Rack manager components

A rack manager platform consists of the following:

  • One or more chassis — The chassis are individual nodes that are used to build logical components such as systems or nPartitions. Each chassis is a physical container for system components like the compute, storage, or network nodes.

    Chassis can be three types:

    • Base — Available with every rack manager; includes boot support.

    • Expansion — Added to a system with a base chassis to scale up the partition; does not have boot options.

    • Partition — Added to a system with a base chassis to scale up the partition or to create additional partitions.

    In an HPE Superdome Flex Server and an HPE Superdome Flex 280 Server, the chassis are 5U nodes that represent the compute nodes with CPU, memory, I/O, power supplies, and fans.

    NOTE:

    HPE Superdome Flex 280 Server has only base and expansion chassis.

  • One or more systems or nPartitions — The system is a logical entity that functions as a server, and runs a single instance of an operating system to host services. In HPE OneView, an nPartition is modeled as a server hardware resource.

    In an HPE Superdome Flex Server, the systems are also called nPartitions. An nPartition consists of one or more compute chassis that are interconnected through an ultra-fast fabric. Each nPartition starts with a monarch chassis of the type base chassis or partition chassis, and can be extended with additional chassis to form a larger system.

    Every HPE Superdome Flex 280 Server has a base chassis providing BaseIO, management interfaces, and boot support. One expansion chassis can be added to expand the system to eight processor sockets. The required base chassis provides platform management through an embedded Rack Management Controller (eRMC).

  • One or more managers — The manager component manages the rack manager platform, and hosts the management controller function. HPE OneView communicates with the rack manager through this management controller enabling system administration, control, and platform management of the rack manager platform. Some platforms have multiple manager components to support redundancy.

    In an HPE Superdome Flex Server, the manager component is called the Rack Management Controller (RMC). The RMC hosts the DMTF Redfish APIs.

    Managers can be one of two types:

    • Embedded — The manager is running within the management controller of the base chassis. In an HPE Superdome Flex Server and HPE Superdome Flex 280 Server, the embedded Rack Management Controller (eRMC) can manage one or two chassis (four or eight processor sockets).

      NOTE:

      HPE Superdome Flex 280 Server is managed by eRMC only.

    • Standalone — The manager is standalone and placed in a unit location within the rack. In an HPE Superdome Flex Server, the standalone RMC can manage the maximum available supported chassis configuration.

  • One or more racks — The racks physically contain all the rack manager platform components.

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