X4LIVE

April 2nd, IBM announced that it is unifying its System i and System p servers — a path the vendor has been on for years, but one it had yet to say was certain until today's announcement.

The customers most affected by the creation of the new Power Systems hardware line are System i users, many of whom run core business applications — often custom-built — on the venerable midrange platform.

The past weeks the same question keeps popping up. Where can we find the IBM Director MIB files ?

We'll there are several MIB files (version specific), so choose the one you need.  In version 5.2x these files are already installed on the harddisk.

Now that Microsoft has officially launched Windows Server 2008 we all want to know what servers are supported. At this moment not all servers have gone through compliant testing. Those who are, are listed on ServerPROVEN and/or on the Windows Server Catalog listing.
Any additional information can be found in the xAnalisys Forum.

UPDATE 03/29: A short introduction to Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V is made by IBM UK.  Solution Architect Andreas Groth tells us why IBM Systems are most suited for this environment. 

Source: ServerPROVEN & WindowsServerCatalog & IBM UK

Emulex is a global provider of enterprise-class products that intelligently connect storage, servers and networks. They have a number of Host Bus Adapters on the market.
To choose the right HBA they have published a cross reference sheet.
This sheet also include information about other server manufacturers and will be updated regularly.

Source:  Emulex Support

Protected mode (PM) is a feature of the IBM® BladeCenter® Advanced Management Module (option 25R5778 or FRU 25R5777) to isolate management of the Cisco Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module (IGESM option 32R1982, FRU 13N2285) from the AMM in the IBM BladeCenter. This feature is targeted at environments that have distinctly separate management teams for servers and networking, or where it is not desirable to permit the AMM to set or otherwise control certain attributes of the IGESM.

NOTE: If you do not have a specific requirement for management separation between the AMM and the IGESM, it is not necessary to implement this feature.

Source: IBM Support TechDOCS  

QLogic is a long-standing IBM OEM partner for SAN and HPC Infrastructure solutions. They provide open standard, cost-effective storage internetworking solutions for on-demand business applications. QLogic Fibre Channel, iSCSI and InfiniBand end-to-end solutions enable IBM to deliver increased reliability and superior performance cost-effectively.

Recently a new Solutions Brochure has been released. On the same page also case studies, white papers and presentations can be found.

Source:  QLogic IBM OEM Solutions

Today IBM has announced a System x3850 M2 with VMware ESX Server 3i embedded hypervisor standard. Please do not forget to order a power cord, mouse and keyboard seperately for each model.

Initial announcement of the x3850 M2 and x3950 M2 can be found HERE or HERE

Source: IBM iSource

The IBM® Storage Configuration Manager (SCM) is a system management application that enables you to use a Web browser to manage and configure IBM BladeCenter® devices and/or System x systems. 

The changelog of version 1.10.1 contains: