The blade server is a compact system that helps save energy and space. Learn more about its characteristics and advantages here.
To choose the right server , it is essential to consider some factors: the cost, the available space, the size of the organization and the features it offers. In this article, we’ll delve into the features, definition and benefits of the blade server .
What does a blade server look like?
A blade server is a stand-alone, compact piece of equipment that consists of a server rack (known as a chassis), which houses many thin, modular circuit boards: blade servers.
Blade servers are specifically designed to take advantage of space, reduce consumption and simplify maintenance.
These types of servers have greater data processing and consume less energy , since the different servers share both power and cooling. In this way, expenses are also reduced .
How does a blade server work?
Contains processors, memory, integrated network drivers, FiberChannel, and multiple input / output adapters. Everything related to connections, power and cooling is transferred in shared mode to the chassis that houses them.
Its modular design allows the blade server to optimize performance while reducing energy costs and size requirements.
In virtualized environments and Cloud Computing services , it is where these types of servers generate the best performance and are used to obtain greater efficiency.
Because, data computing centers need more servers, but less powerful, because they do not require large computation and processing resources.
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Learn more about servers in this article: Types of servers, everything you need to know
Blade servers technical characteristics
Among the characteristics of blade servers, we can find:
- Fewer integrated circuits, which implies better purchase prices and lower maintenance costs
- By eliminating unnecessary features to perform lighter jobs, servers can perform these tasks more efficiently than higher specification servers
- Low energy consumption and its special design for heat dissipation in processors, reduces operating costs, thereby obtaining a higher ratio of computing work units
- The blade servers are based on a compact and reduced form of integrated circuit with the processor, memory and I / O system, which allows to create server clusters placed together in chassis cabinets, with the consequent saving of space in the data centers
- As they do not contain mechanical elements, they are less prone to failure, so their duration and reliability are greater
Advantages of blade servers
Blade servers have multiple benefits, which are:
Improve operational efficiency
It speeds up the start-up of new servers without stopping the associated services at any time.
Greater efficiency
You get more processing power in a smaller footprint (physical size, power consumption, cooling, and weight). This also means reduced energy costs.
Manageability
Systems administration is simpler and cheaper, as a blade server generally comes with integrated administration tools.
Flexibility
Simplified and reconfigurable wiring.
High availability
It is possible to add and remove servers keeping the services active. If a server goes down it can be replaced right away.
They take up less space
You can have more processing power per unit of space in the data center. With a height of 4U, up to 16 servers can be mounted on a chassis.
Facilitate data center scalability
Thanks to the ease of start-up of new servers, growing the data center is just a matter of adding more blades, without having to worry about connection wiring or power.
They are simpler to operate
They are managed remotely, especially in virtualized environments and with added management of the chassis that house them. The absence of cabling makes physical administration and connectivity tasks easier.
They share redundant elements
- Blade servers are housed in one or more chassis, which incorporate all the elements of cooling, power and connectivity.
- Redundant and removable power supplies.
- Redundant fans.
- Network switches with different zones and redundant, with all the built-in wiring.
- Dedicated interfaces for connectivity to redundant storage units.
Maximum efficiency in virtualized environments
- The virtualized environment facilitates the administration and management of the servers.
- Increased flexibility and use of virtual infrastructure.
- Increased server density per chassis.
- More flexible management of resources dynamically, individually or globally in the chassis.
- Reduction of the provisioning times of new servers.
- Elimination of scheduled shutdowns due to problems, maintenance or hardware updates.
- Fast virtual machine migrations between blade servers.
- Infrastructure optimization to offer the best performance based on Service Level Agreements (ANS or SLA).
Blade servers are the most compact and can be installed vertically in a single cabinet to save space and energy. They are ideal for large companies and data centers that require much more capacity .
In the market there are different brands that offer blade servers: HP Enterprise, Dell, Lenovo, IBM, Huawei, among others. Do you have the right server?
