test

N1 Provisioning Server 3.1, Blades Edition, Installation Guide

Chapter 2 Hardware and Software Requirements

The information in this chapter will help you determine what operating system, hardware, and storage resources must be allocated or acquired to implement a specific N1 Provisioning Server, Blades Edition

This chapter discusses the following topics:

B1600 Blade System Chassis

This section provides the Blade System Chassis hardware and firmware requirements.

Blade System Chassis Hardware Requirements

Blade System chassis hardware requirements are listed in the following table.

Table 2–1 B1600 Blade System Chassis Hardware Requirements

Chassis Component 

Description 

Switch and System Controller (SSC) 

Each chassis must have at least one SSC.  

Caution – Caution –

An SSC must be installed in SSC0.

Sun FireTM Server Blades

1 to 16 single-slot server blades in combination: 

  • B100s SPARC®-based blades for Solaris

  • B100x single processor and B200x dual processor blades - x86–based blades for Solaris x86 and Linux

    Note –

    The B200x blade occupies two chassis slots, and requires a two-processor operating system image. The B200x is treated as an unmanaged device.

  • B10n content load balancing blade

  • B10p SSL Proxy blade

    Note –

    The B10p blade is treated as an unmanaged device.

Blade System Chassis Firmware Requirements

Blade System chassis firmware version requirements are listed in the following table.

Note –

This version of the N1 Provisioning Server, Blades Edition supports chassis firmware version 1.2 and version 4D.2.

Table 2–2 Blade System Chassis Firmware Requirements

Device 

Firmware 

Switch  

  • Loader version 0.0.6.7

  • Boot ROM version 1.0.0.9

  • Operation Code version 1.0.0.16

System controller 

  • SC version 1.2.7

  • SC Boot version 1.2.7

B10n Load Balancing Blade 

  • Blade Support Chip version 5.1.4

  • Firmware version 1.2.1

B100s SPARC Server Blade 

  • Blade Support Chip version 5.0.2

  • Open Boot Prom version 4.7.5

B100x Server Blade 

  • Blade Support Chip version 5.1.3

  • BIOS version 4.0 (R6.0)

B200x Server Blade 

  • Blade Support Chip version 5.1.8

  • BIOS version P1.1.27

Before installing N1 Provisioning Server software, make certain that the firmware versions for the blade system chassis and each server blade meet the firmware version requirements listed by the previous table. Procedures for determining firmware versions and upgrading firmware are provided in the administration guide for each server blade.

Control Plane System Requirements

Control plane system hardware and operating environment requirements are listed in the following table.

Note –

The image server software can optionally be installed on a separate machine.

Table 2–3 System Requirements

Item 

Hardware 

Operating System 

Disk Space 

RAM 

Swap 

Control plane server 

Sun Fire V120 server or a Sun Fire V280R server, 650 MHz or better with a DVD-ROM drive  

Solaris 8, release 2/02 

20 Gbyte disk minimum 

4 Gbytes  

5 Gbytes 

Image server (optional) 

Sun Fire V120 server or a Sun Fire V280R server, 650 MHz or better with a DVD-ROM drive 

Solaris 8, release 2/02 

20 Gbyte disk minimum 

4 Gbytes  

2 Gbytes 

Control Center Management PC 

x86 , 800 MHz minimum 

10/100 Megabit network interface card 

Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 with 128–bit encryption 

Not applicable 

256 Mbytes minimum, 512 Mbytes recommended 

Not applicable 

Network Interface Card (NIC) Requirements

A VLAN-capable gigabit NIC card and appropriate drivers must be installed in the control plane server. If you have chosen to install the image server software on a separate machine, you should install a gigabit NIC card in the image server. The following table lists the supported VLAN-capable gigabit NIC cards.

Table 2–4 Network Interface Card (NIC) Requirements

NIC 

Driver Version 

Interface 

Sun GigaSwift Copper 

Version 1.21 

ce0 

SysKonnect Copper 

Version 6.08 

skge0 

Switch Requirements

Control plane switch requirements are listed in the following table.

Table 2–5 Switch Requirements

Switch  

Provisioning Server Plane 

Notes 

Cisco Catalyst 2950-24 

Control plane Ethernet switch 

The control plane Switch is optional in a setup of a combined Provisioning and image server with a single chassis containing a single Switch and System Controller (SSC) unit. Any other configuration requires the addition of a control switch.  

Cisco Catalyst 3550-12T  

Control plane Ethernet switch 

Minimum suggested requirement for three or more chassis. 

Cisco Catalyst 3750-12 or 3750–24 

Control plane or Data plane Ethernet switch 

Minimum suggested requirement for three or more chassis. 

Cisco Catalyst 4503 Switch Chassis 

Control plane or data plane Ethernet switch 

Minimum suggested requirement for six or more chassis.  

A 48-port switch module needs to be added to the Cisco switch. 

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Switch Chassis 

Control plane or data plane Ethernet switch 

Minimum suggested requirement for a six or more B1600 Blade System chassis installation. 

A 48-port switch module needs to be added to the Cisco switch. 

JRE Version Requirements

The N1 Provisioning Server and Application Server include the Java Runtime Edition, version 1.4.1_01, which is automatically installed as part of the N1 Provisioning Server, Blades Edition installation process.

Third-party Software Requirements

The following table describes third-party software that must be purchased in order to complete an I-Fabric implementation. The software is not included on the N1 Provisioning Server installation DVD-ROM.

Note –

PostgreSQL, version 7.4 is provided on the installation DVD-ROM. If you choose to use the Oracle database instead of the PostgreSQL database, you must purchase and install Oracle before you install the N1 Provisioning Server software.

Table 2–6 Third-party Software Requirements

Software 

I-Fabric Component 

License Provider 

Install Location 

Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP 

Control Center Management PC 

Microsoft 

Control Center Management PC 

Internet Explorer 6.0 with 128–bit security encryption 

Control Center 

Microsoft 

Control Center Management PC 

Adobe® Acrobat Reader version 5.0 

Control Center PC 

Adobe 

Control Center Management PC 

Oracle® Client 8i, version 8.1.7 

Control plane database (CPDB) 

Oracle 

Control plane server