System Configuration

Does ColoBlade™ have RAID 1 capabilities?

ColoBlade™ supports RAID 1 setup as an option. In order to setup RAID 1 mirror drive configuration you need to add a second same size hard drive. In addition, you also need an IDE or SCSI RAID 1 controller to enable hardware RAID 1 capability.

Do you have dual Xeon configurations available?

ColoBlade™ only offers single Celeron D and Pentium 4 processor configuration. We do not support dual Xeon configurations at this time. If you are looking for dual Xeon configuration, please visit www.atxblade.com for more information.

Do you have AMD configurations available?

Currently we do not have AMD option available yet.

Do these servers have dual NIC option?

ColoBlade™ comes with single 10/100 Mb Ethernet port. If you need more Ethernet port, you can install an additional dual ports or quad ports Ethernet ports PCI adapter.

Can we mix different speed of P4 and Celeron D processor in the same 8U ColoBlade ™ Housing unit?

ColoBlade™ is a very flexible platform. You can max and match any type of system configurations you want. You can run Celeron D 2.4 Ghz processor for the first five blade nodes and Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz processor for the rest of the blade nodes. There is no limit what you can do with ColoBlade blade servers.

Power Requirement

Does the 8U rackmount enclosure provide power to blades, or does each blade require separate power?

Our blade node does not rely on the 8U housing for it power requirement. Each blade node has it own power connector located on the front. Each blade has it own power supply build in.

Does CB100H 8U housing unit require power source?

Yes, CB100H 8U blade housing unit requires power to power up its six 120mm exhaust fans. It has one 80 watts power supply located on the rear of the housing unit.

What is the power requirement for CB101B blade servers?

Each blade node comes with a 250 watts ATX power supply. It is more than adequate for most of our system configurations. A typical Pentium 4 3.0Ghz setup consumes about 170 Watts of power during our heavy stress test. If your application demands more power, we also offer 400 watts power supply for our ColoBlade blade systems.

System Design

Are blades hot-swappable, in that removing one blade doesn’t require downtime on other blades?

Yes, ColoBlade blade servers are hot-swappable. Each blade unit is running independently from others. One can shutdown any blades without affecting other blades. Removing blade node will not affecting other blades as well.

What is CB100H 8U blade housing unit?

CB100H 8U blade housing is the ducking station for our blade servers. It offers a secure place for you to store your blade servers. In addition, it provides proper cooling for our blade servers. Our blade design uses six 120mm exhaust fans. It keeps the blade system running between 55 to 60 degrees. That is at lease ten degrees cooler than standard 1U server with the same setup. We achieved this by moving cooler air in from the front as well as from the special air chummy. The hot air is exhaust from the rear.

Is it easy to install or remove a blade system?

Installing a blade is as simple as inserting a VCR cassette. You simply insert your blade server in to one of the ten slots then tighten two thumb screws. All you need to do next is cabling. That is all you need to do. The whole process takes less then 5 minutes. There is nothing simpler then ColoBlade blade servers.

What is the advantage for using ColoBlade blade servers over standard 1U servers?

ColoBlade blade server offers several advantages over standard 1U servers. First, ColoBlade blade server offers more servers per 8U rack space then 1U servers. Actually, you get two additional servers for the same space. ColoBlade blade server offers ten blade server verse eight 1U servers for the 8U rack space. Second, ColoBlade blade server offers better cooling then traditional 1U server. Experienced technicians will tell you that most traditional 1U server can not handle Pentium 4 Processor higher than 2.8Ghz processors. The main reason is the over heat issue. ColoBlade blade server solved that problem with our unique thermal solution. Now you can run Pentium 4 processor as high as 3.4 Ghz without any of the overheating problem.