Compaq ProLiant 8500 ProLiant 8500 Server Technology - Page 12

TC000604TB TECHNOLOGY BRIEF (cont.) ... The ProLiant 8500 server includes two 200-cubic-feet-per-minute hot-plug fans. These heavy-duty fans and thermal design modifications allow the ProLiant 8500 server to maintain proper airflow and temperature with only one hot-plug fan. The second hot-plug fan provides redundancy for the server. For rack configurations of multiple ProLiant 8500 servers, Compaq designed a new rack series. The series includes racks with perforated doors and door inserts that provide better airflow and help these configurations maintain the proper temperature. HIGH-AVAILABILITY TECHNOLOGIES Tolerance of server downtime continues to decrease as companies become more global, decentralized, and aware of downtime costs. The ProLiant 8500 server answers the demand for high availability by incorporating the following features into the server hardware: • PCI Hot Plug technology • Redundant NIC technology • Redundant, hot-plug fans • Redundant PPMs • Redundant, hot-plug power supplies • Hot-plug drives • Auto processor bus recovery Redundant components help ensure that the server is highly fault tolerant. In redundant configurations, if a power supply, fan, or PPM fails, the redundant standby component can take over operation with no downtime to the server. With the addition of hot-plug capabilities, server downtime can be eliminated while components are being replaced, added, or upgraded. PCI Hot Plug Technology The Compaq ProLiant 8500 server incorporates industry-standard PCI Hot Plug technology. This technology, pioneered by Compaq, adds hot-plug capabilities to existing PCI adapters for increased system availability and serviceability. Compaq led the industry by licensing its PCI Hot Plug implementation to Intel, thus broadening customer access to this industry-standard technology. Compaq's implementation of PCI Hot Plug incorporates electronics into the server to control each PCI Hot Plug slot individually, so that a single slot can be powered down without affecting the operation of the other slots. Compaq's implementation of the PCI Hot Plug standard allows the following capabilities while the system is running: • Hot replacement - replacing a single PCI adapter with a similar adapter • Hot upgrade - replacing a PCI adapter with an upgraded adapter • Hot expansion - adding a PCI adapter to an empty slot The ProLiant 8500 server supports all three hot-plug capabilities for all 64-bit PCI Hot Plug slots. These capabilities can be added incrementally, depending on the OS implementation. 12