Drives

The IBM® Storage FlashSystem 9200 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
  • Storage-Class Memory drives
IBM Storage FlashSystem 9200 also supports SAS HDDs and SSDs in expansion enclosures.
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 in a standard 2.5-inch, 15 mm form factor.

The FlashCore Module design uses the NVMe protocol a PCIe Gen3 U.2 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 compression, self-encryption, and T10-Diff are supported.

FlashCore Modules are available in 4.8 TB, 9.6 TB, 19.2 TB, and 38.4 TB.
Table 1. FlashCore Modules sizes and capacities
FlashCore Module PCIe Interface Size (TB) Logical size (TB)
FCM 2 Gen 3

4.8

9.6

19.2

38.4

21.99

21.99

43.98

87.96

Industry-standard NVMe SSDs

IBM Storage FlashSystem 9200 supports Industry-Standard NVMe SSDs with the following capacities: 1.92 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 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 compression or computational storage features of FlashCore Modules.

Storage Class Memory drives

Storage Class Memory drives provide the lowest latency for high performance small capacity workloads. IBM Storage FlashSystem 9200 supports Storage Class Memory drive in the following capacities: 375 GB, 750 GB, 800 GB, and 1.6 TB.

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.
  • Flash Core Modules and Industry Standard flash drives should be added in ascending slot order from Slot 1.
  • Storage Class Memory drives should be added in descending slot order from Slot 24.

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