Overview - IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB 2.5-inch MLC SATA SSD

Content

Planned availability date: September 4. 2014

At a Glance

IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB SATA MLC Entry SSDs are new solid-state drives for System x that are designed to deliver very fast and consistent performance to read-heavy workload demands at the best cost efficiency of any data-center-class SSD

Benefits include:

• 2.5-inch standard form factor in 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB densities
• Efficient 3-bit MLC flash memory technology with fast sustained 4K random read performance of up to 87,000 IOPS High-performance sequential throughput of 530 MBps read and 410 MBps write
• Designed to deliver high performance and low latency to read-intensive, high-density data center workload requirements in a low-cost solid-state drive
• Enterprise features for power-loss data protection and end-to-end data path protection

Overview

IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB SATA MLC Entry SSDs are new solid-state drives for System x that are designed to deliver very fast and consistent performance to read-heavy workload demands at the best cost-efficiency of any data-center-class SSD. The new entry data-center-class SSDs for System x are available as 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch standard form factor (SFF) in the 240 GB, 480 GB or 960 GB densities each delivering high sequential throughput of 530 MBps read and 410 MBps write.

The SSDs are built with a 3-bit MLC NAND and advanced controller technology in a very cost-efficient design that drives a low-storage TCO with a high-performance-based ROI Fast sustained random read performance of up to 87,000 IOPS and sustained random write of 15,000 IOPS make the IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB SATA MLC Entry SSDs an optimal solid-state solutions for Hyperscale, cloud, and big data read-intensive workloads.
IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB SATA MLC Entry SSDs are covered under IBM warranty. These drives carry a 1-year limited warranty, or when installed in a System x server these drives assume the systems base warranty Solid-state devices do have finite write or P/E cycles and are listed as Total Bytes Written (TBW). Refer to Limitations section and the device specifications for details

Features and functions of the IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB SATA MLC Entry SSDs:

• 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB densities in a 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch standard form factor
• Efficient 3-bit MLC flash memory technology with a fast sustained 4K random read performance of up to 87,000 IOPS High-performance sequential throughput of 530 MBps read and 410 MBps write
• Designed to deliver high performance and low latency to read-intensive, high-density data center workload requirements in a low-cost solid-state drive
• Enterprise features include power-loss data protection and end-to-end data path protection

Key Prerequisites

IBM System x or BladeCenter system with SATA or SAS capability depending on drives selected.

Warranty

• 1 year limited warranty (1)

Packaging

IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB 2.5-inch and 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB 3.5-inch MLC Enterprise Value SSDs . Option Unit Box is 1.

Content:

• SSD
  
• Important Notices and IBM Warranty Publication
  
• SSD Information Flyer

Physical Specifications

Dimensions :

IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch Hot-Swap MLC Enterprise SSDs

• Approximate height: 6.80 mm (0.27 in.)
• Approximate width: 69.85 mm (2.75 in.)
• Approximate depth: 100.20 mm (3.94 in.)
• Approximate weight:
  • 240 GB: 63.0 g (0.13 lb)
  • 480 GB: 63.0 g (0.13 lb)
  • 960 GB: 63.0 g (0.13 lb)

Shipping dimensions :

IBM 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB SATA 2.5-inch MLC Hot-Swap Entry SSDs

• Height: 133.0 mm (5.24 in.)
• Width: 63.0 mm (2.48 in.)
• Depth: 174.0 mm (6.85 in.)

Operating Environment

• Temperature: 0 to 70 degrees C (32 to 158 F)  
  
• Relative humidity: 8% to 85% (noncondensing)  
  
• Maximum altitude: 3,050 m (10,000 ft)

Product Number

Hardware Requirements

For attended installation of an operating system, this server requires a compatible:

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Hard Drive
• Display

Software Requirements

Operating systems

Microsoft

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Web x64 Edition

Linux

• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 with Xen for AMD64/EM64T
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 for AMD64/EM64T
• SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 x86n for AMD64/EM64T
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server x64 Edition

VMware

• VMware vSphere 5.1 (ESXi)

NOTE: For information on additional support, certification, version in- formation, or network operating systems, visit

http://www.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/

IBM makes no representation or warranty regarding third-party products, including those designated as ServerProven.

Compatibility

For latest compatibility information, visit

http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/

Note: Some configurations may not be compatible

Limitations

Solid-state memory cells have an intrinsic, finite number of write cycles that each cell can incur. As a result, each solid-state drive has a maximum amount of writes to which it can be subjected, documented as Total Bytes Written (TBW). IBM is not responsible for replacement of hardware that has reached the maximum guaranteed number of write cycles. This limit may be revealed as the SSD drive failing to communicate to system-generated commands or becoming incapable of being written to. In general, it is important to distinguish enterprise value drives from enterprise drives.

Enterprise drives have much higher write endurance and as a result, can withstand a greater number of writes over the lifetime of the device compared to enterprise value level drives. SSD write endurance is an important factor to consider because unlike spinning disk media, NAND flash accepts a finite number of program/erase cycles. SSD write endurance is typically measured by the number of program/erase cycles, or PE cycles, each cell incurs over its lifetime and per drive, listed as Total Bytes Written (TBW) in the drive specification. This statistic can be used to give an estimate of the drive's remaining life based on the workload to which the drive will be subjected. The TBW value assigned to a solid-state drive is the total bytes of written data (based on number of PE cycles) a drive can be guaranteed to complete. Reaching this limit does not cause the drive to immediately fail; it simply denotes the maximum number of writes that can be guaranteed.

A solid-state drive will not fail upon reaching the specified TBW. At some point based on manufacturing variance margin, after surpassing the TBW value, the drive will reach the end-of-life point, at which the drive will go into a read-only mode.

As a result of the technology limitations, care must be taken to use SSDs in environments that will not exceed the TBW of the drive prior to the required life expectancy of the application.

As an example, assume that an access pattern of 50% random data and 50% sequential data with block size mixes of 5% of the data is 4k block size, 5% of the data is 8k block size, 10% of the data is 16k block size, 35% of the data is 64k block size, and 35% of the data is 128k block size. A drive capable of 72 TB of lifetime writes, assuming an approximation of the workload stated above as being worse case, the drive workload must be limited to no more than 40 GB of writes per day to last five years and stay inside the 72 TBW limit. For the device to last three years, the drive write workload must be limited to no more then 65 GB of writes per day.

Additional information is available at

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/options/storage/solidstate/index.html