Edit: Have you bought servers using this method?
Originally posted September 26, 2017 on AIXchange
Did you know how easy it is to design your own OpenPOWER LC server? Here’s a hint: it’s pretty easy.
Just go here and select your server. Your choice will be customized with various workload types, including Hadoop and Spark Analytics, memory intensive clusters, open source DB, deep learning and GPU-accelerated.
Depending the option you choose, you’ll be presented with a different server type. Then you’ll be able to select your chassis. For instance, if you choose GPU accelerated with NVIDIA NVLink, you get:
IBM Power System S822LC for High Performance Computing
Tackle new problems with NVIDIA Tesla P100 on the only architecture with NVIDIA NVLink — eliminating barriers between CPU-GPU.
Experience unprecedented performance and application gains with the new POWER8 with NVIDIA NVLink — delivering 2.8X the CPU-GPU bandwidth compared to x86 based systems.
IBM Power Systems S822LC for High Performance Computing pairs the strengths of the POWER8 CPU with 4 NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPUs. These best-in-class processors are tightly bound with NVIDIA NVLink technology from CPU-GPU — to advance the performance, programmability and accessibility of accelerated computing and resolve the PCIe bottleneck.
For memory intensive clusters, there’s an additional option of either a 1U or 2U system. Here’s the 1U description:
IBM Power System S821LC
A dense, high-data throughput server for your enterprise and cloud.
Compute-intensive workloads can now benefit from two POWER8 processors in a 1U form factor. This server delivers the density your business needs for virtualization, database and HPC deployments.
IBM Power Systems S821LC brings open innovation and high-density computing to the Linux server market with superior virtualization, incorporating POWER8 processors, tightly coupled FPGAs and accelerators and faster I/O using CAPI. Optimize processing power while simultaneously increasing workload throughput and reducing data center floor space requirements.
And here’s the 2U version:
IBM Power System S822LC for Commercial Computing
Open standards-based system designed to simplify and optimize your data center.
Open standards-based system that provides flexible deployment options for hybrid cloud, big data and business-critical applications.
The IBM Power System S822LC is designed to deliver superior performance and throughput for high-value Linux workloads, such as industry applications, big data and LAMP. With greater reliability, serviceability and availability than competitive platforms, the Power System S822LC incorporates OpenPOWER Foundation community innovation for clients that need to run big data, Java, open source and industry applications.
From here, simply click on “build your server” and you’ll be presented with options for your processor, memory, storage and PCIe cards. In my 1U example, I chose the 2×8 core option from this list:
1x 8 core CPU at 3.32 GHz (8x POWER8 cores)
1x 10 core CPU at 2.92 GHz (10x POWER8 cores )
2x 8 core CPUs at 3.32 GHz (16x POWER8 cores)
2x 10 core CPUs at 2.92 GHz (20x POWER8 cores)
Then I picked 16 DIMMS at a 32G DIMM size, giving me 512G total.
For storage you can chose from NVMe, SSD, SAS or SATA drives, and also tailor the size and quantity to your needs. There are also options for adapter cards.
Once you’ve made your selections, you’ll advance to your server config. Here you can download server specs and view the starting price.
Then just click on “purchase now,” proceed to checkout, and login with your IBM ID to finalize the purchase. Like I said, easy.
Have you been purchasing systems this way? Let me know in comments.