Please note that this article has been updated to correct some information Welcome to part two of our exploration of the HP c3000 Blade System. If you need a recap, part 1 is here. Last time we looked at the front of the system that can host up to eight half-size blades but can mount also larger blades, up to four, after removing the center divider. The back of the unit has room for up to six power supply module Please note that this article has been updated to correct some information Welcome to part two of our exploration of the HP c3000 Blade System. If you need a recap, part 1 is here. Last time we looked at the front of the system that can host up to eight half-size blades but can mount also larger blades, up to four, after removing the center divider. The back of the unit has room for up to six power supply modules, six fans and four switches, but while I had all six fan slots filled, only 1 switch and 4 power supplies were installed on my system. Those six fans are noisy, especially at power on. However, after a few seconds of much louder noise the system quiets down to the point where its humming is indistinguishable from the racket of other machines in my lab. Nevertheless, this is not a system that I would install in an open space office nor close to my desk. It should live behind a closed door either in a computer room or in a wiring closet.The power supply modules of the c3000 can be configured for maximum resilience and optimal use of energy. To do that you use the browser- based client of the Onboard Manager, one of the administrative tools of the system, where you can find intuitive steps to adjust the behavior of the power supply to your preference. I also liked Dynamic Power, in essence an option to optimize the energy used consolidating the supply on fewer modules. If keeping the energy cost under control is a concern, Onboard Manager includes an applet that reports several metrics of power usage. For example, the average, minimum and peek watts used by the system over time. Installing the c3000 on the lowest shelf as I did makes using the built-in console very uncomfortable. However, after setting the IP address of the Administrator Module all other configuration settings can be done, more comfortably, from Onboard Administrator. You shouldn’t and you don’t need to, because Onboard Administrator covers all what the built-in console can do and more. For example, you can manage multiple blade systems from the same screen. The c3000 doesn’t ship with a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) module, so without one access to each server’s console is either via remote connectivity or using a dongle that plugs into a dedicated server port and has USB connections for mouse and keyboard, plus a VGA and a serial port. The dongle can be hot plugged into any server, but gets in the way of the on-board display when connected to the first server on the bottom left. In alternative, one of the USB ports can be used to connect a USB drive to a server.To sum up my first impressions after this second peek at the c3000, I like the management tools, not sure that saving money on a KVM is such a good idea, and can only give thumbs up to the environmental features of the system. Although it was not installed on my system, an optional KVM module is available and mounts in one of the empty slots in the back of the unit, just above the left bank of power supply modules.Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more. In future reports we’ll focus on how the c3000 behave when we make it work. Technology Industry