Computer Servers - What Are They, And How Are They Used?

Computer servers are powerful machines designed to service more user than smaller machines, such as PCs. Computer servers are used in enterprises and organizations for high data storage capacity. Regular computer servers are standard in size for the convenience of maintenance. You probably won't need such a unit unless you have ten stations in a single location and all their computer servers are in one room. It doesn't matter how fast your application, communications and computer servers are, if your manual servers are slow then the whole system will be slow. Permission must always be asked for in writing before any prohibited services such as computer servers are setup.

Servers

Servers enable many computers to access data that is stored in the network. They are available in different sizes and shapes. Servers typically have high performance processors and contain hardware and software capable of handling large amounts of data. A computer system may operate to act as a single server or may enable a number of servers to operate independently. Network servers are often use for storage of information, communication, and to provide access to communication networks, including the Internet. There are many servers such as listed here. " Web servers" provide web page services to connected computers. "File servers "provide file access and file storage services.

"Application servers" may provide business logic or application delivery services. "Generic application servers" can be used to provide many different types of services to your computers that access them. "Database servers" provides for the storage of databases and database management services.
"Network servers" may include one or more server processing cards coupled with a server chassis."

Thin servers" are particularly designed for ease of installation. They generally have very little expandability and are deployed without a keyboard or monitor. "Bladed servers" are comprehensive computing systems that include processors, memory, network connections and associated electronics, all on a single motherboard called a blade. "Rackmount servers" provide an effective way of storing a large number of servers, and thus storage capacity, in a relatively small space. They are typically mounted in vertical racks. "High density servers" designed to run critical applications requiring sufficient ventilation and cooling to ensure that the server maintains a high level of availability. These servers should also be secure from unintended and unauthorized access.

Software

Each server processing card may include software and hardware components that is necessary to perform. As follow: "Adware" Software throughout which advertisements are continually running while the software is in use. "Firewall" A systems software which prevents unauthorised access to or from a network. "Freeware" Software which can be used and distributed without paying royalties to the publisher. "Internet Watch" Software program which can be used to regulate when users can access the internet and which sites can be visited. "Key logging" Covert software program which records all keystrokes."Open Source" Software available freely on the internet. "Patches" A fix for a software program where modifications are required to correct a weakness identified in the source code.

"Interactive Voice Response" is a software application that accepts a combination of voice telephone input and touch-tone keypad selection and provides appropriate responses in the form of voice, fax and e-mail. "OEM licence" Original manufacturer licence, that is supplied to software which is pre-installed onto a computer by the reseller prior to delivery, uaually as a bundle. There is a fixed maintenance window being introduced to remove the unpredictability of service disruptions and to provide you with the ability to install required hardware, software, and security upgrades on a regular basis.

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Blades and the Unified Fabric

Converging your enterprise network(s) onto a single platform may seem like a no-brainer. After all, who wouldn't want to manage and maintain a single network rather than separate data, storage and even voice architectures?

But beyond the major question of which format to build on, there are a number of other aspects to take into consideration, such as what sort of server architecture will best fit into this unified environment.

Organizations backing blade servers have made no secret of their intention to promote their technology as the ideal solution. Besides their ability to aggregate network ports, the newest blade architectures will be equipped to handle all of the single-wire formats under consideration: 10 GbE, FCoE, iSCSI and Infiniband.

The Blade.org group, consisting of BLADE Network Technologies, Brocade, Emulex, IBM, Mellanox and other vendors, just released a white paper entitled "Blade Platforms and Network Convergence" highlighting all the benefits of convergence around the blade, including the scrapping of multiple adapters and switch ports and the ability to institute dynamic allocation of end-to-end resources.

Anything is better than the hodgepodge of hardware and software that currently makes up the data center, according to IDC's Richard Villars. He tells ServerWatch that the continued practice of adding servers wherever they happen to fit in the racks and then linking it all to storage somewhere else is unsustainable. There may be differences in the way vendors are building their unified platforms, but they should all provide significant improvements in network simplicity.

Cisco may be going one better by bringing in its own blade design. The company is rumored to be working on an Intel-based device code-named the "California Server" with plans to link it closely to the Nexus switch. The company has not commented on the story yet, but it would seem to make a lot of sense for Cisco to use its considerable resources to devise a blade to go with its network technology, even if it does cross swords with some of the company's major partners like HP and IBM.

Blades, of course, have the advantage of providing high-density environments in an industry that is usually cramped for space to begin with. But they by no means have a lock on that feature. Processor points out in a recent editorial that some of the new 1-inch chassis are starting to push back by incorporating multiple quad-core CPUs, RAM sockets and drive bays.

More than likely, though, blades and standard servers will play leapfrog for a considerable period as the unified network concept spreads out across the industry. But no matter which platform is adopted (and indeed, why not both?) the goal is to provide a flexible, virtual environment for users - two primary ingredients for the cloud.

Read Art's article, "SAN Convergence We Can Live With" - http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/atc/?p=541&nr=inbound

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1U Rackmount Server: Power and Ruggedness Explained

Before someone can understand the more complex portions of servers, one must understand its basics. Servers are essentially dedicated computers, so its architecture is always identical. However, the finer details of the aforementioned architecture and the components of the server are where each server will vary from one another. Some will have certain specifications, such as the 1U rackmount server.

The term "rackmount" refers to the fact that the server is designed to be permanently attached on a rack -- think a metal bookshelf, but designed for servers. For example, a blade server is generally mountable on a rack, and it holds what is known as a server blade. Blade servers are a type of chassis that usually houses many thin and modular circuit boards, which are the server blades. Blades are, for all intents and purposes, servers attached to a card that contain memory, processors, integrated network controllers and input/output ports.

People who are new to the world of rackmount servers may experience a bit of confusion, and the same is true with figuring out the standard height measurements in the industry. Specifically, the 1U part of the name specifies that the chassis that houses the server has a measurement of one Rack Unit Height. Some simple math can further break this down; remember Algebra class and consider the U as a variable that is defined as 1.75 inches. In other words, 1U means taking the 1.75 inches and multiplying it by one, so a 1U server is 1.75 inches tall. This type of simple math applies no matter the measurement; for example, a 2U is 3.5 inches tall, a 3U is 5.25 inches tall and a 4U is 7 inches tall.

Racks can also come in the form of Rackmount U measurements. However, this does not make things more complicated. In fact, this measurement can be left as U form, and only simple logic follows from this point. Rather than having to remember to multiply each of the server heights by a variable letter, one can keep in mind that a rack is only as tall as the amount of 1U servers it can house. For example, if a rack happens to be 20U high, then this simply means that the rack is capable of housing 20 1U servers onto it. Like the former measurement, this does not change with each measurement.

Simply remember that the U is merely a variable when the height in inches must be known, and calculating the height with this in mind becomes a very easy task.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information about 1u rackmount server, please visit http://www.germane.com

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Refurbished Servers HP: Selected Hardware Should Support Environmental and Usage Needs

Refurbished devices allow a business to purchase top rated hardware at a budget worthy price. Servers have become essential to businesses today due to both the data being handled and the various advanced technologies now available. The longstanding reputation of HP products has made them one of the top providers for high-end computing equipment. Smaller businesses have a hard time determining if a server is needed for their operations. This hardware is often confused with regular personal computers due to the hardware similarities. A server does have many of the same components as a typical computer but significant differences as well. Both contain memory, power supplies, cases, and central processing units. Advanced hardware components put these devices above PC's and make them a little harder to learn. PC's in most cases do not contain redundant components or hot swappable capabilities. Refurbished servers by HP allow a business to utilize advanced technology features without the big price tag of new equipment.

Used Servers: What Differences Exist Between Tower, Rack, and Blade Models?

Used servers come in three basic styles sometimes referred to as form factors. The form factor revolves around the standards and dimensions used to hold the computing hardware. Tower, blade, and rack designs may be chosen based on the particular needs of a business. Traditionally, tower models were the first type used among companies. It is this design that made the two confusing to both owners and those IT professionals working with them. Towers look much like a typical personal computer because they reside in an upright case and are a standalone machine. They work best in smaller data centers but their immense spacing requirements often prevent them from being used in larger network environments. These designs are also a little noisier than other forms. Cabling can be a real mess as well since it is spread out much like any other type of computer. A smaller business with five to twenty-five employees can benefit the most from tower designed used servers.

Racks hold a multitude of standardized servers which may be stacked vertically to save space. Additional uniform components can be acquired such as mountable switches to make this setup highly convenient. A 1U model is the standard meaning it only takes up one rack. 2U, 4U, and even 1/2U designs are also available for purchase. Smaller models work well for the typical business workload; however, larger designs can accommodate larger storage capabilities. Blade components cannot be interchanged between varying vendors as other designs. An HP blade server will experience large problems if combined with a Dell version or vice versa. Rack designs have the property of being self-contained whereas blade models do not have all the parts required to function in this same manner. Blade chassis designs vary among vendors and can include power and cooling units in addition to refurbished servers by HP. They hold numerous servers along with multiple support components not supplied within this data storage method. Every type has their advantages, making it essential for a business to be aware of what is available before making a buying decision.

Refurbished servers from HP may be purchased in vertically stacked or standalone designs. Used servers offer the same benefits but allow companies to utilize great hardware at a lower cost.

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Server Racks and Computer Server Rack Evolution

It has been interesting over the years to see how words morph so quickly in the computer IT arena. A good example has been how the term server rack evolved from the phrases enclosure cabinet, data cabinet and computer rack that was made to hold computer hardware on 19" EIA rack rails.

Most of these type enclosure cabinets were shallow from 20" to 25" deep and were basically the same for many years. Things began to change when deeper cabinets were needed as blade servers became more popular several years ago. Until blade servers entered the market, most servers were towers or 15-20" deep that could be rack mounted in 4U-8U space.

Many popular blade servers were designed to only take up 1U-4U of space. This created the opportunity to put a lot more servers in a computer rack. An interesting problem was created however when blade servers were put in such a small "U" space. The servers became much deeper, up to 42" deep in some cases, and also ran much hotter. Heat disperse was addressed by pulling air from the front of the server and blowing it out the back.

These deeper hot running servers no longer worked well in a conventional enclosure cabinet or computer rack and a new style computer rack was developed. This cabinet had to be deeper and allow for airflow from the front to rear to keep the servers from burning up. The industry term began to morph to server rack.

The rack rails of the server racks also changed from a long time standard of 10/32 tapped rack rails to a punched square hole that held an insert for a 6mm cage nut and screw. Dell, along with other manufactures, makes sliding rails that attach to the server rack with a special flange that fits into the square hole without the use rack screws.

Currently, racks are made in many versions. Some have a combination plexi door with special vents cut in the frame for the front door and a screen rear door. Other server rack versions have a locking screen door in front and a double screen door in the back to save space as it opens into an aisle.

Leslie Parker is Expert author in making articles for business, server rack, computer cabinets, server racks, wallmount portable rackmount cases, computer rack, PDUs, rackmount powerstrip, Digital Multimeters and Ecommorce etc. I have made many articles on Rackmount products too.

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Which Sun Servers Are Available in Refurbished Condition?

In 2009 the Oracle Corporation officially announced that it would be acquiring Sun Microsystems. Oracle hoped that it could capitalize on the company's successful line of units in order to offer the only integrated system on the market, one which combined industry leading software and critical computing systems. Following the acquisition, Oracle restructured and determined which Sun servers would continue to be developed and manufactured and which product lines to discontinue. Many servers, like the Sun SPARC systems, the Sun Blade systems, and the Sun x86 systems would continue to be produced. However, other Sun servers like the Sun Fire were discontinued.

Businesses that wish to add Sun Fire servers to their information technology (IT) environment must purchase these machines as previously owned, but even those brands that are still being produced can be purchased as pre-owned. The used server price for brands like Sun SPARC, Sun Blade, and Sun x86 is less than half the price of a new machine. This makes it advantageous for businesses to purchase new machines, as the cost savings can be invested back into the machine to improve its performance. In addition to the low used server price, another thing that makes used servers a good investment is the fact that they can be configured to the buyer's needs. Many vendors offer to pre-install the necessary software after the device is professionally cleaned. This makes it easier to integrate a newly purchased machine into the company's IT environment.

Once a company has determined that it wants to purchased used servers, it must determine which product best fits organizational needs. Here are a few Sun servers that can be purchased as previously owned:

Sun Blade

These computer systems were introduced in 2006 to serve as Sun's blade server product. The first product in this line was the Sun Blade 8000 Chassis, which was capable of holding up to 10 blades. The next year, Sun released the Sun Blade 6000 Chassis, which enabled owners to integrate both SunSPARC and Sun x64 architecture blades.

SPARC Enterprise

Introduced in 2007, this line of Sun servers is a range of UNIX computers that are based on the SPARC9 architecture. What sets these units apart from other models is that they can be electronically partitioned by using dynamic reconfiguration and domains. Previously owned SPARC enterprise devices have a low used server price, which makes it easy for companies with minimal resources to acquire partitioned models.

Sun Fire

These models were originally introduced in 2001 and they were produced until 2003 with the UltraSPARC III processor. These Sun servers were later released with Intel Xeon, AMD Opteron, or UltraSPARC IV dual-core processors, but in 2012 the line was officially discontinued. In essence, the used server price for a Sun Fire device is the only price.

While a previously purchased unit is inexpensive and reliable with the right warranty, customers will find that a refurbished model is more reliable. A refurbished Sun Blade, SPARC Enterprise server, or Sun Fire server that has been properly evaluated, and repaired is better protected from future problems thanks to the presence of a warranty.

Organizations that offer Sun servers in a refurbished condition will still offer these devices at a lower used server price.

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What Kind of Server Should You Pick?

When considering what to do with your businesses IT, it is important to consider your hosting and whether or not your hosting will be outsourced or done internally. Should you decide on the latter, doing your own hosting, it's hugely important to consider what kind of servers you are going to be using. The wrong type of server can hinder growth and affect your bottom line adversely and as a result it's best to do your homework. It's generally accepted that there are three types of servers:

Rack servers
These are built for space saving and are generally racked in a vertical fashion in a shelf or server cabinet. This method saves space and allows you to organize your wiring far more efficiently.

Tower Servers
These are enormous, upright servers and contain everything you could need. They are generally self cooled and contain motherboards, hard disks and CPU's. They take up a massive amount of space and are generally not worth considering unless you have a very large enterprise.

Bladed Servers
These are the smallest servers of the lot and are generally cooled by external coolers. A large amount of the necessary components have been removed from these servers and it is best to have a sysadmin who knows what he is doing before considering this as an option.

On the whole, rack servers offer the most value and economy of space, it must be noted however that this is entirely dependent on the size of your business and its processing requirements. Good luck!

Travis also works for Toughrack, a company specialising in the production and retail of Server racks

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Servers - Racks, Blades and Towers

Unlike tower servers, offices that use rack servers which traditionally come in 1U, 2U, 3U, 4U or 6U are installed in racks. The numbers that give names to the rack mounted servers precisely indicate the number of Us they occupy in the racks. The 1U server occupy a single 1U bay, the 2U occupy two and the 4U occupy four, while a rack of standard size has up to 42U:

The servers in 1U format are preferred by companies for use in hosting and data, because they are very compact (only 4.4 cm high), which lets you install a large number of servers per rack. The main limitations of this format is the limitations with regard to ventilation (due to the small inner space), impeding the use of processors with high energy consumption and the need to use coolers and special fans, which all run at an extra cost. Besides the basic components, spare space in general to install 2 or 4 hard drives of 3.5 "(according to the provision of other components) and a single expansion card, installed horizontally, with the help of a Riser.

Then there are the 2U servers. They use "normal" power sources and coolers and therefore end up being a little cheaper. The bigger internal space makes the format more suitable for 2U servers with two or more processors, or processors that use high consumption. The height is not enough to install expansion cards upright, as in tower servers, but you can use a Riser (as in the case of 1U), or use half-height cards (the lower plates, which have half the height of normal plates).

Finally, we have the biggest servers, which use 3U or 4U. There are 6U servers, but they are rare: this format is typically used by the disk arrays and chassis for blade servers (see the topic below). Using a 3U server or larger completely eliminates the problems with space, allowing the expansion cards to be fit in vertically and a large number of removable hard drives installed in bays, but causes the server to occupy more space in the rack, which increases the cost to the host of the datacenter, where you would pay an extra fee per pen used.

Another format that is becoming increasingly popular are the blade servers (blade comes from the word "blade", indicating the small format), an ingenious idea to further increase the density of servers and allow the sharing of common components in the datacenter, as power supplies and optical disks.

The idea is that instead of having 10 1U servers, with 10 sources (or 20, if sources were used redundant), 20 network cables (each server typically uses two cables, one for the network and another for management or redundancy), as well as power cables, cables used by KVM and so on, you can use a single Chassis, with an equivalent number of blade servers.

Each blade is a complete server with its independent processor, memory, network card and disks. Its small size, the blade servers typically use low-power processors and hard drives of 2.5". At the beginning, it was the common use of processors from Transmeta and VIA, but they ended up being almost completely replaced by Intel & AMD multiple cores processors which are much faster, but still relatively economics. In the case of hard drives, the disks of 2.5 "are favorites for providing lower access times (but lose with respect to transfer rate), in addition to electric consumption.

Thought not all blade system are created equally. Therefore if you are planning to jump into the blade campaign you should find the best fit blade system for your case. Check out the below comparisons which will help you compare between them:

HP Blade system vs IBM Blade System

HP Blade System vs Dell Blade System

by Julie Cole, a member of ITComparison.com Hardware team & write for the Virtualization Team Blog

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The Benefits High-Density Blade Servers

Scalable-- The TYAN Yellow River series is an ultra high density twin server platform. Our 1U and 2U chassis accommodate side-by-side dual processor server motherboards, with two independent server blades in a single chassis for up to 84 independent server nodes in a 42U rack. Yellow River offers unbeatable scalability with up to two 12-core CPUs per node, or four CPUs per 1U, and up to 168 processors (or up to 2,016 CPU cores) in a 42U rack.

Space Effective -- The Yellow River solution provides 100% greater node density than standard 1U servers, making it exceptionally space efficient. The density of this blade design gives far more processing power per U than other server architectures without the increased cost associated with other blade server solutions.

Modular -- TYAN designed Yellow River to be a truly modular server solution. Each chassis houses two server blades, each of which is easily removable. Moreover, the PSU and hard drives for each node are removable as well, facilitating server maintenance with quick, easy access to all the key components. Each node has its own power supply, which means nodes can be individually maintained without interrupting the adjacent node. This modular design offers the highest level of reliability, serviceability and convenience, making it perfectly suited for large data centers.

Manageable -- Built-in IPMI 2.0 means you'll spend less time managing.

Efficient - The Yellow River platform boasts impressive power savings. TYAN offers both AMD and Intel based Yellow River platforms. The optional S8228 motherboard equipped with six- or four-core AMD Opteron™ 4100 series processors (Socket C32, processor code named "Lisbon") is optimized for best-in-class power efficiency. At as little as 5.8W per core, the Opteron 4100 is acclaimed as the industry's most power efficient server CPU. A full rack of six-core Opteron 4100 series processors will yield considerable power savings. The YR290-B7018-D2 supported six-core Intel Xeon® 5600/5500 series processors (Socket 1366, processor code named "Westmere") is featured with high performance in less rack space which help users reduce the total cost of ownership.

Flexible -- With five different slim form factor motherboards, two different chassis and two different power supplies to choose from, the Yellow River platform is uniquely flexible and can be easily adapted to meet your requirements. This blade platform is perfect for web servers, search engine servers, data centers (IPDC), and clustered HPC applications.

Efficient - The Yellow River platform boasts impressive power savings. TYAN offers both AMD and Intel based Yellow River platforms. The optional S8228 motherboard equipped with six- or four-core AMD Opteron™ 4100 series processors (Socket C32, processor code named "Lisbon") is optimized for best-in-class power efficiency. At as little as 5.8W per core, the Opteron 4100 is acclaimed as the industry's most power efficient server CPU. A full rack of six-core Opteron 4100 series processors will yield considerable power savings. The YR290-B7018-D2 supported six-core Intel Xeon® 5600/5500 series processors (Socket 1366, processor code named "Westmere") is featured with high performance in less rack space which help users reduce the total cost of ownership.

Fast Throughput -- Incorporating technologies like DDR3, PCI-E 2.0, HT3, and multiple built-in gigabit LAN ports, our Yellow River server boards offer the newest high performance interfaces. Some motherboard models also feature optional on-board SAS and QDR infiniband.

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Monitoring Temperature And Humidity Inside The Server Rack

The increased utilization of blade servers has caused the control of heat and humidity in the server racks to become much more critical than previously. These units increase the density of the equipment in each rack and therefore the heat generated. Alarms are necessary at the rack level because a single server overheating will not raise the ambient room temperature enough to set off the room alarm sensors. These rack alarms can provide early problem warning and prevent server damage and the associated network problems in a timely fashion.

These alarms can be at the rack, or by email, or by SNMP traps, or by all three methods depending on the system. There are several different types of sensor systems from several different manufacturers, available at present. One of them is a compact environmental monitor with one onboard temperature sensor and in addition the ability to support up to 16 remote sensors. The system is very small so you don't have to change your system. If you receive a problem alert, you are able to identify the rack and power strip having the trouble, and turn off the individual outlet or reboot it.

Another power management and control system available is able to track temperature, humidity, airflow, and water at various locations from 15 to 100 feet away. This system needs only limited rack space and can control individual power receptacles. Another system on the market utilizes two sensor probes in each rack, one in front, one in back, to better measure the environment in the rack. This gives you a thermographic view of the temperature range in the rack and can be displayed in color for all the different racks in the computer center. This information can be used to determine the size and location of any additional A.C. or fans or blowers needed to correct a cooling system. It can also assist in the rearrangement, if necessary, of the rack layout and separation of a cold aisle/hot aisle system or any rack system, or when additional racks are added to a functioning system.

The control of heat generation and temperature in the data center continues to be one of the most critical areas. The monitoring of the environment has gone from the room, to the zone, to inside the individual server rack to give a much more precise picture of what is happening and allow better response to emergency conditions.

Server Racks and Cable Inc. http://www.serverracksandcable.com provides server rack solutions to Fortune 500 companies, governments, and military agencies.

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