Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server
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7
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
.
Notes:
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. If 1.5V and 1.35V DIMMs are mixed,
all
DIMMs will run at 1.5V.
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, 8GB
and
16GB
RDIMMs, or
2GB
and
4GB
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:
Memory
Frequency
DIMMs per
Channel
Max. Memory
Capacity
5600 Series
1333MHz
1
(6 DIMMs)
48GB RDIMM
24GB UDIMM
E5645, E5649, L5640
and X56xx 1333MHz processors
1333MHz
2
(12 DIMMs)
96GB RDIMM
48GB UDIMM
E5645, E5649, L5640
and X56xx 1333MHz processors
1066MHz
2
(12 DIMMs)
96GB RDIMM
48GB UDIMM
E560x, E5620, X5647, L5609 and
L5630
800MHz
3
(18 DIMMs)
144GB RDIMM
All of processors
800MHz
2
(12 DIMMs)
192GB RDIMM
All of processors
800MHz-
1333MHz
(Mirroring)
2
(12 DIMMs)
64GB RDIMM
16GB UDIMM
All of processors
Integrated Virtualization
All models of the x3550 M3 support a
USB 2.0 Flash Key
installed preloaded with
VMware
vSphere Hypervisor
(formerly ESXi). Rather than management through a Service Console based
on a Linux operating system, vSphere Hypervisor relies on aggregate management tools,
including VirtualCenter, the Remote Command Line interface and the introduction of CIM for
standards-based and agentless hardware monitoring.
vSphere Hypervisor includes all the performance, scalability and compatibility features of a
hypervisor 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 diskless
configurations. It also offers enhanced security, because it runs without an operating system-
based console and is updated/patched much like firmware.
