NonStop NS16000 Series Planning Guide (H06.11+)

Table 1 Characteristics of a NonStop NS16000 Series Systems (continued)
SupportedBladeCluster Solution connection
SupportedNonStop S-series I/O enclosures
connection
SupportedM8201R Fibre Channel to SCSI
router
NonStop NS16000 Series System Architecture
Integrity NonStop NS16000 series systems employ a unique method for achieving fault tolerance
in a clustered processor environment: the modular NonStop NS16000 series system architecture,
which utilizes Intel® Itanium® microprocessors without cycle-by-cycle lock-stepping. Instead, two
or three microprocessors run the same instruction stream concurrently in a loose lockstep process.
In loose lockstep:
• Each microprocessor runs at its own clock rate.
• Results of each command execution are compared on processor output to the ServerNet fabric.
• Error recovery and minor indeterminate processing results from one microprocessor do not
cause output comparison errors.
Coexistence of Processor Types
NS16000 NSE-A Blade Complexes can coexist with NS16200 NSE-T Blade Complexes on both
types of NonStop NS16000 series servers, subject to the following rules:
• All processor elements in a logical processor must be of the same type.
• All processor elements in a NonStop Blade Complex must be of the same type.
• All Blade Elements in a Blade Complex must have the same number of processor elements.
• NSE-T and NSE-A Blade Complexes can co-exist in the same system (H06.12 or later RVUs).
• No changes to the CONFTEXT file are required to support mixed processor types.
For information on upgrading a NonStop NS16000 server with NSE-T Blade Complexes, have
your service provider see Upgrading to NS16200 Blade Complexes in the Service Procedures
collection of NTL.
NonStop NS16000 Series Hardware
Standard hardware for a NonStop NS16000 series system includes:
• NonStop Blade Element
• Processor switch
• IP CLuster I/O Module (CLIM)
• Telco CLuster I/O Module (CLIM)
• IB CLuster I/O Module (CLIM)
• CLIM cable management Ethernet patch panel
• Storage CLuster I/O Module (CLIM)
NOTE: DL385 G2 or G5 Storage CLIMs support MSA70 SAS disk enclosures, but not HP
Storage D2700 SAS disk enclosures.
DL380 G6 Storage CLIMs support HP Storage D2700 SAS disk enclosures, but not MSA70
SAS disk enclosures.
20 NonStop NS16000 Series System Overview