Upgrade the rack solutions OCP and OCS

Intel recently released a new generation of server processors, the Xeon E5-2600 v3, and we are starting to update the line for a new platform.

Today, the story will be about the new rack solutions Therascale OCP and Therascale OCS .

Both products were developed based on operating experience of huge data centers and optimally solved the tasks of Facebook and Microsoft, respectively. This was also a minus - the systems did not always fit the requirements of other companies that were not ready to give up the usual hot-swap drives, someone else was not satisfied with specific restrictions on their number, some needed management via IPMI instead of the Facebook approach.
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Is it possible to make good better?

Need to! And for this it is convenient to use the change of generations of processors.



A small preface: if you have not read the articles on OCP and OCS on the links above, we strongly recommend to do this: without them, the essence of updates can be poorly understood, and in general they can be used to refresh memory of what these rack platforms are so good.

Upgrade Open Compute Project (OCP) Compute Nodes

Updated all three models.

Minimal changes in OCP1U3N - everything is exactly the same as it was, only with Xeon v3 and DDR4 processors.

The other two models have changed a lot.

OCP2U4N acquired a new look:

• Two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3;
• 16 DDR4 slots;
• Two 2.5 "SAS / SATA / SSD hot-swappable drives;
• One PCIe x8 slot;
• One PCIe x16 slot;
• OCP Mezzanine slot;
• ASPEED 2400 BMC.

View closer

OCP2U3N - replaced by OCP2U4NS:

• Two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3;
• 16 DDR4 slots;
• Eight 2.5 "SAS / SATA / SSD hot-swappable drives;
• One PCIe x8 slot for SAS Mezzanine;
• One PCIe x16 slot;
• OCP Mezzanine slot;
• ASPEED 2400 BMC.

How is this implemented?

Each server has its own 8-disk tray, which is independently extended:



Both models use a single motherboard. To install the operating system, a mSATA slot is provided, combined with an M.2 PCIe interface.

Model summary table now looks like this:

Specs	OCP1U3N G5	OCP2U4N G5	OCP2U4NS G5	OCP2U42N
CPU	2x Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 per node, up to 130 W			Intel Atom C2000 family
Chipset	Intel C610			Intel C2000 SoC
SAS controller	Lsi sas			-
Memory	16 DDR4 1866/2133 MHz ECC UDIMM / RDIMM / LRDIMM slots per server			Up to 16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Discs	1 2.5 "SATA / SAS	2 2.5 "SATA / SAS hot swap server 1 mSATA / M.2 NGFF	8 2.5 "SATA / SAS hot swap server 1 mSATA / M.2 NGFF	-
Expansion slots	1 PCIe 3.0 x16 LP 1 PCIe x8 G3 OCP mezzanine	1 PCIe 3.0 x16 LP 1 PCIe x8 G3 low profile 1 PCIe x8 G3 OCP mezzanine	1 PCIe x8 G3 LP 1 SAS mezzanine 1 PCIe x8 G3 OCP mezzanine	-
Control	IPMI 2.0 integrated, KVM over IP, Virtual Media, DCMI, dedicated Ethernet port / 10G combined mezz			Integrated Switch Interface
VGA	-
Ports (per node)	2 USB 2 RJ45 ports 1 IB port QDR / FDR or 40G Ethernet	1 USB 1 dedicated RJ45 port		-

Upgrade the Open CloudServer Computing Hub (OCS)

What was missing in the version for Xeon E5-2400 v2 processors?

Hot-swappable drives. She appeared in the updated version.

• Two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3;
• 16 DDR4 slots;
• Four 2.5 "SAS / SATA / SSD hot-swappable drives;
• Four internal 2.5 "SAS / SATA / SSD disks;
• One PCIe x8 slot for SAS controller;
• One PCIe x8 slot for a network Mezzanine card;
• ASPEED 2400 BMC.

Total:

• There was a complete failure of the 3.5 "drives in the compute nodes - all on SSD or SAS drives for hot local data. And on the outer shelves there are now slow capacious spindles for cold ones.
• Added hot swap drive.
• Improved remote management capabilities - added a full-featured BMC instead of the Intel Management Engine.

Well, in general, the fact that with the change of generation of Intel processors there was a pleasant improvement in the capabilities of rack solutions.