Server Naming Conventions
Server Naming Conventions: A Technical Deep Dive into the Genesis-X Series Configuration Standard
This document outlines the established technical specifications, performance baseline, deployment recommendations, and maintenance protocols for the standardized server platform designated under the **Genesis-X Series** architecture. This standard configuration is critical for ensuring asset management consistency, streamlining support processes, and optimizing resource allocation across the enterprise infrastructure.
1. Hardware Specifications
The Genesis-X platform is defined by a rigorous set of component standards designed to balance high-density compute power with energy efficiency and serviceability. All systems adhering to this standard must meet or exceed the specifications detailed below.
1.1 Chassis and Form Factor
The base platform utilizes a 2U rack-mountable chassis, optimized for high airflow and dense component integration.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Form Factor | 2U Rackmount (800mm depth) |
| Motherboard Support | Dual-Socket Proprietary EEB |
| Drive Bays (Hot-Swap) | 24 x 2.5" NVMe/SAS3 Bays |
| Expansion Slots | 8 x PCIe Gen 5 x16 slots (6 accessible externally) |
| Power Supply Units (PSU) | 2+1 Redundant, Titanium Efficiency (2200W Rated) |
| Cooling System | Front-to-Rear High-Static Pressure Fan Array (N+1 Configuration) |
1.2 Central Processing Units (CPU)
The Genesis-X standard mandates the use of the latest generation enterprise-grade processors, supporting high core counts and extensive memory channels.
| Component | Specification Requirement |
|---|---|
| Processor Family | Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids/Emerald Rapids) or AMD EPYC Genoa/Bergamo |
| Minimum Cores per Socket | 48 Physical Cores |
| Total Socket Count | 2 Sockets |
| Base Clock Speed (Minimum) | 2.5 GHz |
| L3 Cache (Minimum Aggregate) | 192 MB Total |
| TDP Envelope (Per Socket Max) | 350W |
| Supported Instruction Sets | AVX-512, AMX (Intel) / AVX-512, SME/SEV (AMD) |
Further details on processor selection criteria are available in the Infrastructure Design Guide.
1.3 Memory (RAM) Subsystem
Memory configuration is critical for virtualization and high-performance database workloads. The system supports DDR5 technology exclusively, utilizing high-density Registered DIMMs (RDIMMs).
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Technology | DDR5 RDIMM |
| Maximum Capacity (Total) | 8 TB (32 x 256GB DIMMs) |
| Minimum Installed Capacity | 1024 GB (1 TB) |
| Configuration Strategy | 16-channel interleaving (8 channels per CPU populated) |
| Minimum Speed Grade | 4800 MT/s (JEDEC Profile 1) |
| Error Correction | ECC mandatory |
The memory topology must adhere strictly to the Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) balancing protocols to prevent cross-socket latency penalties.
1.4 Storage Subsystem
Storage performance is a primary differentiator for the Genesis-X platform, focusing on low-latency, high-throughput solutions.
1.4.1 Boot and OS Drives
Boot drives utilize dedicated, internal M.2 NVMe modules managed by the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) interface for independent operation.
- **Quantity:** 2 (Mirrored via RAID 1)
- **Type:** Enterprise M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4 x4
- **Capacity (Each):** 1.92 TB
1.4.2 Primary Data Storage
The 24 front bays are allocated for high-speed data serving, typically configured for tiered storage arrays.
| Bay Group | Drive Type | Quantity | RAID Level | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group A (Performance Tier) | U.2 NVMe (PCIe Gen 5) | 8 | RAID 10 | Tier 0/1 Application Data |
| Group B (Capacity Tier) | SAS3 SSD (2.5" 15mm Z-Height) | 16 | RAID 6 | Tier 2/3 Virtual Machine Storage |
Total raw storage capacity for the default configuration exceeds 100 TB. Detailed configuration of the PCIe Gen 5 RAID controller is required for deployment sign-off.
1.5 Networking Interfaces
Network connectivity is standardized to support high-bandwidth east-west traffic within the rack cluster.
| Port Type | Quantity | Speed & Interface | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseboard Management (Dedicated) | 1 | 1GbE RJ-45 (IPMI/Redfish) | Out-of-Band Management |
| Host Fabric Interface (HFI) | 2 | 200 GbE QSFP-DD (PCIe Gen 5 x16 adapter) | Primary Compute Network (RDMA Capable) |
| Storage Fabric Interface (SFI) | 2 | 100 GbE QSFP28 (PCIe Gen 5 x8 adapter) | iSCSI/NVMe-oF Target Access |
The HFI adapters must support RoCE v2 (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) capabilities to maximize fabric performance. Network Interface Card Qualification procedures mandate specific firmware versions.
1.6 Power and Thermal Management
The system operates on a 200-240V AC input, leveraging dual, hot-swappable 2200W Titanium-rated PSUs.
- **Power Density:** Maximum sustained draw is rated at 3.5 kW under full load simulation (CPU 100%, 16 drives active).
- **Power Redundancy:** N+1 configuration standard for PSUs.
- **Thermal Thresholds:** Idle ambient temperature target: 18°C. Maximum sustained operating temperature (inlet): 27°C. Thermal Management Policies must be strictly enforced.
2. Performance Characteristics
The Genesis-X configuration is benchmarked to deliver superior performance in I/O-intensive and highly parallelized computational tasks. All performance metrics are derived from standardized testing environments using the Unified Server Validation Suite (USVS v3.1).
2.1 CPU Performance Benchmarks
The dual-socket configuration provides significant compute density. The following table summarizes key synthetic benchmark results compared to the previous generation (Genesis-B, dual-socket Platinum 8380 configuration).
| Benchmark Suite | Metric | Genesis-X (Standard) | Genesis-B (Previous Gen) | Improvement (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPECrate 2017 Integer | Score | 2,850 | 1,980 | 43.9% |
| SPECrate 2017 Floating Point | Score | 3,100 | 2,050 | 51.2% |
| Linpack Benchmark (FP64) | TFLOPS (Aggregate) | 15.8 TFLOPS | 9.2 TFLOPS | 71.7% |
The substantial increase in Floating Point performance (FP64) is directly attributable to the enhanced vector processing units (AVX-512/AMX) and increased memory bandwidth inherent in the new CPU architecture. Vector Processing Performance Analysis provides deeper insight.
2.2 Memory Bandwidth and Latency
Achieving optimal NUMA utilization depends heavily on memory subsystem performance.
- **Aggregate Bandwidth (Read):** Measured at 780 GB/s across all 16 channels.
- **Latency (Single-Socket Access):** Average latency to local memory bank measured at 55 ns.
- **Latency (Cross-Socket Access):** Average latency to remote memory bank measured at 110 ns.
These figures highlight the importance of application threading models that minimize cross-socket memory access, as remote access incurs a near 2x penalty. NUMA Latency Mitigation Strategies offers coding guidelines.
2.3 Storage I/O Throughput and IOPS
Storage performance is paramount. The configuration uses PCIe Gen 5 lanes for direct controller access, maximizing throughput potential.
2.3.1 Sequential Throughput
Testing conducted on the 8-drive NVMe RAID 10 tier (Group A).
- **Read Sequential:** 45 GB/s
- **Write Sequential:** 38 GB/s
2.3.2 Random IOPS
Testing conducted using 4K block size, 70% Read / 30% Write mix, QD=256.
- **Random Read IOPS:** 4.1 Million IOPS
- **Random Write IOPS:** 1.8 Million IOPS
This level of I/O performance allows the Genesis-X series to sustain extremely high transaction rates required by OLTP databases and high-frequency trading applications. NVMe Storage Performance Metrics defines the testing methodology.
2.4 Network Latency
With 200GbE HFI connectivity, network latency is minimized, crucial for clustered services (e.g., distributed databases, hyper-converged infrastructure).
- **TCP/IP Latency (Ping):** < 1.5 microseconds (to adjacent switch port)
- **RDMA Latency (Send/Receive):** < 0.7 microseconds (Point-to-Point)
The low latency provided by RoCE allows for near-memory access performance across the cluster fabric. RDMA Implementation Guide is required reading for fabric administrators.
3. Recommended Use Cases
The Genesis-X configuration is specifically engineered for workloads demanding extreme compute density, high I/O throughput, and low latency communication. It is generally *over-provisioned* for standard web hosting or simple file serving.
3.1 High-Performance Computing (HPC) Clusters
The combination of high FP64 performance, massive memory capacity, and low-latency RDMA networking makes this platform ideal for scientific simulations.
- **Ideal Workloads:** Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Molecular Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis (FEA).
- **Key Benefit:** Maximized utilization of vector processing units for tightly coupled parallel tasks. HPC Cluster Deployment Standards must be followed.
3.2 Enterprise Database Management Systems (DBMS)
The storage subsystem is the bottleneck eliminator for transactional workloads.
- **Ideal Workloads:** Tier 0/1 Oracle RAC, Microsoft SQL Server (In-Memory OLTP), large-scale PostgreSQL instances.
- **Key Benefit:** Sustained high random IOPS to handle millions of concurrent transactions without I/O queuing.
3.3 Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure
For hosting performance-sensitive virtual machines (VMs) or containerized environments requiring dedicated compute resources.
- **Ideal Workloads:** VDI clusters (high-end engineering desktops), Kubernetes control planes, high-density Telco Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
- **Key Benefit:** High core count per socket facilitates dense VM consolidation while high RAM capacity supports large memory footprints per guest OS. Virtualization Density Planning addresses consolidation ratios.
3.4 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Training
While dedicated GPU accelerators are often preferred for deep learning inference, the Genesis-X serves as an exceptional CPU-based training platform or as a high-speed data pre-processing node for GPU farms.
- **Ideal Workloads:** Data ingestion, feature engineering pipelines, traditional ML algorithms (e.g., XGBoost, Random Forests) that benefit from high core counts.
- **Key Consideration:** For deep learning inference requiring massive matrix multiplication, the system should incorporate the optional PCIe Accelerator Module Slots for specialized hardware.
4. Comparison with Similar Configurations
To contextualize the Genesis-X standard, it is compared against two other common enterprise server profiles: the **Apex-M Series** (a high-density, single-socket optimized machine) and the **Titan-H Series** (a legacy high-capacity storage server).
4.1 Comparative Specification Matrix
| Feature | Genesis-X (Standard Compute) | Apex-M (Single Socket Density) | Titan-H (Storage Optimized) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Socket Count | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Max Cores (Aggregate) | 128 (Standard) | 64 (Max) | 96 (Max) |
| Max RAM Capacity | 8 TB | 4 TB | 6 TB |
| Primary Storage Interface | PCIe Gen 5 NVMe (24 Bays) | PCIe Gen 5 NVMe (8 Bays) | SAS3/SATA III (72 Bays) |
| Base Network Speed | 200 GbE HFI | 100 GbE Ethernet | 50 GbE Ethernet |
| Primary Use Case | HPC, High-I/O DBMS | Edge Compute, Light Virtualization | Cold/Warm Data Archival |
4.2 Performance Trade-off Analysis
The primary trade-off when selecting Genesis-X over Apex-M is the increased operational complexity associated with managing dual-socket NUMA domains versus the raw computational density achieved.
- **Genesis-X Advantage:** Superior aggregate memory bandwidth (nearly double Apex-M) and significantly higher aggregate I/O capability (4x the NVMe lanes).
- **Apex-M Advantage:** Lower per-node power consumption and licensing costs (often CPU socket-based).
When compared to the Titan-H, the Genesis-X sacrifices raw drive count for vastly superior processing power and lower-latency storage access. Titan-H focuses on maximizing raw GB/$, whereas Genesis-X focuses on maximizing IOPS/$. Server Platform Selection Criteria provides a decision tree framework.
4.3 Cost of Ownership Modeling
While the initial Capital Expenditure (CapEx) for Genesis-X is the highest due to premium components (PCIe Gen 5 NVMe, 200GbE NICs), the Operational Expenditure (OpEx) benefits from higher workload consolidation ratios. A single Genesis-X node can often replace 1.5 to 2 Apex-M nodes for compute-bound tasks, leading to lower rack space, power draw per workload unit, and management overhead over a five-year lifecycle. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Modeling documentation supports this conclusion.
5. Maintenance Considerations
The high-performance nature of the Genesis-X configuration necessitates strict adherence to specialized maintenance protocols, particularly concerning thermal management, power delivery, and firmware lifecycle.
5.1 Thermal Management and Airflow
The 350W TDP CPUs generate significant heat density within the 2U chassis.
- **Rack Density Limit:** To maintain the 27°C inlet temperature maximum, the maximum density in a standard 42U rack is limited to 20 units (40 servers total), assuming a 12 kW per-rack power limit and appropriate hot/cold aisle containment. Data Center Thermal Design Guide specifies airflow requirements.
- **Fan Control:** The BMC utilizes a dynamic fan control algorithm based on the aggregate CPU package temperature. Any sustained temperature readings above 85°C under load should trigger an automated alert and investigation (Reference: BMC Alert Threshold Configuration).
5.2 Power Requirements and Redundancy
The dual 2200W Titanium PSUs require high-quality, stable power input.
- **Input Requirements:** Dual PDU feeds (A-side and B-side) are mandatory. Each PSU requires a dedicated 20A circuit at 208V AC due to inrush current during startup under high load.
- **PSU Failure Handling:** In the event of a single PSU failure, the remaining PSU must be capable of sustaining the system at 90% load capacity for a minimum of 72 hours to allow for replacement without service interruption. Power Subsystem Reliability Testing confirms this capability.
5.3 Firmware and Driver Lifecycle Management
The complex integration of PCIe Gen 5 components, high-speed NICs, and specialized storage controllers requires rigorous firmware management.
- **Firmware Baseline:** All deployed units must maintain the **GX-FW-2024.Q3** baseline or newer for BIOS, BMC, and all critical Option ROMs (RAID, HBA, NIC).
- **Driver Dependency:** Operating System kernel drivers for the 200GbE HFI fabric must be explicitly validated against the host OS version. Incompatible driver versions often lead to unpredictable RDMA errors or fabric disconnection. OS Driver Qualification Process dictates validation cycles.
5.4 Serviceability and Component Replacement
The 2U form factor requires specialized procedures for drive and memory replacement.
- **Hot-Swap Limitations:** While drives are hot-swappable, memory modules (DIMMs) are **not** hot-swappable due to the high power draw and complex DDR5 signaling integrity requirements. Memory replacement requires system shutdown and cold-aisle access. Component Replacement Procedures must be followed precisely.
- **Component Tagging:** Every major component (CPU, DIMM banks, RAID Controller, HFI Adapters) must have a unique Asset Tag linked in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to facilitate rapid spares allocation and warranty tracking.
5.5 Monitoring and Telemetry
Effective management relies on continuous telemetry ingestion from the BMC via the Redfish API. Critical telemetry points include:
1. CPU Core Power Draw (Instantaneous Watts) 2. Memory Channel Error Counters (ECC Corrected/Uncorrected) 3. Storage Controller Cache Write-Back Status 4. Fan Speeds (RPM)
Alert thresholds for Uncorrected ECC errors (threshold of 5 per 24-hour period) must trigger proactive DIMM replacement scheduling, as per Predictive Failure Analysis Protocols.
The Genesis-X standard represents the pinnacle of current enterprise server technology, demanding stringent operational standards to realize its full performance potential.
Intel-Based Server Configurations
| Configuration | Specifications | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Core i7-6700K/7700 Server | 64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 512 GB | CPU Benchmark: 8046 |
| Core i7-8700 Server | 64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2x1 TB | CPU Benchmark: 13124 |
| Core i9-9900K Server | 128 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 1 TB | CPU Benchmark: 49969 |
| Core i9-13900 Server (64GB) | 64 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i9-13900 Server (128GB) | 128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i5-13500 Server (64GB) | 64 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i5-13500 Server (128GB) | 128 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i5-13500 Workstation | 64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2 NVMe SSD, NVIDIA RTX 4000 |
AMD-Based Server Configurations
| Configuration | Specifications | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 5 3600 Server | 64 GB RAM, 2x480 GB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 17849 |
| Ryzen 7 7700 Server | 64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2x1 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 35224 |
| Ryzen 9 5950X Server | 128 GB RAM, 2x4 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 46045 |
| Ryzen 9 7950X Server | 128 GB DDR5 ECC, 2x2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 63561 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/1TB) | 128 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/2TB) | 128 GB RAM, 2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/4TB) | 128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/1TB) | 256 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/4TB) | 256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 9454P Server | 256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe |
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⚠️ *Note: All benchmark scores are approximate and may vary based on configuration. Server availability subject to stock.* ⚠️