The ION Advantage

1. ION Computer Systems, Inc. has a track record of building and supporting high-quality custom servers since 1992.

2. All ION systems are built, tested and supported from ION's headquarters in Long Island, NY, USA.

3. ION is an Intel Channel Partner Premier Member for 2010 and has been a member of this exclusive program since 1998 when ION became the first company in the world to qualify. ION engineers have been certified by Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, Red Hat and other industry leaders.

4. All of the components used by ION are chosen from tested compatibility lists to assure that all parts of a server work together. For example, memory modules are chosen from the Intel Tested Memory List for the Intel ServerBoard selected.

5. All specified components are then purchased directly from the manufacturer or an authorized distributor. No components are purchased on the so-called “gray market” where the cost of saving a few dollars is questionable handling practices, improper storage or lack of warranty coverage.

6. System serial numbers and packaging may be provided by ION or by the customer at the customer's discretion. Either way, serial numbers are programmed into the system's FRU and DMI tables.

7. Support of ION servers is facilitated through ION's orion program, an ION exclusive data collection program that gathers and assembles DMI, IPMI, FRU, Sensor, System Event Log, RAID state and log, and other configuration information, and transfers the data to ION's secure website for coordinating diagnosis and repair between customers, ION engineers and ION field engineers.

8. All ION servers ship with ION's unique “scorpion device”. scorpion includes diagnostic tests, the orion program, and the files and tools needed to restore the firmware versions applied to the system when it was manufactured. This bootable USB Flash device enables all of this support despite the operating system, tools installed, or state of the boot drive in the system.

9. Worldwide field service is available. Service terms of up to 5 years are available. 7-day x 24-hour on-site service contracts with a 4-hour response are available. Service contracts including on-site diagnosis and repair are available.

10. Advanced warranty replacement is included on all components.

11. All ION servers undergo extended full-system diagnostic testing. Test results are retained for each system.

12. Each ION system is thoroughly documented. Examples below are all excerpts from the much more complete dataset retained:

• All components serial numbers are bar-code scanned into the integration record:

- 9690SA-8I-KIT 3Ware L340503B8440677

A ST3500620SS Seagate 3QM0114W

B ST3500620SS Seagate 3QM10WTZ

C ST3500620SS Seagate 3QM01X0F

D ST3500620SS Seagate 3QM0101W

• Serial numbers are also captured electronically from components and many sub-components:

DMI: System: ION A20 31053 73684A92-F4DC-11DD-ABCD-000BBA086EB6

FRU: Product ION A20 A20 31053 ION A20 #11053->GoodCustomer

DMI: Base Board: Intel S5000PAL0 BZAU93600964 ION A20 #31053-> GoodCustomer

FRU: BaseBoard Fri Feb 6 00:54:00 2009 Intel S5000PAL0 BZAU93600964 E50232-100 FRU Ver 0.05

DMI: Chassis: Intel Rack Mount Chassis SR2500LX BZDS90401398 ION A20 #11053->DSI

FRU: Chassis Rack-Mount Chassis SR2500LX BZDS90401398 Intel

FRU: Chassis FRUs

SDR[006b] FRU 20 04 15 01 Power Dist.FRU DELTA AC-050 A P/N:D20851-010 07 S/N:DLD0852527530 --

SDR[006c] FRU 20 02 0a 01 Pwr Supply 1 FRU DELTA DPS-750EBA P/N:D20850-006 04 S/N:DLD0855054175 --

SDR[006d] FRU 20 03 0a 02 Pwr Supply 2 FRU DELTA DPS-750EBA P/N:D20850-006 04 S/N:DLD0841054025 --

SDR[006f] IPMB c0 00 0f 01 HSBP PRIMARY Mfg DateTime: Sun Feb 8 17:36:00 2009 Manufacturer: Intel Product Name: SR2500BP HSBP: S/N:BZAU90654945: P/N:D25538-402 FRU File ID: FRU Ver 1.00

• Assembly numbers and revision levels are captured electronically for many components and sub-components:

SDR[006d] FRU 20 03 0a 02 Pwr Supply 2 FRU

Component FRU Size : 256

Product Manufacturer: DELTA

Product Name : DPS-750EBA

Product Part Number : D20850-006

Product Version : 04

Product Serial Num : DLD0841054025

Product Asset Tag :

Product FRU File ID :

SDR[006e] IPMB 20 00 07 01 Basbrd Mgmt Ctlr

SDR[006f] IPMB c0 00 0f 01 HSBP PRIMARY

Component FRU Size : 256

Board Mfg DateTime : Sun Feb 8 17:36:00 2009

Board Manufacturer : Intel

Board Product Name : SR2500BP HSBP

Board Serial Number : BZAU90654945

Board Part Number : D25538-402

Board FRU File ID : FRU Ver 1.00

• BIOS, BMC, Management Engine, FRU/SDR tables, HSC, RAID controller and disk drive firmware versions are all captured and recorded. All are updated to the latest version (or to customer specifications) as needed.

BIOS: S5000.86B.11.00.0096.011320091422

BIOS Version.......... S5000.86B.11.00.0096.011320091422

BMC Firmware Version:

Op Code............. 0.64

PIA................. 0.03

Boot Code........... 0.42

HSC Firmware Version:

Op Code............. 2.09

Boot Code........... 2.09

SDR Version........... 47

SDR Package Version... 47

• Full details of RAID controller, RAID configuration, port-disk assignments, and interface state are recorded from each RAID controller:

Product Name : Intel(R) RAID Controller SROMBSAS18E

Serial No :

FW Package Build: 7.0.1-0061

Image Versions In Flash:

================

Boot Block Version : R.2.3.15

BIOS Version : MT33

MPT Version : MPTFW-01.18.78.00-IT

FW Version : 1.12.200-0527

WebBIOS Version : 1.1-33f-e_11-Rel

Ctrl-R Version : 1.04-019A

Adapter 0 -- Virtual Drive Information:

Virtual Disk: 0 (Target Id: 0)

Name:

RAID Level: Primary-1, Secondary-0, RAID Level Qualifier-0

Size:237464MB

State: Optimal

Stripe Size: 64kB

Number Of Drives:2

Span Depth:1

Enclosure ID: 10 Slot: 0 state: Online ST3250310NS SN05 9SFDRFXS

Enclosure ID: 10 Slot: 1 state: Online ST3250310NS SN05 9SFDTX8Z

• Full DMI report is recorded, including Processor and Memory details:

1 Intel(R) Corporation Type 0, Family 6, Model 17, Stepping A Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5405 @ 2.00GHz

2 Intel(R) Corporation Type 0, Family 6, Model 17, Stepping A Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5405 @ 2.00GHz

8 processors: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5405 @ 2.00GHz MHz : 1995.002

ONBOARD DIMM_A1: 2048 MB, 64 /72 bits, 667 MHz, Mfr: 0194, PN: SG2567FBD12852HCDC, SN: 40D37015

ONBOARD DIMM_A2:

ONBOARD DIMM_B1: 2048 MB, 64 /72 bits, 667 MHz, Mfr: 0194, PN: SG2567FBD12852HCDC, SN: A0D37015

ONBOARD DIMM_B2:

ONBOARD DIMM_C1: 2048 MB, 64 /72 bits, 667 MHz, Mfr: 0194, PN: SG2567FBD12852HCDC, SN: 486D0410

ONBOARD DIMM_C2:

ONBOARD DIMM_D1: 2048 MB, 64 /72 bits, 667 MHz, Mfr: 0194, PN: SG2567FBD12852HCDC, SN: C0D37015

ONBOARD DIMM_D2:

____________________________________________________________________

MemTotal: 8149956 kB

• PCI Device list and details are recorded, including Ethernet MAC addresses:

07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Enterprise Southbridge DPT LAN Copper (rev 01)

07:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Enterprise Southbridge DPT LAN Copper (rev 01)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:17:A8:0E:A8

inet addr:10.0.2.152 Bcast:10.0.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:17:A8:0E:A9

BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0

NOARP MTU:1480 Metric:1

0a:00.0 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp.: 2432 (rev 03)

0a:00.1 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp.: 2432 (rev 03)

• IPMI is configured for remote manageability. Full IPMI configuration details are recorded, including BMC MAC addresses:

BMC LAN1: IP address: 192 168 168 153 MAC addr: 00 15 17 a8 0e aa

BMC LAN2: IP address: 192 168 169 153 MAC addr: 00 15 17 a8 0e ab

BMC LAN3: IP address: 192 168 170 153 MAC addr: 00 0d 5d 05 19 8c

• Full sensor readings are recorded during the quality check for comparison with field data:

0009 SDR Full 01 36 20 a 02 snum 1a BB +12V AUX = c1 OK 11.97 Volts

000a SDR Full 01 33 20 a 02 snum 1b BB +0.9V = bd OK 0.91 Volts

000b SDR Full 01 3b 20 a 01 snum 30 Serverboard Temp = 21 OK 33.00 degrees C

000c SDR Full 01 3a 20 a 01 snum 32 Ctrl Panel Temp = 17 OK 23.00 degrees C

000d SDR Full 01 30 20 m 04 snum 50 Fan 1 = 5c OK 3956.00 RPM

000e SDR Full 01 30 20 m 04 snum 51 Fan 2 = 62 OK 4214.00 RPM

000f SDR Full 01 30 20 m 04 snum 52 Fan 3 = 5d OK 3999.00 RPM

0010 SDR Full 01 30 20 m 04 snum 53 Fan 4 = 67 OK 4429.00 RPM

0011 SDR Full 01 30 20 m 04 snum 54 Fan 5 = 67 OK 6386.00 RPM

0012 SDR Full 01 30 20 m 04 snum 55 Fan 6 = 5d OK 5766.00 RPM

0013 SDR Full 01 39 20 a 03 snum 78 PS1 AC Current = 10 OK 0.99 Amps

0014 SDR Full 01 39 20 a 03 snum 79 PS2 AC Current = 0d OK 0.81 Amps

14. Finally, each ION system is photographed, inside and out, to document component arrangement, drive placement and cabling. Such photo-documentation is a huge benefit in field service, allowing a field technician to be fully familiar with even highly customized servers before arriving on site and providing that technician with a visual record of the exact assembly of that specific server.