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Mission-Critical IA Server
2005-10 (Vol.41, No.3)
This special issue introduces Fujitsu's mission-critical IA server PRIMEQUEST—a server that was independently developed by Fujitsu and highlights our company's skill as a manufacturer.<<Product Information>>
2005-10 (Vol.41, No.3) Contents
- 1. Preface (23 KB)
- PRIMEQUEST incorporates a broad range of technological innovations that are based on the new Dual Synchronous System Architecture, for example, a proprietary chipset that uses our state-of-the-art 90 nm semiconductor technology, the System Mirror function, and the Flexible I/O. Thanks to these innovations, PRIMEQUEST achieves an excellent balance between the stability and reliability of mainframes and the flexibility and economy of open servers. ---[Akira Yamanaka, Corporate Vice President]
Mission-Critical IA Server "PRIMEQUEST"
- 2. Value Proposition of Newly Developed Mission-Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST (80 KB)
- As today's broadband Internet society continues to evolve, market expectations for server platforms have changed. Aside from typical requirements for high reliability and high performance, customers also expect reductions in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and maximized Return On Investment (ROI). These end-customer benefits can be achieved through 24/7 non-stop operation, shorter recovery times, flexible system integration, improved efficiency by using open architecture products (including middleware and application software), easy migration, and improved maintainability and operability. Given its vast experience and know-how acquired over many years of developing mainframe and UNIX systems based on Linux/Windows and open-standard IA technology, Fujitsu (in conjunction with major global players) stands in the forefront of developing mission-critical IA servers capable of meeting market expectations. This paper describes the value propositions of the newly developed PRIMEQUEST mission-critical IA server, its features, technologies, and target markets. ---[Akiyoshi Kurokawa, Yoshifumi Ogi]
High-Reliability Hardware Technology
- 3. High-Reliability Technology of Mission-Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST (1.64 MB )
- The mission-critical IA server PRIMEQUEST has various Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) functions — from the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and unit levels up to the system level. These RAS functions provide the high reliability and high availability required for mission-critical operations on these servers. This paper gives an overview of PRIMEQUEST. It then discusses the scalability and the speed-enhancement, high-reliability, and high-availability technologies of PRIMEQUEST, focusing on the high-reliability technology implemented in the system hierarchies. ---[Ohsai Hamada]
- 4. Fujitsu's Chipset Development for High-Performance, High-Reliability Mission-Critical IA Servers PRIMEQUEST (246 KB)
- Fujitsu has developed a new mission-critical IA server in close collaboration with Intel Corp. The new server, PRIMEQUEST, uses Intel's latest high-performance, high-reliability Itanium 2 processor. PRIMEQUEST offers linear scalability from a single CPU to 32 CPUs (64 CPUs in the second generation) and represents a highly reliable technology equivalent to that of a mainframe. We have also developed six new chipsets using our cutting-edge CS101 ASIC technology and employed new technologies such as a high-speed interconnection between chipsets, address and system mirroring (including mirroring of ASIC internal blocks), and a new standard high-speed I/O interface called PCI-Express. This paper gives an overview of the new chipsets. ---[Yasuhide Shibata]
- 5. Highly Reliable System Mirror Function of Mission-Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST (36 KB)
- The System Mirror function is an option for the PRIMEQUEST mission-critical IA servers, which duplicates their hardware and operates it in clock synchronization. When this function is used and a hardware failure occurs on one of the duplicate sides, this function continues processing on the other side and therefore, considerably enhances system availability without the need for software intervention. Because this function is implemented solely through the server's hardware, commercial software can be executed with high reliability without modification. This paper gives an overview of the System Mirror function and discusses the benefits it provides. ---[Ohsai Hamada]
- 6. Flexible I/O Improves Flexibility and Reliability of Mission-Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST (50 KB)
- The PRIMEQUEST mission-critical IA servers consist of a system board, which mounts the CPU and memory, and an I/O unit (IOU), which mounts I/O-related blocks such as hard disk drives and PCI slots. The system boards and IOUs are physically separate from each other and are interconnected by a crossbar. This feature is referred to as the Flexible I/O because it enables partitions to be configured from system boards and IOUs in any combination. This paper gives an overview of the Flexible I/O and discusses some of the benefits it provides. ---[Ohsai Hamada]
- 7. Operation Management of Mission-Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST for TCO Reduction (43 KB)
- System operation management functions are essential for stable operation of server systems. However, server system operation management is extremely expensive at the moment. The PRIMEQUEST series of mission-critical IA servers uses a server management unit called the Management Board (MMB) mounted in the server cabinet to implement the operation management functions and enables all server management operations to be centrally controlled using the MMB's Web-UI function. In addition, the general-purpose LAN connected in the cabinet eliminates the need to change the LAN cable connections during system installation and configuration changes. These features therefore significantly reduce the cost of server management. This paper describes the various functions and characteristics of operation management that support stable operation of PRIMEQUEST. ---[Tetsuo Chimoto]
Operating System and Cluster Technology
- 8. Trend toward Open Systems and Fujitsu's Related Activities (54 KB)
- In April 2005, Fujitsu unveiled its new PRIMEQUEST IA servers. These servers are best-fit solutions for mission-critical applications, with complete openness as a most important characteristic. This paper first examines the history of open systems, and then details the benefits offered to users and the growing popularity of open source software, particularly Linux. The paper then describes the hardware, OS, and middleware of the PRIMEQUEST series from the standpoint of open systems, and finally explains why Fujitsu is so pro-active in the open-systems arena and development of open source software. ---[Takashi Kunai]
- 9. Rapidly Growing Linux OS: Features and Reliability (42 KB)
- Linux has been making rapid strides through mailing lists of volunteers working in the Linux communities. These volunteers help develop source code, provide usage results, report information about problems in the communities, and quickly provide required bug fixes. The latest kernel version (version 2.6) reflects many improvements that have been made to Linux, primarily in memory management and process scheduler functions. Consequently, Linux has become a much more advanced OS. This paper describes the following four features being developed by Fujitsu in conjunction with the Linux communities for mission-critical systems: 1) diskdump for reliably collecting dumps at kernel crashes and hang-ups; 2) an enhanced machine check architecture (MCA) for minimizing the effects of hardware failures and recovering from failures with a machine check facility; 3) udev: a persistent device naming feature that ensures a device name before and after maintenance or expansion; and 4) hot-plug for performing hot system maintenance of the CPU, memory, and I/O bus and expanding the system space. ---[Norio Kurobane]
- 10. Fujitsu's Windows Strategy for Next-Generation Mission-Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST (44 KB)
- The family of PRIMEQUEST servers offers ultimate platforms for hosting advanced Windows applications. Class-leading performance and scalability, unmatched reliability, and superior flexibility are all key attributes. It is also evident that there is a clear market separation between Linux and Windows. PRIMEQUEST is an ideal platform for a range of customer circumstances. The features of PRIMEQUEST servers, coupled with the Windows operating system provide an easy platform to manage server environments and offer robust performance and scalability. Fujitsu understands that its customers have specific requirements and existing resource regimes in place. With this in mind and dependent on the circumstances, Fujitsu will provide PRIMEQUEST and promote its use with both Linux and Windows. In conjunction with Fujitsu's alliance with Microsoft and in combination with the Windows Server family of products, Fujitsu will be able to provide a vast range of solutions covering a variety of customer circumstances. Fujitsu will support robust and demanding databases, server consolidation requirements, and demanding computational and Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) workloads with PRIMEQUEST and the Windows family. Fujitsu's PRIMEQUEST and the Microsoft Server family will allow Fujitsu to lower the overall cost to its customers and provide much easier management while reaching the enterprise-class performance that is demanded. ---[Chiseki Sagawa, Matthew Burns]
- 11. Integration of PRIMECLUSTER and Mission-Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST (54 KB)
- Information Technology (IT) systems for today's ubiquitous computing age must be able to flexibly accommodate large-scale changes in workload as well as 24/7 continuous operation. PRIMEQUEST is a mission-critical IA server developed with the key concepts of "open," "mission-critical," and "global." PRIMECLUSTER is a foundation software designed to maximize continuous operation time by increasing system availability via a redundant server, storage, and network configuration. We have combined PRIMECLUSTER with our advanced middleware, servers, and storage to further strengthen our competitiveness in this field. The fusion of PRIMEQUEST, PRIMECLUSTER, and our vast experience in high-reliability technology for UNIX servers has enabled Fujitsu to provide the highest reliability and maximum continuous operation time in open cluster systems. This paper describes how maximum availability is achieved through the integration of PRIMEQUEST and PRIMECLUSTER. ---[Masaru Sakai]
Support
- 12. Supporting the Next Generation of Mission-Critical Systems (150 KB)
- The changing cycles of IT system deployment require a review of ideas and a renewal of methodologies for support and service delivery. The previous swing to distributed, open-systems computing of the last 20 years has reversed, and a new generation of systems consolidation has begun. The ubiquitous growth of the Internet and increasing costs of server management have led customers to consider replacing their many small, dispersed servers with new, larger, and more flexible centralized mainframe-like systems. Distributed systems now restrict efficient growth and business agility because of their excessive management costs, duplication of resources, and fragmented use of applications. The Internet has shown it is no longer necessary to put processing power physically close to the end user. Today's systems must still meet local requirements, but to remain competitive, businesses must aspire to a more common consolidated goal of best business practice. Fujitsu has revised its service and support structure to improve support for the enterprise-class, open-system, mission-critical server PRIMEQUEST. This improvement minimizes the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) through new, open-systems-based consolidation strategies and world-best application deployment. ---[Yukio Ishizaki]
Regular Paper
- 13. Business Expansion of Palm Vein Pattern Authentication Technology (112 KB)
- Fujitsu has developed a contactless palm vein pattern authentication technology that uses vascular patterns as personal identification data. This technology is very secure because the authentication data exists inside the body and is therefore difficult to steal. It is also very accurate — in a test using 140 000 palm profiles of 70 000 persons, it had a false acceptance rate of less than 0.00008% and a false rejection rate of 0.01%. Suruga Bank, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, The Hiroshima Bank, and The Bank of IKEDA started customer confirmation using palm vein pattern authentication in July 2004, October 2004, April 2005, and June 2005, respectively. Additionally, in response to the "Act for the Protection of Personal Information," which came into effect in April 2005, an increasing number of financial institutions, including The Nanto Bank, have adopted this technology. Fujitsu also began sales of products for door security, login authentication, and other applications. We will achieve business growth with these solutions by downsizing the palm vein sensor and reducing the authentication time. This paper describes this technology and its expected business expansion. ---[Shigeru Sasaki, Hiroaki Kawai, Akira Wakabayashi]
