IBM System x3550 M3 Product Manual

Also see for System x3550 M3: Installation and user guide Brochure & specs User manual Installation and user guide Installation and user guide

Contents

IBM System x3550 M3 Product Manual Manual pdf 7 page image

Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available andexpandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket serverPlease see the Legal Information section for important notices and information. 7• The 2R designator is the rank count for this particular DIMM (2R = dual-rank)• The x4 designator is the data width (in bits) of the rankIt is important to ensure that DIMMs with the appropriate number of ranks are populated in eachchannel for optimal performance. Whenever possible, use dual-rank DIMMs in the system. Dual-rank DIMMs offer better interleaving and hence better performance than single-rank DIMMs. Forinstance, a system populated with six 2GB dual-rank DIMMs outperforms a system populated withsix 2GB single-rank DIMMs by 7% for SPECjbb2005. Dual-rank DIMMs are also better than quad-rank DIMMs because quad-rank DIMMs will cause the memory speed to be down-clocked.Another important guideline is to populate equivalent ranks per channel. For instance, mixing onesingle-rank DIMM and one dual-rank DIMM in a channel should be avoided.Notes: It is important to populate all three memory channels in each processor. The relativememory bandwidth decreases as the number of channels populated decreases. This is becausethe bandwidth of all the memory channels is utilized to support the capability of the processor. So,as the channels are decreased, the burden to support the requisite bandwidth is increased on theremaining channels, causing them to become a bottleneck. RDIMMs and UDIMMs cannot beused in the same server. If 1.5V and 1.35V DIMMs are mixed, all DIMMs will run at 1.5V.In addition to Chipkill error correction, the x3550 M3 offers an additional level of IBM ActiveMemory protection: memory mirroring.Memory mirroring works much like disk mirroring. The total memory is divided into three channels:a primary channel, a backup channel, and an unused channel. Data is written concurrently to boththe primary and backup channels. If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs in the primary channel, it isinstantly disabled and the mirrored memory in the backup channel becomes active (primary) untilthe failing DIMM is replaced. One-third of total memory is available for use at any one time withmirroring enabled. (Note: Due to the double writes to memory, performance is affected.) Becausethe third channel is disabled with mirroring active, there is no point in populating it with memory.Mirroring is handled at the hardware level; no operating system support is required.DDR3 memory is currently available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB RDIMMs, as well as 2GB and4GB UDIMMs. DIMMs are installed individually (not in pairs). However, for performance reasons,in a 2-processor system, it’s best to install a DIMM per processor.Maximum memory capacity and speed in 2-processor configurations include:MemoryFrequencyDIMMs perChannelMax. MemoryCapacity 5600 Series1333MHz 1(6 DIMMs)48GB RDIMM24GB UDIMM1333MHz E56xx, L5640, andX56xx1333MHz 2(12 DIMMs)96GB RDIMM48GB UDIMM1333MHz E56xx, L5640, andX56xx1066MHz 2(12 DIMMs)96GB RDIMM48GB UDIMME560x, E5620, L5609, L5630,and X5647800MHz 3(18 DIMMs) 144GB RDIMM All800MHz 2(12 DIMMs) 192GB RDIMM All800MHz-1333MHz2(8 DIMMs)64GB RDIMM16GB UDIMM AllIntegrated VirtualizationAll models of the x3550 M3 support a USB 2.0 Flash Key installed preloaded with VMwarevSphere Hypervisor (formerly ESXi). Rather than management through a Service Console basedon a Linux operating system, vSphere Hypervisor relies on aggregate management tools,including VirtualCenter, the Remote Command Line interface and the introduction of CIM forstandards-based and agentless hardware monitoring.vSphere Hypervisor includes all the performance, scalability and compatibility features of ahypervisor installed on disk, including full VMFS support across FC SAN, iSCSI SAN, and NAS,and 4-way VSMP. Because it runs from flash memory, it’s extremely fast and ideal for disklessconfigurations. It also offers enhanced security, because it runs without an operating system-based console and is updated/patched much like firmware.