IBM System x3500 M3 - Page 15

IBM System x3500 M3 15
Standard models of x3500 M3 ship with eight or sixteen 2.5" SAS/SATA hot-swap hard drive bays
(configurations 3 and 4, as shown in Figure 5). The following table shows internal storage expansion
options available for the x3500 M3 server.
Table 6. Internal storage expansion options
Part
number
Feature
code
Name Maximum
supported
69Y0894 1731 Additional 4x 3.5-inch LFF hot-swap SAS/SATA HDD upgrade kit
(used in configuration 2, Figure 5)
1
69Y0895 1725 Additional 8x 2.5-inch SFF hot-swap SAS/SATA HDD upgrade kit
(includes a 6 Gbps SAS expander)
(used in configurations 4 and 5 as shown in Figure 5)
2
These options are used in the following ways:
69Y0894 upgrades models with four 3.5" hot-swap HDD bays to eight 3.5" hot-swap HDD bays

(configuration 2 in Figure 5). Disk backplanes are directly connected to the ports on the RAID
controller. If this option is used, then only one UltraSlim optical drive can be installed. Internal tapes
are not supported in this configuration.
69Y0895 upgrades models with eight 2.5" hot-swap HDD bays to 16 2.5" hot-swap HDD bays

(configuration 4 in Figure 5). This option includes a SAS expander card that fits into the regular PCI-E
slot, decreasing the number of available slots by one. The RAID controller occupies a separate PCI-E
slot. Two PCI-E slots are occupied by storage cards in this configuration. Disk backplanes are
connected to the SAS expander, and the SAS expander is connected to the RAID controller.
69Y0895 also upgrades models with sixteen 2.5" hot-swap HDD bays to twenty-four 2.5" hot-swap

HDD bays (configuration 5 in Figure 5). This option includes a SAS expander card that fits into the
regular PCI-E slot, decreasing the number of available slots by one. The RAID controller occupies a
separate PCI-E slot. Three PCI-E slots are occupied by storage cards in this configuration. Disk
backplanes are connected to two SAS expanders, and the SAS expanders are connected to the RAID
controller.
As shown in Figure 5, each configuration supports an optical drive. Configurations 1, 2, and 4 also have
space for one or two tape drives. In configuration 5, for configure-to-order (CTO) configurations, you can
add a tape drive instead of an optical drive if so desired.