Themis Computer adds networking and management modules to high-density server family

FREMONT, Calif., 11 June 2014. Themis Computer has introduced system management and networking modules for the company’s Intel-based RES-XR4 high-density server product line.

The new Themis Resource Manager and Mellanox-based, high-speed switch modules add new network facing functionality, helping to minimize the number of network interconnects and administrative effort required to scale high-density, integrated server and storage systems, officials say.

The RES-XR4-Switch module occupies one of four HD chassis slots with a 12-port, managed 56 Gb/s Infiniband VPI SDN/40GBe switch system that delivers up to 1.3Tb/s of non-blocking bandwidth and 200ns port-to-port latency. The Switch module enables data centers to scale out with Fourteen Data Rate (FDR) Infiniband. The HD hosted switch interoperates with existing networks, supports software-defined networks (SDN), and provides fabric management for cluster and converged I/O applications.

“Faster servers with PCIe 3.0 access to high-performance storage and compute intensive applications are escalating data bandwidth requirements at an ever increasing rate. As more servers with next generation processors are deployed, embedded system environments and fast storage will require the bandwidth that we are delivering with Mellanox’s new, FDR InfiniBand high-speed, low latency smart switches,” says Themis President and CEO Bill Kehret.

The Themis Resource Manager (RES-XR4-TRM) module is an out-of-band resource management system that occupies one of four HD chassis slots. The Resource Manager Module provides 14 ports that enable remote, independent initialization, administration, and monitoring of the health and environment of up to 14 HD modules, RES servers, or related computing infrastructure equipment. The Resource Manager provides KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) functionality over IP to provide access to the console of any attached server for complete in-band control of that system. Multiple KVM windows to different machines may be open and operating concurrently. The Resource Manager also discovers and assigns IP addresses to managed systems when they are connected to the manager. Monitoring features include fault data history. Analytics and prognostic features are also available as an option.

The Resource Manager provides a single user interface for easy access to managed systems’ service processors, displaying information obtained from these processors in a converged dashboard view. Themis’ i7 based Resource Manager leverages open standards such as Open Stack Dashboard (Horizon) and Zabbix, an efficient, enterprise-class, open-source distributed monitoring solution for networks and applications.

Featuring four chassis slots and enhanced reliability features, the 2U RES-XR4-HD system chassis houses stand-alone, hot-pluggable processor, storage (HDS, HDFS, and HDS8), high-speed switching, and system management module options. Customers can combine different module types to define system functionality and meet their requirements.

Designed with Intel Xeon E5 2600 V2 Series processors and Supermicro motherboards, processor modules support up to three 56 Gb/sec Infiniband (IB) or 40 Gb Ethernet ports to provide industry leading I/O bandwidth (One Mellanox Connect-X3 port controller on the base board and two Connect-X3 port Controllers on the PCI-e Slot). A FDR option supports 56 Gb/sec IB or 40 Gb/sec Ethernet via a QSFP module connector. Alternatively a QDR option supports 40 Gb/sec IB or 10 Gb/sec Ethernet. Each processor module also has a PCIe expansion slot that can be used to supports two additional FDR or QDR ports.

Suited for enhanced reliability computing environments where server size, weight, and power (SWaP) is important, RES-XR4 HD servers can be mounted in standard commercial racks or mobile rugged transit cases and incor­porate thermal and kinetic management techniques to mitigate the affects of shock, vibration, and extended temperature. Themis RES-XR4 High Density Servers deliver high performance, double compute density, enable a 50% rack space savings and reduce system weight by nearly 50 percent, relative to single motherboard based rack and stack alternatives, officials say.

“Designed for virtualization, ISR, Big Data Analytics, radar processing, image processing, and large Hadoop cluster applications, Themis RES-XR4 HD systems can be used in a multitude of applications that require high-compute density and low latency access to large-data storage,” Kehret adds.

The new RES-HD server modules are now available.