What is Blade Server? Everything You Need to Know

What is Blade Server
Blade Server

In the server world, we used three types of server Machines. These are Tower server, Rack server, and Blade server. In the data center industry, we commonly used the Rack server and Blade server.

Before the Blade server concept coming Rack Servers are mostly used server machines. But in recent days Blade server is commonly used. In this article, we discuss what is Blade Server? what its benefit, how it works?

What is Blade Server?

A blade server is a combination of a server machine that allows multiple servers in the dimed area. All servers hold on a Blade enclosure. This blade enclosure is used for power, cooling, and networking.


So there is no cooling system, networking system, and power supply system on every server. But each server has different CPU, RAM, storage, and integrated network controllers.

This type of server system used when there is required high processing power and enough storage, like Large data center or Network-attached storage. There have lots of server working combine. In a large chassis (enclosure) multiple blade servers slide into the enclosure.

Which Company Offers This Type of Server?

First, this type of server making company was RLX Technologies. In 2001 RLX Technologies invented the Blade server Technology.

RLX Technologies first start commercial selling of the Blade server. Then Supermicro introduces their first Supermicro SBI-7228R-T2X. But this company doesn't generally lead in this market in the long run.

Blade server
Supermicro SBI 7228R

After 2010, HP, Cisco, IBM, DELL, all these four lead companies serving this type of server to their user.

Best 20 Blade Server name are given below:

  1. HPE Blade Systems
  2. Dell EMC Servers
  3. UCS B200 M4
  4. UCS 5100 Series Chassis
  5. UCS B200 M5
  6. Dell PowerEdge M
  7. HPE Proliant ML
  8. HPE SGI 8600 System
  9. NEC Sigmablade-H
  10. Dell Power Edge Blades
  11. Dell PowerEdge C
  12. Huawei General-Purpose Servers
  13. Dell PowerEdge T
  14. Hitachi Compute Blade (Blade Symphony)
  15. NEC Sigmablade-M
  16. Supermicro MicroBlade
  17. Supermicro SuperBlade
  18. UCS B260 M4
  19. UCS B420 M4
  20. B460 M4

What are the Blade Server Advantages?

These are the advantages of Blade Server:

  • Reduced energy costs
  • Space savings
  • Reduced power and cooling expenses
  • Redundancy
  • Reduced cabling
  • Reduced data center footprint
  • Increased storage capacity
  • The low total cost of ownership
  • Minimum administration

Below are Some detail explanation of the advantages:

1. The centralized system of management:- In this type of machine lots of servers slide into an enclosure and every server connected to a single interface system. So your server controls each server in one place.

If any software problem creates in the system then you fix it into a single location. You don’t need to visit multiple server rooms. Any other server machine system is not possible to some extent.

2. Occupy small space:- In technological world size too much matter for any type of gadget or machine. The blade server machine is one of the smallest server machine, which is currently available in the market.


This type of server size is small but processing power or any type of power is the same. If you are building a data center and your space is limited, this type of server is best for you. 7U server height - 306.3 mm, width - 444 mm, depth - 733.4 mm, and fully configured system weight - 108.86 kg.

3. Use less cable:- In this server system servers are held into an enclosure. Blade enclosure contains a power to consume machine, cooling machine, and converged network adapter.

So no need for individual servers to connect with the power machine, cooling machine, and network adapter. Only the blade server connects with the enclosure. So in this server machine combination useless cable.

4. Very easy new installation and Fix hardware problem:- If you set up a new data center then you only need a purchase enclosure, Some useful cable, and main server. So you only set these things. No need experience technician to set up this system.

If any problem creates in server hardware. You do not need to shut down the entire system to solve this problem. Only change or fix hardware, which hardware is creating the problem.

What are the Disadvantages of Blade Server?

1. Price Is Very High:- Making this type of server is difficult to some extent. Due to the use of high technology, microprocessors, and more. And this server system also has high operating costs and high power payments.

New HPE ProLiant ML30 Gen 9 - Tower - Exxon E3 - 1240 V6 3.7 GHz - 8 GB Current Price $ 13000, and Cisco UCS B200 M5 - No CPU - 0 GB Current Price $ 2200.


2. Heating Problem:- Heat is less produce compare to any other server system. But Heat dissipates are almost zero it is not possible in this server system. One server can’t form heat. But when many servers put into enclosure then they produce heat.

3. Power off Problem:- In this server system, one major problem is the power off problem. I explain this problem

If one-time enclosure power is off then the whole server system effected by this power of problem. For example, if any task form in a server then the task is maybe close for the reason of power off. This effect may be extant entire chassis.

What is a blade server used for?

Blade servers are designed to overcome the space and power limits of a specific data center environment. The blade enclosure, also known as the chassis, meets the power, cooling, network connectivity, and maintenance requirements of each blade. Each blade server in the enclosure can be dedicated to a single application.

Blade Server can be used for tasks like I have given below:

  • File sharing
  • Database and application hosting
  • SSL encryption of Web communication
  • Hosting virtual server platforms
  • Streaming audio and video content

Do Blade servers have hard drives?

The blade server system can work a lot. Blades are removed modular servers. Blades can support one or two hard drives, or the entire chassis can share a storage system with six or more drives.

How much is a Blade server?

How much does the blade cost the server? You can expect to pay $ 2,000 or more for your newest blade server. This means hardware and labor and installation of server software.

What is a Rack Server?

A rack server, or rack-mounted server, is any server that is set up specifically in the server rack. Rack Server is a general-purpose machine that can be configured to support a wide range of needs.

What is the difference between rack server and blade server?

A rack server is a server that is placed in a standard 42u rack unit, with a typical server starting at 1u and going up. A blade server is a server that is part of a chassis that is rack-mounted, and they are small in size, without their own network connection.

Rack Server vs. Blade Server

In a large data center, only two major server machines are used. The blade server and the Rack server. These two server machines are almost the same. They have a significant difference.

In a Rack server system server stack horizontally. And also every server has an individual power system, Cooling system, and Network adopter. But the Blade server system server stack vertically.

In this server system, all servers are in blade attachment. Every individual server hasn't power, cooling, and network system. Blade enclosure contains a power system, cooling system, and network adopter. All servers are connected to blade enclosure and function to their work.

In the Rack server, useless huge no of cable and also heat dissipate is very high. But on the other hand Blade server useless no of cable and heat dissipate is low compare to other systems.

Final Words

This is all about Blade Server. I hope you did like this article What is Blade Server? Everything You Need to Know. Visit Techtune4you more information like this. Thank you for reading.

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