IBM 440 Server User Manual


 
48 IBM ^ xSeries 440 Planning and Installation Guide
The modular scalability feature of XpandOnDemand offers the following benefits:
Performance scalability through the SMP Expansion Module
SMP Expansion Modules can be easily added at any time to increase the
operational capacity of a node. By adding a second SMP Expansion Module,
a system can take advantage of more processors, memory and Level 4 cache
to increase overall system performance for managing more database users
on a network or processing more transactions faster.
Performance scalability through multi-node SMP
Enterprise X-Architecture technology powers this industry-standard server
building block. By linking two x440 nodes together, a customer can assemble
a modular SMP system with increased performance.
I/O scalability through the RXE-100 Remote Expansion Enclosure
Adding additional PCI-X slots is achieved by connecting an RXE-100 Remote
Expansion Enclosure to the server.
2.2.7 System Partition Manager
System Partition Manager is designed for easily managing multi-node
configurations, allowing the customer to build complexes of four-way and
eight-way nodes up to 16-way SMP, define and activate/deactivate partitions, and
enable automatic re-partitioning of hardware under the control of Director Event
Action plans.
The other feature of System Partition Manager is chassis failure recovery. If the
operating system crashes in a multi-node partition due to a failure of one of the
chassis, System Partition Manager can generate an alert event to IBM Director,
notifying the administrator to manually reconfigure the partition or initiating
additional events to automatically reconfigure the multi-node partition and thus
restart the chassis in that partition.
For this to occur, the system administrator would have created IBM Director
action plans to define what action SPM must take when a chassis fails.
Customers must consider such things as boot device attachment, data storage
attachment, and other topology issues when configuring the complex and
creating the action plans.
System Partition Manager uses the network link to the onboard systems
management processor or adapter to establish the relationships among nodes.
These relationships are maintained in a persistent database and can be recalled
and activated at any time using the graphical interface.