IBM ESS 3000, Hardware Planning And Installation Manual

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Planning for 100 Gbps adapter
Review the pre-requisite system requirements and installation considerations before deployment.
It is helpful to be familiar with the following term when you are considering the features of the 100 Gbps
adapter for these connections.
Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)
RDMA is a networking standard that allows the adapters to transfer data directly to or from the
endpoints in a connection without using CPU resources on either of the endpoints. These transfers
occur simultaneously with other system operations and do not impact overall system performance.
When the system performs an I/O operation over an RDMA-based connection, data is sent directly to
the network, which reduces latency and increases the speed of data transfers.
Review the following elements when you are deciding to install the 100 Gbps adapters:
• The following adapters are available:
– 2-port 100 Gbps Ethernet adapter
– 2-port 100 Gbps InfiniBand adapter
• Each canister has a four-port 10 Gbps interface. Port 1 is used for management functions. There is an
additional port, the SSR service port - 1Gbps, which is used by the SSR to check hardware and set the
IP address. During production, the customer will use the high-speed network links (100Gb Ethernet or
100Gb InfiniBand) to serve the IBM Spectrum Scale cluster file system.
Planning for cables
Connections for Elastic Storage System 3000
Care must be taken to note the orientation of each server canister in Elastic Storage System 3000 so that
the interconnect cables are properly connected.
Elastic Storage System 3000 contains two server canisters. A label on ESS 3000 identifies each server
canister and power supply unit (PSU). As Figure 14 on page 36 shows, server canister 1 is on the top and
server canister 2 is on the bottom. Because the server canisters are inverted, the location of the ports and
the numbering of the ports are oriented differently on each server canister. It is important to remember
this orientation when you are installing adapters and cables.
Figure 14. Label showing the orientation of the server canisters and PSUs
For example, Figure 15 on page 36 shows the top server canister. On this canister, the numbering of the
PCIe slots and ports goes from right to left.
Figure 15. Orientation of ports on server canister 1
36 IBM Elastic Storage System 3000: Hardware Planning and Installation Guide