Compaq ProLiant 8000 Compaq ProLiant 8000 Server Technology - Page 19

TC000603TB TECHNOLOGY BRIEF (cont.) ... power outage occurs while write data is stored in the cache, the data will be protected for at least four days on power supplied by the battery backup system. If the base controller board should fail, the cache board can be installed on a replacement base card. Once system power is returned, the posted write data is automatically written to disk. MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES Fault-tolerant, redundant features are only part of what makes Compaq servers highly available. Compaq offers a range of hardware- and software-based server management tools that can be used to reduce downtime and increase productivity. The ProLiant 8000 server includes the following standard tools available to all Compaq servers: • Automatic Server Recovery. ASR automatically resets the server after a critical hardware or software error. ASR can reset the server to the OS or to the System Partition Utilities. The ASR reset function is based on a hardware timer working in conjunction with the Server Health Drivers. If the Server Health Drivers can no longer reset the hardware timer after some userspecified amount of time, the server is automatically reset. ASR can also be configured to page the administrator when an ASR event occurs. • System Partition Utilities. These utilities assist the system administrator in diagnosing server problems, configuring new hardware, and upgrading ROMs. For example, an administrator can analyze the system configuration files to verify that no interrupts or other conflicts are causing system failures. The System Partition Utilities are available when the server is reset. ASR can be configured to reset automatically to the System Partition Utilities; or the administrator can reboot to the System Partition Utilities through Compaq Insight Manager. • Compaq Insight Manager. This software-based management tool monitors more than 1,000 management parameters to allow fault prediction and alerting, asset and configuration inventory, and performance monitoring. Through Compaq Insight Manager, a remote administrator can request an OS console operation, reset the server, view utilities, and view system configuration information. See the white paper Compaq Insight Manager, document number 11CW-1199A-WWEN, for more details. • Asynchronous Insight Management. Asynchronous Insight Management provides access to Compaq Insight Manager through a dial-up networking, or asynchronous, connection. This gives an administrator additional flexibility in troubleshooting problems. If the server OS is still functioning, an administrator can dial in remotely and access Insight Manager through a point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection. In addition to these utilities, the ProLiant 8000 server also ships standard with additional management technologies that reduce downtime and increase productivity even more. Remoteflash Redundant ROM allows administrators to update the ROM remotely, and the auto-default ROM configuration provides default configuration settings for most devices. The IMD and Integrated Remote Console (IRC) provide essential information at a glance and allow users easy remote access to their servers. For additional remote management functionality, customers can request that the optional Remote Insight Board/PCI be added to the ProLiant 8000 server. Remote-Flash Redundant ROM The ProLiant 8000 server is equipped with a Remote-flash Redundant ROM that improves manageability. Using the Compaq Remote ROM Flash Utility, administrators can flash the system ROMs for a wide range of Compaq servers, locally or across the network. The Remote ROM Flash Utility is a combination of components that allows administrators to upgrade the system ROMs on servers from a single point of execution. The ROM upgrades can either be flashed individually or 19