IBM X3850 M2 Product Manual

Also see for System x3850 M2: Brochure & specs User guide Reference Installation guide User guide

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Combining high-performance architecture with high-performance Xeon processorsPlease see the Legal Information section for important notices and information. 5High-Speed Scalability PortsWhen more than one chassis is used, they are simply cabled together via one or morescalability cables. Up to three cables connected to low-latency, 10.24Gbps full-duplex ports(5.12Gbps in each direction), supported by up to 1GB of L4 cache, provide exceptionalinterchassis throughput (30.72Gbps aggregate). Because of this design, an x3950 M2 serverhas the incredible flexibility of starting out as a 4-socket server with up to 256GB of memory,256MB of L4 cache, seven PCIe adapter slots, and four HDD bays, and then doubling, tripling,or even quadrupling those numbers while maintaining first-in-class performance.This feature is another unique IBM enhancement, not offered by other x86 server architectures.DDR II ECC Memory with Active Memory ProtectionThe eX4 servers support up to 256GB of memory per node (chassis) in 32 DIMM sockets (up to1TB for a 4-node/16-processor configuration). It uses PC5300 double data rate II (DDR II)memory (operating at 533MHz) for faster access, and provides IBM Active Memory features,including advanced IBM Chipkill memory protection, for up to 16X better error correction thanstandard ECC memory, IBM Memory ProteXion, hot-add/hot-swap memory support, andoptional memory mirroring. (Notes: Hot-add capability requires operating system support. Hot-add memory and mirroring are mutually exclusive. Conversely, hot-swap requires mirroring.)The standard configuration includes two memory cards, which support up to eight DIMMsapiece. The system is upgradeable to four memory cards with eight DIMMs each. Withconfigurations of 8-to-16 DIMMs, using two memory cards saves cost, but using four cardsincreases performance. (With more than 16 DIMMs, four memory cards are required.)The memory architecture of the eX4 chipset provides up to 60% more aggregate memorybandwidth (up to 34.1GBps when using four memory cards vs. a maximum of 21.3GBpsbandwidth in the previous generation), for exceptional memory performance, and quadruple thesystem memory capacity of the predecessor x3850 server. By performing reads and writessimultaneously, it eliminates the previous memory read-to-write blocking latency. In addition, italso offers innovative data reliability and security features to help improve data integrity,including enhanced CRC protection, data retry on error detect and buffer registers for improvedfault isolation. Even running at 533Mhz, with twice the number of channels and twice the DIMMcapacity supported, the x3850 M2 and x3950 M2 deliver a memory subsystem with greaterthroughput than the competition. In addition, the DDR2 DIMMs use up to 37% less energy thanthe competition’s FB-DIMMs.Memory scrubbing is an automatic daily test of all system memory. It detects and reportsmemory errors that might be developing before they cause a server outage. Memory scrubbingand Memory ProteXion work together. When a bit error is detected, memory scrubbingdetermines whether the error is recoverable. If the error is recoverable Memory ProteXiontechnology will write the data to new location; if it is not recoverable, scrubbing sends an alert tolight path diagnostics, which then notifies IBM Systems Director.Memory ProteXion technology (also called redundant bit steering) provides multichip errorprotection and works in conjunction with Chipkill technology—which provides multibit protectionper chip—and standard ECC protection, to provide three-level memory correction. For increasedavailability, the eX4 design offers an additional level of Active Memory protection: memorymirroring.Memory mirroring works much like disk mirroring. The total memory is divided into twochannels. Data is written concurrently to both channels. If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs inthe primary channel, it is instantly disabled and the mirrored (backup) memory in the otherchannel becomes active (primary) until the failing DIMM is replaced. Note: Mirroring requiresDIMMs to be installed in multiples of four (one pair per memory channel).A secondary benefit of memory mirroring is that the failed DIMM and its memory card can behot-swapped out to replace the failed DIMM. This is a hardware feature that is operating systemindependent.DIMMs must be installed in matching pairs. Memory is available in kits consisting of two 1GB,2GB, 4GB or 8GB DIMMs.Flexible Internal Storage CapacityThe eX4 servers offer a choice of internal storage, supporting up to four (2.5-inch) hot-swaphigh-performance Serial-Attach SCSI (SAS) drives per chassis. In addition, selected models ofthe x3850 M2 include an integrated 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Key with VMware preloaded as anembedded virtualization hypervisor.