topic 1st Blade Server in BladeSystem - General

1st Blade Server

peter burns_3 — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:05:44 GMT

I decided that I want to learn about blade servers so I started buying used HP Proliant Bl20p server components.
So far I have 12 dual 2.8GHz blades and am looking now at buying the enclosures for them.
As each enclosure holds 8 blades and has one space on each side for patch panels, et al, I'm fairly sure that 2 of them are enough for my 12 blades.
But, as I am new to blade servers - servers of any kind really - I am unsure of how the entire thing will be powered.
Do I need separate power supplies?
Do the enclosures have the power supplies built into them?
Do I need to get the scalable bus bars?
I'm sure this is beyond basic for everyone else except me. I've been playing with computers for 20 years but have never done anything with servers.
Any assistance you can provide would be much appreciated.

Re: 1st Blade Server

Steven Clementi — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:18:36 GMT

Peter:

There are several different optionsfor powering a p-class Enclosure.

The simplest would be the 1U Power option. You would need 2 of these. They hold 6 individual power supplies and connect to your power using standard 20amp 110-220v.

The scalable bus bar would be used if you have 3 or more enclosures you needed to power.

There was a bus bar that handled up to 3 enclosures, but I think the 1U option is alot better.

I don't have part numbers, but I am sure you can find them in the quickspecs.

What model servers did you get? If they are G3 or G4's... make sure you get the G2 Enclosure's.

Steven

Re: 1st Blade Server

peter burns_3 — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:33:39 GMT

Steven;
Thanks for the quick reply.
The blades I purchased are:
HP Compaq Proliant BL20-p G2 Blades w/ dual 2.8ghz Xeon proc & 2gb pc2100 mem.
They have no hard drives - which is fine as I want to set up a diskless cluster to experiment with - but I'll save anything related to that for much later.
I found this link on HP:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00329805〈=en&cc=us&taskId=&prodSeriesId=327575&prodTypeId=3709945
Hopefully I can find everything I need with the wealth of resources that HP has put online.
I was looking at the scalable bus bars as the guy wants to sell them for around $40 each ... but I wasn't sure if I even needed them.
I guess I just need to identify the core components that will get me started and get the system powered up and running - which I should have done before buying anything of course.
power, chassis, servers, network connections, video, hard drives, etc etc.
Thanks again for your assistance,
Peter

Re: 1st Blade Server

Steven Clementi — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:42:19 GMT

Check these links...

p-Class Infrastructure:
" http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12330_na/12330_na.HTML "

p-Class Interconnect Components:
" http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12331_na/12331_na.HTML "

Bl20p G2:
" http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11567_na/11567_na.HTML "

The first link will give you your power options.

The second is about interconnects.

Third is about the server model.

Steven

Re: 1st Blade Server

peter burns_3 — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:46:43 GMT

Steven;
Thank you very much for your assistance.
Those links will be very helpful.
I'll keep searching for more information of course - there's no shortage of info out there.
I'm sure that as soon as I get more parts together I'll have a much better understanding and learn more.
Thanks again,
Peter