IBM System x - x3500 M3

Item specifics

• Manufacturer IBM
• Model IBM - System x3500 M3
• Product Type Entry-Level Server
• Form Factor Rack, Tower
• Platform LINUX, Windows
• Announced 17-Mar-10
• Available 17-Mar-10
• Archived 31-Mar-14
• Architecture x86
• Rack Units 5U
• Operating System Solaris, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, Windows
• Processor Family Xeon
• Processor Options Xeon E5620 (2.40GHz 80W) Xeon L5630 (2.13GHz 40W) Xeon E5645 (2.40GHz 80W) Xeon X5650 (2.66GHz 95W) Xeon X5660 (2.80GHz 95W) Xeon X5670 (2.93GHz 95W)
• Max Processor Chips 2
• Max Processor Cores 12
• Cache 12MB L3 (Xeon 56xx)
• Chipset Intel 5520
• Memory Minimum 2 GB
• Memory Maximum 192 GB
• Memory Type DDR3 SDRAM
• DIMM Type UDIMM, RDIMM
• Memory DIMM Slots Standard 16
• Max Memory DIMM Slots 16
• Memory Protection ECC, Chipkill, Mirroring, Sparing
• Disk Type SATA, SAS, Solid State
• Disk Controller ServeRAID BR10il v2, ServeRAID M101x/M501x
• Internal Disk Bays 8 (24 max)
• Bays Information 4 x 3.5" simple-swap or four 3.5" hot-swap SATA hard drive bays 8 x 3.5" hot-swap SAS/SATA hard drive bays 8 x 2.5" SFF hot-swap SAS/SATA SFF hard drive bays 16 x 2.5" SFF hot-swap SAS/SATA SFF hard drive bays 24 x 2.5" SFF hot-swap SAS/SATA SFF hard drive bays 1 x 5.25" media bay
• Disk Max Internal 25,600 GB
• RAID Support 0, 1, 1E, 10, 5, 50
• Hot-Swap Disks SATA, SAS, SSD
• Media Drive Optional
• I/O Technology PCI Express 2.0
• I/O Slot Types System planar: Slot 1: PCIe 2.0 x8, full height, half length Slot 2: PCIe 2.0 x16 (x8 wired), full height, full length Slot 3: PCIe 2.0 x8 (x4 wired), full height, full length Slot 4: PCIe 2.0 x8 (x4 wired), full height, full length Slot 5: PCIe 2.0 x8, full height, full length Slot 6: PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, full height, half length PCI Express extender card (included in standard and express models): Slot 7: PCIe x8 (x4 wired), full height, full length PCI-X extender card: (optional, for CTO configurations only): Slot 7: PCI-X 64-bit/133 MHz, full height, full length Slot 8: PCI-X 64 bit/133 MHz, full height, full length
• I/O Max Slots 8
• I/O Internal Slots 8
• Networking Integrated Broadcom 5709C dual-port Gigabit Ethernet
• Dimensions Width: 218.0 mm (8.6 in) Depth: 767.0 mm (30.2 in) Height: 440.0 mm (17.3 in)
• Weight Minimum configuration: 27.4 kg (60.4 lb), Maximum configuration: 38.9 kg (85.6 lb)
• Max Power (Calculated) Ship configuration: 590 watts
• Max Power (Theoretical) Full configuration: 1056 watts
• Max Heat (Calculated) Ship configuration: 2013 Btu/hr
• Max Heat (Theoretical) Full configuration: 3610 Btu/hr
• Hot-Swap/Redundant Cooling Fans Yes/Yes
• Hot-Swap/Redundant Power Supply Yes/Optional
• System Management IBM Integrated Management Module (IMM) with Virtual Media Key for optional remote presence enablement, Predictive Failure Analysis, Integrated Service Processor, Diagnostic LEDs, light path diagnostics panel, Automatic Server Restart, IBM Systems Director and IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™, IBM ServerGuide
• Warranty 30 Days (Dafault), 1, 2 & 3 Years (Upgradable)

Product Description

Introduction

The IBM System x3500 M3 delivers performance and reliability for demanding distributed environments that rely on 24x7 availability and uptime of mission-critical applications. With dual-socket computing power and support for up to 6-core processor performance at lower per-core power consumption, the x3500 M3 offers leading-edge capacity, maximum high-speed I/O scalability, and reliability.

Figure 1 shows the IBM System x3500 M3.


Figure 1. The IBM System x3500 M3

Did you know?

Models of the x3500 M3 offer impressive scalability, including dual-processor support, up to 192 GB of memory, and the capability to expand internal storage up to 12 TB with 24 high-performance 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS HDDs. Comprehensive systems management tools, Predictive Failure analysis, and the ability to control resources from a single point make it easy to deploy, integrate, service, and manage.

Key features

The challenge of a high-performance business is to do more with less—serve more Web pages, handle more secure connections, support more email users. You need to reduce the costs of doing business and improve the service you deliver to your customers while lowering your overall risk. The dual-socket IBM System x3500 M3 can reduce your costs with its energy-smart design. It can improve service with reduced operational complexity and increased management functionality. It will lower your IT risk with the resiliency that comes from having no single point of failure. And like all IBM servers, the x3500 M3 offers you the trust that comes from IBM global reach, service, and support.

Performance

The x3500 M3 offers numerous features to boost performance and reduce costs:

• Up to two 6-core Xeon 5600 series processors offering superior performance. Xeon 5600 series processors offer up to 54% better performance than the previous generation 5500 series processors (workload dependent).
• 16 DIMMs of registered 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC memory provide speed, high availability, and a memory capacity of up to 192 GB.
• High-performance 6 Gbps SAS RAID controllers and 15K RPM 6 Gbps SAS disk drives in a variety of capacities to suit your local storage requirements.
• 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 20,000 I/O operations per second (IOPS) whereas a typical HDD handles fewer than 500 IOPS.

Flexibility and scalability

The x3500 M3 has the ability to grow with your application requirements with these features:

• A choice of 4-core or 6-core processors with clock rates from 1.6 GHz to 3.6 GHz.
• 16 DIMM sockets allowing memory expansion of up to 192 GB.
• Up to two redundant hot-swap 920 W AC power supplies.
• Seven USB 2.0 ports available - two front, four rear, and one internal for an embedded hypervisor.
• The tower chassis can be converted to a 5U rack-mount chassis with the optional tower-to-rack conversion kit.
• Storage bay flexibility: Up to 24 hot-swap 2.5" drive bays for SAS or SATA HDDs, or solid-state drives (intermixing supported) in addition to a bay for an internal optical drive.
• Direct-attach SAS storage with the EXP2512, EXP2524, and EXP3000 storage enclosures is supported. IBM System Storage servers, including network-attached storage (NAS), and iSCSI or Fibre Channel-attached storage, can also be attached.
• Up to eight PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 I/O slots for increased network or storage connectivity. Optional PCI-X slots for specialized adapters.

Manageability and security

Powerful systems management features simplify local and remote management of the x3500 M3:

• The x3500 M3 includes an Integrated Management Module (IMM) to monitor server availability, perform Predictive Failure Analysis, and trigger IBM Systems Director alerts.
• An optional Virtual Media Key enables additional systems management capabilities, including web-based out-of-band remote control (keyboard video and mouse), remote optical drive support, Windows “blue screen” error capture, and support for LDAP and SSL protocols.
• Text Console Redirection support allows the administrator to remotely view x3500 M3 text messages over Serial or LAN connections.
• Integrated industry-standard Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) next-generation BIOS. New capabilities include:
  • Human readable event logs — no more beep codes.
  • Complete out-of-band coverage by the Advance Settings Utility to simplify remote setup.
  • A complete setup solution, allowing adapter configuration functions to be moved into UEFI.
• Integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 support.
• Industry-standard AES NI support for faster, stronger encryption.
• Integrated IPMI 2.0 support alerts IBM Systems Director to anomalous environmental factors, such as voltage and thermal conditions. It also supports highly secure remote power control using data encryption.
• IBM Systems Director is included for proactive systems management. IBM Systems Director comes with a portfolio of tools, including IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager, IBM Service and Support Manager, and others. IBM Systems Director also offers extended systems management tools for additional server management and increased availability. When a problem is encountered, IBM Systems Director can issue administrator alerts via email, pager, and other methods.
• IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager provides advanced power management features with actual real-time energy monitoring, reporting, and capping features.

Availability and serviceability

The System x3500 M3 provides many features to simplify serviceability and increase system uptime:

• The x3500 M3 servers offer Chipkill ECC memory protection (when using x4 DIMMs). Chipkill memory is up to 16 times better than standard ECC memory at correcting memory errors. This can help reduce downtime caused by memory errors.
• The server offers memory mirroring for redundancy in the event of a non-correctable memory failure.
• The server supports up to two redundant hot-swap 920 W AC power supplies.
• Toolless cover removal provides easy access to upgrades and serviceable parts, such as HDDs and memory. Similarly, the Virtual Media Key and the ServeRAID controller can be installed and replaced without tools. This means less time (and therefore less money) spent servicing the x3500 M3.
• The server offers hot-swap and redundant fan modules and power supplies and hot-swap disk drives (redundant when implemented in conjuction with a RAID controller). These features mean greater system uptime.
• Toolless slides ship with the server, together with a cable management arm (CMA), that allows the rack server to easily slide into place.
• A 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.
• Solid-state drives (SSDs) offer significantly better reliability than traditional mechanical HDDs for greater uptime.
• The three-year (parts and labor) limited onsite warranty provides peace of mind and greater investment protection than a one-year warranty does.

Energy efficiency

The System x3500 M3 has an energy-efficient design with features including the following:

• Low-voltage processors draw less energy and produce less waste heat than high-voltage processors, thus helping to reduce data center energy costs. Available 4-core Xeon 5600 series processors use only 40 W and 6-core processors consume as little as 60 W.
• Optional solid-state drives (SSDs) use only 2 W of power per drive, compared to 9 - 10 W for 2.5-inch HDDs. This is as much as 80% less power than a 2.5-inch HDD would use, with a corresponding reduction in heat output that further improves the overall bottom line.
• Support for 1.35 V low-voltage DDR3 memory DIMMs that consume 20% less energy.
• Energy-efficient components, including low-voltage transistors and voltage regulator modules, and power supplies that are up to 90% efficient.
• The x3500 M3 uses hexagonal ventilation holes in the chassis. Hexagonal holes can be grouped more densely than round holes, providing more efficient airflow through the system chassis. This ultimately results in reduced operational costs.
• An altimeter works in conjunction with the IMM to govern fan rotation based on the readings that it delivers. This saves money under normal conditions because the fans do not have to spin at high speed.

Locations of key components and connectors

Figures 2 and 3 show the front and rear of the server.


Figure 2. Front view of the IBM System x3500 M3


Figure 3. Rear view of the IBM System x3500 M3

Figure 4 shows the locations of key components inside the server.


Figure 4. Inside view of the IBM System x3500 M3

Standard specifications

The following table lists the standard specifications.

Table 1. Standard specifications

Component	Specification
Form factor	Tower or 5U Rack.
Processor	Up to two six-core (up to 3.46 GHz) or quad-core (up to 3.6 GHz) Intel Xeon 5600 series processors with QuickPath Interconnect technology up to 6.4 GT/s, and up to 1333 MHz memory speed. Supports specific Quad-core Intel Xeon 5500 series processors via Configure-To-Order (CTO).
Memory cache	Up to 12 MB L3 for Xeon 5600 processors. Up to 8 MB L3 for Xeon 5500 processors.
Chipset	Intel 5520.
Memory	Up to 16 DIMM sockets (eight DIMMs per processor). Up to 192 GB with 16 GB DDR3 RDIMMs and 12 populated DIMM slots (up to 96 GB with six DIMMs per processor), or up to 48 GB with 4 GB DDR3 UDIMMs and 12 populated DIMM slots (up to 24 GB with six DIMMs per processor).
Memory protection	ECC, ChipKill (for x4-based memory DIMMs), memory mirroring, and memory sparing.
Disk drive bays	Up to four 3.5" Simple-Swap SATA HDDs, or up to eight 3.5" hot-swap SAS/SATA HDDs, or up to twenty-four 2.5" hot-swap SAS/SATA HDDs or solid-state drives.
Maximum internal storage	Up to 24 TB with 3 TB 3.5" HS NL SAS or NL SATA HDDs, or up to 24 TB with 1 TB 2.5" HS NL SAS or NL SATA HDDs. Intermix of SAS/SATA is supported.
RAID support	RAID 0, 1, 1E with M1015; RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 with M5014 or M5015. Optional upgrade to RAID 5 is available for M1015. Optional upgrade to RAID 6, 60 is available for M5014/M5015.
Optical drive bays	One with support for HH DVD-ROM or Multiburner (for all models except 8x 3.5" HDDs), or one with support for UltraSlim DVD-ROM or Multiburner (for 8x 3.5" HDD models).
Tape drive bays	Two with support for HH internal tape drives. A maximum of one or two internal tape drives can be installed (tape drive dependent).
Ethernet	Integrated two Gigabit Ethernet ports.
PCI Expansion slots	The server supports up to eight PCI slots (six slots are on the system planar and one or two slots are on the extender card). The slot form factors are as follows. System planar: Slot 1: PCIe 2.0 x8, full height, half length Slot 2: PCIe 2.0 x16 (x8 wired), full height, full length Slot 3: PCIe 2.0 x8 (x4 wired), full height, full length Slot 4: PCIe 2.0 x8 (x4 wired), full height, full length Slot 5: PCIe 2.0 x8, full height, full length Slot 6: PCI 32-bit/33 MHz, full height, half length PCI Express extender card (included in standard and express models): Slot 7: PCIe x8 (x4 wired), full height, full length PCI-X extender card: (optional, for CTO configurations only): Slot 7: PCI-X 64-bit/133 MHz, full height, full length Slot 8: PCI-X 64 bit/133 MHz, full height, full length
External ports	Two USB 2.0 on front. Four USB 2.0, one DB-15 video, one DB-9 serial, one RJ-45 systems management, two RJ-45 network ports on rear. One internal USB port for embedded hypervisor. One internal USB port for internal USB tape drive.

Cooling	IBM Calibrated Vectored Cooling™ with six hot swap fans with N+1 redundancy (three fans standard, three fans optional, come with optional power supply).
Power supply	Up to two redundant hot-swap 920 W AC power supplies.
Hot-swap components	Hard drives, power supplies, fans.
Systems management	UEFI, IBM Integrated Management Module (IMM), Predictive Failure Analysis, Light Path Diagnostics, Automatic Server Restart, IBM Systems Director* and IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™, IBM ServerGuide. Standard Virtual Media Key for remote presence (graphics, keyboard and mouse, virtual media).
Security features	Power-on password, administrator's password, Trusted Platform Module (TPM).
Video	Matrox G200eV with 16 MB memory integrated into the IMM. Maximum resolution is 1280x1024 at 75 Hz with 16M colors.
Operating systems supported	Microsoft Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, 2003/2003 R2, Microsoft Essential Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003/2003 R2/2008, Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, 5, and 6, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and 11, VMware ESX 4.0/ 4.1, VMware ESXi 4.0/4.1 embedded hypervisor, VMware vSphere 5.0/5.1.
Limited warranty	Three-year customer-replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty with 9x5/next-business-day response time.
Service and support	Optional service upgrades are available through IBM ServicePacs®: 4-hour or 2-hour response time, 8-hour fix time, 1-year or 2-year warranty extension, remote technical support for IBM hardware and selected IBM and third-party (Microsoft, Linux, VMware) software.
Dimensions	Width: 218 mm (8.6 in), depth: 767 mm (30.2 in), height: 440 mm (17.3 in)
Weight	Minimum configuration: 27.4 kg (60.4 lb), Maximum configuration: 38.9 kg (85.6 lb)