Robust, Modular & Good Looking
At the end of 2016, Corey, our IBM expert received five IBM Power 770 Servers (9117-MMC). We had them shipped from their previous installment in Las Vegas. Although IBM withdrew the P770 from the market in November of 2015, these are in no way EOL. The P770 is a server for cloud implementation. As IBM says, they are “virtualized from within.” IBM expected users to consolidate the functions of entire racks of blades or other small servers into one P770.
Each server is comprised of four “building block” modules, 155 pounds each, which are significant powerhouses themselves. Once we got them in the warehouse and testing began, we found the individual modules each housed 16 processor cores running at 3.3GHz with 128GB of DDR3 RAM, for a total of 64 cores per server with 512GB of RAM. (IBM also sold the 9117-MMC in a configuration with 12, 3.7GHz cores per module.)
The P770s are beautiful units with stainless steel rails and a graceful modularity that makes each component removable without tools. The Processors and RAM are housed in trays that slide out of the front and below them the six SATA 2.5” hot swappable drive bays nest in another tray that slides out, leaving the drive controller safely inside the enclosure. From the back, each of the two power supplies slide in and out without wires to disconnect. The back is also where six PCIe drawers slide out. The PCIe drawers each have one slot and can be adjusted to fit any sized card. The design allows the PCIe card to mate with connectors in the drawer itself, so the drawers can be moved or swapped without touching the cards or their connectors. IBM designed the whole system for user updating of parts.
IBM sold the systems with multiple cores installed, but the user paid to active only the cores the current workload demanded. As load increased, additional cores could be activated without physically changing anything. Which is a good thing because moving these more than 600 pound servers in not an easy ride. TJ, our technician used a battery powered hydraulic lift as his testing bench.
When starting up one of the servers, each of the fans in all four modules activate at their highest setting. With the units stacked up for testing, outside of a server housing and cabinet, the P770 roared. For a few hours, our warehouse sounded like a runway at O’Hare. Things are quieter in the warehouse today. Testing is complete.
We will have the P770 Servers and the individual Building Block Modules in stock along with our more than 100,000 IT products. A few of the modules had one or two components that didn’t pass our testing criteria, so we will disassemble them and add the parts that can pass testing into inventory, everything from RAM and power supplies to cables and heat syncs. You can contact Cory today to find out more about the P770.
As it has since 1976, Frontier Computer Corp. can provide new and refurbished IT hardware and enterprise computing solutions. We have servers, drives, modems, routers switches and software. Everything you need to keep your IT running smoothly.
Contact FrontierUS at 866.226.6344.
Frontier Computer Corp. is a leader in providing IT solutions worldwide.
