How does a blade server differ from a normal rackmount server
blade-serverhardwarerack
This may be a question but I thought I would ask even so.
Best Answer
Blade servers are small, high-density, low form-factor computers, designed for maximum power in a small space.
A blade server is mounted within a chassis, and the chassis typically takes on a lot of functions and parts that were previously done by the individual host. The chassis itself will hold the power supplies (resulting in less wasted power from conversion), the fibre-channel cards, the network controllers, SCSI interfaces, and so on. The servers themselves contain only the non-unique parts – CPU, RAM, and hard drive.
The benefits are that you can pack far more computing power into a rack, you have homogenous hardware, and your management is simpler. Instead of monitoring two power supplies, NICs, etc. per server, you only have to watch one set of hardware. Because your hardware is homogenous, you can keep spare parts around without worrying about which model of power supply you need, and so on.
The downsides are the up-front costs. Because you need to buy the (very expensive) chassis, it's cost-ineffective to start with one blade and work your way up. You would typically buy blade servers if you plan on buying a large number of servers at once. Otherwise, the initial up-front cost is excessive.
10U rack chassis, 42U of space, you can fit 4 of them in a rack with 2U to spare.
Is this is a good idea? That depends a lot on your infrastructure. If you're using passthrough ports instead of integrated switches that could be up 512 cables that'll need to be run to another rack for connecting to things, as well as the power to drive it all. Using the integrated switches makes it easier, though getting power to it will still take some creative routing.
Definitely extinguish the fire without regard for the rest of the servers on the same rack. Any properly designed data center will have backup servers at another location for the applications to fall back on. It is better to lose a rack of servers than to lose a life or the whole data center.
Best Answer
Blade servers are small, high-density, low form-factor computers, designed for maximum power in a small space.
A blade server is mounted within a chassis, and the chassis typically takes on a lot of functions and parts that were previously done by the individual host. The chassis itself will hold the power supplies (resulting in less wasted power from conversion), the fibre-channel cards, the network controllers, SCSI interfaces, and so on. The servers themselves contain only the non-unique parts – CPU, RAM, and hard drive.
The benefits are that you can pack far more computing power into a rack, you have homogenous hardware, and your management is simpler. Instead of monitoring two power supplies, NICs, etc. per server, you only have to watch one set of hardware. Because your hardware is homogenous, you can keep spare parts around without worrying about which model of power supply you need, and so on.
The downsides are the up-front costs. Because you need to buy the (very expensive) chassis, it's cost-ineffective to start with one blade and work your way up. You would typically buy blade servers if you plan on buying a large number of servers at once. Otherwise, the initial up-front cost is excessive.