Drive Bays; Gigabit Ethernet Controller - IBM System x3250 M4 Product Manual

A highly-affordable, ultradense, uniprocessor server for edge-of-network and Web-based
computing in space-constrained environments
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The slot accepts x1 or x4 Gen 1 or Gen 2 adapters; however the slot provides a maximum of x1 Gen 2 throughput.
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.

Drive Bays

Some x3250 M4 models (3.5-inch HDD models) contain 3 drive bays, while others (2.5-inch
HDD models) provide 5 drive bays. All models offer one 5.25-inch bay and either two 3.5-inch
simple-swap SATA HDD bays or four 2.5-inch hot-swap or simple-swap SAS HDD bays
standard. Four 2.5-inch simple-swap SAS HDD bays are available via CTO.
The 5.25-inch bay supports an optional optical drive. No internal floppy drive is supported,
however an external USB floppy drive may be used, if needed.
Hot-swap and simple-swap drives may be inserted or removed through the front of the server.
Hot-swap drives do not require powering off the system. Simple-swap SATA drives do require
powering off the system first; however, no tools or jumpers are required for installation and
removal, allowing for faster, simpler servicing than fixed drives.
Large HDD Storage Capacity
The x3250 M4 offers a choice of disk storage, supporting up to two 3.5-inch simple-swap
Serial ATA II (SATA II) drives, or two 2.5-inch hot-swap high-performance Serial-Attach SCSI
(SAS) drives; up to four 2.5-inch simple-swap SAS drives are supported via
3.5-inch Simple-Swap SATA (6Gbps)
• 7,200 RPMs — 250 or 500GB, 1, 2, or 3TB (6.0TB maximum)
2.5-inch Simple-Swap SAS (6Gbps)
• 10,000 RPMs — 300 or 600GB (2.4TB)
• 15,000 RPMs — 146.8GB (587.2GB)
2.5-inch Hot-Swap SAS (6Gbps)
• 7,200 RPMs — 500GB (2.0TB)
• 10,000 RPMs — 300 or 600GB (2.4TB)
• 15,000 RPMs — 146.8GB (587.2GB)
Notes: Enterprise-class 500GB or higher SATA drives offer increased reliability compared to
lower-capacity SATA drives. Simple-swap SATA drives are not hot-swappable (the system
must first be powered off); however, no tools or jumpers are required for installation and
removal, allowing for faster, simpler servicing than fixed drives. Hot-swap SAS drives use the
Converged Tray for interchangeability with other IBM System x
If you need more storage space, terabyte capacities are possible with external direct-attach,
NAS, and SAN solutions.
Internal Backup
The x3250 M4 supports 3.5-inch internal USB-attached half-high backup options. Supported
technologies include:
• IBM DDS Gen 6 (USB)
• IBM RDX Removable Hard Disk Storage System (USB)—external USB version also
available
High-Performance Adapter Slots
The x3250 M4 offers two adapter slots via riser. Two PCIe (PCI Express) adapter slots are
provided. PCI Express Gen 2 is the next generation of high-performance, low-latency, serial I/O
bus. One slot is a x8 ("by 8") Gen 2 half-length/full-height slot; that is, x8 physical and x8
electrical (8GBps), capable of supporting x1/x4/x8 Gen 1 or 2 adapters at their native speeds
The second PCIe slot, x4 PCIe Gen 2 low-profile slot, is dedicated for use with an IBM
ServeRAID-BR10il SAS/SATA Controller v2

Gigabit Ethernet Controller

The x3250 M4 includes two integrated single-port Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet controllers for
up to 10X higher maximum throughput than a 10/100 Ethernet controller. The controller
provides fully integrated Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical-Layer (PHY) capabilities
that can be configured for either 1000Mb/s or 10/100 Mb/s modes of operation. The first port
supports the IMM2 systems management functions.
The controller supports highly secure remote power management using IPMI 2.0, plus Wake
®
on LAN and PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) flash interface. Optional PCI adapters
offering failover and load balancing between adapters are available for added throughput and
increased system availability.
CTO.
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systems.
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