Dell is targeting the midrange server market with its single blade server. The 1655MC blade server is aimed at Web serving, thin-client computing, small-file/print serving and network infrastructure services (DNS, DHCP and domain controller, for example). Dell includes its OpenManage server-management application, which sports a rapid install service to deploy images to the blades.
Dell PowerEdge
1655MC The Dell 1655MC blade server system is a 3U unit that holds as many as six dual-processor blades. Each blade has a dual 10/100/1000 network card and one or two SCSI hard drives with a embedded hardware RAID controller. One downside: The hard drives are not hot-swappable; the entire blade must be removed from the chassis before you can gain access.
Unlike those of the HP p series, the Dell 1655MC's vital components (including power supplies) are packed into the unit. The 1655MC also was the only blade server we tested to host a built-in KVM, with an uplink port so it can be connected to Dell's KVM-over-IP product, allowing remote access to each of the blade consoles. This is the only way to get at the blade consoles remotely, unless you have software terminal services or VNC (virtual network computing) installed, because the embedded RAC (Remote Access Controller) on the chassis cannot access the blade consoles. The RAC did let us power cycle and turn on or off each blade.
What also sets Dell's product apart from rivals is the fact that each blade has a USB port. This makes it easy to add a floppy drive or CD-ROM for installing an OS or loading software onto the blade. The USB port does not need an adapter, as the HP e series does. Dell also includes an integrated network switch, which is optional on models from HP and RLX. To make use of both 10/100/1000 network connections on each blade, a second, optional, four-port network switch is required.
The Dell blade system is managed via two components, both Web-based. On a server dedicated to managing the Dell systems, administrators use the Dell IT Assistant and OpenManage Remote Install Server, or RIS (not to be confused with the Microsoft RIS in Windows 2000). The Dell IT Assistant is used primarily for monitoring the system. It also can be used for distributing BIOS updates and keeping track of the hardware inventory. The more interesting piece is in RIS: The RIS system is used to capture and deploy OS images to the blade servers. But RIS can be used only for capturing and deploying images to the 1655MC blade devices, while HP's RDP software can deploy images to nonblade servers as well.
We had no problem getting the RIS software to capture and deploy Windows 2000 Server images to the blades. We did run into a few issues when dealing with Red Hat Linux, though. The initial install of Red Hat 7.3 put the 2.4.18-3 version of the kernel on the system. The OpenManage software wanted a newer version of the kernel on the Red Hat box before it would let us install the management components. Once we got the kernel version straightened out, we captured and redeployed the Linux image with the RIS software.
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