IBM PureFlex System and IBM Flex System Products and Technology

232 IBM PureFlex System and IBM Flex System Products and Technology

5.5.13 System management

There are several advanced system management capabilities built into the p460. A Flexible

Support Processor handles most of the server-level system management. It has features,

such as system alerts and Serial-over-LAN capability that are described in this section.

Flexible Support Processor

An FSP provides out-of-band system management capabilities, such as system control,

runtime error detection, configuration, and diagnostic procedures. Generally, you do not

interact with the Flexible Support Processor directly. Rather, you use tools, such as IBM Flex

System Manager, Chassis Management Module, and external IBM Systems Director

Management Console.

The Flexible Support Processor provides a Serial-over-LAN interface, which is available by

using the Chassis Management Module and the console command.

The IBM Flex System p460 Compute Node, even though it is a full-wide system, has only one

Flexible Support Processor.

Serial over LAN

The Power Systems compute nodes do not have an on-board video chip and do not support

KVM connections. Server console access is obtained by a SOL connection only. SOL

provides a means to manage servers remotely by using a CLI over a Telnet or SSH

connection. SOL is required to manage servers that do not have KVM support or that are

attached to the IBM Flex System Manager. SOL provides console redirection for both SMS

and the server operating system. The SOL feature redirects server serial-connection data

over a LAN without requiring special cabling by routing the data through the Chassis

Management Module network interface. The SOL connection enables Power Systems

compute nodes to be managed from any remote location with network access to the Chassis

Management Module.

SOL offers the following advantages:

򐂰 Remote administration without KVM (headless servers)

򐂰 Reduced cabling and no requirement for a serial concentrator

򐂰 Standard Telnet/SSH interface, eliminating the requirement for special client software

The Chassis Management Module CLI provides access to the text-console command prompt

on each server through a SOL connection. This configuration allows you to manage the

Power Systems compute nodes from a remote location.

Anchor card

The anchor card, shown in Figure 5-59 on page 233, contains the vital product data chip that

stores system-specific information. The pluggable anchor card provides a means for this

information to be transferred from a faulty system board to the replacement system board.

Before the service processor knows what system it is on, it reads the vital product data chip to

obtain system information.

The vital product data chip includes information such as system type, model, and serial

number.