IBM EJ0P Storage Backplane 18 SFF-3 Bays 8 1.8-inch Bays DVD Dual IOA with Write Cache 57D8

IBM EJ0P Storage Backplane 18 SFF-3 Bays 8 1.8-inch Bays DVD Dual IOA with Write Cache 57D8

The IBM EJ0P Storage Backplane provides 18 SFF-3 Bays and 8 1.8-inch bays for SSD, DVD Bay and Dual IOA with Write Cache for Power8 systems with IBM i, AIX, Linux or VIOS. The EJ0P storage backplane reports as 2B0F CCIN, has 00E5064 part number and includes dual IBM 57D8 integrated SAS controllers with write cache. IBM Power8 customers with write intensive workloads should upgrade from the EJ0N backplane to the EJ0P backplane to gain the performance advantage of write cache. The high performance controllers run 18 SFF-3 SAS bays, eight 1.8-inch SSD cage bays, and DVD bay in the system unit. Dual controllers (also called dual I/O adapters or paired controllers) and their write cache are placed in integrated slots and do not use PCIe slots. Write cache augments controller's high performance for workloads with writes, especially for HDD. 1.8 GB physical write cache is leveraged with compression to provide up to 7.2 GB cache capacity. The write cache contents are protected against power loss with flash memory and super capacitors removing the need for battery maintenance.

EJ0P is used with the expanded function disk backplane to support up to 18 small form-factor disk drives or solid-state drives and up to 8 1.8-inch form-factor solid state drives (SSD). Provides SAS RAID 0, 5, 6, 10, 5T2, 6T2, and 10T2 functions depending on the Operating System support for the attached disk drives in the expanded function Power8 system units and two external SAS ports that can be used to connect one external FC 5887. Patented Active/Active configurations with at least two arrays is supported. Easy Tier function is supported so the dual controllers can automatically move hot data to attached SSD and cold data to attached HDD for AIX, Linux and VIOS environments. Small Form Factor (SFF) or 2.5-inch drives are mounted on a carrier/tray specific to the system unit (SFF-3). The backplane has 18 SFF-3 bays.

This EJ0P backplane also enables two SAS ports EJ0Z on the rear of the system unit support the attachment of one EXP24S I/O drawer in mode1 holding HDD or SSD. Note the EJ0Z is an optional feature with EJ0P and one x8 PCIe slot is used by EJ0Z. The EJTM SSD cage is a required co-requisite feature on the 2-socket 4U server 8286-42A, but is not available on the 1-socket 4U server 8286-41A.

Note this backplane doesn't support split backplane. For split backplane use EJ0N + EJ0S backplane features. Both 5xx and 4k byte sector HDD/SSD are supported. 5xx and 4k drives cannot be mixed in the same array.

The feature EJ0P storage backplane option has expanded function compared to the feature EJ0N backplane. Feature EJ0P provides eighteen SSF-3 bays; a pair of integrated SAS controllers, each with 1.8 GB physical (effectively up to 7.2GB with compression) write cache; a DVD bay; two SAS ports enabled for attaching an external feature 5887 EXP24S Drawer; an eight-bay, 1.8-inch SSD Cage; and Easy Tier functionality. The SAS ports are indicated by the EJ0Z feature which is optionally ordered with feature EJ0P. The SAS ports are physically mounted on the rear of the server and use up one PCIe x8 slot. The SSD cage is indicated by feature EJTM feature and must also be ordered with feature EJ0P.

The dual SAS controllers provide both performance and protection advantages. Patented Active-Active capabilities enhance performance when there is more than one array configured. Each of the dual controllers has access to all the backplane SAS bays and can back up the other controller if there were to be a problem with the other controller. Each controller mirrors the other's write cache, providing redundancy protection. Integrated flash memory for the write cache content provides protection against electrical power loss to the server and avoids the need for write cache battery protection and battery maintenance.

All three of these backplane options support HDDs or SSDs or a mixture of HDDs and SSDs in the SFF-3 bays. "Mixing" HDD and SSD applies even within a single set of six bays of the split backplane option. Note, if mixing HDDs and SSDs, they must be in separate arrays (unless using Easy Tier function).

All three of these backplane options can offer different drive protection options: RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10. RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives of the same capacity. RAID 6 requires a minimum of four drives of the same capacity. RAID 10 requires a minimum of two drives. Hot spare capability is supported with RAID 5 or RAID 6. The high-performance, expanded-function dual-IOA backplane also proves Easy Tier functionality, which is also called RAID 5T2 (2-tiered RAID 5), RAID 6T2 (2-tiered RAID 6), and RAID 10T2 (2-tiered RAID 10).

Note: I/O performance-sensitive workloads with an appreciable percentage of writes should strongly consider using the feature EJ0P backplane with SAS controllers with write cache or use PCIe SAS controllers with write cache, especially for HDD. Note also that RAID 5 and RAID 6 result in more drive write activity than mirroring or than unprotected drives.

All three of these backplane options are supported by AIX, IBM i, Linux, and VIOS. If used by IBM i, to be a supported configuration, the drives must be protected by methods such as RAID 5, RAID 6, or mirroring. If used by AIX, Linux, or VIOS, it is highly recommended that the drives be protected, but not required.

If the client needs a change after the server is already installed, the backplane option can be changed. For example, the feature EJ0S split backplane can be added to an existing feature EJ0N backplane. Or the feature EJ0N can be removed and replaced by the expanded-function dual IOA feature EJ0P backplane. Or a feature EJ0P backplane could be replaced by a feature EJ0N and EJ0S backplane.

Unlike the hot plug PCIe slots and SAS bays, concurrent maintenance is not available for the integrated SAS controllers. Scheduled downtime is required if a service action is required for these integrated resources.

In addition to supporting HDDs and SSDs in the SFF-3 SAS bays, the expanded-function feature EJ0P supports a mandatory 8-bay, 1.8-inch SSD Cage (EJTM). All eight bays are accessed by both of the integrated SAS controllers. The bays support concurrent maintenance (hot plug). SSD 1.8-inch drives such as the 387 GB capacity feature ES16 or ES17 are supported. Included in the feature EJ0N or EJ0P backplanes is a slimline media bay that can optionally house a SATA DVD-RAM (5771). The DVD drive is run by the integrated SAS controllers, and a separate PCIe controller is not required.

The Easy Tier function is provided with the dual IOA, high-performance storage backplane (EJ0P). Conceptually, this function is like the Easy Tier function found in the IBM Storage products such as the DS8000, Storwize V7000, or SVC, but implemented just within the integrated Power Systems SAS controllers, the integrated SAS bays, and, optionally, an EXP24S I/O drawer. Hot data is automatically moved to SSDs, and cold data is automatically moved to disk (HDD) in an AIX, Linux, or VIOS environment. No user application coding is required.

Clients commonly have this hot/cold characteristic for their data. It is typical for 10% - 20% of the data to be accessed 80% - 90% of the time. This is called the hot data. If you can get the hot data onto SSDs, it can dramatically improve the performance of I/O-bound applications. And by keeping the cold data on HDDs, the total cost per gigabyte of the solution can be minimized. You can end up with high I/O performance at a very reasonable price. By avoiding the need for lots of HDD arms for performance, you can reduce the number of I/O drawers, maintenance, rack/floor space, and energy.

On a 4U server, up to 26 internal HDD/SSD SAS bays, and, optionally, with the EXP24S drawer, an additional 24 SAS bays are supported with the integrated Easy Tier function. In addition, or alternatively on 4U servers, the previously announced PCIe Gen 3 large cache SAS controllers (EJOL) can provide additional capacity or configuration options for the Easy Tier function.

Easy Tier function is configured using RAID 5T2 (2-tiered RAID 5), RAID 6T2 (2-tiered RAID 6), or RAID 10T2 (2-tiered RAID 10). HDD and SSD are combined in the same array and the controller or adapter swaps 1M or 2M bands of data between HDD and SSD, automatically moving the hot data to SSD and the cold data to SSD. The HDD and SSD can be different capacities in this array. If an array has multiple capacity points, for example, 300 GB HDD and 600 GB HDD, only 300 GB of the larger 600 GB HDD will be used. Similarly, if the array has 387 GB SSD and 775 GB SSD, only 387 GB of the 775 GB will be used. Note that the block size of the drives in the array must match. All drives must be 5xx byte sectors or all must be 4k byte sectors.

Easy Tier function requires AIX V7.1 TL3 SP3, or later; AIX V6.1 TL9 SP3, or later; RHEL 6.5, or later; SLES 11 SP3, or later; or VIOS 2.2.3.3, or later.

I/O drawer attachment

The EXP24S SAS HDD/SSD Expansion Drawer (5887) is attached to SAS ports on either a PCIe SAS adapter located in the server or to the SAS ports on the rear of the server. Two SAS ports on the rear of the server are enabled with the expanded-function storage backplane with dual IOA support.

One EXP24S drawer in mode 1 can be attached to the two SAS ports on the rear of the server using three meter SAS YO cables such as feature ECBT or ECBU. Either SSDs or HDDs can be placed in this drawer, but SSDs and HDDs cannot be mixed in this drawer.

The feature 5887 EXP24S drawer can be attached to SAS ports of PCIe SAS adapters using SAS YO or X cables. Up to 14 EXP24S drawers can be attached. The specific SAS cables used will depend on the specific adapter selected and drawer mode selected. Either SSDs or HDDs can be placed in the drawer, depending on the capabilities of the adapter running the bays. Note that longer distance SAS cables are thicker and can fill the Cable Management Arm more quickly.

Clients migrating from earlier generation servers may have been using I/O drawers such as the GX++ attached feature 5802 or 5877 PCIe 12X I/O Drawers with PCIe Gen 1 slots. Though most PCIe adapters in the feature 5802 or 5877 drawers can be moved to this server, and its disk drives converted and moved to the feature 5887 EXP24S drawer, the feature 5802 and 5877 drawers are not supported on this newer Power Systems technology-based server. Similarly, the GX++ attached EXP30 Ultra SSD Drawer (EDR1 or 5888) is not supported.

The older 3.5-inch-based feature 5886 EXP12S SAS Disk Drawer and feature 5786 EXP24 SCSI Disk Drawer are not supported.

IBM offers a 1U multimedia drawer that can hold one or more DVDs, tape drive, or RDX docking stations. The 7226-1U3 is the most current offering. The earlier 7216-1U2 and 7214-1U2 are also supported. Up to six of these multimedia drawers can be attached.

Attributes provided: Storage backplane with a pair of integrated SAS adapters with write cache running up to four things: a) a set of 18 SFF-3 SAS bays in the system unit: b) one DVD bay in the system unit; c) two SAS ports on the rear of the system unit to connect a single 5887; d) 1.8-inch SSD bays in system unit of 2 socket server

OS level required:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• AIX 6.1 and 7.1 or later supported
• IBM i 7.1 TR8 and 7.2 or later supported
• Refer to Software requirements for specific O/S levels supported