IBM 7947E5U, System x3650 M2 Product Manual
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server
Product Guide
December 2009
Product Overview
CONTENTS
Product Overview
Selling Features
Key Features
Key Options
x3650 M2 Images
x3650 M2 Specifications
The Bottom Line
Server Comparison
For More Information
Legal Information
IBM System x3650 M2
Flagship 2U server packed with innovation
Suggested Uses: All sectors requiring highly available, energy-efficient, rack-optimized solution
for physical and virtual intensive commercial environments like eBusiness/eCommerce,
collaboration, virtualization, database, and enterprise resource planning applications.
Your challenge is to do more with less—serve more Web pages, handle more secure
connections, support more e-mail users. You need to reduce the costs of doing business and
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improve the service you deliver to your customers while lowering your overall risk. The dual-
socket IBM® System x3650 M2 can reduce your costs with its new energy smart design. It can
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improve service with reduced operational complexity and increased management functionality. It
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will lower your IT risk with the resiliency that comes from no single point of failure. And like all
IBM servers, the x3650 M2 offers you the trust that comes from the IBM global reach, service and
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support.
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The x3650 M2 is not simply an upgrade to a previous server. It is one of our new generation of XArchitecture servers. It is a game-changing, completely redesigned rack server using significantly
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less power with unified systems management tools, leadership reliability, availability,
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serviceability features and broad system flexibility, housed in a compact 2U mechanical package.
The x3650 M2 features Intel® Xeon® 5500 Series 4-core and 2-core processors, and either 8MB
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or 4MB of shared cache, to help provide you with the computing power you need to match your
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business needs and growth. This new line of Intel processors delivers unprecedented intelligent
performance with features like adaptive performance for applications and environments, turbo
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boost and hyper-threading technology, and integrated power gates and automated power
management.
The x3650M2 uses up to 16 DIMMs with 128GB of registered 1333MHz DDR3 memory with
Chipkill™ ECC (Error Checking and Correcting) protection—for high performance and reliability.
For even higher levels of availability, the x3650M2 also offers online memory mirroring. Up to 4
integrated high-speed Gigabit Ethernet controllers with TOE (TCP Offload Engine) and Jumbo
Frame support are available, as are four high-performance adapter slots (PCIe x8). The
x3650M2 offers an optional embedded hypervisor to manage your virtual workloads.
The System x3650 M2 offers a choice of up to twelve high-performance hot-swap hard disk
drives with an internal storage capacity of 6.0TB (twelve 2.5-inch hot-swap Serial-Attached
SCSI (SAS) or Serial-Attached ATA (SATA) HDDs). Twelve optional solid-state drives (SSDs)
are also available to keep power low, improve resiliency, and offer up to 600GB of storage.
Alternatively, up to eight HDDs or SSDs and one internal tape drive can be used. The server
supports a choice of four IBM ServeRAID® storage controllers which provide broad levels of
hardware-based RAID solutions. The ultra-dense 2U form factor allows businesses to increase
their computing power and spread their workload without outgrowing their current data center. Up
to 21 of these 2U servers can be installed in a single 42U rack, for a total of up to 42 processors
and 168 processor cores, offering tremendous deployment flexibility. Optional Advanced
Connectivity Technology (ACT) interconnect cabling reduces cable clutter and cost and
minimizes installation time when interconnecting many rack-mounted servers.
Standard in the x3650 M2 is the Integrated Management Module (IMM) that enables the user to
manage and control the server easily—both locally and remotely. In conjunction with the IMM, the
x3650 M2 comes with a Bosch BMP085 altitude sensor (altimeter) that governs fan rotation
based on altitude, to help lower your energy consumption. The IMM offers a high level of
manageability that is designed to keep costs down and the system up—even when network
usage increases. IBM’s innovative pop-out/drop-down light path diagnostics panel enables
quick servicing of the system if a problem develops. These advanced features help maximize
network availability by increasing uptime, as do hot-swap solid-state drives; hot-
swap/redundant SAS or SATA HDDs, redundant ultra-efficient power supplies and fan
modules; Active Memory™; integrated RAID; temperature-controlled fans with Calibrated
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
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Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
Flexibility
expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server
Vectored Cooling™; IPMI 2.0 support, including highly secure remote power control and
Serial over LAN; as well as text-console redirect over LAN.
Another improvement with the new generation of X-Architecture is the replacement of old BIOS
with a new generation United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). UEFI provides a more
intuitive user interface and understandable event logs and better management.
With the inclusion of unique IBM service and support features such as the IMM, light path
diagnostics, IBM Systems Director 6.1, IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™, IBM
ServerGuide™ and support for the optional Virtual Media Key for remote presence capability, the
x3650 M2 is designed for superior uptime.
If you need highly manageable, dual-socket/multi-core computing power in a rack-dense
package, the x3650 M2 is the ideal system.
Selling Features
Price/Performance
The x3650 M2 offers numerous features to boost performance and reduce costs:
• Up to two 4-core Xeon 5500 Series processors and 8MB or 4MB of cache per processor,
offer superior performance capable of tackling the toughest jobs. 64-bit extensions provide
the flexibility to run 32-bit and 64-bit applications concurrently. Xeon 5500 series processors
offer up to 225% better performance than the previous-generation 5400 series processors and
up to 900% better performance than the single-core processors of a few years ago that you
may still be using.
• Low-voltage processors draw less energy and produce less waste heat than high-voltage
processors, thus helping to reduce data center energy costs. Some 4-core Xeon 5500 Series
processors use only 60W. This is less than half the wattage consumed by older 130W
processors.
• Sixteen DIMMs of ultra-fast registered 1333MHz (or 1066MHz or 800MHz) DDR3 ECC
memory with Chipkill1 protection (optional) provides speed, high availability, and a memory
capacity of up 128GB.
• Optional 50GB solid-state drives (SSD) use only 2W of power per drive, vs. 9-10W 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).
• The x3650 M2 is a leader in server resiliency. With hot-swap power supplies, fan modules,
and storage, the x3650 M2 has no single point of failure.
• An altimeter works in conjunction with IMM to govern fan rotation based on the readings
which it delivers to save money under normal conditions because the fans do not have to
spin at high speed.
• Four high-speed x8 (“by 8”) PCIe Gen 2 adapter slots offer investment protection by
supporting high-performance adapters, such as 10Gb Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand
cards, none of which will run in older 33MHz and 66MHz conventional PCI slots.
• Integrated ServeRAID-M5015 (on selected models) provides RAID-0/1/10/5/50 (optional 6/60
with Self-Encrypting Disk (SED)) without consuming a valuable adapter slot. It also offers
higher performance 512MB battery-backed cache.
• Up to twelve 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS hard disk drives offer high-performance with high
availability. The SAS controller provides full-duplex (bidirectional 300MBps) data transfers
for SAS drives.
• The integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet controllers with IPMI 2.0 provide high-speed network
communications. Jumbo Frames offer higher efficiency transfers for large data packets. Two
more NICS can be supported on the planar with an additional Dual Port Gb Ethernet
daughtercard. The TCP Offload Engine (TOE) feature offers higher performance for TCP/IP
traffic, with less overhead on the system processor.
• A high degree of device integration—including hot swap SAS/SATA HDDs or SSD drives,
multiple hardware based ServeRAID options, Gigabit Ethernet ports, systems management
and video controllers—lowers costs and frees up valuable adapter slots.
The x3650 M2 has the ability to grow with your application requirements, thanks to
• A choice of four-core or two-core processors with 1.86 to 2.93GHz clock rates, up to 6.4
• Up to 128GB of high-speed registered DDR3 system memory.
• Four available high-performance PCIe x8 adapter slots in all models. Optionally, riser cards
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All models require Chipkill-enabled DIMMs (provided standard) for Chipkill protection.
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
gigatransfers per second, and 60W to 95W maximum power draw.
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Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server
supporting two PCI-X/133 adapters can be exchanged for the PCIe slots.
• Installing the ServeRAID-M5015 option upgrades the basic ServeRAID controller with 512MB
of cache (optional battery) to enable higher-performance hardware RAID support, and allows
the x3650 M2 to offer five RAID levels standard: RAID-0/1/10/5/50 (optionally 6/60 with
SED). The optional ServeRAID MR10M controller supports up to four IBM System Storage™
EXP3000 expansion units containing up to 48 SAS HDDs and 14.4TB of external storage.
• The five USB 2.0 ports (two front, two rear, one internal) are up to 40X faster2 than older USB
1.1 ports. This provides speedy access to external HDDs (non-arrayed), optical drives, tape
drives, and other USB devices. Two ports are on the front of the unit and two are on the back.
The internal port supports a flash drive with embedded hypervisor or an internal tape or IBM
RDX removable disk storage drive.
• A choice of up to twelve 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS/SATA HDDs or solid-state drives, or eight
2.5-inch drives and one internal tape drive, offer a variety of storage options. The SAS and
SATA models provide a maximum of 6.0TB of internal hot-swap storage.
• Alternatively, iSCSI or Fibre Channel-attached storage can be attached using IBM System
Storage™ servers.
Manageability
Powerful systems management features simplify local and remote management of the x3650 M2:
• The x3650 M2 includes an Integrated Management Module (IMM) to monitor server
availability, perform Predictive Failure Analysis, etc., and trigger IBM Systems Director alerts.
The IMM performs the functions of both the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) of
earlier systems and the Remote Supervisor Adapter II and is upgradeable to remote
presence/cKVM.
• An optional Virtual Media Key provides additional systems management capabilities, including
Web-based out-of-band control; virtual floppy and optical drive support; Windows “blue
screen” error capture; LDAP and SSL support; and remote redirection of PCI video, text,
keyboard and mouse (cKVM). And it does all this without consuming a valuable adapter slot.
• 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
– Consistent firmware management across an entire product line
• Integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 support.
• 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.
• Text Console Redirection support allows the administrator to remotely view x3650 M2 text
messages over Serial or LAN.
• The completely redesigned 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. In
addition, IBM Systems Director 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 e-mail, pager, and other methods.
• IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager, an IBM-exclusive, is designed to take
advantage of new system power management features, by providing actual realtime energy
monitoring and reporting features.
Availability and Serviceability
The System x3650 M2 provides many features to simplify serviceability and increase system
uptime:
• x3650 M2 servers offer Chipkill ECC memory protection3 (when using x4 DIMMs). Chipkill
• The x3650 M2 offers memory mirroring for redundancy in the event of a non-correctable
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Data transfer rates may be less than the maximum possible.
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Chipkill protection is supported with x4 DDR-3 DIMMs, but not x8 DIMMs.
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
memory is up to 16X better than standard ECC memory at correcting memory errors. This can
help reduce downtime caused by memory errors.
memory failure
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Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
High
-
Performance Xeon
5500 Series
Processors
expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server
Key Features
• Toolless cover removal provides easy access to upgrades and serviceable parts. 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 x3650 M2.
Additionally, hot-swap/redundant HDDs, fan modules and power supplies, as well as
online mirrored memory, mean greater system uptime while these components are being
serviced.
• New toolless slides ship with the server, together with a Cable Management Arm (CMA),
that allows the rack server to easily slide into place
• IBM Thermal Diagnostics allows the administrator to evaluate thermal data on the server
without taking the hardware offline. This can provide greater server uptime.
• The drop-down 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 network availability.
• Integrated 3Gbps or 6 Gbps RAID controller to enhance system availability and data
protection without using a PCIe slot.
• IPMI 2.0 supports highly secure remote system power control using data encryption. This
allows an administrator to restart a server without having to visit it in person, saving travel time
and getting the server back up and running quickly and securely. It also adds new features to
those provided by IPMI 1.5, including VLAN support, Serial over LAN, enhanced
authentication and encryption algorithms (RMCP+, SHA-1, AES) and a firmware firewall.
• Altitude- and temperature-controlled fans adjust to compensate for changing thermal
characteristics. At the lower speeds they draw less power and suffer less wear. Equally
important in a crowded data center, temperature-controlled fans produce less ambient noise in
the data center than if they were constantly running at full speed.
• The three-year (parts and labor) limited onsite warranty4 helps afford you peace of mind
and greater investment protection than a one-year warranty does.
The x3650 M2 supports up to two high-performance Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors, allowing
you to upgrade to a second processor as your business needs require. The x3650 M2 offers a
choice of processor clock rates, memory access speeds and energy draw, including:
• 95W four-core Xeon models X5550, X5560, or X5570 running at 2.66, 2.8, or 293GHz,
respectively, with impressive performance/watt (23.75W per core; 6.4Gtbps QPI speed), 8MB
of L3 processor cache, 1333MHz memory access, and Intel Turbo Boost technology
• 60W four-core Xeon low-voltage models or L5530* running at 2.26GHz or 2.4GHz,
respectively, with low power draw and impressive performance/watt (only 15W per core;
5.86Gtps QPI speed), and 8MB of shared L3 cache, 1066MHz memory access, and Intel
Turbo Boost technology
• 80W four-core Xeon models E5520, E5530, or E5540 running at 2.26, 2.4, or 2.53GHz,
respectively, with reduced power draw and impressive performance/watt (only 20W per core;
5.86Gtps QPI speed), 8MB of L3 processor cache, 1066MHz memory access, and Intel Turbo
Boost technology
• 60W four-core Xeon low-voltage model L5506 running at 2.13GHz, with low power draw and
impressive performance/watt (only 15W per core; 4.8Gtps QPI speed), 4MB of L3 processor
cache, and 800MHz memory access
• 80W four-core Xeon models E5504 or E5506 running at 2.0 or 2.13GHz, respectively, with
reduced power draw and impressive performance/watt (only 20W per core; 4.8Gtps QPI
speed), 4MB of L3 processor cache, and 800MHz memory access
• 80W two-core Xeon model E5502 running at 1.86GHz, with reduced power draw (40W per
core; 4.8Gtps QPI speed), 4MB of L3 processor cache and 800MHz memory access
With the Xeon 5500 Series processors, Intel has diverged from its traditional Symmetric
Multiprocessing (SMP) architecture to a Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) architecture. The
Xeon 5500 processors are connected through a serial coherency link called QuickPath
Interconnect (QPI). QPI is capable of 6.4, 5.6 or 4.8 GT/s (gigatransfers per second), depending
on the processor model.
Two-core Xeon processors contain two complete processor cores; four-core processors,
similarly, contain four cores. Some processors contain one unified cache shared by all cores,
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For terms and conditions or copies of the IBM Statement of Limited Warranty, call 800-772-2227 in the U.S. In Canada call 800-
426-2255. Telephone support may be subject to additional charges. For warranties including onsite labor, a technician is sent after
IBM attempts to resolve the problem remotely. International warranty service is available in any country in which this product is
sold.
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
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Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
DDR
-
3 Registered Memory with Chipkill ECC
Protection
Ch1 Ch0 Ch2 Ch1 Ch0 Ch2
expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server
cache is dynamically allocated between the cores as needed. The multiple cores appear to
software as multiple physical processors. The two-core processors offer considerably higher
performance than a same-speed Xeon processor with a single core. Likewise, four-core
processors offer considerably higher performance than a same-speed Xeon processor with dual
cores.
Turbo Boost Technology dynamically turns off unused processor cores and increases the clock
speed of the cores in use, by up to two model frequencies. For example, with three cores active,
a 2.26GHz processor can run the cores at 2.4GHz. With only one or two cores active, the same
processor can run those cores at 2.53GHz. Similarly, a 2.93GHz processor can run at 3.06GHz
or even 3.33GHz. When the cores are needed again, they are dynamically turned back on and
the processor frequency is adjusted accordingly.
Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) 64-bit extensions allow the Xeon processor to
use large memory addressing when running with a 64-bit operating system. This in turn lets
individual software processes directly access more than 4GB of RAM, which was the limit of 32bit addressing. This can result in much higher performance for certain kinds of programs, such as
database management and CAD. Additional registers and instructions (SSE3) can further boost
performance for applications written to use them. Contact your software provider to determine
their software support for EM64T.
Intelligent Power Capability powers individual processor elements on and off as needed, to
reduce power draw.
Execute Disable Bit functionality can help prevent certain classes of malicious buffer overflow
attacks when combined with a supporting operating system.
The x3650 M2 ships with registered double data rate III (DDR-3) memory and provides Active
Memory features, including advanced Chipkill memory protection (optionally), for up to 16X
better error correction than standard ECC memory. In addition to offering better performance than
DDR-2 or fully-buffered memory, DDR-3 memory also uses less energy. DDR-2 memory already
offered up to 37% lower energy use than fully buffered memory. Now, a generation later, DDR-3
memory is even more efficient, using 22% less energy than DDR-2 memory.
The x3650 M2 supports up to 128GB of memory in sixteen DIMM slots. Redesign in the
architecture of the Xeon 5500 series processors bring radical changes in the way memory works
in these servers. For example, the Xeon 5500 series processor integrates the memory
controller inside the processor, resulting in two memory controllers in a 2-socket system. Each
memory controller has three memory channels. Depending on the type of memory, population of
memory, and processor model, the memory may be clocked at 1333MHz, 1066MHz or 800MHz.
Xeon 5500
Processor 0
Memory Controller
D1
D2
D3
8
5
2
7
4
1
D4
D5
D6
QPI
6
D7
3
D8
Memory Controller
15
12
9
Xeon 5500
Processor 1
16
D9
13
D10
10
D11
D12
D13
D14
14
D15
11
D16
1-16: DIMM population sequence; D1-D16: DIMM slot assignments
Note: If only one processor is installed, only the first eight DIMM slots can be used. Adding a
second processor not only doubles the amount of memory available for use, but also doubles the
number of memory controllers, thus doubling the system memory bandwidth. If you add a second
processor, but no additional memory for the second processor, the second processor has to
access the memory from the first processor “remotely,” resulting in longer latencies and lower
performance. The latency to access remote memory is almost 75% higher than local memory
access. So, the goal should be to always populate both processors with memory.
The X55xx models support up to 1333MHz memory clock speed, while the E55xx-and-up and
L55xx-and-up models support up to 1066MHz clock speed, and the E550x models support
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
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Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
expandable, rack-dense, 2U dual-socket server
800MHz clock speed.. Using 1333MHz memory (where supported) versus 1066MHz offers up to
9% better performance, while 1066MHz memory produces up to 28% better performance than
800MHz memory.
Xeon 5550 series processors access memory with almost 50% lower latency than the previous
generation 5400 series processors. That can result in faster processing of latency-sensitive
workloads.
This new processor design comes with some trade-offs in memory capacity, performance, and
cost: For example, greater memory capacity comes with lower memory speed. Alternatively, it
is possible to achieve the same memory capacity at lower cost but at a lower memory speed.
Regardless of memory speed, the Xeon 5500 platform represents a significant improvement in
memory bandwidth over the previous Xeon 5400 platform. At 1333MHz, the improvement is
almost 500% over the previous generation. This huge improvement is mainly due to the dual
integrated memory controllers and faster DDR-3 1333MHz memory. Throughput at 800MHz is 25
gigabytes per second (GBps); at 1066MHz it’s 32GBps; and at 1333MHz it’s 35GBps. This
improvement translates into improved application performance and scalability.
Memory interleaving refers to how physical memory is interleaved across the physical DIMMs. A
balanced system provides the best interleaving. A Xeon 5500 processor-based system is
balanced when all memory channels on a socket have the same amount of memory.
A memory rank is simply a segment of memory that is addressed by a specific address bit.
DIMMs typically have 1, 2 or 4 memory ranks, as indicated by their size designation.
• A typical memory DIMM description is 2GB 4Rx8 DIMM
• The 4R designator is the rank count for this particular DIMM (R for rank = 4)
• The x8 designator is the data width of the rank
It is important to ensure that DIMMs with appropriate number of ranks are populated in each
channel for optimal performance. Whenever possible, it is recommended to use dual-rank
DIMMs in the system. Dual-rank DIMMs offer better interleaving and hence better performance
than single-rank DIMMs. For instance, a system populated with six 2GB dual-rank DIMMs
outperforms a system populated with six 2GB single-rank DIMMs by 7% for SPECjbb2005. Dualrank DIMMs are also better than quad-rank DIMMs because quad-rank DIMMs will cause the
memory speed to be down-clocked.
Another important guideline is to populate equivalent ranks per channel. For instance, mixing
one single-rank DIMM and one dual-rank DIMM in a channel should be avoided.
Note: It is important to ensure that all three memory channels in each processor are populated.
The relative memory bandwidth decreases as the number of channels populated decreases. This
is because the bandwidth of all the memory channels is utilized to support the capability of the
processor. So, as the channels are decreased, the burden to support the requisite bandwidth is
increased on the remaining channels, causing them to become a bottleneck.
For increased availability, the x3650 M2 offers an additional (but mutually exclusive) level of IBM
Active Memory protection: online memory mirroring..
Memory mirroring works much like disk mirroring. The total memory is divided into two channels.
Data is written concurrently to both channels. If a DIMM fails in one of the DIMMs in the primary
channel, it is instantly disabled and the mirrored (backup) memory in the other channel becomes
active (primary) until the failing DIMM is replaced. One-half of total memory is available for use
with mirroring enabled. (Note: Due to the double writes to memory, performance is affected.)
Mirroring is handled at the hardware level; no operating system support is required.
DDR-3 memory is available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB DIMMs. DIMMs are installed individually
(not in pairs).
Drive Bays
The x3650 M2 contains twelve drive bays in all. Hot-swap drives may be inserted or removed
through the front of the server without powering off the system. Simple-swap solid-state drives
can be inserted or removed through the front of the server as well; however, the system power
must first be turned off.
For additional storage, a direct-attach, NAS or SAN external expansion option can be added,
using an optional controller.
A 24X/24X/24X/8X5 speed (ultraslim, 0.5”) CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo drive or CD-RW/DVD-RW
Multi-burner drive is connected to a dedicated SATA port. No diskette drive is supplied with any
model; an external USB floppy drive may be used, if needed.
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Variable read rate. Actual playback speed varies and is often less than the maximum possible.
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
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