IBM Bladecenter Products and Technology Note: Using PCI Express Adapters That Require More Than 25W Requires Special Testing and Support to Be Completed

Figure 3-62 PCI I/O Expansion Unit II (PEU2)

There are no PCI-X or PCI Express sockets on the PEU2 suitable for BladeCenter expansion cards such as the StFF, CFFh, or CFFv expansion cards.

Figure 3-63 shows the internal circuitry of the PEU2.

Figure 3-63 PCI I/O Expansion Unit II internals

3.18.5 PCI Express I/O Expansion Unit (PEU3e)

The PCI Express I/O Expansion Unit (PEU3e), part number 43W4391, attaches to supported blade servers via a connector on the server motherboard. The PEU3e has two standard full-length PCI Express slots that support the attachment of 2 full sized, 25W PCI Express adapters. These two slots are PCI Express x16 slots mechanically, however they can only operate at speeds up to x8. The PEU3e provides two power connectors that can be used to provide 12V, via a cable, to PCI Express adapters that have external power connectors.

368 IBM BladeCenter Products and Technology Note: Using PCI Express adapters that require more than 25W requires special testing and support to be completed. The cable or cables used to connect to the 12 volt connectors on the PEU3e are only available if this testing is completed successfully. Contact your IBM representative to engage the SPORE process.

Only one PEU3e can be attached to the blade server. When a PEU3e is added to a blade server along with the Storage I/O Expansion (SIO), only slot 1 of the PEU3e will be functional. See 3.18, “Expansion blades” on page 358, for a discussion of all expansion units and the supported combinations for each blade server type. Table 3-92 on page 358 lists the blade servers that support the attachment of the PEU3e.

For the list of PCI Express adapters that are supported in the two full-length slots of the PEU3e, see ServerProven at: http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/peu/43W4391.html

Figure 3-64 PCI Express I/O Expansion Unit (PEU3e)

There are no PCI-X or PCI Express sockets on the PEU3e that are suitable for BladeCenter expansion cards such as the StFF, CFFh, or CFFv expansion cards. Therefore, if the PEU3e is attached to a blade server, then it is not possible to also install a CFFh I/O adapter.

Figure 3-65 on page 370 shows the internal circuitry of the PEU3e.

Chapter 3. Blade server hardware configuration 369 The Management Module does not support concurrent KVM or concurrent media, only the Advanced Management Module. The cKVM card works in any chassis that has an Advanced Management Module installed. The maximum number of supported concurrent KVM sessions per chassis is 20. The maximum number of concurrent KVM sessions to the one blade is 4. At least one Ethernet switch module installed in bay 1 or 2 is required to use cKVM functions. Pass-thru modules cannot be used. See RETAIN tip H19786: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1MIGR-5070957 Not all blade servers support the cKVM card. See Table 1-3 on page 5 for compatibility.

3.18 Expansion blades

There are four expansion blades currently available that add functions to existing blade servers. These expansion blades attach to the server blade and double the width of the overall server. In some configurations, two expansion blades can be attached to a single blade server.

Table 3-92 lists the available expansion blades and the servers that support them.

Table 3-92 Currently available expansion blades and supported server blades

Expansion unit HS12 — 8028 HS12 — 8014 HS20 — 8843 HS21 — 8853 7995 — HS21 XM 7971 LS21 — 7901 LS22 — LS41— 7972 7902 LS42 — HC107996 — JS127998-60x — JS208842 — JS218844 — JS227998-61x — 0792QS21 — 0793QS22 — PN41 — 3020 Page

Memory and I/O Expansion NNNYNN NN NNNNNNNNN361 Unit (MIO), 42C1600

Storage and I/O (SIO) Y YNY Y YNY NNNNNNNNN363 Expansion Unit, 39R7563

PCI Expansion Unit II NNY Y YNa YNa YNNNNNNNN367 (PEU2), 25K8373

PCI Express I/O Expansion YNNY Y Y Y Y YNNNNNY YN368 Unit (PEU3e), 43W4391 a. The PEU2 is only supported on the LS21 and LS41 with custom testing using the SPORE process.

As you can see in Table 3-92, some blades such as the HS21 type 8853 and HS21 XM type 7995 support more than one expansion blade. There are configuration requirements related to connecting multiple expansion blades: For HS21 type 8853, you can only attach two expansion blades to the server blade. Attaching three is not supported. The following configurations are supported. Note that the sequence is important (for example, the MIO must be directly attached to the HS21). – HS21 - MIO - PEU2 – HS21 - MIO - PEU3e – HS21 - MIO - SIO1

1 In this configuration, the PCI-X connectors on the SIO will not function.

358 IBM BladeCenter Products and Technology