hp rp5400 series of entry-level unix servers november 2001 a technical white paper from Hewlett-Packard
table of contents introduction to the hp server rp5400 series......................................................................... 3 the hp server product line ............................................................................................. 7 binary compatibility ..................................................................................................... 8 IPF ready.....................................................................................................................
introduction to the hp server rp5400 series In today’s economy, whether you’re managing your own IT infrastructure or hosting someone else’s, you have to operate with a faster time-to-solution, within budgetary constraints, and with the highest standards for customer service and operational efficiency. The HP server rp5400 series give you the fastest and most reliable means to succeed in this new business environment.
The exploded view reveals the location of major components, as well as the mechanical and architectural features of the rp5400 series. The server is partitioned into two main electrical assemblies—the system board and the I/O backplane, and into three main volumes—processor and memory, I/O and disk, and power. Looking at the front face, three hot-swap power supply bays are located in the lower left corner.
rp5450 features at-a-glance • 1 to 4 PA-8500 or PA-8600 CPUs • 540MHz, 440MHz, & 360MHz CPUs • IA-64 ready • Up to 16GB of memory • 10 PCI I/O slots (six hot-plug 66MHz × 64-bit, four 33MHz × 64-bit) • 6 independent PCI buses for I/O slots • N+1 power and cooling • 4 hot-plug disk drives • Removable media bay: DVD-ROM or DDS-3 • 1.3GB/s system bus bandwidth • 2.1GB/s I/O bus bandwidth • 1.3GB/s memory bus bandwidth • 64-bit HP-UX 11.
• High-performance “Stretch” core electronics complex (leveraged from rp7400) • IA-64 ready • Up to 16GB of memory • 10 PCI I/O slots (eight hot-plug, two non-hot-plug; all are 66MHz × 64-bit) • 9 independent PCI buses for I/O slots • N+1 power and cooling • 4 hot-plug disk drives • Removable media bay: DVD-ROM or DDS-3 • 4.3GB/s system bus bandwidth • 3.2GB/s I/O bus bandwidth • 4.3GB/s memory bus bandwidth • 64-bit HP-UX 11.
The rp5400 series is the entry-level cornerstone of the business-critical proven hp server product line. HP servers are #1 among UNIX® servers for reliability, scalability, availability, and price/performance. This robust product line addresses the major computing challenges customers face today in online transaction processing (OLTP), electronic commerce (ECOM), Internet/intranet serving (Web), enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), and technical applications.
binary compatibility The rp5400 series supports the 64-bit HP-UX 11 operating system. With HP-UX 11, HP maintains its long-standing tradition of providing the industry’s best record of investment protection. HP-UX provides forward binary compatibility, in which a fully bound application developed on an earlier version of HP-UX is ensured to run smoothly on HP-UX 11. Thus, current 32- and 64-bit applications can run without requiring recompilation.
Figure 2.1 shows the relationship of the rp5470 main blocks and the buses that connect them. The rp5470 uses the “Stretch” high-performance core electronics complex (CEC), which is also used in the midrange rp8400 server. This CEC, specifically designed for demanding Internet workloads, brings unprecedented levels of bandwidth and performance to the 4-way entry-level market. architecture Two runway buses, both running at 133MHz, provide 4.3GB/s of bandwidth to four PA-8700 or PA8600 processors.
Figure 2.2 is a block diagram of the rp5450 architecture. The rp5450 uses the “Astro” CEC, which was specifically designed to provide no-compromise features and performance at a low-end price point. Integrated within the single “Astro” chip is the memory and I/O controllers, with several peripheral application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to control and drive the specific I/O and memory buses.
low-latency memory access All four systems in the rp5400 series have sixteen memory slots. The rp5400 and rp5450 have all sixteen slots laid out on the main system board. The rp5430 and rp5470, on the other hand, use two 8-slot memory carrier boards. The memory for both systems is connected to the CEC through a low-latency/high-bandwidth bus.
Table 2.2 Maximum bandwidth for rp5430 system buses # of buses (or controllers) maximum bus bandwidth aggregate bus bandwidth twin-turbo PCI slots 2 500MB/s 1GB/s turbo PCI slots 3 250MB/s 750MB/s core I/O 1 250MB/s 250MB/s I/O subsystem 1 (controller) 3.2GB/s 3.2GB/s memory subsystem 2 2.15GB/s 4.3GB/s CPU buses 2 2.15GB/s 4.3GB/s Table 2.
I/O subsystem design The rp5470 contains ten PCI I/O slots. The top eight slots have hot-plug capabilities under HP-UX 11i. The eight hot-plug slots all have independent I/O channels. This independent design prevents slow cards from affecting the performance of a fast card. Not only does independence provide great performance, it also provides error containment. For example, if a card hangs in slot 9, cards in slots 0–8 will still function properly.
The rp5450 also has ten PCI I/O slots. The top six Turbo slots, labeled slots 6–11, have hot-plug functionality in HP-UX 11i. Each of these six Turbo slots supports 64-bit × 66MHz PCI cards running at full speed. These slots are connected to the I/O controller via six independent/dedicated high-speed 250MB/s channels. This independent design prevents slow cards from affecting the performance of a fast card. Not only does independence provide great performance, it also provides error containment.
PCI is the optimized, industry-standard I/O bus. Tables 2.5 through 2.8 summarize the PCI slots for each of the systems in the rp5400 series. Table 2.5 rp5470 PCI I/O # of slots hot plug bandwidth per channel bus width signaling speed slot keying adaptive signaling twin turbo 2 Yes 500MB/s 64 bits 66 & 33 MHz 5 volts Yes turbo 6 Yes 250MB/s 64 bits 66 & 33 MHz 5 volts Yes shared 2 No 250MB/s 64 bits 33MHz 5 volts Yes signaling speed slot keying adaptive signaling Table 2.
internal removable media The rp5400 series contains a single removable media bay that can accommodate either a DVDROM or DDS-3The media bay is supported by one of two SCSI controllers located within the core I/O. A dedicated single-ended (SE) SCSI channel connects the media bay to the controller. The removable media bay does not support hot-plug capability. The DVD-ROM drive provides access of up to 650MB of data from one disk.
rp5400 series industrial design and packaging The rp5400 series has been designed to fit into environments ranging from data centers to deskside. The industrial design is coordinated with other hp servers and peripherals for a consistent appearance. racking density The rp5400 series is designed to provide unprecedented performance density that easily adapts to different environments. At 7 EIA units (EIA unit= 1.75 inches), up to five L-Class units can be installed into a single 2-meter HP cabinet.
high availability The rp5400 series has numerous high availability features that are unmatched in the entry-level server market—features such as redundant hot-swap fans and power, hot-plug I/O and disks, memory scrubbing and page deallocation, memory chip spare, independent PCI slots, failure avoidance and notification capability, and MC/Serviceguard support. These features improve the availability level of the total system and are introduced in this section.
redundant power input protection Figure 3.1 contains a diagram of the rp5400 series power subsystem. This section explains how customers can utilize these capabilities to achieve different levels of power input protection. Figure 3.
redundant, hotswap cooling The rp5400 series contains eight hot-swappable fans to cool system components. The eight cooling fans (1 front-access, 4 side-access, 3 rear-access) are arranged in an N+1 configuration so any fan can fail and not affect system uptime. In the event of a fan failure, the faulty fan can simply be removed and replaced while the server continues to run. The design pairs fans together. If one fan fails, the other speeds up to ensure adequate system cooling.
hot-plug disk drives The rp5400 series has four embedded SCSI disks accessible from the front of the server. These disks can be removed and inserted while the server continues to operate. This operation is called “hotplug,” and it is different from “hot-swap.” During both hot-plug and hot-swap operations, the power remains on and the system continues to function. However, hot-swap means that the assembly can be removed, added, or replaced without informing the system.
hot-plug PCI I/O slots The ability to hot-plug PCI cards offers excellent flexibility for adding, reconfiguring, and maintaining I/O functions while the system continues operations. No reboot is required. The I/O card bay is located at the right rear of the chassis. The I/O bay supports up to 10 PCI cards. Access to the I/O bay in rackmounted systems utilizing the High Availability Slider is achieved by sliding the server forward.
CPUs The rp5400 series supports PA-8700, PA-8600, and PA-8500 processors. In the future, Itanium Processor Family (IPF) CPUs will also be supported. processor upgrades The rp5400 series provides outstanding investment protection and lasting value with a system infrastructure that is designed to accommodate several generations of processor upgrades. To enable in-chassis processor upgrades, several areas of the server needed to have headroom designed into them.
manageability and support event notification The rp5400 series has many features to minimize the effort required to manage one system or an entire computer room. The server simplifies system management in several aspects: event notification, automatic error handling, power monitoring, and the user interface to system management. For an operator who is physically present, there are two ways to receive event notification. The simplest and easiest are the status LEDs on the front of the system.
The monitors can also poll hardware, disks, clusters, network interfaces, and system resources and send information to the framework. An “event” can be simply defined as something you want to know about—for example, a disk failure or file space dropping below a predefined level.
system platform monitor Closely integrated to the Extended Fault Management System is the system platform monitor. The system platform monitor controls and monitors system power and cooling.
LAN console The server also provides a LAN console interface using industry-standard telnet connections. Like the Web console, the LAN console can be used remotely for managing many systems from a single control center. The telnet interface allows scripts to be used to vastly simplify multiple system management. Password protection provides a high level of security to control access to the LAN console, ensuring that only authorized personnel perform system management.
For More Information HP product information and technical documentation is available online at: http://www.hp.com/go/rp5400 http://www.hp.com/go/rp5430 http://www.hp.com/go/rp5450 http://www.hp.com/go/rp5470 Contact any of our worldwide sales offices or HP Channel Partners (in the U.S., call 1-800-637-7740) or at the following international numbers: United States of America: +1 800 637 7740 Canada: Hewlett-Packard Ltd.
