IBM Flex System x240 M5 Product Manual page 18

IBM Flex System Storage Expansion Node
The x240 M5 supports the attachment of the IBM Flex System Storage Expansion Node. The IBM Flex
System Storage Expansion Node provides the ability to attach another 12 hot-swap 2.5-inch HDDs or
SSDs locally to the attached compute node. The Storage Expansion Node provides storage capacity for
Network Attach Storage (NAS) workloads, which provides flexible storage to match capacity,
performance, and reliability needs.
The following figure shows the IBM Flex System Storage Expansion Node attached to a compute node.
Figure 4. IBM Flex System Storage Expansion Node (right) attached to a compute node (left)
The ordering information for the Storage Expansion Node is shown in the following table.
Table 10. Ordering part number and feature code
Part number Feature code
68Y8588 A3JF
The Storage Expansion Node has the following features:
Connects directly to supported compute nodes via a PCIe 3.0 interface to the compute node's

expansion connector (see Figure 3).
Supports 12 hot-swap 2.5-inch drive, accessible via a sliding tray.

Supports 6 Gbps SAS and SATA drives, both HDDs and SSDs.

Based on an LSI SAS2208 6 Gbps RAID on Chip (ROC) controller.

Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50 as standard. JBOD also supported. Optional RAID 6 and 60 with a

Features on Demand upgrade.
Optional 512 MB or 1 GB cache with cache-to-flash super capacitor offload.

Note: The use of the Storage Expansion Node requires that the x240 M5 Compute Node have both
processors installed.
For more information, see the IBM Redbooks Product Guide on the IBM Flex System Storage Expansion
Node, which is available at this website:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips0914.html?Open
IBM Flex System x240 M5 Product Guide
Description
IBM Flex System Storage Expansion Node
Maximum
supported
1
18