IBM System x3690 X5 At-A-Glance Reference Manual page 15

The RAID controllers listed in the following table are supported with external expansion enclosures.
Table 13. RAID controllers for external storage expansion enclosures
Part number Description
46M0830 ServeRAID M5025 SAS/SATA Controller
46M0930 ServeRAID M5000 Series Advance Feature Key†
81Y4426 ServeRAID M5000 Series Performance Accelerator Key†
† Only one key is supported in each controller, either the Advance Feature Key or the Performance Accelerator Key.
The ServeRAID M5025 SAS/SATA Controller has the following specifications:
Two Mini-SAS external connectors

Supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50

Supports RAID 6 and 60 with the optional M5000 Advanced Feature Key

Performance optimization for SSD drives with optional M5000 Series Performance Accelerator Key

6 Gbps throughput per port

PCI Express 2.0 x8 host interface

Based on the LSI SAS2108 6 Gbps ROC controller

512 MB of onboard cache

Intelligent Li-Ion-based battery backup unit with up to 48 hours of data retention

Supports connectivity to the EXP3000, EXP2512, and EXP2524 storage expansion enclosures

For more information, see the
at-a-glance guide: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips0739.html?Open
The external SAS cables listed in the following table are supported with external expansion enclosures
and M5025 RAID controllers.
Table 14. External SAS cables for external storage expansion enclosures
Part number
39R6531
39R6529
2018
* Note: The EXP3000 and EXP2500 series can be chained with each other. In such a case, one cable is used to
connect first EXP25xx or EXP3000 to the RAID controller, and every consecutive EXP unit is connected to previous
one by one cable.
IBM System x3690 X5
ServeRAID M5025 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x
Description
IBM 3 m SAS Cable
IBM 1 m SAS Cable
IBM 11U Office Enablement Kit
Maximum quantity
supported
4
1 per one M5025
1 per one M5025
, TIPS0739
Maximum quantity
supported per enclosure *
1
1
1
15