IBM System x3750 M4
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Internal storage
The server can support up to 16x 2.5-inch drives, up to 32x 1.8-inch drives, or a combination of both
2.5-inch and 1.8-inch hot-swap drives, using the supported SAS/SATA backplane configurations. The
server supports 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS or hot-swap SATA hard disk drives, 2.5-inch hot-swap SATA
solid-state drives, or 1.8-inch hot-swap SATA solid-state drives. You can mix drives in the same server as
long as you do not mix drives on the same array.
Backplanes
IBM System x3750 M4 server supports a variety of internal storage configurations based on four different
backplanes:
4-drive backplane for 2.5-inch drives: Up to four backplanes can be installed, each requiring one SAS
connection to a supported controller. One RAID controller can connect to two of these backplanes.
8-drive backplane for 2.5-inch drives: Up to two backplanes can be installed, each requiring two SAS
connections. One RAID controller per backplane.
8-drive backplane with a SAS expander for 2.5-inch drives: Use in conjunction with the other 2.5-inch
drive backplanes (8-drive or one 4-drive or two 4-drive backplanes) which will result in being able to
connect up to 16 2.5-inch drive bays to the one RAID controller.
8-drive backplane for 1.8-inch solid-state drives (eXFlash Pack): Up to four backplanes can be
installed, each requiring two SAS connections. One RAID controller per backplane. Cannot be
connected to the 8-drive backplane with a SAS expander.
When building drive backplane configurations, all 1.8-inch SSD drive backplanes must be installed to the
right of all 2.5-inch HDD or 2.5-inch SSD drive backplanes (when looking at the front of the server). Every
four drives uses a SAS signal cable except when the 8-drive backplane with SAS expander is used. When
the 8-drive backplane with SAS expander is used, the other backplanes connect to the SAS expander
backplane with the supplied cables and then the SAS expander backplane is connected to the single
RAID controller with two cables. All backplane options include the necessary cables.
See the
IBM System x3750 M4 Installation and Service Guide
for a description of all supported backplane
combinations.
Standard models (all models except A2x) ship with at least one backplane; see Table 2 for details. The
following table shows the backplane options that are available for a x3750 M4 server.
Table 6. Internal storage expansion options
Part
number
Feature
code
Name
Maximum
supported
88Y7418
A2A3
IBM 4x 2.5-in. HS SAS HDD Backplane
4
88Y7419
A2A4
IBM 8x 2.5-in. HS SAS HDD Backplane
2
88Y7421
A2A2
IBM 8x 2.5-in. HS SAS HDD Backplane
with RAID expansion (SAS expander)
1*
88Y7422
A2XR
IBM eXFlash 8x 1.8-in. HS SAS SSD Backplane
4
* Only one backplane with SAS expander (88Y7421) can be installed in a server and can be used connected to a
single 8-drive backplane (88Y7419), a single 4-drive backplane (88Y7418), or two 4-drive backplanes (88Y7418).
The SAS expander backplane cannot be used with the eXFlash backplane.
