Product guide

ManualsBrandsIBM ManualsComputersx3850 X5

Ultrascalability combined with extreme availability

features and industry-leading performance

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• IBM 320GB High IOPS SS Class SSD PCIe Adapter (x4 Gen 1—100K IOPS, 750MBps)

• IBM 320GB High IOPS MS Class SSD PCIe Adapter (x4 Gen 1—100K IOPS, 750MBps)

• IBM 320GB High IOPS SD Class SSD PCIe Adapter (x8 Gen 2—200K IOPS, 1.5GBps)

• IBM 640GB High IOPS MLC Duo Adapter (x8 Gen 2—200K IOPS, 1.5GBps)

Because these adapters go in PCIe slots, rather than drive bays, they can be used in addition

to standard HDDs and SSDs. This makes them ideal for virtualized servers running multiple

tasks, requiring both write- and read-intensive storage media. As flash media they also offer a

predictable lifetime, compared to the sporadic failure rate of HDDs, using N+1 chip-level

redundancy and 11-bit ECC protection.

If you need more storage space, terabyte capacities are possible with external direct-attach

NAS and SAN solutions.

Storage Controllers

All models include an integrated ServeRAID-BR10i V2 SAS/SATA Controller in a dedicated

x8 PCIe slot. Supported controllers include:

• The 3Gbps

(x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-BR10i V2 controller — hardware RAID-0/1/1E

support (no cache) for up to 8 HDDs or SSDs.

• The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M1015 SAS/SATA controller — RAID-0/1/10 (no

cache) for up to 32 drives (limited to available bays). The IBM ServeRAID M1000

Series Advance Feature Key adds RAID-5 and Self-Encrypting Disk (SED) support.

• The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M5014 SAS/SATA controller — enhanced

performance with 256MB of cache memory, and supports optional battery backup and

RAID-0/1/10/5/50/6/60 for up to 32 drives (limited to available bays).

• The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M5015 SAS/SATA controller — enhanced

performance with 512MB of cache memory and battery backup, and supports RAID-

0/1/10/5/50/6/60 for up to 32 drives (limited to available bays).

• The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-M5025 SAS/SATA controller — enhanced

performance with 512MB of cache memory and battery backup. It supports RAID-

0/1/10/5/50/6/60 for up to 8 internal drives, plus multiple external IBM System Storage

expansion units (with up to 240 HDDs).

• The 6Gbps (x8 PCIe) ServeRAID-B5015 SSD controller — enhanced SSD

performance with SSD-optimized microcode, offering the highest IOPS performance for

SSDs in a RAID controller. It supports RAID-0/1/5/6 for up to 8 drives.

• The IBM 6Gbps SSD HBA offers the highest IOPS performance for SSDs in a non-

RAID controller.

The IBM ServeRAID M5000 Series Advance Feature Key adds RAID-6/60 with SED

support to the M5014, M5015 or M5025. The IBM ServeRAID M5000 Series Battery Key

adds battery backup support to the M5014. The ServeRAID M5000 Series Performance

Accelerator Key adds SSD support to the M5015.

Additional external SAS/SATA disk storage, as well as tape backup, is available via one of

several supported iSCSI or FC SAN controllers.

Versatile

Drive Bays

The x3850 X5 and x3950 X5 servers include either 1 or 2 drive backplanes (model-

specific).The single-backplane models are upgradeable to 2 backplanes. Each backplane

supports either 4 2.5-inch hot-swap HDDs or, within the same space, 8 1.8-inch hot-swap

SSDs. Thus, you can achieve up to 8 HDDs, or 16 SSDs using up to two IBM eXFlash

storage options. Each individual SSD is capable of sustaining approximately 4,300 IOPS,

which is more than 10X what an enterprise 15,000 RPM 2.5-inch 146.8GB SAS HDD can

achieve (420 IOPS). Thus, each eXFlash module (containing 8 SSDs) is capable of

producing up to 34,400 IOPS, vs. only 3,360 IOPS for 8 SAS HDDs. This means one

x3850/x3950 X5, with two eXFlash options (16 drives), is capable of generating 68,800 IOPs,

vs. only about 6,700 IOPS for storage servers using an equal number of HDDs. In a 2-

chassis configuration, up to 16 HDDs or 32 SSDs are supported (for up to 137,600 IOPS).

Combining 32 SSDs with 4 IBM 640GB High IOPS MLC Duo Adapters produces an

Approximately 3,000,000 hours MTBF for SSDs vs. approximately 1,000,000 hours for enterprise 3.5-inch 15K SAS HDDs.

According to internal IBM testing, the typical maximum IOPS of a 600GB 15K 3.5-inch hot-swap SAS HDD is ~400 (4K random

reads), while the typical IOPS of a 640GB High IOPS SSD PCIe adapter is ~200,000, or ~500x. The typical bandwidth of the

same HDD = ~195MBps (64K sequential reads), while the typical bandwidth of a 640GB High IOPS MLC adapter is ~1.5GBps, or

~7.7x.

97,014 IOPS / 9W = 10,779 IOPS per watt (160GB/320GB adapters). 196,000 IOPS / 12W = 16,333 IOPS per watt (640GB

adapters). 400 IOPS / 16.5W = 24.2 IOPS per watt (600GB 15K 3.5-inch hot-swap SAS HDD).