We have known there are rack server and tower server in the market, but we also should know the blade servers are one of the popular choices when selecting servers.
What is a Blade Server?
A blade server is a stripped-down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy.
Blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power consumption and other considerations, while still having all the functional components to be considered a computer. Its main structure is a large mainframe with many “Blade”, each of which “blade” is actually a system motherboard. It is a HAHD (High Availability High Density) low-cost server platform designed specifically for special applications and high-density computing environments.
Blade Servers provide these advantages:
(1) Significantly reduce operating management costs
(2) High processing capacity density, saving valuable space and land occupation costs
(3) Low power consumption and electricity bill
(4) Improved reliability design, reducing downtime
(5) Optical path diagnosis
(6) Cable connection points are greatly reduced
(7) Redundant switching module and cable connection
However, blade servers also have these disadvantages:
(1) The upfront cost of deploying a blade data center is high.
(2) Regardless of the built-in redundancy of the blade server, there is a possibility that all blade servers will be down and fail.
(3) For enterprise users with one or two blade centers, it may not be cost-effective to purchase spare parts (such as spare chassis, etc.).
(4) Most blade centers have special power requirements, which may mean additional upfront costs for special cables.
(5) The blade center usually uses a dedicated network card and KVM accessories, and sometimes requires special cables or drivers. So what operating system is running on your blade server is a question.
(6) 2.5-inch hard disks commonly used in most blade centers usually have a higher failure rate than traditional 3.5-inch SAS / SATA hard disks used in non-blade servers (this defect is being improved over time).
(7) Once you promise to use the blade center, you will be restricted by the manufacturer when you buy the blade server, which is not good for the supplier from the perspective of price.
How to choose right blade servers for your need?
If you don’t mind the disadvantages of blade servers, you can select the most suitable one for your need, from these four popular brands, Dell, HPE, Huawei and Lenovo.
Table 1 shows the models of Dell EMC blade servers.
| Dell EMC | FC430 | FC640 | FC830 | MX740c | MX840c | M640 | M830 |
| Form Factor | 1/4 Width | Half Width | Full Width | Full Height, Single-Wide | Full Height, Double-Wide | Half Height | Full Height |
| Max. Servers per Chassis | 8 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 16 | 8 |
| Type of CPUs | Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon E5-4600 v4 | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon E5-4600 v4 |
| # CPU Sockets | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| Max Core per CPU | 18 | 28 | 22 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 22 |
| Max Cores | 36 | 56 | 88 | 56 | 112 | 56 | 88 |
| # internal drives | 2 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Supported Drive Types | SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD, NVMe | SAS, SATA, SSD, NVMe | SAS, SATA, SSD, NVMe | SAS, SATA, SSD, NVMe | SAS, SATA, SSD, NVMe | SAS, SSD, NVMe* |
| Max LAN on Motherboard | 2 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE | 4 x 25GbE | 4 x 25GbE | 4 x 10GbE | 8 x 10GbE |
| # NIC/HBA Card Expansion Slots | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| # of DIMM Slots | 8 | 16 | 48 | 24 | 48 | 16 | 48 |
| Max Memory DIMM (GB) | 64 | 128 | 64 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 64 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 512 | 2048 | 3072 | 3072 | 6144 | 2048 | 3072 |
| Max # Servers | 168 | 84 | 42 | 48 | 24 | 64 | 32 |
| Max CPUs | 336 | 168 | 84 | 96 | 96 | 128 | 128 |
| Max CPU Cores | 6048 | 4704 | 1848 | 2688 | 2688 | 3584 | 2816 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 86,016 | 172,032 | 129,024 | 147,456 | 147,456 | 131,072 | 98,304 |
*PCIe SSD limited to 2 drives
Table 2 shows the models of HPE blade servers.
| HPE Model | BL460c Gen 10 | BL460c Gen 9 | BL660c Gen 9 | Synergy 480, 620, 660, 680 |
| Form Factor | Half Height | Half Height | Full Height | Half Height, Full Height, Double-Wide |
| Max. Servers per Chassis | 16 | 16 | 8 | 12,6 ,3 |
| Type of CPUs | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 | Intel Xeon E5-4600 v4 | Intel Xeon SP, E5-2600 v4, E7 v4, E5-4600 v4 |
| # CPU Sockets | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2, 4 |
| Max Core per CPU | 26 | 22 | 22 | 28, 24, 22 |
| Max Cores | 52 | 44 | 88 | 56, 44, 48, 112, 88, 96 |
| # internal drives | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2, 4 |
| Supported Drive Types | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD |
| Max LAN on Motherboard | 2 x 20GbE | 2 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE | 2 x 25/50GbE |
| # NIC/HBA Card Expansion Slots | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2,4 5, 9 |
| # of DIMM Slots | 16 | 16 | 32 | 24, 48, 96 |
| Max Memory DIMM (GB) | 128 | 64 | 64 | 128, 64 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 2048 | 1024 | 2048 | 3072, 1536, 6144 |
| Max # Servers | 64 | 64 | 32 | 48, 24, 12 |
| Max CPUs | 128 | 128 | 128 | 96, 48 |
| Max CPU Cores | 3328 | 2816 | 2816 | 2688, 2112, 1152 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 131,072 | 65,536 | 65,536 | 147,456
73,728 36,864 |
* reduced one expansion slot on Synergy 600 series servers to account for LAN on Motherboard
Table 3 shows the models of Lenovo blade servers.
| Lenovo Model | Flex System SN850 | Flex System SN550 | Flex System x240 M5 | Flex System x480 X6 | Flex System x880 X6 |
| Form Factor | Double-Wide | Single-Wide | Single-Wide | Double-Wide | Double-Wide |
| Max. Servers per Chassis | 7 | 14 | 14 | 7 | 7 |
| Type of CPUs | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 | Intel Xeon E7-4800 v3 | Intel Xeon E7-8800 v3 |
| # CPU Sockets | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Max Core per CPU | 28 | 28 | 22 | 14 | 18 |
| Max Cores | 112 | 56 | 44 | 28 | 36 |
| # internal drives | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Supported Drive Types | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD |
| LAN on Motherboard | 4 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE |
| # NIC/HBA Card Expansion Slots | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| # of DIMM Slots | 48 | 24 | 24 | 48 | 48 |
| Max Memory DIMM (GB) | 128 | 128 | 64 | 32 | 32 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 6144 | 3072 | 1536 | 1536 | 1536 |
| Max # Servers | 28 | 56 | 56 | 28 | 28 |
| Max CPUs | 112 | 112 | 112 | 56 | 56 |
| Max CPU Cores | 3136 | 3136 | 2464 | 784 | 1008 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 172,032 | 172,032 | 86,016 | 43,008 | 43,008 |
Table 4 shows the models of Huawei blade servers.
| Huawei Model | FusionServer CH242 V5 | FusionServer CH121 V5 |
| Form Factor | Double-Wide | Single-Wide |
| Max. Servers per Chassis | 8 | 16 |
| Type of CPUs | Intel Xeon SP | Intel Xeon SP |
| # CPU Sockets | 4 | 2 |
| Max Core per CPU | 28 | 28 |
| Max Cores | 112 | 56 |
| # internal drives | 4 | 2 |
| Supported Drive Types | SAS, SATA, SSD | SAS, SATA, SSD |
| LAN on Motherboard | 4 x 10GbE | 4 x 10GbE |
| # NIC/HBA Card Expansion Slots | 4 | 1 |
| # of DIMM Slots | 48 | 24 |
| Max Memory DIMM (GB) | 128 | 128 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 6144 | 3072 |
| Max # Servers | 24 | 48 |
| Max CPUs | 96 | 96 |
| Max CPU Cores | 2688 | 2688 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 147,456 | 147,456 |
If you’re interested in the blade servers, please contact us (sales@router-switch.com), or visit our online shop:
Related topics:
What is a blade server and the advantages of a blade server
Cisco Server vs. HPE Server vs. Dell Server
