IBM System x3650 M3 Product Manual

Also see for System x3650 M3 4255: Brochure & specs Installation and user guide Product guide Service guide Installation and user guide

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Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available andexpandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket serverPlease see the Legal Information section for important notices and information. 7with six 2GB single-rank DIMMs by 7% for SPECjbb2005. Dual-rank DIMMs are also better thanquad-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, mixingone single-rank DIMM and one dual-rank DIMM in a channel should be avoided.Note: 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 onthe remaining channels, causing them to become a bottleneck.RDIMMs and UDIMMs cannot be used in the same server. 1.5V and 1.35V DIMMs can bemixed; however, all DIMMs will run at 1.5V. Different brands of DIMMs should not be mixed, dueto possible timing issues.In addition to Chipkill error correction, the x3650 M3 offers an additional level of IBM ActiveMemory protection: memory mirroring.Memory mirroring works much like disk mirroring. The total memory is divided into threechannels: a primary channel, a backup channel, and an unused channel. Data is writtenconcurrently to both the primary and backup channels. If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs in theprimary channel, it is instantly disabled and the mirrored memory in the backup channel becomesactive (primary) until the failing DIMM is replaced. One-third of total memory is available for useat any one time with mirroring enabled. (Note: Due to the double writes to memory, performanceis affected.) Because the third channel is disabled with mirroring active, there is no point inpopulating it with memory.Mirroring is handled at the hardware level; no operating system support is required.DDR3 memory is currently available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB RDIMMs, or 2GB UDIMMs. (16GBRDIMMs and 4GB UDIMMs are planned for 2Q/2010.) DIMMs are installed individually (not inpairs). However, for performance reasons, in a 2-processor system, it’s best to install a DIMM perprocessor.Maximum memory capacity and speed in 2-processor configurations include:MemoryFrequencyDIMMs perChannelMax. MemoryCapacity * 5600 Series 5500 Series1333MHz 1(6 DIMMs)48GB RDIMM24GB UDIMMX5650, L5640and aboveX5550 andabove1333MHz 2(12 DIMMs)96GB RDIMM48GB UDIMMX5650, L5640and aboveX5550 andabove (viaCTO)1066MHz 2(12 DIMMs)96GB RDIMM48GB UDIMME5620, L5609and aboveE5520 andabove800MHz 3(18 DIMMs) 144GB RDIMM E5620, L5609,and aboveE5503 - E5507and above800MHz 2(12 DIMMs)192GB RDIMM48GB UDIMME5620, L5609,and aboveE5503 - E5507and above800MHz-1333MHz(Mirroring)3(12 DIMMs)96GB RDIMM16GB UDIMME5620, L5609,and aboveE5503 - E5507and aboveIntegrated VirtualizationAll models of the x3650 M3 support a USB 2.0 Flash Key installed preloaded with VMwareESXi 4.0 ESXi is an embedded version of VMware ESX 4.0, fully contained on the flash driveand requiring no disk space—not an “ESX Lite.” Rather than management through a ServiceConsole based on a Linux operating system, ESXi relies on aggregate management tools,including VirtualCenter, the Remote Command Line interface and the introduction of CIM forstandards-based and agentless hardware monitoring.VMware ESXi includes all the performance, scalability and compatibility features of ESX,including full VMFS support across FC SAN, iSCSI SAN, and NAS, and 4-way VSMP. Becauseit runs from flash memory, it’s extremely fast and ideal for diskless configurations. It also offersenhanced security, because it runs without an operating system-based console and is