Networks have become an integral part of most organizations these days. Today more and more employees are accessing the network for Internet, intranet, other network-based applications, or for simply sharing files across a group of people. In such a scenario, the cost of a server shutdown can be pretty high for an organization, as it would not only affect all the PCs connected to the server but also the productivity of the organization. Server manufacturers are coming out with various solutions to improve server reliability and to meet the increasing demand of high server availability across organizations. PCI hotplug is one step towards this.

So, what’s PCI hotplug, you may ask

PCI hotplug is an open, industry-standard technology pioneered by Compaq, and is increasingly being used in servers these days. It’s aimed at eliminating server downtime by making it easy to add, replace, and remove PCI cards while the server is up and running. Products with hotplug functionality primarily support three things: Hot replacement, Hot upgrade, and Hot expansion. Hot replacement is the process of replacing a failed or failing PCI card without shutting down the server. Hot upgrade is upgrading your PCI adapter card by using either an updated PCI card or by installing the latest updated driver for your PCI card. PCI hot expansion is nothing but adding additional PCI cards without shutting down the server.

PCI hotplug works best when used in conjunction with other fault-tolerant tools like RAID controllers. These tools keep the server running when a particular device fails by automatically transferring traffic to the standby device, and the hotplug feature lets you replace the faulty components without shutting down the machine. For example, if the primary network interface card of a server fails, then due to the fault-tolerant tools, the network traffic will automatically shift to the standby or secondary NIC (Network Interface Card) and the system will continue to run. Now, if the server supports hotplug functionality, it will notify the administrator of the failed NIC, which can then be replaced without shutting down the machine.

Thus, PCI hotplug improves productivity by giving you uninterrupted service. Plus, you save time in looking around for faulty devices in your server, making it fairly easily to manage and service various components.

Another advantage of PCI hotplug is that it’s compatible with previous PCI standards. So any new hotplug system hardware or adapter would also work with existing PCI-compliant systems. Also, since it’s an open industry-standard solution, multiple vendors can implement PCI hotplug solutions, giving you a much wider base of products to choose from.