Sun Netra T5220 Server Installation Guide

Sun Netra T5220 Features Overview

This chapter describes the features of the Sun Netra T5220 server. Topics include:

• Sun Netra T5220 Server
• Features at a Glance
• Performance Enhancements
• High Levels of System Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability
• Fault Management and Predictive Self Healing

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Sun Netra T5220 Server

The Sun Netra T5220 server is a 2-rack unit (2U) server.

The Sun Netra T5220 server is a scalable, reliable, high-performance, entry-level server, optimized for enterprise data centers. The server offers the following key features:

• The UltraSPARC T2 multicore processor with CoolThreads technology for high-throughput and energy savings.
• High levels of system uptime through the processor and memory reliability-availability-serviceability (RAS) features, coupled with redundancy of some system components, support for hardware RAID (0+1), and the predictive self-healing features of the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS).
• A space efficient, rack-optimized form factor 2U chassis.
• Investment protection with SPARC V9 binary application compatibility and the Solaris 10 OS. The Solaris 10 OS also provides features such as Solaris Predictive Self-Healing, Solaris Dynamic Tracing, and support across UltraSPARC platforms.
• Unified server management though the use of the Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) system controller interface. ILOM integrates and manages CoolThreads and x64 platforms with the same tool set, and in heterogeneous environments, using industry standard element management tools and enterprise frameworks.

Chassis Identification

The following figures show the physical characteristics of the front and rear panels of the Sun Netra T5220 server (FIGURE 1-1, FIGURE 1-2, and FIGURE 1-4).

FIGURE 1-1 Front Panel of the Sun Netra T5220 Server

FIGURE 1-2 Front Panel of the Sun Netra T5220 Server With the Bezel Removed

FIGURE 1-3 Front Panel of the Sun Netra T5220 Server With the Bezel Removed

FIGURE 1-4 Rear Panel Cable Connectors and LEDs on the Sun Netra T5220 Server

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Features at a Glance

TABLE 1-1 lists the features of the Sun Netra T5220 server

Chip-Multitheaded Processor and Memory Technology

The UltraSPARC® T2 multicore processor is the basis of the Sun Netra T5220 server. The UltraSPARC T2 processor is based on chip multithreading (CMT) technology that is optimized for highly threaded transactional processing. The UltraSPARC T2 processor improves throughput while using less power and dissipating less heat than conventional processor designs.

Depending on the model purchased, the processor has four, six, or eight UltraSPARC cores. Each core equates to a 64-bit execution pipeline capable of running eight threads. The result is that the 8-core processor handles up to 64 active threads concurrently.

Additional processor components, such as L1 cache, L2 cache, memory access crossbar, memory controllers, and the I/O interface have been carefully tuned for optimal performance.

Performance Enhancements

The Sun Netra T5220 server, with the Solaris 10 OS, provide several new performance enhancing technologies with its sun4v architecture and multicore, multithreaded UltraSPARC T2 processor.

Some of these enhancements are:

• A dedicated floating point unit (FPU) for each core (processor thread)
• Four independent dual-channel memory controllers that use the latest fully buffered memory technology.
• Processor-integrated cyptographic acceleration
• Large page optimization
• Reduction on TLB misses
• Optimized block copy
• Support for Sun’s 10 Gigabit Ethernet with the addition of XAUI cards in PCI slots 0 and 1

Preinstalled Solaris Operating System

The Sun Netra T5220 server is preinstalled with the Solaris 10 OS, and offers the following Solaris OS features:

• Stability, high performance, scalability, and precision of a mature 64-bit operating system
• Support for over 12,000 leading technical and business applications
• Solaris Containers - Isolate software applications and services using flexible, software-defined boundaries.
• DTrace - A comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for tuning applications and troubleshooting systemic problems in real time.
• Predictive Self-Healing - Capability that automatically diagnoses, isolates, and recovers from many hardware and application faults.
• Security - Advanced security features designed to protect the enterprise at multiple levels.
• Network Performance - Completely rewritten TCP/IP stack dramatically improves the performance and scalability of your networked services.

You can use the preinstalled Solaris 10 OS, or reinstall a supported version of the Solaris 10 OS from your network, CD, or downloaded copy. Refer to the Sun Netra T5220 Server Product Notes for information on the supported OS releases for your server.

Hardware-Assisted Cryptography

The UltraSPARC T2 multicore processor provides hardware-assisted acceleration of RSA and DSA cryptographic operations. The Solaris 10 OS provides the multithreaded device driver that supports the hardware-assisted cryptography.

Support for Virtualization Through
Logical Domains (LDoms)

The Sun Netra T5220 servers support the use of Logical Domains (LDoms) technology. Through the use of the Solaris OS and the built-in server firmware, and by installing the Logical Domains Manager software, you can virtualize the compute services that run on your server.

A logical domain is a discrete, logical grouping with its own operating system, resources, and identity within a single computer system. Each logical domain can be created, destroyed, reconfigured, and rebooted independently, without requiring a power cycle of the server.

You can run a variety of applications software in different logical domains and keep them independent for performance and security purposes.

Each logical domain can be managed as an entirely independent machine with its own resources, such as:

• Kernel, patches, and tuning parameters
• User accounts and administrators
• Network interfaces, MAC addresses, and IP addresses

Each logical domain can interact only with those server resources made available to it, and the configuration is controlled using the Logical Domains Manger.

For more information on Logical Domains, refer to the Logical Domains (LDoms) Administration Guide.

Remote Manageability With ILOM

The Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) feature is a service processor, built into the server, that enables you to remotely manage and administer the server. The ILOM software is preinstalled as firmware, and initializes as soon as you apply power to the system.

ILOM enables you to monitor and control your server over an Ethernet connection (supports SSH), or by using a dedicated serial port for connection to a terminal or terminal server. ILOM provides a command-line interface and a browser-based interface that you can use to remotely administer geographically distributed or physically inaccessible machines. In addition, ILOM enables you to run diagnostics (such as POST) remotely that would otherwise require physical proximity to the server’s serial port.

You can configure ILOM to send email alerts of hardware failures and warnings, and other events related to the server. The ILOM circuitry runs independently of the server, using the server’s standby power. Therefore, ILOM firmware and software continue to function when the server operating system goes offline or when the server is powered off. ILOM monitors the following Sun Netra T5220 server conditions:

• CPU temperature conditions
• Hard drive status
• Enclosure thermal conditions
• Fan speed and status
• Power supply status
• Voltage conditions
• Faults detected by POST (power-on self-test)
• Solaris Predictive Self-Healing (PSH) diagnostic facilities

In addition to the ILOM CLI and browser interface (BI), you can set up the server to use an ALOM CMT compatibility CLI. The ALOM CMT compatibility CLI provides commands that approximate the ALOM CMT CLI that is a system controller interfaced provided on some previous servers.

For information about configuring and using the ILOM service processor, refer to the latest Integrated Lights Out Management (ILOM) User’s Guide and the Sun Integrated Lights Out Managment 2.0 (ILOM 2.0) Supplement for the Sun Netra T5220 Server.

High Levels of System Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability

Reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) are aspects of a system’s design that affect its ability to operate continuously and to minimize the time necessary to service the system. Reliability refers to a system’s ability to operate continuously without failures and to maintain data integrity. System availability refers to the ability of a system to recover to an operational state after a failure, with minimal impact. Serviceability relates to the time it takes to restore a system to service following a system failure. Together, reliability, availability, and serviceability features provide for near continuous system operation.

To deliver high levels of reliability, availability, and serviceability, the Sun Netra T5220 server offers the following features:

• Ability to disable individual threads and cores without rebooting
• Lower heat generation reduces hardware failures
• Hot-pluggable hard drives
• Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies (two)
• Redundant fan units
• Environmental monitoring
• Internal hardware drive mirroring (RAID 1)
• Error detection and correction for improved data integrity
• Easy access for most component replacements

Hot-Pluggable and Hot-Swappable Components

Sun Netra T5220 server hardware is designed to support hot-plugging of the chassis-mounted hard drives and power supplies. By using the proper software commands, you can install or remove these components while the system is running. Hot-swap and hot-plug technology significantly increases the system’s serviceability and availability by providing the ability to replace hard drives, fan units, and power supplies without service disruption.

Power Supply Redundancy

The Sun Netra T5220 server provides two hot-swappable power supplies, enabling the system to continue operating should one of the power supplies fail or if a power source fails.

Environmental Monitoring

The Sun Netra T5220 server features an environmental monitoring subsystem that protects the server and its components against:

• Extreme temperatures
• Lack of adequate airflow through the system
• Power supply failures
• Hardware faults

Temperature sensors are located throughout the system to monitor the ambient temperature of the system and internal components. The software and hardware ensure that the temperatures within the enclosure do not exceed predetermined safe operation ranges. If the temperature observed by a sensor falls below a low-temperature threshold or rises above a high-temperature threshold, the monitoring subsystem software lights the amber Service Required LEDs on the front and back panel. If the temperature condition persists and reaches a critical threshold, the system initiates a graceful system shutdown. In the event of a failure of the system controller, backup sensors protect the system from serious damage, by initiating a forced hardware shutdown. Required LEDs remain lit after an automatic system shutdown to aid in problem diagnosis.

The power subsystem is monitored in a similar fashion by monitoring power supplies and reporting any fault in the front and rear panel LEDs.

Support for RAID Storage Configurations

You can set up hardware RAID 1 (mirroring) and hardware RAID 0 (striping) configurations for any pair of internal hard drives, providing a high-performance solution for hard drive mirroring.

By attaching one or more external storage devices to the Sun Netra T5220 server, you can use a redundant array of independent drives (RAID) software application such as Solstice DiskSuite^[2] or VERITAS Volume Manager to configure system drive storage in a variety of different RAID levels.

Error Correction and Parity Checking

The UltraSPARC T2 multicore processor provides parity protection on its internal cache memories, including tag parity and data parity on the D-cache and I-cache. The internal L2 cache has parity protection on the tags, and ECC protection on the data.

Advanced ECC, corrects up to 4 bits in error on nibble boundaries, as long as they are all in the same DRAM. If a DRAM fails, the DIMM continues to function.

Fault Management and Predictive Self Healing

The Sun Netra T5220 server provides the latest fault management technologies. The Solaris 10 OS architecture provides a means for building and deploying systems and services capable of predictive self-healing. Self-healing technology enables systems to accurately predict component failures and mitigate many serious problems before they actually occur. This technology is incorporated into both the hardware and software of the Sun Netra T5220 server.

At the heart of the predictive self-healing capabilities is the Solaris Fault Manager, a new service that receives data relating to hardware and software errors, and automatically and silently diagnoses the underlying problem. Once a problem is diagnosed, a set of agents automatically responds by logging the event, and if necessary, takes the faulty component offline. By automatically diagnosing problems, business-critical applications and essential system services can continue uninterrupted in the event of software failures, or major hardware component failures.

Rackmountable Enclosure

The Sun Netra T5220 server uses a space-saving 2U-high rackmountable enclosure that can be installed into a variety of industry standard racks.

^{1 (TableFootnote) PCIe and PCI-X specifications described in this table list the physical requirements for PCI cards. Additional support capabilities must also be provided (such as device drivers) for a PCI card to function in the server. Refer to the specifications and documentation for a given PCI card to determine if the required drivers are provided that enable the card to function in this server.}

^{2 (Footnote) Software RAID applications such as VERITAS Volume Manager are not included with this server. You must obtain and license them separately.}

Sun Netra T5220 Server Installation Guide

E21356-01

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