Chapter 2 System Overview 11
The system provides two on-board Ethernet host PCI adapters, which support
several modes of operations at 10, 100, and 1000 megabits per second (Mbps).
Additional Ethernet interfaces or connections to other network types can be
provided by installing the appropriate PCI interface cards. Multiple network
interfaces can be combined with multipathing software to provide hardware
redundancy and failover capability. Should one of the interfaces fail, the software
can automatically switch all network traffic to an alternate interface to maintain
network availability. For more information about network connections, see “How to
Configure the Primary Network Interface” on page 144 and “How to Configure
Additional Network Interfaces” on page 146.
The Sun Fire V490 server provides a serial communication port, which you can
access through an RJ-45 connector located on the system’s back panel. For more
information, see “About the Serial Port” on page 45.
The back panel also provides two Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports for connecting
USB peripheral devices such as modems, printers, scanners, digital cameras, or a
Sun Type-6 USB keyboard and mouse. The USB ports support both isochronous
mode and asynchronous mode. The ports enable data transmission at speeds of
12 Mbps. For additional details, see “About the USB Ports” on page 46.
The local system console device can be either a standard ASCII character terminal or
a local graphics console. The ASCII terminal connects to the system’s serial port,
while a local graphics console requires installation of a PCI graphics card, monitor,
USB keyboard, and mouse. You can also administer the system from a remote
workstation connected to the Ethernet or from the system controller.
Sun Remote System Control (RSC) software is a secure server management tool that
lets you monitor and control your server over a serial line or over a network. RSC
provides remote system administration for geographically distributed or physically
inaccessible systems. RSC software works in conjunction with the system controller
(SC) card included in all Sun Fire V490 servers.
The SC card runs independently of the host server, and operates off of 5-volt standby
power from the system’s power supplies. These features allow the SC to serve as a
“lights out” management tool that continues to function even when the server
operating system goes offline or when the server is powered off. For additional
details, see “About the System Controller (SC) Card” on page 33.
The basic system includes two 1448-watt power supplies, each with two internal
fans. The power supplies are plugged in directly to one power distribution board
(PDB). One power supply provides sufficient power for a maximally configured
system. The second power supply provides N+1 redundancy, allowing the system to
continue operating should the first power supply fail. A power supply in a
redundant configuration is hot-swappable, so that you can remove and replace a
faulty power supply without shutting down the operating system or turning off the
system power. For more information about the power supplies, see “About the
Power Supplies” on page 38.