IBM System x3250 M4 Product Manual

Also see for System x3250 M4: Installation & user guide At-a-glance guide At-a-glance guide Product guide

Contents

A highly-affordable, ultradense, uniprocessor server for edge-of-network and Web-basedcomputing in space-constrained environmentsPlease see the Legal Information section for important notices and information. 5Drive BaysSome x3250 M4 models (3.5-inch HDD models) contain 3 drive bays, while others (2.5-inchHDD models) provide 5 drive bays. All models offer one 5.25-inch bay and either two 3.5-inchsimple-swap SATA HDD bays or four 2.5-inch hot-swap or simple-swap SAS HDD baysstandard. Four 2.5-inch simple-swap SAS HDD bays are available via CTO.The 5.25-inch bay supports an optional optical drive. No internal floppy drive is supported,however an external USB floppy drive may be used, if needed.Hot-swap and simple-swap drives may be inserted or removed through the front of the server.Hot-swap drives do not require powering off the system. Simple-swap SATA drives do requirepowering off the system first; however, no tools or jumpers are required for installation andremoval, allowing for faster, simpler servicing than fixed drives.Large HDD Storage CapacityThe x3250 M4 offers a choice of disk storage, supporting up to two 3.5-inch simple-swapSerial ATA II (SATA II) drives, or two 2.5-inch hot-swap high-performance Serial-Attach SCSI(SAS) drives; up to four 2.5-inch simple-swap SAS drives are supported via CTO.3.5-inch Simple-Swap SATA (6Gbps)• 7,200 RPMs — 250 or 500GB, 1, 2, or 3TB (6.0TB maximum)2.5-inch Simple-Swap SAS (6Gbps)• 10,000 RPMs — 300 or 600GB (2.4TB)• 15,000 RPMs — 146.8GB (587.2GB)2.5-inch Hot-Swap SAS (6Gbps)• 7,200 RPMs — 500GB (2.0TB)• 10,000 RPMs — 300 or 600GB (2.4TB)• 15,000 RPMs — 146.8GB (587.2GB)Notes: Enterprise-class 500GB or higher SATA drives offer increased reliability compared tolower-capacity SATA drives. Simple-swap SATA drives are not hot-swappable (the systemmust first be powered off); however, no tools or jumpers are required for installation andremoval, allowing for faster, simpler servicing than fixed drives. Hot-swap SAS drives use theConverged Tray for interchangeability with other IBM System x® systems.If you need more storage space, terabyte capacities are possible with external direct-attach,NAS, and SAN solutions.Internal BackupThe x3250 M4 supports 3.5-inch internal USB-attached half-high backup options. Supportedtechnologies include:• IBM DDS Gen 6 (USB)• IBM RDX Removable Hard Disk Storage System (USB)—external USB version alsoavailableHigh-Performance Adapter SlotsThe x3250 M4 offers two adapter slots via riser. Two PCIe (PCI Express) adapter slots areprovided. PCI Express Gen 2 is the next generation of high-performance, low-latency, serial I/Obus. One slot is a x8 (“by 8”) Gen 2 half-length/full-height slot; that is, x8 physical and x8electrical (8GBps), capable of supporting x1/x4/x8 Gen 1 or 2 adapters at their native speeds5.The second PCIe slot, x4 PCIe Gen 2 low-profile slot, is dedicated for use with an IBMServeRAID-BR10il SAS/SATA Controller v2Gigabit Ethernet ControllerThe x3250 M4 includes two integrated single-port Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet controllers forup to 10X higher maximum throughput than a 10/100 Ethernet controller. The controllerprovides fully integrated Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical-Layer (PHY) capabilitiesthat can be configured for either 1000Mb/s or 10/100 Mb/s modes of operation. The first portsupports the IMM2 systems management functions.The controller supports highly secure remote power management using IPMI 2.0, plus Wakeon LAN® and PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) flash interface. Optional PCI adaptersoffering failover and load balancing between adapters are available for added throughput andincreased system availability.5 The slot accepts x1 or x4 Gen 1 or Gen 2 adapters; however the slot provides a maximum of x1 Gen 2 throughput.