IBM X3650 M3 specifications Integrated Virtualization

Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server

with six 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 one 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 relative memory bandwidth decreases as the number of channels populated decreases. This is because the 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 the 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 be mixed; however, all DIMMs will run at 1.5V. Different brands of DIMMs should not be mixed, due to possible timing issues.

In addition to Chipkill error correction, the x3650 M3 offers an additional level of IBM Active

Memory 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 both the primary and backup channels. If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs in the primary channel, it is instantly disabled and the mirrored memory in the backup channel becomes active (primary) until the failing DIMM is replaced. One-third of total memory is available for use at any one time with mirroring enabled. (Note: Due to the double writes to memory, performance is affected.) Because the 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 and 8GB RDIMMs, or 2GB UDIMMs. (16GB RDIMMs and 4GB UDIMMs are planned for 2Q/2010.) 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:

Memory	DIMMs per	Max. Memory	5600 Series	5500 Series
Frequency	Channel	Capacity *
1333MHz	1	48GB RDIMM	X5650, L5640	X5550 and
	(6 DIMMs)	24GB UDIMM	and above	above
	2	96GB RDIMM	X5650, L5640	X5550 and
1333MHz				above (via
	(12 DIMMs)	48GB UDIMM	and above
				CTO)
1066MHz	2	96GB RDIMM	E5620, L5609	E5520 and
	(12 DIMMs)	48GB UDIMM	and above	above
800MHz	3	144GB RDIMM	E5620, L5609,	E5503 - E5507
	(18 DIMMs)		and above	and above
800MHz	2	192GB RDIMM	E5620, L5609,	E5503 - E5507
	(12 DIMMs)	48GB UDIMM	and above	and above
800MHz-	3	96GB RDIMM	E5620, L5609,	E5503 - E5507
1333MHz
	(12 DIMMs)	16GB UDIMM	and above	and above
(Mirroring)

Integrated Virtualization

All models of the x3650 M3 support a USB 2.0 Flash Key installed preloaded with VMware ESXi 4.0 ESXi is an embedded version of VMware ESX 4.0, fully contained on the flash drive and requiring no disk space—not an “ESX Lite.” Rather than management through a Service Console based on a Linux operating system, ESXi relies on aggregate management tools, including VirtualCenter, the Remote Command Line interface and the introduction of CIM for standards-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. Because it runs from flash memory, it’s extremely fast and ideal for diskless configurations. It also offers enhanced security, because it runs without an operating system-based console and is

7

Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.