The Truth About White-Box Servers
The server offers integrated Serial Attached SCSI, or SAS connectivity. SAS continues the progress of SCSI technology in much the same way as Serial ATA (SATA) has taken the spotlight away from parallel ATA. SAS offers 3-Gbps throughput per port, which is more than four times the bandwidth of SCSI. SAS offers eight ports per controller and can scale to up to 128 devices on a single controller, compared with parallel SCSI's maximum of 16 drives per controller. Because SAS is compatible with SATA, high-performance SAS drives can be combined with low-cost SATA drives on the same backplane. This allows for more versatile and cost-effective storage configurations.
SCSI Enclosure Services 2, or SES2, also is offered in the SuperServer 7044H-32R. SES2 provides health and monitoring information for SAS drives. SES2 has alarms and alerts for drive, temperature and fan failures. The server's cooling system consists of four hot-swappable cooling fans and two hot-swappable rear exhaust fans. The redundant cooling system lets the server run at full speed even if one of the fans should fail. Three 760-watt hot-swap power supplies keep the server running at all times. Other safety measures include monitoring of the CPU cores, fan status, internal temperature and chassis intrusion.
A bare-bones version of the SuperServer 7044H-32R costs less than $1,500. Making the system functional requires the addition of one or two Xeon processors and passive copper heat sinks, at least two DDRII 400MHz memory DIMMs and at least one 3.5-inch SAS or SATA hard drive. The Xeon processors will support both 64-bit and 32-bit operating systems. A dual-channel memory bus supports up to 16 Gbytes of ECC DDRII 400 SDRAM in eight DIMM sockets. Graphics processing is handled by an ATI Rage XL PCI video controller with 8 Mbytes of video memory. Ports include dual Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, one serial port and one parallel port. Expansion slots include one 64-bit 133MHz PCI-X, two 64-bit 100MHz PCI-X, two PCI-Express x8 and one legacy PCI.
The 4U server comes in tower form but can easily be converted to rack-mount. The drive-bay module houses two 5.25-inch bays for optical drives and one 3.5-inch bay for a floppy drive or other small peripheral. Chassis mounting rails are required for rack-mount installations. Inside the chassis are eight 1-inch hot-swap SAS/SATA drive bays. In tower form, the chassis measures 17.2 inches high by 7 inches wide by 25.5 inches deep. It weighs about 70 pounds and comes in beige or black.
The SuperServer 7044H-32R was tested for performance using PassMark's PerformanceTest software, which can be downloaded and used for free by anyone for up to 30 days. Note that both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the benchmark are available. Though Supermicro sells the server only as a bare-bones unit, the CRN Test Center's sample unit was equipped with two dual-core 2.8GHz Xeon processors and 512 Mbytes of memory. Running the 32-bit PerformanceTest, the server scored 614.8, the highest score ever generated by a 32-bit system reviewed by the Test Center. Running the same benchmark adapted for a 64-bit environment, the server earned an even higher score of 807.8. In short, the SuperServer 7044H-32R is an incredibly fast and powerful server.
Supermicro approaches the hardware channel with a three-tier partner program. Primarily broken down by sales figures, the partner tiers are aimed toward volume. The Gold Distributor level requires $5 million in annual Supermicro sales; Authorized Distributors must meet a $2 million goal; and VAPs (value-added partners) must reach $1 million annually.
Those sales goals might be difficult for smaller VARs to obtain, but in most cases those VARs can use the distribution channel to get the products. VARs selling racks of servers to enterprise accounts may be able to meet the lower-level sales goals, but there are other obstacles to overcome, namely a minimum requirement for authorized partners to meet $50,000 per month for the first six months of the program.
Supermicro did not release margin information but said its margins are competitive with those of other large hardware vendors. The company offers free classroom, online Web-based, on-site, video and audio training workshops, as well as free training sessions at trade shows and road shows. Supermicro also offers partners three levels of free technical support.
Much of the channel support offered by Supermicro revolves around name recognition. That marketing effort should help VARs sell the company's products and build a technical following.