IBM System x - x3550 M4

The System x3550 M4 server provides outstanding performance for your business-critical applications. Its energy-efficient design supports more cores, memory, and data capacity in a compact 1U package that is easy to service and manage. With more computing power per watt and the latest Intel Xeon processors, you can reduce costs while maintaining speed and availability.

Suggested use: database, virtualization, enterprise applications, collaboration/email, streaming media, web, HPC, and cloud applications.

Figure 1 shows the System x3550 M4.

Figure 1. System x3550 M4

The x3550 M4 offers a flexible, scalable design and a simple upgrade path to eight HDDs plus an optical drive at the same time, and up to 768 GB of memory. The flexible onboard Ethernet solution provides four standard integrated Gigabit Ethernet ports and two optional embedded 10 Gb Ethernet ports without occupying PCIe slots. Comprehensive systems management tools with the next-generation Integrated Management Module II (IMM2) make it easy to deploy, integrate, service, and manage.

The x3550 M4 is a cost- and density-balanced 1U, 2-socket business-critical server, offering improved performance and pay-as-you grow flexibility along with new features that improve server management capability. The powerful system is designed for your most important business applications and cloud deployments.

Combining balanced performance and flexibility, the x3550 M4 is a great choice for small and medium businesses and up to the large enterprise. It can provide outstanding uptime to keep business-critical applications and cloud deployments running safely. Ease-of-use and comprehensive systems management tools make it easy to deploy. Outstanding RAS and high-efficiency design improves your business environment and helps save operational costs.

Scalability and performance

The x3550 M4 offers numerous features to boost performance, improve scalability, and reduce costs:

• Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v2 product family
  • Improves productivity by offering superior system performance with up to 12-core processors, up to 30 MB of L3 cache, and up to two 8 GT/s QPI interconnect links.
  • Supports up to two processors, 24 cores, and 48 threads maximize the concurrent execution of multi-threaded applications.
  • Supports up to 1866 MHz memory speeds.
  • Supports up to 768 GB memory with 32 GB LRDIMMs.
• Intelligent and adaptive system performance with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 allows CPU cores to run at maximum speeds during peak workloads by temporarily going beyond processor thermal design power (TDP).
• Intel Hyper-Threading Technology boosts performance for multithreaded applications by enabling simultaneous multithreading within each processor core, up to two threads per core.
• Intel Virtualization Technology integrates hardware-level virtualization hooks that allow operating system vendors to better utilize the hardware for virtualization workloads.
• Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) significantly improve floating point performance for compute-intensive technical and scientific applications compared to Intel Xeon 5600 series processors.
• 12 Gbps SAS internal storage connectivity doubles the data transfer rate compared to 6 Gb SAS solutions to maximize performance of storage I/O-intensive applications.
• The use of solid-state drives (SSDs) instead of or along with traditional spinning drives (HDDs) can significantly improve I/O performance. An SSD can support up to 100 times more I/O operations per second (IOPS) than a typical HDD.
• The server has four integrated Gigabit Ethernet ports and two optional 10 Gb Ethernet ports with mezzanine cards that do not consume a PCIe slot.
• The server offers PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 I/O expansion capabilities that improve the theoretical maximum bandwidth by almost 100% (8 GTps per link using 128b/130b encoding) compared to the previous generation of PCI Express 2.0 (5 GTps per link using 8b/10b encoding).
• With Intel Integrated I/O Technology, the PCI Express 3.0 controller is integrated into the Intel Xeon processor E5 family. This helps to dramatically reduce I/O latency and increase overall system performance.
• Support for NVIDIA Quadro graphics processing units (GPUs) to maximize computing power.

Availability and serviceability

The x3550 M4 provides many features to simplify serviceability and increase system uptime:

• The server offers memory mirroring and memory rank sparing for redundancy in the event of a non-correctable memory failure.
• Tool-less cover removal provides easy access to upgrades and serviceable parts, such as CPU, memory, and adapter cards.
• The server offers hot-swap drives supporting RAID redundancy for data protection and greater system uptime.
• The server has two redundant hot-swap power supplies and six dual-motor hot-swap redundant fans (two fan zones with N+1 fan design) to provide availability for business-critical applications.
• The power source-independent light path diagnostics panel and individual light path LEDs quickly lead the technician to failed (or failing) components. This simplifies servicing, speeds up problem resolution, and helps improve system availability.
• Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) detects when system components (processors, VRMs, memory, hard disk drives, fans, and power supplies) operate outside of standard thresholds and generates proactive alerts in advance of possible failure, therefore increasing uptime.
• Solid-state drivers (SSDs) offer significantly better reliability than traditional mechanical HDDs for greater uptime.
• Built-in Integrated Management Module II (IMM2) continuously monitors system parameters, triggers alerts, and performs recovery actions in case of failure, to minimize downtime.
• Built-in diagnostics using Dynamic Systems Analysis (DSA) Preboot speeds up troubleshooting tasks to reduce service time.
• Three-year customer replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty, next business day 9x5. Optional service upgrades available.

Manageability and security

Powerful systems management features simplify local and remote management of the x3550 M4:

• The server includes an Integrated Management Module II (IMM2) to monitor server availability and perform remote management.
• An integrated industry-standard Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) enables improved setup, configuration, and updates, and simplifies error handling.
• An integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 support enables advanced cryptographic functionality such as digital signatures and remote attestation.
• There is industry-standard AES NI support for faster, stronger encryption.
• IBM Systems Director offers comprehensive systems management tools that help to increase uptime, reduce costs and improve productivity through advanced server management capabilities.
• Intel Execute Disable Bit functionality can help prevent certain classes of malicious buffer overflow attacks when combined with a supporting operating system.
• Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides enhanced security through hardware-based resistance to malicious software attacks, allowing an application to run in its own isolated space protected from all other software running on a system.

Energy efficiency

The x3550 M4 offers the following energy-efficiency features to save energy, reduce operational costs, increase energy availability, and contribute to a green environment:

• Energy-efficient planar components help lower operational costs.
• The x3550 M4 is Energy Star 2.0 compliant. Energy Star is the trusted, US government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, with the goal of helping customers save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
• High-efficiency 550 W and 750 W power supplies with 80 PLUS Platinum certification. Available 750 W dc power supply option.
• The Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v2 product family offers significantly better performance over the previous generation, while fitting into the same TDP limits.
• Intel Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, to reduce power draw.
• Low-voltage Intel Xeon processors draw less energy to satisfy the demands of power and thermally constrained data centers and telecommunication environments.
• Low-voltage 1.35 V DDR3 memory RDIMMs consume up to 19% less energy compared to 1.5 V DDR3 RDIMMs.
• Solid-state drives (SSDs) consume as much as 80% less power than traditional spinning 2.5-inch HDDs.
• The server uses hexagonal ventilation holes, a part of Calibrated Vectored Cooling™ technology. Hexagonal holes can be grouped more densely than round holes, providing more efficient airflow through the system.
• IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™ provides advanced data center power notification and management to help achieve lower heat output and reduced cooling needs.

Figure 2 shows the front of the server.

Figure 2. Front view of the System x3550 M4

Figure 3 shows the rear of the server.

Figure 3. Rear view of the System x3550 M4

Figure 4. Inside view of the System x3550 M4