IBM BladeCenter LS42 79023QG Leaflet
Product codes
79023QG
Scalable AMD Opteron blade server with unmatched investment
protection optimized for business applications and virtualized
workloads.
protection optimized for business applications and virtualized
workloads.
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
1.
Product Guide
February 2009
IBM BladeCenter LS42
Product Overview
CONTENTS
Product Overview
1
Selling Features
2
Key Features
5
Key Options
9
LS42 Images
10
LS42 Specifications
11
The Bottom Line
13
Server Comparison
14
For More Information
15
Legal Information
15
Powerful, scalable AMD Opteron blade server optimized
for business applications and virtualized workloads.
Suggested Uses: Applications requiring large memory and fabric bandwidth, enterprise-class
availability and extreme flexibility.
availability and extreme flexibility.
Today’s data center environment is tougher than ever. You’re looking to reduce IT cost,
complexity, space requirements, power consumption and heat output, while increasing flexibility,
utilization and manageability. The IBM
complexity, space requirements, power consumption and heat output, while increasing flexibility,
utilization and manageability. The IBM
®
BladeCenter
®
LS42 blade server, combined with the
various BladeCenter chassis, can help you accomplish all of these goals. Manage growth,
complexity and risk with scalability and unmatched investment protection with a platform that
can scale from an affordable 2-socket blade to a screaming 4-socket blade.
complexity and risk with scalability and unmatched investment protection with a platform that
can scale from an affordable 2-socket blade to a screaming 4-socket blade.
The LS42 is sold as either a 2- or 4-socket server. The LS42 base unit is a two-socket 30mm
blade. It supports up to two of the latest quad-core AMD Opteron processors. The processors
are designed with 2MB of L2 cache and 6MB of L3 cache and HyperTransport technology to
provide you with the computing power you require to match your business needs and growth.
blade. It supports up to two of the latest quad-core AMD Opteron processors. The processors
are designed with 2MB of L2 cache and 6MB of L3 cache and HyperTransport technology to
provide you with the computing power you require to match your business needs and growth.
.
It
supports up to 64GB of PC2-5300 or PC2-6400 memory (in 8 DIMM slots) and two SAS high-
density or solid state drives.
density or solid state drives.
The 30mm LS42 offers unparalleled investment protection by offering “pay as you grow”
flexibility. It is upgradeable—via click and scale with an optional Multiprocessor Expansion
(MPE) unit—to the 4-socket model. Click and scale does not require any tools and is
accomplished by just tightening a hand-adjustable screw without any need for costly “rip and
replace.” The MPE unit adds two more quad-core Opteron processors to make the LS42 a 4-
processor blade server with a 60mm form factor. The LS42 with MPE unit also supports up to
128GB of PC2-5300 (667MHz) or PC2-6400 (800MHz) double data rate II (DDR2) ECC memory
(in 16 DIMM slots), with optional Chipkill
flexibility. It is upgradeable—via click and scale with an optional Multiprocessor Expansion
(MPE) unit—to the 4-socket model. Click and scale does not require any tools and is
accomplished by just tightening a hand-adjustable screw without any need for costly “rip and
replace.” The MPE unit adds two more quad-core Opteron processors to make the LS42 a 4-
processor blade server with a 60mm form factor. The LS42 with MPE unit also supports up to
128GB of PC2-5300 (667MHz) or PC2-6400 (800MHz) double data rate II (DDR2) ECC memory
(in 16 DIMM slots), with optional Chipkill
™1
protection, for high performance and reliability.
Two dual-port Gigabit Ethernet
2
controllers are standard in both the base unit and the MPE
unit for a maximum of four dual-port controllers, providing high-speed data transfers and
offering TOE (TCP/IP Offload Engine) support, load-balancing and failover capabilities. Via
optional expansion cards, each blade can connect to additional Ethernet, SAS, Fibre Channel,
iSCSI, InfiniBand
offering TOE (TCP/IP Offload Engine) support, load-balancing and failover capabilities. Via
optional expansion cards, each blade can connect to additional Ethernet, SAS, Fibre Channel,
iSCSI, InfiniBand
™
and other high-speed communication switches housed in the chassis.
Optional 2-port Expansion Cards add additional fabrics to the LS42 as needed. This blade is
designed with power management capability to provide the maximum uptime possible for your
systems. In extended thermal conditions, rather than shut down completely, or fail, the LS42
automatically reduces the processor frequency to maintain acceptable thermal levels.
designed with power management capability to provide the maximum uptime possible for your
systems. In extended thermal conditions, rather than shut down completely, or fail, the LS42
automatically reduces the processor frequency to maintain acceptable thermal levels.
A single BladeCenter E or BladeCenter H chassis supports up to 14 hot-swappable 30mm
LS42 blades (or 7 60mm LS42 blades) in only 7U (BladeCenter E) or 9U (BladeCenter H) of
rack space. (A rugged 8U BladeCenter T chassis supports up to 7 30mm LS42 blades or 4
60mm LS42 blades in a telecommunications environment.) In addition to the blade servers,
these chassis also hold up to four (BladeCenter E/BladeCenter T) communication switches,
or up to eight or ten switches/bridges (BladeCenter HT and H, respectively) 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 E chassis, up to 42 LS42 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.
LS42 blades (or 7 60mm LS42 blades) in only 7U (BladeCenter E) or 9U (BladeCenter H) of
rack space. (A rugged 8U BladeCenter T chassis supports up to 7 30mm LS42 blades or 4
60mm LS42 blades in a telecommunications environment.) In addition to the blade servers,
these chassis also hold up to four (BladeCenter E/BladeCenter T) communication switches,
or up to eight or ten switches/bridges (BladeCenter HT and H, respectively) 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 E chassis, up to 42 LS42 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.
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 Active Memory
chassis and each blade and send alerts to the administrator. Advanced standard features, such
as Active Memory
™
, Predictive Failure Analysis
™
, light path diagnostics, hot-swap
redundant power supplies and blower modules with Calibrated Vectored Cooling
™
; IPMI
1
All models require optional Chipkill-enabled DIMMs for Chipkill protection. The 512MB DIMMs shipped with some systems are not
Chipkill-enabled. Reliability improvements depend on many factors and may be less than the maximum stated.
2
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.