Apple XSERVE Xserve G5 manual

Xser v e G5 T echnology Over view Januar y 2004[...]

Co nt e nt s Page 3 Introduction Page 4 Product Overview Key F eatures Rack-Optimized Ser ver Design High-Density Cluster Node Configuration Page 7 P er formance Overview Proce ssor P er formance Networking Throughput Page 1 1 P owerPC G5 P rocessor Apple and IBM P artnership 64-Bit Computing P ower Next-Generation Pow erPC Architecture Page 1 3 Hi[...]

In troduction In May 2002, Apple introduced Xserve , a high-densit y , 1U rackmount ser ver that was applauded for its v alue and versatility . In 2003, we built on that success with per formance enhancements , more storage, and flexible build-to-order options . Now in its third generation, this highly acclaimed ser ver gets a huge burst of power f[...]

P roduct O ver view Key F eatures Xserve G5 combines 64-bit processors, a high-bandwidth system architecture, and massive storage with Apple ’ s legendar y ease of use. The following f eatures make Xserve a robust, versatile server solution for businesses and institutions everywhere. Single or dual 2GHz processors . Each 64-bit Pow erPC G5 proces[...]

Rack-Optimized Ser ver Design With enormous processing power and ample st orage in a compact 1U-high, 1 9-inch- wide enclosure, Xser ve G5 is designed from the ground up for performance, service- ability , and easy integration into a wide range of computing en vironments. All the necessary rack mounting hardware is in the bo x, including rack rails[...]

6 T echnology O verview Xserve G5 Most innova tive HPC hardware HPCwire, a leading journal of High P er formance Computing , gave Apple its Editors Choice award f or the hardware vendor delivering the most innov ative overall HPC technology in 2003 . Xserve G5 Cluster An Xserve G5 cluster uses a dedicated server system as the head node, which can m[...]

P er f ormance Over view Apple ’ s new Xser ve G5 is designed to deliver phenomenal performance with industr y- leading ease of use. Thanks to 64-bit processing pow er , server-optimized I/O, and a high-throughput storage architecture , Xser ve G5 is optimized for demanding server and cluster operations. Apple compared preproduction Xserve G5 uni[...]

T wo double-precision floating-point units enable the dual 2GHz Xserve G5 to perform the linear equations 8 percent faster than the 3 .2GHz Xeon-based servers and 50 percent faster than the 2GHz Opteron-based server . BLAST T o demonstrate the advantages of Xserve G5 for processor-int ensive scientific analysis, Apple used Basic Local Alignmen t Se[...]

HMMer 2.3.3 HMMer is another application that demonstrates the advantage s of Xser ve G5 with V elocity Engine for processor-intensive scien tific analysis. HMMer is a genome sequence–matching application that uses Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to identify similarities in genetic structures. The core routine s of HMMer repeatedly per form the same [...]

W ebBench F or fast network throughput, Xserve G5 features dual onboard Gigabit Ethernet con- trollers, as well as optimiz ed network drivers and a high-performance BSD network stack in Mac OS X Ser ver . Apple used WebBench from e T esting Labs to demonstrate the superior web server per formance of Xserve G5 based on the number of connec- tions ea[...]

P ow erPC G5 P roc essor The breakthrough performance of the 64-bit P owerPC G5 is now av ailable to Apple server customers. With 6 4-bit-wide data paths and registers , this revolutionar y pro- cessor can address v ast amounts of main memory , while handling multiple 6 4-bit integer and double-precision floating-poin t math calculations in a singl[...]

V ast amounts of addressable memory The move t o 64-bit processing results in a similarly dramatic leap in the amount of memory suppor ted. A memory address is a special kind of integer , and each address points to one byte in memory . Since memory addresses are computed in 64-bit regis- ters capable of expressing 1 8 billion billion in tegers, the[...]

High-Bandwidth Ser ver Archit ec ture The P owerPC G5 is only part of the Xser ve performance stor y . Xserve G5 features the industry ’ s fastest fron tside bus to keep data moving in and out of the processor , and a superefficient point-t o-point system controller allows data t o move directly between all subsystems. Bandwidth is further enhanc[...]

Gigaher tz F rontside Bus T o harness the power of the G5 processor , a 6 4-bit Double Data Rate (DDR) frontside bus speeds up communication between the P owerPC G5 and the memor y controller . Unlike conventional pr ocessor interfaces, which carr y data in only one direction at a time, this dual-channel frontside bus has tw o 3 2-bit point-to-poin[...]

Support for up to 8GB of RAM Xserve G5 comes standard with 5 1 2MB or 1GB of DDR SDRAM. Main memory is scalable up to 8GB in eight DIMM slots, allowing you t o increase memor y as application and networking requirements increase . More main memor y enables the system to run strenuous processes simultaneously and t o accommodate spikes in demand. En[...]

Dual Gigabit Ethernet ports deliver near-line-rate throughput of up to 980Mb/s per port, alleviating bottlenecks ev en with very large files and expediting mail, web, file , and printer sharing services. T ogether with the multihoming func tion in Mac OS X Ser ver , dual netw ork ports enable Xser ve G5 to ser ve more clien t systems; provide redun[...]

Aff or dable , Scalable Stor age Exponential growth in the creation and distribution of digital con tent is driving the need for high-capacity storage in business and education. Large databases , digital video footage , immense scientific data sets, and uncompressed audio all place enormous demands on server storage resources. Xserve G5 addresses t[...]

Apple tested the scalability of Xserve G5 storage using Bonnie++, an open source benchmark that measures drive throughput. This test shows that both read performance and write performance improve as drives ar e added to the system. Hot-plug Apple Drive Modules The three Xserve drive bays 4 provide affordable storage expansion using 80GB or 250GB SA[...]

Software and Hardware RAID Options Affordable and easy-t o-install drive modules make it simple to expand Xserve systems to meet growing storage needs o ver time. F or even greater storage capacity or to share storage among multiple servers, high-throughput PCI-X slots enable users to connect to external rack mount stor age and backup systems , inc[...]

Integ rated Hard ware Monitoring Xserve G5 includes built-in remote monitoring capabilities that enable network administrators to stay in touch with their Xserve systems from an ywhere on the network or over the In ternet. Xser ve monitoring tools run o ver T CP/IP using robust password authen tication to protect management data and server deployme[...]

Ser ver Monitor pro vides instant access to status and performance details, including these individual server attributes, subsystems, and system variables: • Info . Lists key attributes of the server : name, IP address, device kind, operating system version, processor type, amount of memory , firmware version, uptime, last monitoring update, and [...]

Mac OS X Ser ver V ersion 1 0.3 Xserve G5 ships with Mac OS X S erver version 1 0.3, the fourth major release of Apple’ s award-winning server operating system. Mac OS X Ser ver provides open source , standards-based workgroup and In ternet ser vices without the complexity inherent in Linux and other UNIX-based solutions. Hardware and software wo[...]

Built on open standards, Mac OS X Ser ver is compatible with existing network and computing infrastructures. Samba 3, the new version of the popular open source SMB/CIFS server , provides reliable file and prin ter sharing for Windows clients , as well as support for NT Domain ser vices. The built-in directory ser vices architecture is based on LDA[...]

Ser vice , Suppor t, and T raining Options Every Xser ve G5 comes with a one-year limit ed warranty and 90 days of up-and-running telephone support. In addition, the AppleCare websit e publishes in-depth product infor- mation, training on hardware and software installation and configuration, and technical resources , including the AppleCare Knowled[...]

Mac OS X Ser ver Software Suppor t Apple also offers support programs for Mac OS X Server that ex tend beyond the up- and-running support provided by the AppleCare Premium Service and Suppor t Plan. Apple technical support exper ts can provide consultative phone and email support for Mac OS X Ser ver integration and migration issues , as well as he[...]

P urchasing Inf orma tion Standard Configurations Xserve G5 is available in three standard configurations to meet the needs of server and cluster deployments in education and busine ss. Cluster node Single-processor server Dual processor server Order number M92 1 5LL/A M92 1 6LL/A M92 1 7LL/A Proce ssor Dual 2GHz P owerPC G5 2GHz PowerPC G5 Dual 2G[...]

Related P roducts • Xserve RAID , available in 1TB , 1 .7 5TB , and 3.5TB configurations 1 • A ppleCare Premium Service and Suppor t Plan • A ppleCare Ser vice Parts Kit • Mac OS X Server Maintenance Program • T hird-part y products, including racks, switches, and UPS devices F or up-to-date information on these and other products that en[...]

T echnical Specifications Hardware Pr ocessor • Single or dual 2GHz P owerPC G5 processors • P owerPC processor architecture with 64-bit data paths and registers • Nativ e suppor t for 3 2-bit application code • 5 1 2K on-chip L2 cache running at processor speed • P arallel execution architecture supporting up to 2 1 5 simultaneous in-fli[...]

Storage • T hree internal drive ba ys on independent 1 50MB/s SA T A channels (server configura- tions); or one internal drive bay on 1 50MB/s SA T A channel (cluster node configuration) • One ba y filled with 80GB 72 00-rpm SA T A Apple Drive Module; empty drive bays on server configurations contain blank modules • U p to 7 50GB of internal [...]

Software Mac OS X Server • Unlimit ed-client edition (server configurations); or 1 0-client edition (cluster node configuration) Included services • F ile and printer sharing: Macintosh (AFP , Apple T alk P AP), Windows (SMB/CIFS), UNIX and Linux (NFS, LPR/LPD), Internet (FTP , WebDA V ) • Dir ector y ser vices: Open Director y 2 (OpenLDAP , [...]