The basics of Blade Servers

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Jarrod Spiga21 February 2009, 6:53 PM
Most of the large server manufacturers
believe that blade servers are the way of the
future but as Jarrod Spiga explains, they
also have their own idiosyncracies.


Blade solutions provide increased server density, better
power and cooling efficiency and more flexible management
functions when compared with standalone servers. They
require a fair bit of investment, which is why they arent a
good choice if you only need to deploy a couple of servers.
What is a blade?
A blade server is an ultra-compact server designed to be
installed within a special chassis, which is responsible for
supplying support infrastructure to blades via a backplane
connection. Blade servers do not have their own power
supplies or cooling solutions (including fans) as these are
supplied by the chassis. To give you an idea of the densities
possible in a server chassis, the figure on the right shows 64 physical servers installed in a standard 42RU rack in the HP
blade system. This can be increased to 128 servers if you use the ProLiant BL2x20 dual-server half-height blades.

Due to their size, only a couple of hard disk drives can be physically installed in each blade server though in most cases,
drives are still hot-swappable, allowing for easy replacement in the event of failure. There are no physical PCI-X or PCIe
slots. PCI Express-based mezzanine cards are used to provide expandability. These cards provide an interface between the
blade server and chassis backplane in order to provide various networking services including Ethernet, InfiniBand (an
interface that is frequently used in cluster applications) and fibre channel.

The drawback to using mezzanine cards is that cards of like technology must be used in corresponding mezzanine slots. For
instance, if you install a dual-gigabit Ethernet card in mezzanine slot A on one server, slot A on all other servers must
feature Ethernet cards or no card at all. However, theres nothing stopping you from installing a fibre-channel card in slot B,
in cases like this. This is due to how each blade interfaces with the chassis backplane to ensure that one type of interface
always connects through to an appropriate interface module.

In general, all mezzanine cards feature two ports, which are routed through to separate interface module slots for
redundancy. Interface modules are discussed in greater detail below.

Most manufacturers also sell expansion blades, which can be linked to blade servers to provide additional services. For
instance:
Storage blades allow for the installation of additional hard disk drives
Tape blades provide an LTO drive in order perform data backups
PCI Express blades allow you to install PCI Express cards
In general, expansion blades can only be used by a server installed in an adjacent location within the chassis.
Blades solutions are not standardised, which means that blades made by one manufacturer cannot be used in another
manufacturers chassis, or even from different class chassis from the same vendor. Not only does the physical size of each
blade change between different classes of blades, but the backplane interconnects are often different.

Most vendors sell half-height blades in addition to full-height variants. The larger physical volume of full-height blades is
typically used to install additional CPU sockets (often four sockets are available in these servers as opposed to two),
additional memory slots or the ability to utilise more mezzanine cards. HP even has a dual-server, half-height blade that
essentially doubles server density.
The Chassis
At the core of any blade deployment is the chassis. Chassis range in size from 6 to 12 RU, depending on the make and
model, with smaller chassis generally targeted for smaller-scale deployments such as the medium enterprise. Depending
on your choice of chassis, you can fit up to 64 servers in a standard 42RU rack (or 128 servers if using the dual-server blade
mentioned above). Compare that to a maximum density of 42 servers with standalone units and you can see why blades
can minimise deployment space.

The chassis is generally the sole component that is physically mounted in a rack all other components including power
supplies, fans, management and interface modules and of course, the blades themselves.
Power Supplies
For a minimum complement of blade servers, a chassis requires only a single power supply (though this provides no fault
tolerance). As the number of blades installed in a chassis increases, additional power supplies are often added in order to
provide sufficient power to all blades and to balance load. If power supplies are installed in this manner, its said to be in an
n configuration (where there are only enough supplies to deliver power to the components in the chassis with no
redundancy).
The danger with installing supplies in this manner is that if a single supply fails, the chassis will not be able to supply enough
power to keep all components running (though the management modules of the chassis can often be configured to ensure
that certain servers are powered down before others in the event of a supply failure). An extra power supply can be installed
to provide an n+1 configuration which generally ensures that all systems can remain running in the event of a power
supply failure.

But what happens if power to an entire circuit is cut? To protect against this scenario, power supplies must be installed in
redundant pairs (an n+n configuration), where each pair is connected to a different power circuit.

Most chassis are designed to be able to support enough power supplies so that when installed in an n+n configuration,
sufficient power can be supplied to an enclosure that is fully populated with blades running at full (or close to full) power.
Four supplies are sufficient for smaller enclosures, while the larger enclosures require six supplies to maintain n+n
configurations.
In general, the power supplies are plugged into the chassis backplane, with power cords are generally connected (or hard-
wired) to the back of the chassis. This allows the power supplies to be easily swapped out in the event of failure.

Smaller chassis features IEC 320 C13 plugs much like regular PCs, allowing them to be easily plugged in to regular mains
supply. Larger chassis utilise IEC 320 C19 plugs. While these plugs look similar, they require a 20A feed (rather than the
10A that is supposed to be able to be safely supplied via mains). The installation of these larger enclosures often requires
additional electrical work during the installation phase. Some enclosures have the option of being hard-wired to three-phase
feeds. The advantage to using three-phase is that the power supplies can convert this supply to DC more efficiently that with
single-phase supply, meaning that less power is wasted during conversion and more power can be supplied to the blades.
Fans
Neither the blades nor the other components have their own cooling solutions. Instead, fan modules are installed in key
locations to draw air through all components. In turn, each component is designed with cooling in mind for instance, in
server blades, RAM modules, CPUs and baffles are aligned in order to optimise the flow of air to assist with cooling.

Each fan module usually consists of two fans in series, providing redundancy in the event that one fan fails. Much like power
supplies, fan modules are hot-swappable, and a minimum complement of fans is required when only a few blades are
installed within the chassis.
Interface Modules
Because blade servers are inserted into the chassis, its not possible for you to simply plug-in into the back of a blade, a
network cable, for example. All PCIe devices (including mezzanine cards and integrated network cards) are connected from
the server, through the server backplane and through to an interface module slot.

Just about all blade servers have dual integrated gigabit Ethernet NICs on-board. One of these ports is almost always routed
through to the first interface module slot, while the other port is routed through to the second. The first port on mezzanine
slot A is usually routed to the third interface module and the second port on mezzanine slot A generally goes to the fourth
module. And so forth, for all additional mezzanine slots supported by the blade system in use.

The major advantage to having each port on a given integrated/mezzanine controller routed to a different interface module
slot is redundancy. Take Ethernet for example: two separate Ethernet switching modules could be installed and teaming
utilised on the server so that if one switch fails, the server would remain connected to the network.
Interface modules are generally installed in pairs in order provide fault-tolerance. However, there is generally nothing
stopping you from only installing single modules if you dont require this level of redundancy.

Theres also great variety in the modules that are available for installation in these modules. In the Ethernet space, pass-
through modules essentially allow you to plug a cable directly into the back of each blade. Ethernet switches are frequently
used, providing an internal connection for every blade server as well as a number of uplink ports that are physically located
on the back of the module.

Often, third party network providers will manufacture network and fibre-channel switching modules for the blade
manufacturer. Cisco, for example, supplies Ethernet switching modules for IBM, Dell and HP blade systems which feature
the same CatOS software that ships on their own switches. Nortel also offers Ethernet switches for some blade systems,
while Q-logic and Brocade provide fibre-channel switching modules and TopSpin provide InfiniBand solutions.

Lastly, HP (Virtual Connect) and IBM (Open Fabric Manager) both provide virtualised interface modules, which record
details about server configuration based on the roles it performs. This allows you to remove a blade and plug it back in to a
different location (or even different chassis), the modules will automatically reconfigure themselves to use the same settings
that were originally set up. Because configuration is role-based, additional (or hot-spare) servers can be easily added to the
blade infrastructure without configuration. This is often invaluable when blades servers are configured to boot from iSCSI or
SAN locations as it allows you to plug in a server and get it running straight away - without having to mess around with fibre-
channel zoning or Ethernet VLANs.
Management Modules
The final piece of the blade system jigsaw is the management module. These provide a single interface to manage all
aspects of the blade chassis, as well as allowing passthrough to the IMPI interfaces on each blade server. Some chassis
allow for the installation of redundant management modules, providing fault-tolerance. Some blade systems even allow for
the daisy-chaining of numerous chassis so that you can manage servers from multiple chassis from the one interface.
The management modules perform most of the lights-out management features that are available on standalone servers,
plus chassis-specific functions including power and cooling management functions.
Pros and Cons
Like any break in convention, there are positives to be had as well as negatives. Ultimately, choices come down to whether
the plus points outweigh the minus ones. On a personal note, the primary service that my employer sells runs on a mi xture
of blade and standalone servers. We take advantage of the density, manageability and efficiency advantages of blade for a
range of server functions including database and file server clustering, transcoding servers and web servers. On the other
hand, we utilise standalone encode server because the PCI Express encode cards that we use cannot be easily installed in
a blade system.

Blade systems attempt to minimise cost provided that youre installing enough servers in order to recoup the initial outlay
of purchasing the associated chassis infrastructure. If you only need three servers, then blades arent for you. Its much
cheaper buying standalone servers and your own networking and SAN gear, not to mention more scalable and flexible.
However if youre buying eight, high-availability servers, the money that you would otherwise spend on network and SAN
switching would offset the cost of your interface modules.

Blade systems attempt to minimise power consumption fewer power supplies generally means for efficient conversion
from AC to DC. And because load (therefore power consumption) varies at different times on different servers, power
management schemes can ensure that power supplies are running in their most efficient mode. The negative side of thi s is
that the power supplies are larger in order to support maximum loads. As a result, additional costs are incurred at
deployment when dedicated circuits have to be installed to power the chassis. In some cases, it may not be possible to
install a blade infrastructure because of this requirement.

Blade systems attempt to minimise support time, by consolidating the management functions of numerous servers into a
single interface, though this positive is often overlooked by purchasing managers. Blade systems also attempt to simplify
change with the use of virtual interface modules, at high cost. Blade systems also attempt to increase server density, by
combining multiple infrastructure elements into a single chassis, at the cost of flexibility in what infrastructure can be
deployed.


1. A full-height blade server (HP ProLiant BL485c) installed across blade slots 1 & 9. In order toaccommodate the
server, a horizontal divider must be removed from the chassis. As a result, an adjacent half-height blade would
have to be installed in slot 10 before one can be installed in slot 2. This server supports up to two dual -core AMD
Opteron processors, 128GB of memory, four hard disks and three mezzanine cards in addition to the integrated
dual gigabit Ethernet.
2. A half-height blade server (HP ProLiant BL460c) installed in blade slot 3. This server supports two quad-core Intel
Xeon processors, showing that AMD and Intel architectures can be used within the same chassis. 64GB of RAM is
supported along with two mezzanine cards to supplement the integrated dual Gigabit-Ethernet.
3. Linked to the BL460c server in the adjacent slot is a SB920c Tape Blade, featuring an LTO-3 Ultrium tape drive.
4. Unoccupied blade slots are filled with blanking plates in order to maximise cooling performance.
5. Another half-height blade server (HP ProLiant BL460c).
6. This time, the adjacent blade server is associated with the SB40c storage blade, which provides the capability to
add another six small form factor disks on a separate SAS controller to the adjacent server.
7. Modular power supplies plug in to the front of the chassis.
8. An LCD control panel allows administrators to perform a range of functions from the chassis itself, including
adjusting the IP configuration of the Onboard Administrators, performing firmware updates and more.


1. A hot-swappable fan. Fans are installed in pairs one at the top and one at the bottom. If all blades are installed
in one side of the chassis, fans only have to be installed in the corresponding side for efficient cooling operation.
2. Blanking plates are also installed in slots where fans are not present, again to improve cooling efficiency.
3. HP 1/10Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet modules are installed in interface slots 1 & 2. This specific module features
two external 10GBase-CX4 ports providing 10Gb/s speeds and eight external 1000Base-T ports providing Gigabit-
ethernet speeds. The Ethernet interfaces on all blade servers can utilise these external uplink ports.
4. A pair of 4Gb/s Fibre Channel Passthroughs are installed in interface slots 3 & 4. Essentially, each port connects
directly to a fibre channel mezzanine care installed in the corresponding server (assuming one exists). This is the
closes that youll get to plugging a cable directly into the back of a blade server.
5. Interface slots 5 & 6 are populated with Cisco 3020 switches an example of the third-party modules that are
available for the HP blade system.
6. Blanking plates are inserted in unused slots.The onboard administrator modules control power and cooling
management functions as well as provide lights-out management to all servers within the chassis. By plugging in a
single Ethernet cable to the iLO port, you can access the IPMI interfaces on all servers in the chassis. A redundant
onboard administrator is also installed providing fault tolerance.
7. Enclosure interlink ports allow you to manage servers in other chassis from onboard administrators installed in this
chassis. Each chassis can interconnect with up to three others.
8. This chassis utilises IEC320 C19 power cords which require 20A feeds. Hard-wired three phase versions are
also available.