Drives

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The IBM® FlashSystem 7600 system supports several drive classes and capacities.

These drives are used to create arrays that provide capacity for pools and volumes. All drives in an array are the same type and capacity.

The system supports the following drive types:
  • IBM FlashCore® Modules
  • Industry-standard SSD drives
Note: Do not replace a drive unless the drive fault LED is on or you are instructed to do so by a fix procedure.

FlashCore Modules

IBM® FlashCore Modules (FCM) are a family of high-performance flash drives. FlashCore Module 5 drives use the Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form-Factor (EDSFF) E.3 form factor, which allows superior drive density compared to prior U.2 small form factor drives.

The FlashCore Module design uses the NVMe protocol with a Gen 4 interface, and high-speed NAND memory to provide high throughput and IOPS with consistent and predictable latency. The FlashCore Modules are accessible from the front of the enclosure. Hardware-based data reduction, self-encryption, and T10-Diff are supported.

FlashCore Modules for IBM FlashSystem 7600 are available in a number of capacity points.

Table 1. FlashCore Modules sizes and capacities
FlashCore Module Capacity designation Size (TB) Logical size (TB)
FCM 5 Small 6.6 33.60
Medium 13.2 67.20
Large 26.4 134.40
XL 52.8 268.80

FlashCore Module 5 drives have a PCIe Gen 5 interface at all capacity points. In addition, FlashCore Module 5 drives support computational storage assists for real-time ransomware threat detection.

FlashCore Module 5 drives are undergoing FIPS140-3 validation.

Industry-standard NVMe SSDs

IBM FlashSystem 7600 supports Industry-Standard NVMe EDSFF with the following capacities: 1.92 TB, 3.84 TB, and 7.68 TB. These NVMe drives support hardware-based encryption for data at rest as well as standard T-10Diff protection.

Note: Industry-Standard SSDs do not offer the internal data reduction or computational storage features of FlashCore Modules.

Drive plug ordering

New systems ordered from IBM follow a particular slot usage pattern. If more drives are installed later, continuing with the same plug ordering pattern ensures optimum system performance.
  • FlashCore modules and Industry-Standard drives: fill the enclosure from slot 1 toward slot 32 in order.

Any drive slot without a drive in it must be fitted with a Drive Blank to maintain correct airflow impedance.