Blade servers and rack-mount servers

While blade servers are the dominant deployment of the UCS solution, Cisco has strategically extended its offering to include the industry-standard rack-mount form factor as well in order to provide users a choice against the competing rack-mount server vendors such as HP, IBM, and Dell.

Learning more about blade servers

Blade servers are at the heart of the UCS solution and come in various system resource configurations in terms of CPU, memory, and hard disk capacity. All blade servers are based on Intel Xeon processors and there is no AMD option available. Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) can choose from different blade configurations as per business needs.

The B22 M3 blade server

The B22 M3 blade server is a new addition to the blade server series. It is a half-width blade server and has been shown in the following image:

The specifications of the B22 M3 blade server are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® E5-2400 series processor family CPUs
• A maximum of 192 GB as the total memory capacity with a total of 12 memory slots
• Two drive bays for internal SAS/SATA/SSD hard drives for up to 2 TB of maximum storage capacity with built-in RAID 0,1 controllers
• Up to 80 Gbps of I/O throughput with a supported mezzanine card

The B22 series entry level blade server provides an excellent price-to-productivity balance. It is an excellent choice for IT, web infrastructure, and scale-out applications.

B200 M1/M2/M3 blade servers

B200 M1/M2/M3 blade servers are currently in the third generation. The B200 series is a half-width blade server. The latest B200 M3 series blade server further extends the capabilities of the B200 M2 servers. There are slight differences in the physical construction of M1 and M2/M3. Have a look at the following image for more details:

The specifications of the latest B200 M3 blade server are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 series processor family CPUs (a single processor is no longer supported with B200 M3)
• A maximum of 768 GB in total memory capacity (using 32 GB Dual Inline Memory Modules (DIMMs)) with a total of 24 memory slots
• Two drive bays for internal SAS/SATA/SSD hard drives for up to 2 TB of maximum storage capacity with built-in RAID 0,1 controllers
• Up to 80 Gbps of I/O throughput with a supported mezzanine card

B200 series entry-level blade servers are an excellent choice for web server farms, distributed databases, and CRM applications.

B230 M1/M2 blade servers

B230 M1/M2 series servers differ from B200 series servers in terms of computational capabilities. This is also a half-width blade server with two CPUs; however, the B230 server is based on a slightly different CPU family. The B230 series memory slot density is higher as compared to that of the B200 series blade servers. Have a look at the following image for more details:

The specifications of the B230 M2 blade server are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® processors of the E7-2800/8800 product family CPUs
• A maximum of 512 GB as the total memory capacity with a total of 32 memory slots
• Two SSD drive bays with a maximum of 600 GB of storage and built-in RAID 0,1 controllers
• Up to 20 Gbps of I/O throughput with a supported mezzanine card

B230 series servers are an excellent choice for virtualized loads and databases in compact form factor.

The B420 M3 blade server

B420 M3 series blade servers are full-width blade servers with the highest memory density ideal for demanding enterprise application deployment.

The specifications of the B420 M3 blade server are as follows:

• Four Intel® Xeon® processors of the E4600 product family CPUs
• A maximum of 1.5 TB as the total memory capacity with a total of 48 memory slots
• Four drive bays for internal SAS/SATA/SSD hard drives for a maximum storage capacity of up to 4 TB with built-in RAID 0,1,5,10 controllers
• Up to 160 Gbps of I/O throughput with supported mezzanine cards
  

B440 M1/M2 blade servers

B440 M1/M2 series blade servers are full-width blade servers with four CPUs and high memory density, ideal for enterprise applications deployment.

The specifications of the B440 M2 blade server are as follows:

• Four Intel® Xeon® processors of the E7-4800/8800 product family CPUs
• A maximum of 1 TB as the total memory capacity with a total of 32 memory slots
• Four drive bays for internal SAS/SATA/SSD hard drives for up to 3.6 TB as the maximum storage capacity with built-in RAID 0,1, 5, 10 controllers
• Up to 40 Gbps of I/O throughput with a supported mezzanine card
  

Note

For a quick comparison of B-series blade servers, please visit http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10280/prod_models_comparison.html. Select all the servers and click on the Compare button.

Cisco also had UCS 250 M1/M2 blade servers which were discontinued in November 2012. You may still see these servers deployed in the field.

Learning more about rack-mount servers

A majority of server vendors manufacture rack-mount servers (also known as pizza-box servers). Cisco UCS C-series servers are available in the industry-standard rack-mount form which can be deployed for SMB remote offices and applications requiring dedicated equipment. Like B-series blade servers, these servers are also based on Intel Xeon processors and there is no AMD option available.

C-series servers can be managed independently through an out of band (OOB) web interface or can be integrated with the UCSM software. The embedded CIMC provides the following services:

• Remote KVM to server console
• Remote power management
• Remote virtual media for operating system installation
• Industry-standard IPMI support for monitoring
• Standard SNMP traps for monitoring

Connecting and managing C-series rack servers through UCSM requires a connection through Nexus 2200 series FEXs, which act as line cards to the FIs.

C-series servers are available in various CPUs, memory, I/O, and storage configurations to address the needs of differently sized organizations. The following sections cover the specifications of these servers as available on the Cisco website.

The C22 M3 rack-mount server

The C22 M3 rack-mount server is an entry-level rack-mount server. It is based on the Intel E2400 CPU product family.

The specifications of the C22 M3 server are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® processors of the E5-2400 product family of CPUs
• A maximum total memory capacity of 192 GB with a total of 12 memory slots
• Up to eight small form factor (SFF) or four large form factor (LFF) internal storage SAS/SATA/SSD hard disks with an 8 TB (SFF) or 12 TB (LFF) storage capacity and an optional RAID controller
• Two 1 Gbps I/O ports with optional 10 Gbps unified fabric ports
• Two PCIe third-generation expansion slots

The C22 series rack-mount server is an economical choice for SMBs, branch offices, departments for entry level virtualization, and web farms.

The C24 M3 rack-mount server

The C24 M3 rack-mount server is also an entry level rack-mount server with storage extensibility. It is based on the Intel E2400 CPU product family.

The specifications of the C24 M3 server are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® processors of the E5-2400 product family of CPUs
• A maximum total memory capacity of 192 GB with a total of 12 memory slots
• Up to 24 SFF or 12 LFF internal storage SAS/SATA hard disks with a 24 TB (SFF) or 26 TB (LFF) storage capacity and an optional RAID controller
• Two 1 Gbps I/O ports with optional 10 Gbps unified fabric ports
• Five PCIe third-generation expansion slots
  

The C24 M3 series rack-mount server is an economical choice for SMBs, branch offices, departments for entry level virtualization, and web farms.

The C220 M3 rack-mount server

The C220 M3 rack-mount server is based on the Intel E2600 CPU product family.

The specifications of the C220 M3 rack-mount server are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® processors of the E5-2600 product family of CPUs
• A maximum total memory capacity of 512 GB with a total of 16 memory slots
• Up to eight SFF or four LFF internal storage SAS/SATA/SSD hard disks with an 8 TB (SFF) or 12 TB (LFF) storage capacity and an optional RAID controller
• Two 1 Gbps I/O ports with optional 10 Gbps unified fabric ports
• Two PCIe third-generation expansion slots
  

The C220 M3 series server has great performance and density for distributed database applications and web farms.

The C240 M3 rack-mount server

The C240 M3 rack-mount server is based on the Intel E2600 CPU product family.

The specifications of the C240 M3 rack-mount server are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® processors of the E5-2600 product family of CPUs
• A maximum total memory capacity of 768 GB with a total of 24 memory slots
• Up to 24 SFF or 12 LFF internal storage SAS/SATA/SSD hard disks with a 24 TB (SFF) or 26 TB (LFF) storage capacity and an optional RAID controller
• Four 1 Gbps I/O ports with optional 10 Gbps unified fabric ports
• Five PCIe third-generation expansion slots
  

The C240 M3 series server has great performance along with storage extensibility for distributed database applications and web farms.

The C260 M2 rack-mount server

The C260 M2 rack-mount server is based on the Intel E2800 CPU product family.

The specifications of the C260 M2 rack-mount servers are as follows:

• Two Intel® Xeon® processors of the E7-2800 product family of CPUs
• A maximum total memory capacity of 1 TB with a total of 64 memory slots
• Up to 16 LFF internal storage SAS/SATA/SSD hard disks with a 16 TB (LFF) storage capacity and no RAID controller
• Two Gigabit Ethernet (GE) LAN on Motherboard (LoM) I/O ports with two optional 10 Gbps unified fabric ports
• Six PCIe third-generation expansion slots
  

The C260 M2 series server provides one of the highest densities of computational resources for business-critical applications.

The C420 M3 rack-mount server

The C420 M3 rack-mount server is based on the Intel E4600 CPU product family.

The specifications of the C420 M3 rack-mount server are as follows:

• Four Intel® Xeon® processors of the E5-4600 product family of CPUs
• A maximum total memory capacity of 1.5 TB with a total of 48 memory slots
• Up to 16 LFF internal storage SAS/SATA/SSD hard disks with a 16 TB (LFF) storage capacity and an optional RAID controller
• Two 1 Gbps I/O ports with two optional 10 Gbps unified fabric ports
• Four PCIe third-generation expansion slots
  

The C420 M3 series server provides computational resources for business-critical applications such as large databases both in bare metal and virtualized environments.

The C460 M2 rack-mount server

The C460 M2 rack-mount server is based on the Intel E4800 CPU product family.

The specifications of the C460 M2 rack-mount servers are as follows:

• Four Intel® Xeon® processors of the E7-4800 product family of CPUs
• A maximum total memory capacity of 2 TB with a total of 64 memory slots
• Up to 12 LFF internal storage SAS/SATA/SSD hard disks with a 12 TB (LFF) storage capacity and no RAID controller
• Two GE LoM I/O ports with two optional 10 Gbps unified fabric ports
• 10 PCIe third-generation expansion slots with an optional LSI MegaRAID controller in the eleventh slot
  

The C460 M2 series server provides exceptional computational resources for business-critical applications such as large databases both in bare metal and virtualized environments.

Note

For a quick comparison of C-series servers, please visit http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10493/prod_models_comparison.html. Select all the servers and click on the Compare button to get the results.