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Mar 13, 2024
AC power distribution unit and rack content – Introduction to Power E1080

1.7.3 AC power distribution unit and rack content

The Power E1080 servers that are integrated into a rack at the factory feature PDUs that are mounted horizontally in the rack. Each PDU takes 1U of space in the rack. Mounting the PDUs vertically in the side of the rack can cause cable routing issues and interfere with optimal service access.

Two possible PDU ratings are supported: 60A/63A (orderable in most countries) and 30A/32A. Consider the following points:

Ê The 60A/63A PDU supports four system node power supplies and one I/O expansion drawer or eight I/O expansion drawers.

Ê The 30A/32A PDU supports two system node power supplies and one I/O expansion drawer or four I/O expansion drawers.

Chapter 1. Introduction to Power E1080    35

Rack-integrated system orders require at least two of #7109, #7188, or #7196.

High-function PDUs provide more electrical power per PDU and offer better “PDU footprint” efficiency. In addition, they are intelligent PDUs that provide insight to power usage by receptacle and remote power on and off capability for easier support by individual receptacle. The new PDUs are orderable as #ECJJ, #ECJL, #ECJN, and #ECJQ.

High-function PDU FCs are listed in Table 1-20.

Table 1-20 Available high-function PDUs

In addition, the following high-function PDUs are available: Ê High Function 9xC19 PDU plus (#ECJJ)

This intelligent, switched 200-240 volt AC PDU includes nine C19 receptacles on the front of the PDU. The PDU is mounted on the rear of the rack, which makes the nine C19 receptacles easily accessible.

Ê High Function 9xC19 PDU plus 3-Phase (#ECJL)

This intelligent, switched 208 volt 3-phase AC PDU includes nine C19 receptacles on the front of the PDU. The PDU is mounted on the rear of the rack, which makes the nine C19 receptacles easily accessible.

Ê High Function 12xC13 PDU plus (#ECJN)

This intelligent, switched 200-240 volt AC PDU includes 12 C13 receptacles on the front of the PDU. The PDU is mounted on the rear of the rack, which makes the 12 C13 receptacles easily accessible.

Ê High Function 12xC13 PDU plus 3-Phase (#ECJQ)

This intelligent, switched 208 volt 3-phase AC PDU includes 12 C13 receptacles on the front of the PDU. The PDU is mounted on the rear of the rack, which makes the 12 C13 receptacles easily accessible.

Two or more additional PDUs can be installed horizontally in the rear of the rack. Mounting PDUs horizontally uses 1U per PDU and reduces the space that is available for other racked components. When mounting PDUs horizontally, the preferred approach is to use fillers in the EIA units that are occupied by these PDUs to facilitate proper air-flow and ventilation in the rack.

Each PDU requires one PDU-to-wall power cord. Various power cord features are available for various countries and applications by varying the PDU-to-wall power cord, which must be ordered separately.

Each power cord provides the unique design characteristics for the specific power requirements. To match new power requirements and save previous investments, these power cords can be requested with an initial order of the rack or with a later upgrade of the rack features.

36   IBM Power E1080: Technical Overview and Introduction

Table 1-21 lists the available wall power cord options for the 7188 and High Function PDUs and iPDU features, which must be ordered separately.

Table 1-21 Wall power cord options for the PDU and iPDU features

Notes: Ensure that the suitable power cord feature is configured to support the power that is being supplied. Based on the power cord that is used, the PDU can supply 4.8 – 19.2 kVA. The power of all the drawers that are plugged into the PDU must not exceed the power cord limitation.

o better enable electrical redundancy, each CEC has four power supplies that must be connected to separate PDUs, which are not included in the base order.

For maximum availability, a preferred approach is to connect power cords from the same system to two separate PDUs in the rack, and to connect each PDU to independent power sources.

For more information about power requirements of and the power cord for the 7965-94Y rack, see IBM Documentation.

Chapter 1. Introduction to Power E1080        37

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Sep 12, 2023
Reducing and controlling costs – Azure Cost Planning and Management

Reducing and controlling costs

The following are some of the ways we can reduce and control costs:

  • Optimize resources: This is an operational activity. Its purpose is to identify any resources that are not used and can be deleted, any resources that can be right-sized onto more cost-optimal resource types or sizes, and identifying any resources that don’t need to be running 24/7 and that could be shut down or paused to avoid costs. Any resources running on IaaS should be evaluated to see whether they can be moved to PaaS, serverless, or SaaS. Azure Advisor is an essential tool for this activity; tags should also be used to identify costs owners.
  • Azure hybrid benefit: This is a licensing benefit and allows an organization to maximize any investment in existing on-premises Software Assurance (SA)-enabled Windows Server or SQL licenses (or eligible subscription-based licenses); this removes the need to license and pay with the Pay as You Go (PAYG) model. For a VM, this does not discount or remove the compute costs or any storage or networking costs; you are still liable for those and need to factor this into the total operating costs of a VM.
  • Azure reservations: This is a resource benefit and acts as a billing discount mechanism to reduce PAYG consumption charges. It does this by allowing you to commit to paying for an amount of capacity for a fixed term at a discounted rate than you would pay for on the PAYG consumption rate. Reservations are available for a range of resources, such as VMs; they make the most sense and are best used where the workloads must run for long periods or 24/7, where costs are usually reduced by shutting down the VMs to save costs and this is no longer possible. For a VM, this does not apply a discount, remove the software license costs, or any storage or networking costs; you are still liable for those and need to factor this into the total operating costs of a VM.
  • Spot pricing: This is a resource benefit and allows an organization to make considerable savings based on the ability to take advantage of unused capacity. This is best used for workloads that don’t need a specific period in which they must run. This could be tested/dev, analytics, machine learning, batch processes, rendering, and so on.

In this section, we looked at how to reduce and control costs. In the next section, we will look at Azure Cost Management.

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Jul 12, 2023
Azure Cost Management – Azure Cost Planning and Management

Azure Cost Management

Azure Cost Management is provided through a Cost Management + Billing dashboard functionality in the Azure portal; it provides core functionality such as cost visibility, optimizations, and accountability.

The following capabilities are provided within the Cost Management + Billing function within the Azure portal:

  • Billing: View and download invoices; view payment methods and make payments.
  • Cost Management: Perform cost analysis, set cost alerts, and create budgets.

The following screenshot shows the cost analysis screen in the Azure portal:

Figure 11.1 – Azure Cost Management

In this section, we looked at Azure Cost Management. In the next section, we will look at the Azure pricing calculator.

Azure Pricing calculator

The Azure Pricing calculator is a publicly accessible browser-based tool where you can estimate the cost of services that can be created in Azure.

All Azure resources that can be purchased are displayed in categories that can be browsed through. The calculator has a search function; each resource you can add as an item to the estimate has a hyperlink to the product details for each resource, as well as its pricing page. This is useful if you need to understand the pricing structure for each resource and any factors that may impact costs.

To use the calculator to provide cost estimations for your chosen solution, you must add the required services for your solution to the estimate. Then, you will see a total estimate and breakdown; you can set the currency and then export, save, or share the estimate. Note that the estimates are not intended to be used as actual quotes; the resource’s availability, the pricing structure, and its costs may vary from the time of estimation to resource creation.

The Azure Pricing calculator is shown in the following screenshot and can be accessed from https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/calculator:

Figure 11.2 – Azure Pricing calculator

In this section, we looked at the Azure Pricing calculator. In the next section, we will look at the TCO calculator.

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May 12, 2023
Exercise 2 – using the TCO calculator – Azure Cost Planning and Management

Exercise 2 – using the TCO calculator

This exercise will create a cost comparison; for example, a typical on-premises environment moving to Azure. You could substitute this with the details of an actual on-premises infrastructure and any workloads you have details of.

Task – accessing the TCO calculator

  1. Open a browser and enter the following URL: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/tco/calculator.

Task – defining your workloads

  1. From the Define your workloads section, click on the information icon next to each selected field.
  2. From the Server section, select the following information or use your example data:
    • Enter a name for the workload or use the provided default.
    • Workload: Windows/Linux Server.
    • Environment: Virtual Machines.
    • Operating system: Windows.
    • Operating system license: Datacenter.
    • VMs: 100.
    • Virtualization: VMware.
    • Cores: 4.
    • Ram: 8.
    • Optimize by: Memory
    • Windows Server 2008/2008 R2: Off
  1. Add any additional server workloads as required.
  2. From the Databases section, enter the following information or use your example data:
    • Enter a name for the database, or use the provided default.
    • Source Database: Microsoft SQL Server.
    • License: Standard.
    • Environment: Virtual Machines.
    • Operating system: Windows.
    • Operating system license: Datacenter.
    • VMs: 15.
    • Virtualization: VMware.
    • Cores: 8.
    • RAM: 32.
    • Optimize by: Memory.
    • Windows Server 2008/2008 R2: Off.
    • Destination Service: SQL Database Managed Instance.
    • Managed instance tier: General purpose.
    • Managed instance cores: 8.
    • SQL Server storage: 100.
    • SQL Server backup: 100.
  1. Add any additional databases as required.
  2. From the Storage section, enter the following information or use your example data:
    • Enter a name for the storage or use the provided default
    • Storage type: Local Disk/SAN.
    • Disk type: SSD.
    • Capacity: 2 TB.
    • Backup: 2 TB.
    • Archive: 8 TB.
    • IOPS: 4,000.
  1. Add additional storage as required.
  2. From the Networking section, enter the following information or use your example data:
  • Outbound bandwidth: 100 GB

10. Click Next.

Task – adjusting your assumptions

  1. From the Adjust assumptions screen, review all the options and alter them as required. Alternatively, leave the default assumptions as is.
  2. Click Next.

Task – viewing the report

  1. From the View report screen, review the cost savings report.
  2. You can modify your entries by scrolling to the bottom of the screen and clicking Back.
  3. You can download, share, and save the report.

In this exercise, we created a cost comparison for an on-premises environment moving to Azure. Now, let’s summarize this chapter.

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May 12, 2023
Azure compliance documentation – Azure Privacy and Compliance

Azure compliance documentation

As its name suggests, the Azure compliance documentation is an online documentation site that provides detailed information and resources about legal, regulatory standards, as well as compliance an organization has on Azure. The documentation can be accessed at https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/compliance:

Figure 10.7 – Azure compliance documentation

In this section, we looked at the Azure compliance documentation. The following section looks at Azure Sovereign Regions.

Azure Sovereign Regions

Azure supports what is referred to as Sovereign Regions; these support greater compliance for specific markets. These regions, as shown in the following diagram, operate isolated instances of the Azure cloud computing platform that run dedicated hardware and isolated networks:

Figure 10.8 – Azure Sovereign Region cloud

As outlined here, the Sovereign Region platforms also have portals with different URLs and service endpoints in DNS:

  • Azure Government: This is a separate instance of the Azure platform that Microsoft operates; it is for the sole use of US government bodies (and partners):
    • The service endpoints to connect to in DNS are in the form of *.azurewebsites.us.
    • You can find more information at https://azure.microsoft.com/global-infrastructure/government.
  • Azure China (21Vianet): This is a separate instance of the Azure platform operated by 21Vianet; it is for compliance with Chinese government regulations:
    • The Azure portal can be accessed via a dedicated URL: https://portal.azure.cn.
    • The service endpoints to connect to in DNS are in the form of *.chinacloudsites.cn.

In this section, we looked at the Azure Sovereign Region clouds. The following section looks at a thought exercise.

Thought exercise

Returning to our online pizza company MilesBetter Pizza, they wish to know where they should look to determine whether they need to be compliant with regulatory standards such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) as they handle online transactions. They also don’t want to fall foul of any Microsoft product terms for Online Services they have.

In addition, in preparation for an audit, they have been asked to provide evidence in the form of information on the compliance, security, and privacy statements from their cloud service provider of the data stored in Azure. The following diagram visualizes all the resources that are required that were covered in this chapter:

Figure 10.9 – Azure privacy and compliance resources

The following URLs will be required to explore, collate, and present the required audit information:

In this section, we looked at a thought exercise covering privacy and compliance. In the next section, we will complete a hands-on exercise.

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