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Enterprise-level customers are showing increased interest in High Performance Computing using Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) in industry standard servers. To address this growing market, HP has introduced the ProLiant SL390s G7 2U server-part of the ProLiant SL6500 Scalable System family. We designed the SL390s specifically for GPU-based computing, and it supports up to 3 GPUs in its 2U half-width tray. This technology brief gives you an overview of the unique architectural features of the SL390s that support high-density, high-performance GPU-based computing. It also provides insight and guidance for designing and tuning GPU-based applications for maximum performance on the SL390s.

Most data centers today have a three- or four-tier hierarchical networking structure. It consists of access layer switches, aggregation switches, and core switches (Figure 1). Three-tier networking architectures were designed around client-server applications and single-purpose application servers. Client-server applications caused traffic to flow primarily in North/South (N/S) patterns: from a server up to the data center core, to the campus core where it moves out to the campus-wide network or internet. These large core switches usually contain the vast majority of the intelligence in the network.

Articles in this edition of the ISS Focus include: Outlet Control and HP Intelligent Power Discovery, HP Eco POD 240a Environment Control System, and Meet the Expert with Bill Whiteman.

In this paper, we focus on VCM and underlying HP technologies that allow you to manage servers and network connection configuration as well as their deployment, monitoring, maintenance, troubleshooting, and security. We also touch on non-VC management tools that integrate with VC to provide broader management options.

Microsoft recommends Microsoft System Center as the management platform for Hyper-V, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Internet Information Service (IIS). As a result, our customers are using System Center to manage virtualized environments and monitor their OSes and applications. By integrating HP Insight Control for System Center software extensions, they're saving time and money. It allows them to use their System Center consoles to manage the Microsoft applications and the HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem components seamlessly.

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) has become the de facto hard disk drive (HDD) standard for missioncritical applications. This paper describes SAS devices, the SAS protocol, possible SAS topologies, zoning, and interoperability with SATA devices and connectors. The Appendix defines technical terms used in this paper.

This technology brief describes key technologies in the SATA specification, its implications for SATA storage devices, the interoperability of SATA and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices, and examples of internal and external SATA topologies. Table 1 in the Appendix contains terms related to SATA technology.

This paper tells you how to integrate HP Integrated Lights-Out 3 (iLO 3) processors with Microsoft® Windows® Active Directory (AD) software to streamline configuration and avoid possible security issues. It describes how to validate the directory after you finish the integration. The rest of this paper refers to iLO 3 simply as iLO.