The ultimate in high-density computing, blade servers have revolutionized data centers and server farms. While some optimize for size, and some for sheer processing power, blades are sure to cut through your workload.
When historians compile the great accomplishments of 2002, the popular “Ketchup Song,” from the Spanish trio Las Ketchup, will be number one on the list. High-density blade servers will follow a close second. Considered by enterprise and service-provider IT staff to be the ultimate in high-density computing, blade servers go a step beyond the former “space champion,” the dual-processor, 1U-high (1.75-inch) high-density server. While blades are expensive and somewhat proprietary, if space is at a premium, you’ll eat ‘em up by the six-pack. Or maybe by the 24-pack, as you’ll soon see.
A server On a board
The blade server concept is straightforward, and is ideal for Linux computing: start with a modern single-processor server with an embedded Ethernet controller, and gradually strip away everything that doesn’t contribute to its computational horsepower.
Throw away the cabinet — it’s just taking up space — leaving a bare motherboard with integrated processor, memory, hard-disk controllers, and Ethernet ports. Lose the power supply — you can feed the machine juice from an external source. Deep six the CD-ROM drive and boot floppy. Yank out the video chip, mouse, and keyboard connectors — instead, use telnet or SNMP to communicate with the server. Finally, add a couple of hard drives, and affix them directly to the motherboard.
What’s left is 100% pure computational muscle, a server-on-a-board. Put that board into a slide-in cartridge, and you have a server blade that…
Please log in to view this content.
Not Yet a Member?
Register with LinuxMagazine.com and get free access to the entire archive, including:
