Key business servers, responsible for hosting core enterprise applications such as databases and ERPs, are directly related to the lifeline of business development, making them essential for business success. To ensure the stable operation of critical enterprise applications, the H3C HPE Superdome Flex series of key business servers has emerged, providing robust performance while maintaining a high level of availability at 99.999%. It has been widely applied in critical business scenarios across various industries, including government, finance, healthcare, and education.
Recently, IDC released a report titled “Mission-Critical Platforms Deliver Continuity in the Shift to ‘Digital First’ Strategies.” In the report, H3C HPE Superdome Flex series of key business servers once again received an AL4-level availability rating from IDC, which stated that “HPE is a key player in the AL4-level market.”
IDC defines four levels of availability for computing platforms, from AL1 to AL4, where “AL” stands for “Availability,” and higher numbers indicate higher reliability.
IDC’s definition of AL4: The platform is capable of stable operation under any circumstances through extensive hardware reliability, availability, and redundancy capabilities.
The platforms rated as AL4 are mostly traditional mainframes, while the H3C HPE Superdome Flex series of key business servers is the only x86 computing platform that meets this certification.
Creating a Continuously Available AL4 Key Business Platform with RAS Strategy
Failures are inevitable, and an excellent platform should have the ability to handle failures promptly. It needs to employ advanced fault management strategies to identify the root causes of failures in the infrastructure, preventing their impact on IT stack components (such as operating systems, databases, applications, and data), which could result in device downtime and business interruption.
The H3C HPE Superdome Flex series of key business servers is designed based on RAS (Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability) standards, aiming to achieve the following goals:
1. Locating faults by detecting and recording errors.
2. Analyzing faults to prevent them from affecting higher-level IT stack components such as operating systems, databases, applications, and data.
3. Repairing faults to minimize or avoid outages.
This recent IDC AL4-level rating awarded to the H3C HPE Superdome Flex series of key business servers fully acknowledges its high-level RAS capabilities, describing it as a fault-tolerant platform capable of continuous operation under any circumstances, with comprehensive hardware RAS and hardware redundancy features covering the entire system.
Specifically, the RAS features of the H3C HPE Superdome Flex series are manifested in the following three aspects:
1. Detecting Errors Across Subsystems Using RAS Capabilities
Subsystem-level RAS capabilities are employed at lower IT layers to gather evidence for error detection, determine root causes, and identify correlations between errors. The memory RAS technology enhances memory reliability and reduces memory interrupt rates.
2. Firmware Prevents Errors from Affecting Operating Systems and Applications
Errors occurring in memory, CPU, or I/O channels are confined to the firmware level. Firmware can collect error data and perform diagnostics, even when the processor is not functioning completely properly, ensuring diagnostics proceed normally. Predictive fault analysis can be conducted for system memory, CPU, I/O, and interconnect components.
3. Analysis Engine Processes and Corrects Faults
The analysis engine continuously analyzes all hardware for faults, predicts faults, and initiates automatic recovery functions. It promptly informs system administrators and management software of issues, further reducing the occurrence of human errors and enhancing system availability.
Post time: Aug-08-2023
