IBM eServer zSeries 900 Technical Guide

18 IBM eServer zSeries 900 Technical Guide

2.1 Design highlights

The z900 design is a result of the continuous evolution of the S/390 CMOS since the early

9672 servers were introduced, in 1994. This robust design has been continuously improved,

adding even more capacity, performance, functionality, and connectivity. The z900 servers are

the first servers that implement the z/Architecture.

The main objectives of the z900 system design, which are covered in this chapter and in the

following ones, are:

򐂰 To offer a

flexible infrastructure to concurrently accommodate a wide range of operating

systems and applications, from the traditional S/390 and zSeries systems to the new world

of Linux and e-business.

򐂰 To have state-of-the-art

integration capability for server consolidation, offering

virtualization techniques such as:

– Logical partitioning, which allows up to 15 logical servers

– z/VM, which can virtualize hundreds of servers as Virtual Machines

– HiperSockets, which implements virtual LANs between logical and/or virtual servers

within a z900 server

This allows logical and virtual server coexistence and maximizes the system utilization by

sharing hardware resources.

򐂰 To have

high performance to achieve the outstanding response times required by

e-business applications, based on z900 processor technology, architecture, and high

bandwidth channels, which offer high data rate connectivity.

򐂰 To offer the

high capacity and scalability required by the most demanding applications,

both from single system and from clustered systems points of view.

򐂰 To have the capability of

concurrent upgrades for processors, memory, and I/O

connectivity, avoiding server outages even in such planned situations.

򐂰 To implement a system with

high availability and reliability, from the redundancy of

critical elements and sparing components of a single system, to the clustering technology

of the Parallel Sysplex environment.

򐂰 To have a broad

connectivity offering, supporting open standards such as Gigabit

Ethernet (GbE) and Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) for Small Computer System Interface

(SCSI).

򐂰 To provide the highest level of

security, offering two standard Cryptographic Coprocessors

and optional PCI Cryptographic Coprocessors and Accelerators for Secure Sockets Layer

(SSL) transactions of e-business applications.

򐂰 To be

self-managing, adjusting itself on workload changes to achieve the best system

throughput, through the Intelligent Resource Director and the Workload Manager

functions.

򐂰 To have a

balanced system design, providing large data rate bandwidths for high

performance connectivity along with processor and system capacity.