NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs

Integrity NonStop NS-Series Server Architecture
NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs—540083-001
7-4
Software and Hardware Views of Architecture
an end point, a fabric is a complex web of links between electronic routers that provide
a large number of possible paths from one point to another.
As shown in Figure 7-3, input/output components also tap into the ServerNet fabrics.
Commonly, this tapping into the ServerNet fabrics occurs through ServerNet adapters.
The I/O adapter module (IOAM) houses Fibre Channel ServerNet adapters (FCSAs)
and gigabit 4-port Ethernet ServerNet adapters (G4SAs) that provide the system I/O to
storage and communications networks. Connection to the ServerNet fabric via the
NonStop S-series I/O enclosure and the IOMF 2 provides additional ServerNet
interfacing for the most commonly used peripherals. The ServerNet adapters handle all
I/O devices such as disk drives, tape drives, and workstations.
As Figure 7-3 shows, each Integrity NonStop server has two processor switches, or
P-switches, one for the ServerNet X fabric and one for the ServerNet Y fabric. Each
P-switch acts as a hub for its ServerNet fabric, providing connectivity for processors,
I/O, ServerNet cluster switches, and the local area network (LAN).
The entire system is easily networked with other NonStop systems because all
systems use the same message system and the same network software—even though
the internal hardware architecture might differ from one series of servers to another.
Figure 7-3. ServerNet Architecture
VST091.vsd
Servernet
Y fabric
ServerNet
X fabric
Mass storage
Fibre Channel
High-Speed Ethernet
I/O adapter module
ServerNet
adapter
S-Series
I/O Enclosure
I/O
Y-ServerNet
P-switch
X-ServerNet P-switch
ServerNet
adapter
ServerNet
adapter
ServerNet
adapter
To processor 0 To processor 1 To processor 2 To processor 3