IBM PureFlex System and IBM Flex System Products and Technology

© Copyright IBM Corp. 2012. All rights reserved. xi

Preface

To meet today’s complex and ever-changing business demands, you need a solid foundation

of compute, storage, networking, and software resources. This system must be simple to

deploy, and be able to quickly and automatically adapt to changing conditions. You also need

to be able to take advantage of broad expertise and proven guidelines in systems

management, applications, hardware maintenance, and more.

The IBM® PureFlex™ System combines no-compromise system designs along with built-in

expertise and integrates them into complete, optimized solutions. At the heart of PureFlex

System is the IBM Flex System™ Enterprise Chassis. This fully integrated infrastructure

platform supports a mix of compute, storage, and networking resources to meet the demands

of your applications.

The solution is easily scalable with the addition of another chassis with the required nodes.

With the IBM Flex System Manager, multiple chassis can be monitored from a single panel.

The 14 node, 10U chassis delivers high speed performance complete with integrated servers,

storage, and networking. This flexible chassis is simple to deploy now, and to scale to meet

your needs in the future.

This IBM Redbooks® publication describes IBM PureFlex System and IBM Flex System. It

highlights the technology and features of the chassis, compute nodes, management features,

and connectivity options. Guidance is provided about every major component, and about

networking and storage connectivity.

This book is intended for customers, Business Partners, and IBM employees who want to

know the details about the new family of products. It assumes that you have a basic

understanding of blade server concepts and general IT knowledge.

The team who wrote this book

This book was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the

International Technical Support Organization, Raleigh Center.

David Watts is a Consulting IT Specialist at the IBM ITSO Center in Raleigh. He manages

residencies and produces IBM Redbooks publications on hardware and software topics

related to IBM Flex System, IBM System x®, and BladeCenter® servers and associated

client platforms. He has authored over 200 books, papers, and Product Guides. He holds a

Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Queensland (Australia), and has

worked for IBM in both the United States and Australia since 1989. David is an IBM Certified

IT Specialist, and a member of the IT Specialist Certification Review Board.

Randall Davis is a Senior IT Specialist working in the System x pre-sales team for IBM

Australia as a Field Technical Sales Support (FTSS) specialist. He regularly performs System

x, BladeCenter, and Storage demonstrations for customers at the IBM Demonstration Centre

in Melbourne, Australia. He also helps instruct Business Partners and customers on how to

configure and install the BladeCenter. His areas of expertise are the IBM BladeCenter,

System x servers, VMware, and Linux. Randall started at IBM as a System 36 and AS/400®

Engineer in 1989.