I'm looking at buying a 3 year old blade server. My question is, if I buy it and want to insert a current model blade, will it fit?
Also, if the chassis goes "POP" and I need to replace it, will the current model chassis fit 3 year old blades?
What about Power supply replacements?
The chassis I'm looking at is this:
- IBM FRU / PN: M8677-3XM with DVD reader
The blades are all IBM HS20's.
We've had a good run with IBM hardware and although there is some nice ex-lease HP hardware available, my understanding is that backwards comparability is not so well maintained. Is this true?
Best Answer
The answer is - it depends. IBM previously allowed a mix of their older blades with the newer HS22 blades but they've since changed it to state that with the BladeCenter E (8677) chassis, the HS22's are allowed when all of these conditions are met:
1) when placed in their own Power Domain (meaning - only HS22's in blade bays 1-7 or 8-14) 2) when 2000W power supplies or higher are used 3) when the Advanced Management Module (AMM) is installed.
A caveat to the above is if you upgrade your existing chassis to the 2320W power supplies, then you will be able to put in HS22's anywhere you want in the chassis - however the 2320W power supplies require more power than the 2000W power did, so you'll need to make sure you check your power load in your rack.
Hope this helps. Come check out my blade specific blog at http://BladesMadeSimple.com