eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Sun Fire X4500

Suns X4500 storage server packs a pair of Opteron CPUs, 16GB of RAM and 24TB of storage in a 4U chassis. A single standard 42U rack can fit up to 10 X4500 servers.

The back of the X4500 features four gigabit Ethernet ports, a single 10/100Base-T Ethernet port for server management and two USB ports. Two additional USB ports are located on the front panel. Power is provided by two redundant, hot-swappable powe

The controller board can be removed separately to access the dual Opteron processors, RAM and PCI-X slots.

Each of the servers 48 top-loading hot-swappable disk drives have three LEDs indicating their status. In the event of a disk error, the LED changes from green to amber. A blue LED signals its OK to remove the drive from the system.

In keeping with the cable-free design, the X4500s redundant, hot-pluggable fan modules are equipped with SATA (Serial ATA) connectors.