User Interface

CubixVision Management Console (MC) provides an enterprise view of all blades in an easy-to- understand graphical context.  One of the key benefits of CubixVision MC is its intuitive display.  Designed for navigation via a Web browser (i.e., Internet Explorer, or IE), CubixVision MC lets administrators “see” their hardware assets as a detailed graphical view. By reading embedded product identifiers, CubixVision MC depicts various blade server configurations, differentiating enclosures and blades with varying contents.

Function and Use

Network administrators using IE can locate the site, rack, enclosure and blade with a few mouse clicks using CubixVision.  Once routed to a specific blade, the administrator can power the blade up or down and view blade status.  The network administrator can also launch a remote control connection with a mouse click to view the applications running on a particular blade server.

CubixVision Functions

• Enables an administrator to monitor and control global deployments of LaserBlades from one or more Network Operation Centers.

• Provides notifications and alerts of overheating conditions, fan failures, fan speed threshold violations and low power supply voltages.

Architecture

Cubix LaserBlade management architecture employs a CubixVision Management Controller 2 (CMC2) Blade that uses serial cables with RJ-12 connectors to star connect to as many as 8 enclosures with 8 LaserBlades each.  The CMC2 also has an Ethernet port.  The network administrator can access the CMC2 across he network or across the Internet using IE. ^{Note 1}

Within each LaserBlade enclosure is an Enclosure Management Hub (EMH).  Each blade has a LaserBlade Management Adapter (LMA) with sensors.  The LMA holds data collected by its sensors.  The LMAs provide no data path to the host blade. ^{Note 2}

^{Note 1}
Network administrators can establish either a management-only network or allow management traffic on the enterprise network, depending upon network traffic and policy. CMC2 runs CubixVision and communicates out-of-band with the EMH in each LaserBlade Enclosure. The EMH communicates with the LMA in each blade’s PCI slot.

^{Note 2}
The PCI slot that hosts the sensor board is not the same as that which hosts third-party adapters.  Even with an LMA installed, a PCI expansion slot is still available for an adapter in the 8U LaserBlade.