots support either high-speed bridge modules or
traditional Gigabit Ethernet, Myrinet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and other switch modules.
Two slots are dedicated for bridge modules. Four additional slots are dedicated for
hot-swap/redundant high-speed switch modules. All modules, when installed in pairs, offer
load balancing and failover support.
Figure 1-20 shows the module bay locations.
Figure 1-20 IBM BladeCenter H chassis switch module identification
򐂰 Integrated switch and bridge modules: No additional rack U space is required.
򐂰 Two module bays for Advanced Management Modules (AMMs): The management
modules provide advanced systems management and KVM capabilities for not only the
chassis itself, but for all of the blades and other modules installed in the chassis. The
AMM provides capabilities similar to the Baseboard Management Controller used in
stand-alone System x rack and tower servers. Features include concurrent KVM (cKVM),
an external Serial over LAN connection, industry-standard management interfaces
(SMASH/CLP/CIM/HPI), USB virtualization, network failover, compatibility with an earlier
version of the original Management Module, and so on.
Switch Module Bays 3 & 4
-OR- Bridge Slots
Bay 7 Bay 8
High Speed Switch Module Bays
Bay 9 Bay 10
High Speed Switch Module Bays
Switch Module Bays 1 & 2
(dedicated Ethernet)
Switch Module Bays 5 & 6
(dedicated bridge module)