Fujitsu Siemens Primergy RX600

There may be plenty of choice in the Xeon DP server market but few vendors offer more than one Xeon MP example in their product ranges. This is partly due to the market that the MP is designed for. Whereas DP offers versatility, the MP is aimed specifically at business-critical applications such as large databases and online transaction processing, where multiprocessing capabilities and expansion potential are paramount. Furthermore, most blue-chip vendors (including HP, Dell and IBM) have consistently refused to allow their Xeon MP products out for review. Not so with Fujitsu Siemens, so this month we take a look at its Primergy RX600 quad Xeon MP rack server.

Clothed in a 3U-high chassis, the RX600 typifies the high levels of build quality we've now come to expect from the company. The front panel is home to six hot-swappable disk bays and the price includes a full complement of 36GB Ultra320 hard disks. Beneath is a pair of large 700W redundant power supplies and all units are easily accessible should any need replacing. You get the usual floppy and low-profile DVD-ROM drives across the top, but alongside is a handy little pop-out LCD screen. Using the control pad, you can flip through system and user information and view an error log.

The top panel has been split into three portions, with the front panel providing access to a bank of eight internal cooling fans. All are hot-swappable and removing one causes the rest to spin faster until you replace it. Add these fans to the ones that sit over the processors and in the power supplies and you'd expect a fair amount of operational noise, but we were amazed to find the RX600 runs quieter than most pedestal servers.

The rearmost panel provides easy access to the PCI slots and there are plenty of different types, with the majority supporting hot-plug capabilities. Removing the entire panel reveals a very tidy interior, with good access to all components. The four MP processors are grouped in the centre of the board and each module is topped off by a sturdy active radial tower of solid aluminium. These are enclosed in a plastic duct to keep the airflow where it's needed most. Eight DIMM sockets are provided further back, and each one is generously filled with a 1GB module, making the RX600 look even better value. RAID comes into the picture as the last PCI slot is reserved for the Adaptec ZCR (zero channel RAID) card, which takes over both channels on the embedded SCSI chipset.

Startup and initial configuration are handled by the ServerStart utility, while for general management and monitoring ServerView provides an SNMP interface. This can access all systems on the network that have the relevant agents installed. From the ServerView interface, you can monitor areas such as processor temperatures, fans and expansion cards. Failures will cause alarms to be generated that can be tied to notifications by email, network message or pager. It's disappointing that the RAID card can't be accessed from within ServerView, but at least you get Adaptec's Storage Manager utility. This offers remote web access to the controller and allows you to monitor and modify arrays, add new disks or hot-spares and keep an eye on the error logs. The command-line utility used to configure notification is crude, but does allow you to select message levels that are to be sent to the system log and include multiple email addresses for alerting.

The motherboard also incorporates an embedded remote management controller (RMC) with its own LAN and serial port mounted on the backplate. If you want to manage the server irrespective of its condition, a small socket that sits on the other side of the PCI slots accepts the optional RMC power supply. The RMC requires an IP address to be assigned using the ServerStart disk, after which you can access the controller using the Java-based RemoteView utility. This presents a well-designed interface with plenty of useful information and good levels of access. You can see the status of all major components and remotely view the server's console, cycle power, reset the server immediately or schedule restarts for specific times. The automatic restart feature could prove useful as you can select any system component, be it a fan or processor, and automatically shutdown or restart the server if values for the chosen components go outside set thresholds. Overall, we found Fujitsu Siemens' management tools come a close second to HP's Insight Manager. But its manual writers have the same unerring ability as Dell's to introduce confusion instead of clarity by providing disks with a huge pile of documentation for every known server and component ever made.