I/O Expansion Options - Lenovo Flex System x240 M5 Product Manual

I/O expansion options

The x240 M5 has two I/O expansion connectors for attaching I/O adapter cards. There is a third
expansion connector that is designed to connect an expansion node, such as the PCIe Expansion Node.
The I/O expansion connectors are a high-density, 216-pin PCIe connector. Installing I/O adapter cards
allows the server to connect with switch modules in the Flex System Enterprise Chassis. Each slot has a
PCI Express 3.0 x16 host interface and both slots support the same form-factor adapters.
The following figure shows the location of the I/O expansion connectors.
Figure 7. Location of the I/O adapter slots in the Flex System x240 M5 Compute Node
All I/O adapters are the same shape and can be used in any available slot.. A compatible switch or
pass-through module must be installed in the corresponding I/O bays in the chassis, as indicated in the
following table. Installing two switches means that all ports of the adapter are enabled, which improves
performance and network availability.
Table 14. Adapter to I/O bay correspondence
I/O adapter slot in the server
Slot 1
Slot 2
Lenovo Flex System x240 M5
Port on the adapter
Port 1
Port 2
Port 3 (for 4-port cards)
Port 4 (for 4-port cards)
Port 1
Port 2
Port 3 (for 4-port cards)
Port 4 (for 4-port cards)
Corresponding I/O module bay in the chassis
Module bay 1
Module bay 2
Module bay 1
Module bay 2
Module bay 3
Module bay 4
Module bay 3
Module bay 4
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