Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
To use a PSB in the system, the hardware resources on the board must be logi-
cally divided and reconfigured as eXtended System Boards (XSBs) which support
two types: Uni-XSB and Quad-XSB:
Uni-XSB
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A PSB logically undivided and configured into one XSB.
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The XSB contains all the resources on the board: 4 CPUs, 32 DIMMs, and
all I/O.
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Memory mirroring always supported in Uni mode.
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Quad-XSB
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A PSB logically divided and configured into four XSBs.
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Each of the four XSBs contains one-fourth of the total board resources:
1 CPU, 8 DIMMs, and 2 PCIe slots. On M4000/M5000 servers, only two
XSBs have I/O.
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Memory mirroring in quad mode is supported on only the M4000 and
M5000 systems.
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A domain consists of one or more XSBs. Each domain runs its own copy of
Oracle Solaris and must have a minimum of one CPU, eight DIMMs, and I/O. The
number of domains allowed depends on the server model (refer to Table 2.1). The
default is 1 domain and the maximum number of domains is 24. The maximum
number of XSBs in a domain is 16. Domains can be set up to include both Uni-
XSBs and Quad-XSBs.
These XSBs can be combined freely to create domains. It is important to note
that each of the CPU, memory, and I/O components are present in a single PSB
and, therefore, in an XSB. When assigning an XSB to a domain, you must always
add all three. It is not possible just to add I/O or just memory, although the domain
can be instructed to ignore the memory, the I/O, or both in a specific XSB. For
example, when adding an XSB (either Uni-XSB or Quad-XSB) to a domain, the
user has the choice of using only the CPUs. Although the memory and I/O in an
XSB can be ignored, it will still be assigned to the domain and cannot be assigned
to other domains. The ability to ignore memory and I/O allows an XSB to be used
for CPU load balancing, because it can be added, or removed, from a domain in
the least amount of time.
Even if the domain is instructed to ignore memory in a specific XSB, the memory
must still be present in that XSB. This requirement exists because the system needs
memory to load the test program that the CPUs will run to verify the integrity of
the XSB. For maximum flexibility, this can be done on a board-by-board basis.
Let's see some examples of PSBs and how they relate to an XSB.
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