Server’s Having A Bad Day When … CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT (101)

We lose it almost continually throughout the day.

This particular box is our first Intel SR1630HGP Server System with an Intel Xeon Processor 3460 and 16GB of RAM.

This is what the %windir%\MiniDump directory looks like right now:

Our handy Crash Analyzer Wizard that comes with our Software Assurance and MDOP benefits tell us:

Click on that Details button and we see:

CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT (101)

An expected clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor in an MP system within the allocated interval. This indicates that the specified processor is hung and not processing interrupts.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000019, Clock interrupt time out interval in nominal clock ticks.
Arg2: 0000000000000000, 0.
Arg3: fffff88001e5d180, The PRCB address of the hung processor.
Arg4: 0000000000000002, 0.

Now, it’s not like we have not seen this one before:

• Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix
• Hyper-V CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Error Within 24 Hours On Fresh H-V 2K8 R2
• This particular server hit by the freezes was actually the one from the above posts. It has been sitting off on a shelf as we have not had the need for it up until this current project we are working on.

We did run the hotfix on the server a while back, but apparently that version was not good enough since we brought all off the server’s server board firmware and the RAID controller’s firmware up to date. We did this just before bringing it back online.

The above screenshot of the MiniDump directory does not do the situation justice as the server has frozen a lot more times than that . . . leading us to look at other options for the setup we need.

But then, apparently the KB975530 hotfix has received a newer version from what we found when searching to find any further info on the problem.

Here is a screenshot of the hotfix directory with our original update and the one that we just received:

There was not a lot of time between v3 and v4 with the time of this post being late March.

It now remains to be seen if this fourth iteration of the patch will actually straighten out the timing problem happening with the Nehalem CPUs.

The server:

• Intel Server System SR1630HGP 1U
• Intel Xeon Processor X3460
• Intel RAID Controller RS2BL080
• Battery Backup Unit
• 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3 RAM
• 450GB 15K Seagate SAS drives in RAID 5
• DVDROM optical drive

***

This post has been sitting open for the last couple of hours while busy with other things. After consistently freezing today, the server has been up and running with the two server VMs and five desktop VMs without a hiccup.

Hopefully that will be the situation from now on!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V Live Migration Error – VM is not compatible with physical computer . . .

We just did a quick cluster setup on the Intel Modular Server that has been loaned to us by Intel.

We have 2 nodes with Intel Xeon Processor 5400 Series CPUs and 2 nodes with Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series CPUs. The base chipset in each node pair is the 5000 series and 5520 respectively.

So, in order to set up our High Availability cluster, we discovered that need to make sure we keep the different architectures in mind when we configure our virtual machines.

Once the HA VM has been created make sure to check the Migrate to a physical computer with a different processor version setting in the VM’s Settings properties as shown above.

Otherwise the following will happen when a live migration is attempted:

There was an error checking for virtual machine compatibility on the target node.

The virtual machine “TD-Win7Mgmt” is not compatible with the target node “TD-HV_Node-01.testdomain.local”.

. . .

So, when it comes to configuring an Intel Modular Server based Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster we need to keep in mind that there is currently a technology shift happening at the CPU level and at the compute module level.

Where possible, it is preferable to have the same hardware across all compute modules in the Intel Modular Server.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

160GB Pair of Intel G2 SSD’s RAID 1 and RAID 0 Performance On A W5590 Xeon Workstation

While putting together the trading station for our client, we did some bench testing of the Intel solid-state drives in two RAID array configurations.

The system configuration:

• Intel S5520SC Workstation Board
• BIOS 42, BMC 0.45, FRU/SDR 21
• Intel W5590 Xeon Processor (second is going into an identical setup)
• 12GB Kingston KVR1333 ECC Registered RAM
• 160GB Intel SSD -G2R5 Code pair of drives
• On Board Chipset LSI based RAID
• Intel SC5650WS Workstation Chassis with 1,000Watt PSU
• PNY nVidia Quadro NVS 450 PCI-E x16 (4 monitors)
• ATI FirePro 2450 PCI-E x16 (4 monitors)
• Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition

The Intel SSDs are using the factory default firmware and no trim tools have been installed. The RAID Web Console 2 was installed but the SSD trim tools built into it were not enabled either for both tests.

Here is the WinSat output for the RAID 1 configuration:

C:\Windows\system32>winsat disk
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:03.71
> Running: Storage Assessment '-ran -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:00.31
> Running: Storage Assessment '-scen 2009 -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:55.51
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -write -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:07.55
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -seq'
> Run Time 00:00:01.42
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -ran'
> Run Time 00:00:01.37
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 4096'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 16384'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read               504.89 MB/s         7.9
> Disk  Random 16.0 Read                  242.46 MB/s         7.9
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate     1.52 ms/IO          7.5
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs          11.60 units          6.9
> Responsiveness: Long IOs                 3.62 units          7.8
> Responsiveness: Overall                  42.01 units          7.2
> Responsiveness: PenaltyFactor              0.0
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write             97.07 MB/s          6.5
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes 0.997 ms     7.6
> Latency: 95th Percentile                     1.791 ms          7.8
> Latency: Maximum                             5.227 ms          7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes   0.879 ms          7.9
> Total Run Time 00:01:10.57

And here is the raw output for the RAID 0 configuration:

C:\Windows\system32>winsat disk
Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:04.13
> Running: Storage Assessment '-ran -read -n 0'
> Run Time 00:00:00.26
> Running: Storage Assessment '-scen 2009 -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:51.11
> Running: Storage Assessment '-seq -write -drive C:'
> Run Time 00:00:04.30
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -seq'
> Run Time 00:00:01.11
> Running: Storage Assessment '-flush -drive C: -ran'
> Run Time 00:00:01.09
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 4096'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: Storage Assessment '-hybrid -ran -read -n 0 -ransize 16384'
NV Cache not present.
> Run Time 00:00:00.02
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read           537.33 MB/s          7.9
> Disk  Random 16.0 Read              375.88 MB/s          7.9
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate        0.76 ms/IO          7.9
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs             8.99 units          7.3
> Responsiveness: Long IOs                     1.69 units          7.9
> Responsiveness: Overall                      15.21 units          7.9
> Responsiveness: PenaltyFactor                0.0
> Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write             197.47 MB/s          7.3
> Average Read Time with Sequential Writes    0.947 ms     7.7
> Latency: 95th Percentile                     1.719 ms          7.9
> Latency: Maximum                             5.686 ms          7.9
> Average Read Time with Random Writes   0.952 ms          7.9
> Total Run Time 00:01:02.78

Taking the above statistics we get:

• RAID 1 configuration:
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read        504.89 MB/s         7.9
• Disk  Random 16.0 Read           242.46 MB/s         7.9
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write         97.07 MB/s          6.5
• Total Run Time 00:01:10.57
• RAID 0 configuration:
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Read         537.33 MB/s          7.9
• Disk  Random 16.0 Read            375.88 MB/s          7.9
• Disk  Sequential 64.0 Write        197.47 MB/s          7.3
• Total Run Time 00:01:02.78

It is pretty clear that having the SSDs in a RAID 0 or RAID 10 configuration will provide a significant performance advantage in real world usage.

The write speed more than doubled when the drives were striped and took a huge step for the random read tests as well.

So, what do the numbers translate to? They translate to extremely fast OS loads, application loads, RAM cache like behaviour for any swap file activity, and an all around great user computing experience.

For anyone that generates revenue on system setups and the speed that they accomplish their computing tasks, this is one rig to consider.

By the way, the peak power consumed by the box was 195Watts under load. The average power usage while running its various tasks was 110-120Watts as measured by the APC BR1500LCD UPS. Only the workstation was connected to the UPS.

When the components for the second workstation arrive, we will run the same tests but with an add-in RAID controller to see if that further improves disk I/O performance.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Error Within 24 Hours On Fresh H-V 2K8 R2

We ran a test on one of our freshly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 servers to see if we ran into this issue.

• Intel Server System SR1630HGP 1U
• Intel Server Board S3420GPLC integrated
• Intel Xeon Processor X3450
• 16GB Kingston ECC
• Intel RS2BL080 6Gbps SAS 2nd Generation PCI-E
• 3x 450GB Seagate 15K RPM SAS in RAID 5
• Intel RAID Smart Battery for the RAID controller

The server has only been up and running about 24 hours. We have been running some stress tests along with some test VM installs and backup restores as Hyper-V guests.

This is the Crash Analyzer Wizard’s results (DaRT MDOP product):

So, after a relatively short period of use the problem has reared its head.

• Our previous post: Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix.

It looks as though the hotfix is an absolute must for any Technician’s Thumb Drive and a required install on any server that will utilize Hyper-V on Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series CPUs!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix

Via Slashdot:

• Slashdot: Hardware: Microsoft Advice Against Nehalem Xeons Snuffed Out.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article with the hotfix:

• MS Knowledgebase 975530: Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

We are just in the process of implementing Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on the new Intel Nehalem architecture in both the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series.

So, finding out about this particular problem before the boxes went into production is a good thing.

The update begs the question though, does the hotfix really resolve the conflict with the CPU architecture?

It looks as though we will be doing a bit more testing than we normally do on new platforms to make sure that things do not blow up on us with the new soon to be deployed production Hyper-V boxes.

One of the linked articles from Slashdot is a good read:

• The H: Processor Whispers - About War and Peace

UPDATE: Here it is:

As a test, we did not install the update on a freshly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 box and the above happened about midway through our second VM setup.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix

Via Slashdot:

• Slashdot: Hardware: Microsoft Advice Against Nehalem Xeons Snuffed Out.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article with the hotfix:

• MS Knowledgebase 975530: Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

We are just in the process of implementing Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on the new Intel Nehalem architecture in both the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series.

So, finding out about this particular problem before the boxes went into production is a good thing.

The update begs the question though, does the hotfix really resolve the conflict with the CPU architecture?

It looks as though we will be doing a bit more testing than we normally do on new platforms to make sure that things do not blow up on us with the new soon to be deployed production Hyper-V boxes.

One of the linked articles from Slashdot is a good read:

• The H: Processor Whispers - About War and Peace

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Intel Memory Configuration Tool – Relieve That Pain!

One of the most significant brain busters with Intel’s new Core i7 architecture as well as the new Intel Xeon Processor 3400 Series and 5500 Series architectures is trying to get a straight answer on how to come out with a certain amount of RAM in the system.

This is the Intel Server Board S3420GP Xeon 3400 series memory page out of the product’s technical product specifications manual:

There are more pages both before and after this one that get into how to configure memory for this particular server board without really making things entirely clear.

There is the Intel Server Configurator Tool that will only allow certain RAM part combinations during the configuration process, but it does not tell us why it allows or does not allow us to choose a certain amount of RAM like 24GB for one box.

In comes Intel’s new Memory Configurator Tool:

We are looking to have a Xeon 3400 series server configured with 24GB. This tool will actually show us the how/what/where/why of getting there.

• Intel Memory Configuration Tool Download 

The tool at least takes some of the guess work out of configuring servers.

The above 24GB configuration request yielded the following result:

It says we can do 6x 4GB Registered DIMMs at 800MHz up top with the bottom right quadrant indicating the DIMMs can be Single, Dual, or Quad Rank when it comes to the memory chips on the DIMMs themselves.

Now, is the tool right?

Well, we will find out in short order since we have an SR1630HGP 1U server system based on the S3420GPLC series server board with six 4GB Kingston quad ranked registered ECC RAM sitting in the shop waiting to be built.

When we run through the Intel Server Configurator Tool and come to the memory configuration portion, we get the following:

The Configurator indicates up to 4x 4GB Registered Quad Rank DIMMs which does not meet our 24GB need. So, we shall see soon enough which one is right.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Contracted to Build a Boss Dual W5580 Trading System

One of our long time clients has delved into currency trading and is using a proprietary monitoring and graphing application for the various world currencies being watched and traded.

Their current system is a high performance system we put together for them six years ago.

That system was based on a P4 with HyperThreading, Windows XP Pro and 1GB of RAM. We had our client bring the system here to the shop to run various process monitoring utilities on the PC while the proprietary application was up and running.

We were looking for a couple of specific things:

• How many simultaneous threads was the app capable of tossing towards the CPU.
• How many threads were involved in generating a new graph and what happens during the graph generation.

What we discovered was an application that is capable of taking advantage of as many “cores” as possible.

The last test we ran was the generation of a new graph with everything else going on in the background. The new graph being generated pegged one of the “cores” on the system, so that particular process was single threaded . . . maybe.

Now that we had a pretty good overview of how the application performed, we now knew some key performance needs:

• The ability to bin a core or multiple cores up for a demanding process was critical.
• The ability to handle more than 4 simultaneous threads was also a priority due to the way the software operated.
• The more RAM we had in the system, the better.
• We need the ability to drive 8 monitors.
• We need to eliminate the disk I/O bottleneck.

So, the configuration we have come up with for the system to be built to meet our client’s needs will be as follows:

• Dual Intel Xeon Processor W5580 or W5590
• Intel Workstation Board S5520SC
• 24GB Kingston Registered ECC RAM (6x 4GB Intel Tested)
• Intel RS2BL080 PCI-E 8x RAID Controller and Battery Backup
• 320GB (4x 160GB Intel 2nd Gen SSD) RAID 10
• Intel SC5650WS Workstation Chassis
• 6 Bay Hot Swap Option
• Dual ATI FirePro 2450 PCI-E Multi-View
• Up to 8 24” Wide Screen LCD Monitors
• ErgoTron Multi-Monitor Stands
• Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition

We expect the ability of each of the Xeon Processors to bin one or two cores upwards to gain the needed extra performance will make this rig fit our client’s needs perfectly.

Using the second generation Intel Solid-State Drives plus a second generation Intel RAID controller aught to help us virtually eliminate any disk subsystem bottlenecks.

The extra RAM and the 64bit capabilities of Windows 7 Ultimate round out the setup.

The workstation board S5520SC has a Trusted Platform Module version 1.2. Since we are installing Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Edition on this setup and due to the sensitivity of the tasks being accomplished by the user we will be encrypting the contents of any partition created with BitLocker.

In the end, the system should provide our client with exactly the responsiveness they are looking for in a system and also protect everything on the system via encryption.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2008 and 16 Cores?!?

Well, maybe not:

The above screenshot is from a new HP ML350 G6 with a pair of Xeon E5520 2.26GHz CPUs installed. The new Xeon 5500 series CPUs support HyperThreading (HT).

The server configuration is rounded out with 8GB of ECC RAM and a 292GB RAID 10 array (4x 146GB 15K SAS2 6Gps drives) plus a hot spare.

While the new box is pretty snappy in its all-round performance though it still takes a while for the shutdown sequence to process.

At some point we hope to figure out if we can script a service shutdown sequence to speed things up.

But, for now, this particular box will do quite well for SBS 2008 and a client of this size running Web facing Line of Business applications on the Premium based second server.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

PNY Gets A Little Plug On Intel’s Server Configurator

We use the Intel Server Configurator to create our base server configurations.

Lately, Intel has been tweaking the Configurator with third party products that have been properly tested to work with their server systems.

This is the first time we have seen a third party product within the Configurator itself:

PNY G92 GeForce 8800GT Video

For nVidia, we would run with EVGA since we have had great support from the folks there when things were not working out with their motherboard or video card products.

Note the new component requirements for the 5500 series Quad Core Xeon processors. The cooling solution is no longer included in the box with the CPU.

Also note that the new SC5650 series chassis has a bunch of new SKUs for it too.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Intel SR1625UR 1U Dual Xeon 5500 Series Configuration

The image looked good in Windows Live Writer when putting together yesterday’s post on the new Intel 5500 Series Xeons and related components (previous blog post).

But, I see now that the Intel Server Configurator screenshot turned out to be quite illegible.

So, there is that server configuration:

Description	Part Number	MM #	QTY
Intel® Server System SR1625UR (1U Passive Backplane)	SR1625URNA (Includes power cord for North America) and R1625UR	901132 (power cord included) or 900986	1
Intel® Xeon® Processor X5560 (Heat Sink not included)	BX80602X5560	901026	2
SR1625 Standard front panel accessory kit	ASR1625FP	900991	1
Quad port GbE I/O module	AXX4GBIOMOD2	901359	1
Intel® Remote Management Module 3	AXXRMM3	900961	1
Intel® RAID Controller SRCSASJV (8 internal/external SAS/SATA ports, up to 1GB cache)	SRCSASJV	892602	1
AXXRSBBU3 Intel® RAID Smart Battery Backup Module (Use with Intel® Integrated Server RAID)	AXXRSBBU3	900954	1
Slimline SATA DVD ROM - AXXSATADVDROM	AXXSATADVDROM	893637	1
Black Bezel (Standard Control Panel)	ASR1550BEZ	879406	1
Full extending Rail Kit	AXXHERAIL2	901082	1
RJ45 To DB9 Cable	AXXRJ45DB92	881944	1
650W Hot-Swap power supply module	ASR1625PS	901016	1
2.5" Hard Drive Carrier	FXX25HDDCAR	881681	2

Intel SR1625UR 1U 8 x 2.5” SAS Configuration

The above configuration would be implemented with the Hyper-V Role set up on Server Core where the VMs would have high load performance requirements.

Note that there are a few typos in the actual Server Configurator results. Make sure to verify the part numbers with distribution. We corrected the mistakes in the above grid.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Intel® Server Board S5520UR Tested memory list

As mentioned by us already today, Intel is releasing a new 5500 series Xeon line along with the accompanying server building blocks.

One of the important things to do when it comes to researching new system builds at the beginning of a product life cycle like we are in now, is verify what components will work with what.

We used to need to search in the support pages for the various product components to find their respective compatibility lists.

Now, that no longer is the case. Intel has embedded all of the products that have passed compatibility tests in their Server Configurator tool.

Note that when it comes to populating the memory channels on the new 5500 series boards, there are some caveats:

DIMM Channel Population Rules

It seems that memory speed is a critical factor when it comes to the number of DIMMs one can install in each channel.

This caveat, and the others that we will discover once we start building the server systems, are the reason we need to spend the time doing the research. After the first build is under our belts, we can reference back to the various compatibility lists, or now the Server Configurator, to verify any product changes or updates required.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Intel Releasing New 5500 Series Xeons and Components

Intel is releasing a bunch of new technology for Intel branded servers over the next number of weeks.

Here is an overview of some of the new components coming down the pipe:

• Intel® Server Chassis SC5600 Family (performance pedestal)
• Intel® Server Chassis SC5650 Family (volume pedestal)
• Intel® Server Board S5520HC (pedestal-optimized performance)
• Intel® Server System SR1630BC (1U value rack)
• Intel® Server System SR1600UR (1U rack optimized performance)
• Intel® Server System SR1625UR (1U rack optimized performance)
• Intel® Server System SR2600UR (2U rack optimized performance)

As always, when it comes time to put a server configuration together, there is the Intel Server Configurator tool.

One of our more eagerly anticipated models is this one:

• Intel® Server System SR1625UR (1U rack optimized performance)

The unit runs a passive midplane to allow us to install a high performance RAID controller to configure a RAID 5+0 or RAID 1+0 array for high load virualization needs. With the addition of a Quad Port Gigabit I/O module, the second power supply for redundancy, and a couple of 2.5” drive carriers to utilize the full 8 drive bays, we are set to rock! :)

It looks as though the Server Configurator has had a bit of a revamp too as it now includes compatible, which means properly tested, third party hard drives, memory and more.

Below is a screenshot of the new 1U’s configuration as we would put it together with the exception of the drives:

SR1625UR Server System

Good things are coming down the pipe since we will receive a lot more bang for our power and cooling consumption dollars!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer