Adapter support

Most IBM System Storage N series controller models feature PCI adapter slots. Adapters must be added in pairs, one per node, to dual-controller models, so that both nodes are populated with the same number of each type of PCI adapters.

There are no standard PCI adapter slots on the N3220 and N3240 series storage systems. There is a custom PCI connection that allows for either of the following:

There are no PCI adapter slots on the N3150, N3300, and N3400 systems. No additional adapter options are supported for the N3150, N3300, and N3400 systems.

There is one available PCIe adapter slot per node on the N3600 storage system. The PCIe adapters supported by the N3600 are described in Optional adapter cards supported by the N3600.

There are five available PCIe adapter slots and three available PCI-X adapter slots per node on the N7700 and N7900 storage systems. (The sixth PCIe adapter slot on each N7700 or N7900 node is reserved for the NVRAM6 adapter and is not available for PCIe adapter card use). The PCIe and PCI-X adapters supported by the N7700 and N7900 storage systems are described in Optional adapter cards supported by N7000 series systems.

There are three PCIe X8 expansion slots and one PCIe X4 expansion slot per node on the N6000 series storage systems. The PCIe adapters supported by the N6000 series storage systems are described in Optional adapter cards supported by N6000 series systems.

There are two PCIe expansion slots per controller node on the N6200 series storage systems. N6220, N6240, N6250, and N6270 Exx models also include one I/O expansion module per controller node; each I/O expansion module provides four additional PCIe slots.

Note: The I/O expansion module is not available on N6210 Cxx models.

The PCIe adapters supported by the N6200 series storage systems are described in Optional adapter cards supported by N6200 series systems.

There are two available vertical expansion slots and four PCIe expansion slots per controller node on the N7x50T storage systems. The N7950T also includes one I/O expansion module per controller node; each I/O expansion module provides two additional vertical slots and eight PCIe slots, which means a total of 4 available vertical slots and twelve PCIe slots for adapter expansion per node. One vertical slot per controller is occupied by the NVRAM card and the other three vertical slots are reserved for features 1079 and 1080.

Any and all adapter cards (hardware features) added to an N7950T configuration must be added in equal numbers to the two nodes of the N7950T. The two nodes must be identically configured.

The PCIe adapters supported by the N7x50T storage systems are described in Optional adapter cards supported by N7x50T series systems.