blade servers (was Re: [Bioclusters] Any experiences with these guys? reeks)

[Tim Cutts]

On 04-Nov-03, Chris Pepper wrote:
> At 9:03 AM +0000 2003/11/04, Tim Cutts wrote:
> >On 03-Nov-03, Jeffrey B. Layton wrote:
> >>
> >> Can I ask why you need this? Do you change or access the BIOS
> >> frequently? (Not criticizing, just inquiring).
> >
> >Not frequently, but having to do it just once can be real pain.  I have
> >nearly 200 Pentium IV blades here.  Would you enjoy getting onto the
> >KVM console of each one individually to configure HyperThreading?
> >HyperThreading is the one thing where we *do* want to changeit quite
> >frequently.  For some applications, such as MySQL servers,
> >HyperThreading helps.  For others it doesn't, so you want to be able to
> >configure this automatically, without having to mess about with KVM
> >consoles.
> 
> 	Odd, our IBM x345 BIOSes are fully serial-friendly (once it's 
> turned on), and I assumed the BladeCenters were as well-behaved.

The BladeCenters don't have a serial port.  :-)

Tim

-- 
Dr Tim Cutts
Informatics Systems Group
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK