IBM ESLL EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure

The IBM EXP12SX SAS storage enclosure ESLL is a storage expansion enclosure with twelve 3.5-inch LFF SAS bays. The IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure supports up to 12 hot-plug HDDs in a 2 EIA of space in a 19-inch rack. The SFF bays of the IBM EXP12SX SAS storage enclosure use LFF Gen1 or LFF-1 carrier trays. The 4k byte sector drives IBM 4096 or 4224 are supported and SSDs are not supported. The IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure has IBM ESLL feature code and is supported on the Power9 9009-41A S914, 9009-41G S914, 9009-22G S922, 9009-22A S922, 9009-42A S924 or 9009-42G S924 servers by AIX, Linux, and VIOS, as well as supported on IBM Power8 8286-42A S824, 8286-41A S814, 8284-22A S822, 8284-21A S812, 8247-42L S824L, 8247-22L S822L,8247-21L S812L, 8408-E8E E850, 8408-44E E850C, 9119-MHE E880 and 9080-MHE E880C servers.

With AIX, Linux and VIOS, the IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure can be ordered with four sets of 3 bays known as mode 4, two sets of 6 bays known as mode 2, or one set of 12 bays known as mode 1. The mode setting can be changed in the field using software commands along with a specifically documented procedure.

Important: When changing modes, it is very important to follow the documented procedures. Improperly changing modes can potentially destroy existing RAID sets, prevent access to existing data, or allow other partitions to access another partition's existing data. Hire an IBM certified engineer to assist if you are not familiar with this type of reconfiguration work.

Four mini-SAS HD ports on the EXP12SX are attached to PCIe Gen3 SAS adapters or attached to an integrated SAS controller in a IBM Power9 scale-out server such as the 9009-41A S914, 9009-41G S914, 9009-22G S922, 9009-22A S922, 9009-42A S924 or 9009-42G S924 server. The following PCIe3 SAS adapters support the EXP12SX:
IBM EJ0J PCIe3 RAID SAS Adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8
IBM EJ14PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID Plus SAS Adapter Quad-port 6 Gb x8
Note: Earlier generation PCIe2 or PCIe1 SAS adapters are not supported with the EXP12SX drawer.

The IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure drawer and the PCIe3 SAS adapters or integrated SAS controllers are attached through SAS YO12 or X12 cables. X12 and YO12 cables are designed to support up to 12 Gb. The PCIe Gen3 SAS adapters support up to 6 Gb throughput. The EXP12SX has been designed to support up to 12 Gb throughput if future SAS adapters support that capability. All ends of the YO12 and X12 cables have mini-SAS HD narrow connectors. Cable options are:
IBM ECDJ X12 cable: 3M copper IBM ECDJ
IBM ECDT YO12 cables 1.5M copper and IBM ECDU 3M copper
IBM EB5R 3M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC
IBM EB5S 5M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC
IBM EB5T 10M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC
IBM EB5U 15M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC
IBM EB5V 20M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC
IBM EB5W 30M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC
IBM EB5X 50M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC
IBM EB5Y 100M 100 GbE Optical Cable QSFP28 AOC

An AA12 cable interconnecting a pair of IBM EJ14 PCIe3 12 GB cache adapters is not attached to the EXP12SX drawer. These higher- bandwidth cables could support 12 Gb throughput if future adapters support that capability. Copper feature ECE0 is 0.6 meters long, feature ECE3 is 3 meters long, and optical AA12 feature ECE4 is 4.5 meters long.

One no-charge specify code is used with each IBM ESLL EXP12SX I/O drawer to communicate to IBM configurator tools and IBM Manufacturing which mode setting, adapter, and SAS cable are needed. With this specify code, no hardware is shipped. The physical adapters, controllers, and cables must be ordered with their own chargeable feature numbers. There are more technically supported configurations than are represented by these specify codes.

The IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure specify codes assume a full set of adapters and cables able to run all the SAS bays configured. The following specify codes communicate to IBM Manufacturing a lower cost, partial configuration is to be configured where the ordered adapters and cables can run only a portion of the SAS bays. The future MES addition of adapters and cables can enable the remaining SAS bays for growth.

An IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure drawer in mode 4 can be attached to two or four SAS controllers and provide a great deal of configuration flexibility. For example, if using unpaired feature IBM EJ0J adapters, these EJ0J adapters could be in the same server in the same partition, same server in different partitions, or even different servers.

An IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure drawer in mode 2 has similar flexibility. If the I/O drawer is in mode 2, then half of its SAS bays can be controlled by one pair of PCIe3 SAS adapters, such as a 12 GB write cache adapter pair IBM EJ14, and the other half can be controlled by a different PCIe3 SAS 12 GB write cache adapter pair or by zero-write-cache PCIe3 SAS adapters.
Note: for simplicity, IBM configurator tools such as e-config assume that the SAS bays of an individual I/O drawer are controlled by one type of SAS adapter. As a client, you have more flexibility than e-config understands.

The 3.5-inch large form factor or LFF SAS HDDs are supported in the IBM EXP24SX SAS Storage Enclosure. All drives are mounted on Gen1 carrier trays and thus named LFF-1 drives. Only 4k byte sector drives are supported in the IBM ESLS SAS Storage Enclosure drawer. The 5xx byte sector drives are not announced or planned. Drives are 7200 rpm and sometimes referred to as nearline. These drives provide excellent cost per gigabyte. Note that formatting or rebuilding arrays on large disk drives can take hours. If higher performance is required, consider higher RPM disks or SSDs in the IBM EXP24SX SAS Storage Enclosure ESLS.

The IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosure drawer has many high-reliability design points:
• SAS bays that support hot swap
• Redundant and hot-plug power and fan assemblies
• Dual line cords
• Redundant and hot-plug ESMs
• Redundant data paths to all drives
• LED indicators on drives, bays, ESMs, and power supplies that support problem identification
• Through the SAS adapters/controllers, drives that can be protected with RAID and mirroring and hot-spare capability

Order two ESLA features for AC power supplies. The enclosure is shipped with adjustable depth rails and can accommodate 19-inch rack depths from 23.4-29.5 in. or 59.5-75 cm. Slot filler panels are provided for empty bays when initially shipped from IBM.

IBM EXP24SX SAS Storage Enclosure and IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosures can be mixed on the same IBM Power9 server. IBM EXP24SX SAS Storage Enclosure and IBM EXP12SX SAS Storage Enclosures can be mixed on the same PCIe3 adapter.

Other IBM Power10, Power9 and Power8 Storage Expansion Enclosures include:
IBM ESLS Storage Expansion Enclosure EXP24SX
IBM ESLL SAS storage enclosure EXP12SX
IBM 5887 EXP24S 24 SFF IO Disk Expansion Drawer