IBM HS20 User Manual

Workhorse 2-socket single- or dual-core Intel Xeon blade server 
 
 

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June 2006  
 

  
 

      

 

 

 

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Uncompromising 2-socket blade server for business-
critical or telecommunications applications 

[Target Customers: Front-and mid-tier applications requiring high performance, enterprise-
class availability and extreme flexibility.]  
Today’s data center environment is tougher than ever. Customers are looking to reduce IT cost, 
complexity, space requirements, power consumption and heat output, while increasing flexibility, 
utilization and manageability. The IBM

 HS20 blade server, combined with the 

various BladeCenter chassis, can help them accomplish all of these goals. 
A single BladeCenter or BladeCenter H chassis supports up to 14 hot-swappable 30mm 
HS20 blades in only 7U (BladeCenter) or 9U (BladeCenter H) of rack space. (A rugged 8U 
BladeCenter T chassis supports up to 8 HS20 blades in a NEBS-3/ETSI-compliant 
telecommunications environment.) In addition to the blade servers, these chassis also hold up to 
four (BladeCenter/BladeCenter T) communication switches, or up to ten switches/bridges 
(BladeCenter H) internally. Not only can this save significant data center space (and therefore 
the cost of floor space and rack hardware) compared to 1U servers, it also consolidates 
switches/bridges and cables for reduced complexity and lower cabling costs, and allows clients 
to manage everything in the solution as one. Using a BladeCenter chassis, up to 84 HS20 
servers (168 processors) can be installed in one industry-standard 42U rack but the value of 
BladeCenter extends far beyond high density data center environments. 
Reducing an entire server into as little as .5U of rack space does not mean trading features and 
capabilities for smaller size. Each HS20 blade server offers features comparable to many 1U 
rack-optimized full-featured servers: Up to two of the latest single- and dual-core Intel

®

 Xeon

®

 

processors, including full-performance/low-power models. The single-core Xeon processor is 
designed with 1MB or 2MB (model-specific) of L2 cache, a leading-edge 800MHz front-side bus 
(FSB), 64-bit extensions (EM64T) and Hyper-Threading Technology, to help provide 
customers with the computing power they require to match their business needs and growth

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The dual-core Xeon processor provides two cores with matching 1MB L2 caches, for increased 
performance at a lower power draw than the single-core version.  Both versions of the HS20 
support up to 16GB of 400MHz PC2-3200 ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) double data 
rate II (DDR2) memory (in 4 DIMM slots) with optional Chipkill

™

 protection, for high 

performance and reliability. Integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet

 controllers are standard, 

providing high-speed data transfers and offering load-balancing and failover capabilities. Via 
optional expansion cards, each blade can connect to additional Ethernet, Myrinet, Fibre 
Channel, iSCSI, InfiniBand

™,

 and other high-speed communication switches housed in the 

chassis. Optional 2-port Expansion Cards add additional fabrics to the HS20 server as 
needed.

 

All models offer impressive features at an equally impressive price, including

 

up to two

 

 

SCSI or SAS hard disk drives (model dependent, with RAID-1 disk mirroring support. An 
optional 30mm SCSI Expansion unit connects to a blade (model-dependent) to provide an 
additional two SCSI HDDs, with hot-swap and enhanced RAID-1E support. Moreover, the 
HS20 is optimized for diskless operation, offering each blade server access to essentially 
unlimited storage capacity via Fibre Channel or iSCSI. 
The various BladeCenter chassis are designed to monitor environmental conditions in the 
chassis and each blade and send alerts to the administrator. Advanced standard features, such 
as Predictive Failure Analysis

, light path diagnostics, hot-swap redundant power supplies 

and blower modules with Calibrated Vectored Cooling

; IPMI 1.5 support, including highly 

secure remote power on/off; text-console redirect over LAN, a management module 
(upgradeable to hot-swap/redundant), IBM Director management software and IBM 

                                                           

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 Actual data transfer speed will vary and is often less than the maximum possible. Gigabit Ethernet transfer speed requires support 

on both system and server, and appropriate network infrastructure.