IBM BladeCenter PS703 Installation guide

ibm.com/redbooks Redpaper
Front cover
IBM BladeCenter PS703
and PS704 Technical
Overview and Introduction
David Watts
Kerry Anders
David Harlow
Joe Shipman II
Features the POWER7 processor providing
advanced multi-core technology
Details the follow-on to the BladeCenter
PS700, PS701 and PS702
Describes management using
the new Systems Director
Management Console

International Technical Support Organization
IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview
and Introduction
May 2011
REDP-4744-00

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2011. All rights reserved.
Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule
Contract with IBM Corp.
First Edition (May 2011)
This edition applies to:
IBM BladeCenter PS703, 7891-73X
IBM BladeCenter PS704, 7891-74X
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on
page vii.

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved. iii
Contents
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
The team who wrote this paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Now you can become a published author, too! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter 1. Introduction and general description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Overview of PS703 and PS704 blade servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Comparison between the PS70x blade servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 IBM BladeCenter chassis support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Supported BladeCenter chassis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.2 Number of PS703 and PS704 blades in a chassis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 Operating environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5 Physical package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.6 System features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.6.1 PS703 system features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.6.2 PS704 system features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.6.3 Minimum features for the POWER7 processor-based blade servers . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.6.4 Power supply features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.6.5 Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.6.6 Memory features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.6.7 I/O features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.6.8 Disk features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.6.9 Standard onboard features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.7 Supported BladeCenter I/O modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.7.1 Ethernet switch and intelligent pass-through modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.7.2 SAS I/O modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.7.3 Fibre Channel switch and pass-through modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.7.4 Converged networking I/O modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1.7.5 InfiniBand switch module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.7.6 Multi-switch Interconnect Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1.7.7 Multi-switch Interconnect Module for BladeCenter HT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.8 Building to order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.9 Model upgrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.1 Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.2 The IBM POWER7 processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2.1 POWER7 processor overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.2.2 POWER7 processor core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.2.3 Simultaneous multithreading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.2.4 Memory access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.2.5 Flexible POWER7 processor packaging and offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.2.6 On-chip L3 intelligent cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.2.7 POWER7 processor and intelligent energy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.2.8 Comparison of the POWER7 and POWER6 processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

iv IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction
2.3 POWER7 processor-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.4 Memory subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.4.1 Memory placement rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.5 Active Memory Expansion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.6 Technical comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.7 Internal I/O subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2.7.1 PCI Express bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.7.2 PCIe slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.7.3 I/O expansion cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.7.4 Embedded SAS Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.7.5 Embedded Ethernet Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.7.6 Embedded USB controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2.8 Service processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.8.1 Server console access by SOL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.8.2 Anchor card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
2.9 Internal storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.9.1 Hardware RAID function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.9.2 External SAS connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.10 External disk subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.10.1 IBM BladeCenter S integrated storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.10.2 IBM System Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
2.11 IVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2.12 Operating system support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
2.13 IBM EnergyScale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
2.13.1 IBM EnergyScale technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2.13.2 EnergyScale device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Chapter 3. Virtualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.1 PowerVM Version 2.2 enhancements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.2 POWER Hypervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.3 POWER processor modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.4 PowerVM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.4.1 PowerVM editions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.4.2 Logical partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.4.3 Multiple Shared-Processor Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.4.4 VIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.4.5 PowerVM Lx86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
3.4.6 PowerVM Live Partition Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
3.4.7 Active Memory Sharing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
3.4.8 Suspend/Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
3.4.9 N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
3.4.10 Supported PowerVM features by operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Chapter 4. Continuous availability and manageability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.2 Reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.2.1 Designed for reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.2.2 Placement of components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.2.3 Redundant components and concurrent repair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.3 Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.3.1 Partition availability priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.3.2 General detection and deallocation of failing components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.3.3 Memory protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Contents v
4.3.4 Cache protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.3.5 Special uncorrectable error handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.3.6 PCI extended error handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
4.4 Serviceability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
4.4.1 Detecting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4.4.2 Diagnosing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
4.4.3 Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
4.4.4 Notifying the client. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
4.4.5 Locating and servicing parts requiring service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
4.5 Manageability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
4.5.1 Service user interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
4.5.2 IBM Power Systems firmware maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
4.5.3 Electronic Service Agent and Service and Support Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
4.5.4 BladeCenter Service Advisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Chapter 5. Systems Director Management Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.1 SDMC Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.1.1 Hardware appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.1.2 Software appliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.1.3 IVM, HMC, and SDMC support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.1.4 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5.2 Using the web interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5.2.1 Resources tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
5.2.2 Settings tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
5.3 POWER-based blades management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
5.3.1 IVM characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
5.3.2 SDMC added capability for POWER-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.4 IVM to SDMC transition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.4.1 IVM to SDMC transition process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5.4.2 Steps to SDMC management of POWER-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.4.3 FSP access configuration from BladeCenter AMM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.4.4 Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
5.4.5 Request Access to Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.4.6 Updating ASM passwords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
5.4.7 Systems Director inventory collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
5.5 SDMC basic management of POWER-based blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.5.1 Virtual server creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
5.5.2 Multiple profiles for POWER-based blades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.5.3 Dual VIOS on POWER-based blades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
5.5.4 Virtual server Suspend and Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
5.5.5 Active Memory Expansion (AME) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
5.5.6 Virtual consoles from the SDMC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Abbreviations and acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
IBM Redbooks documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
How to get Redbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
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vi IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved. vii
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viii IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction
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© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved. ix
Preface
The IBM® BladeCenter® PS703 and PS704 are premier blades for 64-bit applications. They
are designed to minimize complexity, improve efficiency, automate processes, reduce energy
consumption, and scale easily. These blade servers are based on the IBM POWER7™
processor and support AIX®, IBM i, and Linux® operating systems. Their ability to coexist in
the same chassis with other IBM BladeCenter blade servers enhances the ability to deliver
the rapid return on investment demanded by clients and businesses.
This IBM Redpaper™ doocument is a comprehensive guide covering the IBM BladeCenter
PS703 and PS704 servers. The goal of this paper is to introduce the offerings and their
prominent features and functions.
The team who wrote this paper
This paper was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the
International Technical Support Organization, Raleigh Center.
David Watts is a Consulting IT Specialist at the IBM ITSO Center in Raleigh. He manages
residencies and produces IBM Redbooks® publications for hardware and software topics that
are related to IBM System x® and IBM BladeCenter servers, and associated client platforms.
He has authored over 80 books, papers, and web documents. He holds a Bachelor of
Engineering degree from the University of Queensland (Australia) and has worked for IBM
both in the U.S. and Australia since 1989. David is an IBM Certified IT Specialist and a
member of the IT Specialist Certification Review Board.
Kerry Anders is a Consultant for POWER® systems and PowerVM™ in Lab Services for the
IBM Systems and Technology Group, based in Austin, Texas. He supports clients in
implementing IBM Power Systems™ blades using Virtual I/O Server, Integrated Virtualization
Manager, and AIX. Kerry’s prior IBM Redbooks publication projects include IBM BladeCenter
JS12 and JS22 Implementation Guide, SG24-7655, IBM BladeCenter JS23 and JS43
Implementation Guide, SG24-7740, and IBM BladeCenter PS700, PS701, and PS702
Technical Overview and Introduction, REDP-4655. Previously, he was the Systems
Integration Test Team Lead for the IBM BladeCenter JS21blade with IBM SAN storage using
AIX and Linux. His prior work includes test experience with the JS20 blade, also using AIX
and Linux in SAN environments. Kerry began his career with IBM in the Federal Systems
Division supporting NASA at the Johnson Space Center as a Systems Engineer. He
transferred to Austin in 1993.
David Harlow is a Senior Systems Engineer with business partner Mainline Information
Systems, Inc. located in Tallahassee, Florida and he is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. His
area of expertise includes Power Systems and Power Blade Servers using the IBM i
operating system. He has 19 years of experience with the AS/400®, iSeries®, System i®,
IBM i architecture, and IBM i operating systems. He has worked with the Power blade servers
with VIOS hosting IBM i partitions since the POWER6® JS12 and JS22 entered marketing.
He currently has several IBM certifications including the IBM Certified Technical Sales Expert
- Power Systems with POWER7 and the IBM Certified Sales Expert - Power Systems with
POWER7.
Joe Shipman II is a BladeCenter and System x Subject Matter Expert for the IBM Technical
Support Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He has 7 years of experience working with servers and

xIBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction
has worked at IBM for 5 years. His areas of expertise include IBM BladeCenter, System x,
BladeCenter Fibre Channel fabrics, BladeCenter Networking, and Power Blade Servers.
Previously he worked as an Electrical and Environmental Systems Specialist for the US Air
Force for 10 years.
The team (l-r): Joe, David Harlow, Kerry, and David Watts
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
From IBM Power Systems development:
򐂰Chris Austen
򐂰Larry Cook
򐂰John DeHart
򐂰Kaena Freitas
򐂰Bob Galbraith
򐂰Jim Gallagher
򐂰Seth Lewis
򐂰Hoa Nguyen
򐂰Amartey Pearson
From IBM Power Systems marketing:
򐂰John Biebelhausen
From IBM Linux Technology Center:
򐂰Jeff Scheel
This paper is based in part on IBM BladeCenter PS700, PS701, and PS702 Technical
Overview and Introduction, REDP-4655. Thanks to the authors of that document:
򐂰David Watts
򐂰Kerry Anders
򐂰Berjis Patel
Portions of this paper are from the book Systems Director Management Console Introduction
and Overview, SG24-7860. Thanks to the authors of that document:
򐂰Thomas Libor
򐂰Allen Oh
򐂰Lakshmikanthan Selvarajan
򐂰Peter Wuestefeld

Preface xi
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򐂰Use the online Contact us review Redbooks form found at:
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xii IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved. 1
Chapter 1. Introduction and general
description
This chapter introduces and provides a general description of the new IBM BladeCenter
POWER7 processor-based blade servers. These new blades offer processor scalability from
16 cores to 32 cores:
򐂰IBM BladeCenter PS703: single-wide blade with two 8-core processors
򐂰IBM BladeCenter PS704: double-wide blade with four 8-core processors
The new PS703 and PS704 blades are premier blades for 64-bit applications. They are
designed to minimize complexity, improve efficiency, automate processes, reduce energy
consumption, and scale easily.
The POWER7 processor-based PS703 and PS704 blades support AIX, IBM i, and Linux
operating systems. Their ability to coexist in the same chassis with other IBM BladeCenter
blade servers enhances the ability to deliver the rapid return on investment demanded by
clients and businesses.
This chapter covers the following topics:
򐂰1.1, “Overview of PS703 and PS704 blade servers” on page 2
򐂰1.2, “Comparison between the PS70x blade servers” on page 3
򐂰1.3, “IBM BladeCenter chassis support” on page 4
򐂰1.4, “Operating environment” on page 12
򐂰1.5, “Physical package” on page 13
򐂰1.6, “System features” on page 14
򐂰1.7, “Supported BladeCenter I/O modules” on page 28
򐂰1.8, “Building to order” on page 34
򐂰1.9, “Model upgrades” on page 35
1

2IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction
1.1 Overview of PS703 and PS704 blade servers
Figure 1-1 shows the IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 blade servers.
Figure 1-1 The IBM BladeCenter PS703 (right) and BladeCenter PS704 (left)
The PS703 blade server
The IBM BladeCenter PS703 (7891-73X) is a single-wide blade server with two eight-core
POWER7 processors with a total of 16 cores. The processors are 64-bit 8-core 2.4 GHz
processors with 256 KB L2 cache per core and 4 MB L3 cache per core.
The PS703 blade server has 16 DDR3 memory DIMM slots. The industry standard VLP
DDR3 memory DIMMs are either 4 GB or 8 GB or 16 GB running at 1066 MHz. The minimum
memory required for a PS703 blade server is 16 GB. The maximum memory that can be
supported is 256 GB (16 x 16 GB DIMMs).
The PS703 blade server supports optional Active Memory™ Expansion, which is a POWER7
technology that allows the effective maximum memory capacity to be much larger than the
true physical memory. Innovative compression/decompression of memory content using
processor cycles can allow memory expansion up to 100%. This can allow an AIX 6.1 or later
partition to do significantly more work with the same physical amount of memory, or a server
to run more partitions and do more work with the same physical amount of memory.
The PS703 blade server has two onboard 1 Gb integrated Ethernet ports that are connected
to the BladeCenter chassis fabric (midplane). The PS703 also has an integrated SAS
controller that supports local (on-board) storage, integrated USB controller and Serial over
LAN console access through the service processor, and the BladeCenter Advance
Management Module.
The PS703 has one on-board disk drive bay. The on-board storage can be one 2.5-inch SAS
HDD or two 1.8-inch SATA SSD drives (with the addition of an SSD interposer tray). The

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 3
PS703 also supports one PCIe CIOv expansion card slot and one PCIe CFFh expansion card
slot. See 1.6.7, “I/O features” on page 21 for supported I/O expansion cards.
The PS704 blade server
The IBM BladeCenter PS704 (7891-74X) is a double-wide blade server with four eight-core
POWER7 processors with a total of 32 cores. The processors are 64-bit 8-core 2.4 GHz
processors with 256 KB L2 cache per core and 4 MB L3 cache per core.
The PS704 is a double-wide blade, meaning that it occupies two adjacent slots in the IBM
BladeCenter chassis.
The PS704 blade server has 32 DDR3 memory DIMM slots. The industry standard VLP
DDR3 memory DIMMs are either 4 GB or 8 GB running at 1066 MHz. The minimum memory
required for PS704 blade server is 32 GB. The maximum memory that can be supported is
256 GB (32x 8 GB DIMMs).
The PS704 blade server supports optional Active Memory Expansion, which is a POWER7
technology that allows the effective maximum memory capacity to be much larger than the
true physical memory. Innovative compression/decompression of memory content using
processor cycles can allow memory expansion up to 100%. This can allow an AIX 6.1 or later
partition to do significantly more work with the same physical amount of memory, or a server
to run more partitions and do more work with the same physical amount of memory.
The PS704 blade server has four onboard 1 Gb integrated Ethernet ports that are connected
to the BladeCenter chassis fabric (midplane). The PS704 also has an integrated SAS
controller that supports local (on-board) storage, integrated USB controller and Serial over
LAN console access through the service processor, and the BladeCenter Advance
Management Module.
The PS704 blade server has two disk drive bays, one on the base blade and one on the
expansion unit. The on-board storage can be one or two 2.5-inch SAS HDD or up to four
1.8-inch SSD drives. The integrated SAS controller supports RAID 0, 10, 5, or 6 depending
on the numbers of HDDs or SSDs installed.
The PS704 supports two PCIe CIOv expansion card slots and two PCIe CFFh expansion
card slots. See 1.6.7, “I/O features” on page 21 for supported I/O expansion cards.
1.2 Comparison between the PS70x blade servers
This section describes the difference between the five POWER7 blade servers:
򐂰The PS700 is a single-wide blade with one 4-core 64-bit POWER7 3.0 GHz processor.
򐂰The PS701 is a single-wide blade with one 8-core 64-bit POWER7 3.0 GHz processor.
򐂰The PS702 is a double-wide blade with two 8-core 64-bit POWER7 3.0 GHz processors.
򐂰The PS703 is a single-wide blade with two 8-core 64-bit POWER7 2.4 GHz processors.
򐂰The PS704 is a double-wide blade with four 8-core 64-bit POWER7 2.4 GHz processors.
The POWER7 processor has 4 MB L3 cache per core and 256 KB L2 cache per core.
Note: For the PS704 blade server, the service processor (FSP or just SP) in the expansion
blade is set to IO mode, which provides control busses from IOs, but does not provide
redundancy and backup operational support to the SP in the base blade.

4IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction
Table 1-1 compares the processor core options and frequencies, and L3 cache sizes of the
POWER7 blade servers.
Table 1-1 Comparison of POWER7 blade servers
For a detailed comparison, see 2.6, “Technical comparison” on page 54.
Full details about the PS700, PS701, and PS702 can be found in the IBM Redpaper, IBM
BladeCenter PS700, PS701, and PS702 Technical Overview and Introduction, REDP-4655
available from:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4655.html
1.3 IBM BladeCenter chassis support
Blade servers are thin servers that insert into a single rack-mounted chassis that supplies
shared power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. Each server is an independent server
with its own processors, memory, storage, network controllers, operating system, and
applications. The IBM BladeCenter chassis is the container for the blade servers and shared
infrastructure devices.
The IBM BladeCenter chassis can contain a mix of POWER, Intel®, Cell, and AMD
processor-based blades. Depending on the IBM BladeCenter chassis selected, combinations
of Ethernet, SAS, Fibre Channel, and FCoE I/O fabrics can also be shared within the same
chassis.
All chassis can offer full redundancy for all shared infrastructure, network, and I/O fabrics.
Having multiple power supplies, network switches, and I/O switches contained within a
BladeCenter chassis eliminates single points of failure in these areas.
The following sections describe the BladeCenter chassis that support the PS703 and PS704
blades. For a comprehensive look at all aspects of BladeCenter products see the IBM
Redbooks publication, IBM BladeCenter Products and Technology, SG24-7523, available
from the following web page:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247523.html
Refer to the BladeCenter Interoperability Guide for complete coverage of the compatibility
information. The latest version can be downloaded from the following address:
http://ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5073016
System Number of
processors
Cores per
processor
Core
frequency
L3 cache
per processor
Minimum /
Maximum
memory
Form factor
PS700 blade 1 4 3.0 GHz 16 MB 4 GB / 64 GB Single-wide
PS701 blade 1 8 3.0 GHz 32 MB 16 GB / 128 GB Single-wide
PS702 blade 2 8 3.0 GHz 32 MB 32 GB / 256 GB Double-wide
PS703 blade 2 8 2.4 GHz 32 MB 16 GB / 128 GB Single-wide
PS704 blade 4 8 2.4 GHz 32 MB 32 GB / 256 GB Double-wide

Chapter 1. Introduction and general description 5
1.3.1 Supported BladeCenter chassis
The PS703 and PS704 blades are supported in the IBM BladeCenter chassis as listed in
Table 1-2.
Table 1-2 The blade servers supported in each BladeCenter chassis
IBM BladeCenter H delivers high performance, extreme reliability, and ultimate flexibility for
the most demanding IT environments. See “BladeCenter H” on this page.
IBM BladeCenter HT models are designed for high-performance flexible telecommunications
environments by supporting high-speed networking technologies (such as 10G Ethernet).
They provide a robust platform for NGNs. See “BladeCenter HT” on page 7.
IBM BladeCenter S combines the power of blade servers with integrated storage, all in an
easy-to-use package designed specifically for the office and distributed enterprise
environments. See “BladeCenter S” on page 10.
BladeCenter H
IBM BladeCenter H delivers high performance, extreme reliability, and ultimate flexibility to
even the most demanding IT environments. In 9 U of rack space, the BladeCenter H chassis
can contain up to 14 blade servers, 10 switch modules, and four power supplies to provide the
necessary I/O network switching, power, cooling, and control panel information to support the
individual servers.
The chassis supports up to four traditional fabrics using networking switches, storage
switches, or pass-through devices. The chassis also supports up to four high-speed fabrics
for support of protocols such as 4X InfiniBand or 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The built-in media tray
includes light path diagnostics, two front USB 2.0 inputs, and an optical drive.
Blade Machine
type-model
Blade
width
BC S
8886
BC E
8677
BC T
8720
BC T
8730
BC H
8852
BC HT
8740
BC HT
8750
PS703 7891-73X 1 slot Yes No No No Yes Ye s Ye s
PS704 7891-74X 2 slot Yes No No No Yes Ye s Ye s
Note: The number of blade servers that can be installed into chassis is dependent on the
power supply configuration, power supply input (110V/208V BladeCenter S only) and
power domain configuration options. See 1.3.2, “Number of PS703 and PS704 blades in a
chassis” on page 12 for more information.

6IBM BladeCenter PS703 and PS704 Technical Overview and Introduction
Figure 1-2 displays the front view of an IBM BladeCenter H and Figure 1-3 displays the rear
view.
Figure 1-2 BladeCenter H front view
Figure 1-3 BladeCenter H rear view