IBM x3400 Server User Manual


 
An affordable dual-socket, dual- and quad-core SMP server
with high performance and data protection for small and
medium businesses
Please see the Legal Information section for important notices and information.
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Ultra-fast fully buffered 667MHz PC2-5300 DDR II ECC memory with Chipkill protection provides
speed and high availability.
Three high-speed PCI-E and two PCI-X adapter slots offer investment protection by supporting high-
performance adapters, such as 10Gb Ethernet, Fibre Channel and InfiniBand cards, none of which will
run in older 33MHz and 66MHz conventional PCI slots.
Integrated ServeRAID-8k-l provides hardware RAID-0/1/10 support with 32MB of cache at no extra
charge and without consuming a valuable adapter slot. RAID-0 offers improved disk performance via
data striping; RAID-1 offers disk mirroring for high availability, and RAID-10 combines the benefits of
speed and availability. The x3400 is upgradeable to full RAID-0/1/1E/5/6 support, using the optional
ServeRAID-8k card. It also offers higher performance, due to the 256MB battery-backed onboard
cache.
Support for up to four 3.5-inch hot-swap SAS hard disk drives standard offer high-performance with
high availability. Some models also offer an optional upgrade to eight hot-swap SAS or SATA drives.
The SAS controller provides full-duplex (2 x 300MBps) data transfers for SAS drives. For lower cost
and high capacity, other models support up to four simple-swap Serial ATA drives. The SATA II
drives offer performance nearly equal to that of Ultra320 SCSI (300MBps half-duplex vs. 320MBps
half-duplex, respectively).
The integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller with IPMI 2.0 support provides high-speed network
communications.
A high degree of device integration, including SAS/SATA, RAID, Gigabit Ethernet, systems
management and video controllers, lowers costs and frees up valuable adapter slots.
Flexibility
The x3400 has the ability to grow with your application requirements, thanks to:
Support for a choice of quad-core processors with 2.0 to 2.66GHz clock rates, 1333MHz FSB, and
80W power draw.
Support for a choice of dual-core processors with 1.6 to 3.0GHz clock rates, 667MHz or 1066MHz
FSB, and 65W or 95W power draw.
Up to 32GB of high-speed fully-buffered DDR2 system memory.
Three available high-performance PCI-E adapter slots, two PCI-X slots, and one legacy PCI slot in
all models.
The standard ServeRAID-8k-l controller can be upgraded to the slotless ServeRAID-8k controller. It
offers 256MB of battery-backed cache and six RAID levels.
The five USB 2.0 ports (four external, one internal) are up to 40X faster
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than older USB 1.1 ports.
This provides speedy access to external HDDs (non-arrayed), optical drives, internal and external tape
drives, and other USB devices. Two ports are on the front of the unit and two are on the back, for easy
access.
Up to four internal 3.5-inch simple-swap SATA or hot-swap SAS or SATA HDDs and a half- or full-
high tape drive standard. Selected models offer an optional expansion kit that supports four additional
hot-swap SAS or SATA drives, for a total of eight. This translates into as much as 6TB of internal
SATA or 2.4TB of internal SAS storage (model-specific). This provides tremendous internal storage
capability, along with full data backup.
Alternatively, iSCSI or Fibre Channel-attached storage can be attached using IBM System Storage
or IBM TotalStorage
servers.
Manageability
Powerful systems management features simplify local and remote management of the x3400:
The x3400 includes a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) to monitor server availability,
perform Predictive Failure Analysis, etc., and trigger IBM Director alerts.
Integrated IPMI 2.0 support alerts IBM Director to anomalous environmental factors, such as voltage
and thermal conditions. It also supports highly secure remote power control using data encryption.
Text Console Redirection support allows the administrator to remotely view x3400 text messages
over Serial or LAN.
IBM Director 5.1x is provided for proactive systems management. It comes with a portfolio of tools,
including Management Processor Assistant, RAID Manager, Update Assistant, Software Distribution
and a Real Time Diagnostics tool. In addition, IBM Director offers extended systems management tools
for additional server management and increased availability.
An optional Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine provides additional systems management
capabilities, including Web-based out-of-band control; virtual floppy and optical drive support; Windows
“blue screen” error capture; LDAP and SSL support; and remote redirection of PCI video, text,
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Data transfer rates may be less than the maximum possible.