IBM i integration with BladeCenter and System x

BladeCenter and System x models supported with iSCSI

The IBM BladeCenter® and System x™ server models listed in the tables below are supported for attachment to IBM i via an iSCSI network (iSCSI).

The BladeCenter blade and System x models listed on this page have been tested with the following integrated server operating systems:

¹ IBM i 6.1 is required for W2008, SLES10 and RHEL5 on iSCSI attached servers.

² IBM i 5.4 is required for SLES9 on iSCSI attached servers.

³ For these operating systems, the blade models have only been tested with the BladeCenter chassis model 8677.

⁴ For this IBM i iSCSI solution, System x PCIe iSCSI adapters are not supported for use with SLES9 and SLES10. See the iSCSI solution (iSCSI) page for PCI-X iSCSI adapters that are supported.

⁵ This server is only supported on IBM i 6.1 or later and requires the use of iSCSI software initiator support.

⁶ The operating system abbreviations used in the above table are defined below.

• W2008 – Any of the following 64-bit x64 Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2008 versions (full and core installations):
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard
  • Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V
  • Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V
  • Windows Web Server 2008
• W2003 – Any of the following 32-bit x86 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 versions:
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise
  • Windows Server 2003 Standard plus Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise plus Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  • Windows Server 2003 Web plus Service Pack 1 (SP1)
• ESX3.5 – VMware® ESX Server 3.5.0 (IBM i 6.1 certified as iSCSI Storage array with VMware ESX 3.5 Update 3)
• ESX3.0 – VMware® ESX Server 3.0.1 or 3.0.2 (no VMware certification)
• SLES10 – SUSE® LINUX Enterprise Server 10 for AMD64 & Intel® EM64T (64-bit x86 version)
• SLES9 – SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 for AMD64 & Intel EM64T plus Service Pack 3 (64-bit x86 version)
• RHEL5 – Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 5 for x86_64 (64-bit x86 versions)

Note 1: iSCSI firmware must be downloaded and updated to ensure that you have the required iSCSI BIOS and firmware versions that are needed for a successful installation.

Depending on the type of iSCSI initiators used in the server, use the appropriate link below to go to the Web page where you can download the firmware:

• SWI-UEFI or SWI-BladeBoot: Download Ethernet NIC firmware.
  
  Download the latest firmware level that is available on the download page. 
  See the README file on the download page for installation instructions.
  
• 
  
• iSCSI HBA: Download iSCSI HBA firmware.
  
  Use the iSCSI Host Bus Adapter for IBM BladeCenter or xSeries (PDF, 1.32MB) document for instructions on downloading and updating the iSCSI HBA firmware.
  
  Important note: The BladeCenter and System x initiator iSCSI HBAs must use exactly the level of BIOS and firmware specified in IBM i documentation and available for download via the Download iSCSI HBA firmware link above, even if a newer level is present in the initiator iSCSI HBA as shipped from the manufacturer. Only downloadable ISO images obtained from the above web page are supported. Any downloads from any other web sites are considered unsupported BIOS and firmware versions. Once the server installation is completed, future iSCSI HBA BIOS and firmware updates are released and can be installed via the IBM i PTF process. After the IBM i PTF containing the iSCSI HBA BIOS and firmware is loaded and applied to IBM i, install the BIOS and firmware in each integrated BladeCenter blade or System x server by following the service pack installation procedure described in the Installing IBM i integration service packs section of the Service packs web page.

Note 2: System BIOS and firmware must be downloaded and updated for all configurations.

Use the iSCSI Host Bus Adapter for IBM BladeCenter or xSeries (PDF, 1.32MB) document for guidance on which firmware updates are required for your configuration and instructions on downloading and updating the firmware.

Use the "Download firmware" link for your configuration in the tables above to go to the web page where you can download the system BIOS and other firmware for your model.

Note 3: With iSCSI attached servers, all the disk drives for the BladeCenter blade or System x model are under the control of IBM i. There is no disk in the BladeCenter blade or System x model. When ordering BladeCenter blade or System x models, do not order internal or external BladeCenter blade or System x controlled disk or disk controller adapters. Any disk drives and disk controller adapters that may be installed in the BladeCenter blade or System x model need to be removed before the server installation process is started.

Note 4: When initially installing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 on an x336 or x236 server, there is a known problem that restricts where the iSCSI HBA can be installed in the server:

• For the x336, only one iSCSI HBA can be present when installing and it must be installed in slot 1. Also note that you need to remove the "full height" tail stock from the iSCSI HBA and install the "1/2 height" tailstock on the iSCSI HBA when installing it in slot 1 of an x336.
• For the x236, only one iSCSI HBA can be present when installing and it must be installed in slot 6.

After Windows is installed on the x336 or x236, you can optionally install a Microsoft Windows hot fix that lifts the above restrictions to allow the iSCSI HBA to be moved to a different slot than shown above and to allow additional iSCSI HBAs to be installed. See Microsoft Knowledge Base entry Pci.sys resource configuration conflicts cause an error in Windows Server 2003 SP1 or in an x64-based version of Windows Server 2003: "Stop 0x0000007B" for information on how to obtain the hot fix from Microsoft.

Note 5: This model supports Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine option P/N 73P9341. For ordering and related information, refer to the IBM eServer™ Configuration and Options Guide at www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=1201&uid=psg1SCOD-3ZVQ5W.

Note 6: There are two versions of the Management Module:

Note 7: These models do not have a diskette drive. If any of the BIOS or firmware updates that you download for these models are provided as bootable diskette images, then you will need to attach a USB diskette drive to the system in order to install them.

Note 8: This model supports Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine option P/N 39Y9566. For ordering and related information, refer to the IBM eServer™ Configuration and Options Guide at www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=1201&uid=psg1SCOD-3ZVQ5W.

Note 9: For this model, if you are using a PCI-X iSCSI HBA (P/N 30R5201 or 30R5501), you must order PCI Riser Card PCI-X Option P/N 40K1908. For ordering and related information, refer to the IBM eServer™ Configuration and Options Guide at www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=1201&uid=psg1SCOD-3ZVQ5W.

Note 10: This blade model has room for two iSCSI HBA expansion cards. When used with the IBM i iSCSI solution, currently only one iSCSI HBA expansion card is supported in each blade server.

Note 11: For this model, if you are using a PCI-X iSCSI HBA (P/N 30R5201 or 30R5501), you must order IBM PCI-X Riser Card for 1U Systems, P/N 32R2816. For ordering and related information, refer to the IBM eServer™ Configuration and Options Guide at www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=1201&uid=psg1SCOD-3ZVQ5W.

Note 12: This BladeCenter model has some special ordering considerations. See IBM Software Technical Document 453371664 titled Ordering Blade Center Hardware for iSCSI Integrated Servers.

Note 13: For integrated servers running VMware ESX Server, you must set the Plannar SAS setting to Disabled under Device and I/O Ports in the BIOS Settings. Otherwise you may see an error message displayed on the ESX Server console with text such as:
0:00:00:04.445 cpu0:1024)PCI: 1663: failed for 029:01.1

Note 14: For integrated servers running VMware ESX Server, you must set the Plannar SATA setting to Disabled under Device and I/O Ports in the BIOS Settings. Otherwise you may see an error message displayed on the ESX Server console with text such as:
0:00:00:04.53 cpu0:1024)PCI: 1650: failed for 000:08.1

Note 15: Blades that are integrated with an IBM i system via iSCSI do not use any of the disk drives that are installed in the BladeCenter S chassis. However, the BladeCenter S chassis disk drives can be used with blades that are not integrated with i5/OS.

Note 16: Action is required on i 5.4 and i 6.1 if you install VMware ESX on an iSCSI attached server that uses just a BMC service processor (a System x without an RSA II or a BladeCenter blade) to prevent an abnormal shutdown of your server. After the ESX server has been installed, from the IBM i command prompt perform one of the following procedures once for each VMware ESX NWSD (where esxnwsd is your ESX server NWSD name):

• For i 6.1, from the IBM i command prompt, do the following:
  Enter CHGNWSD NWSD(esxnwsd) and prompt the command with F4.
  Locate the serviceability options (SRVOPT) parameter and add the value OSSHUTDWN=1 to any existing value for this parameter and press Enter to apply the change to the NWSD.
• For i 5.4, from the IBM i command prompt, run the following command:
  CRTDTAARA DTAARA(QUSRSYS/esxnwsdIT) TYPE(*DEC) LEN(4 0) VALUE(1)

Note 18: IBM i 6.1 or later is required for servers that use an IMM service processor. The Service Processor Manager support must also be enabled on IBM i 6.1. See Configuring i5/OS to use Service Processor Manager in the Information Center for details. See the IBM i PTFs page for required PTFs.

Note 19: When attaching this server to IBM i via an iSCSI network, this server is only supported when using legacy boot mode. Configure this setting before installing the operating system on the server. To configure this setting, press F1 during server boot. Under boot manager, add the 'legacy only' boot option and move it to the top of the boot order. Then save the settings and exit the configuration utility.

Note 20: The values shown in the iSCSI Initiator Types column are defined below:

Note 21 : Action is required on i 6.1 if you install VMware ESX on an iSCSI attached System x server that uses just an IMM service processor to prevent an abnormal shutdown of your server. After the ESX server has been installed, from the IBM i command prompt perform the following procedure once for each VMware ESX NWSD (where esxnwsd is your ESX server NWSD name):

• From the IBM i command prompt, do the following: Enter CHGNWSD NWSD(esxnwsd) and prompt the command with F4. Locate the serviceability options (SRVOPT) parameter and add the value OSSHUTDWN=1 to any existing value for this parameter and press Enter to apply the change to the NWSD.