Enhanced I/O options for Power Systems

SAS-bay-based SSD (solid state drive) options are enhanced with expanded configuration options for the 177 GB SSD.   These 177GB drives provide 2.5 times more capacity per drive than the previously available 69 GB SSD for the POWER7 710, 720, 730, 740, 750, 755, 770, and 780, and for the POWER6 520, 550, 560, 570, and 595.  The 177 GB drive provides an improved price per drive and a much improved cost per gigabyte compared to the 69GB SSD.

Four feature codes are used for this drive to indicate which set of OS protection rules are used and to indicate what type of SFF SAS bay in which it is placed (SSF-1 or SSF-2).  The four features are #1775, #1787, #1793, and #1794. Note feature 1775 and feature 1787 were previously announced on Power 795 but are now supported in many more models.

A few SSDs may reduce the need for many HDDs, saving rack space, I/O drawers, maintenance, and energy.  SSDs can often do so while improving system performance and batch windows at the same time.

Power Systems announced several I/O options 12 April 2011 which are being introduced starting May 2011. These I/O options enhance the Power Systems product lines, offering clients better performance, more cost-effective configurations, and stronger longer-term hardware investments. These enhancements include:

New disk-only I/O drawer:

The #5887 EXP24S is a high-density, high-performance SFF drive drawer, holding up to 24 SAS drives in just 2U of 19-inch rack space. This is twice the number of drives compared to the currently offered #5886 EXP12S I/O drawer (#5886) and its twelve 3.5-inch drive capacity. The EXP24S can also be ordered in mode 1, 2, or 4, providing additional configuration flexibility. In addition to 6 Gb SAS capability, the EXP24S SFF drives provide significant energy savings compared to the EXP12S 3.5-inch drives.

New SAS-bay-based SSD:

SAS-bay-based SSD options are enhanced with a 177 GB SSD which provides 2.5 times more capacity per drive than the current 69 GB SSD. The 177 GB drive provides a much improved cost per gigabyte and requires a smaller number of SAS bays for the same number of gigabytes. A few SSDs may reduce the need for many HDDs, saving rack space, I/O drawers, maintenance, and energy. SSDs can often do so while improving system performance and batch windows at the same time. This new SSD option is announced only on the Power 795.

New 571/600 GB disk drive:

A 571 GB / 600 GB 10k RPM SFF Disk Drive is added to SFF disk drive options, offering a lower cost per gigabyte and more gigabytes per rack space.

IBM Systems Director Management Console (SDMC):

SDMC is the next-generation Hardware Management Console (HMC). The SDMC incorporates the IBM Systems Director software to provide consistency with IBM Systems Director on other platforms. The SDMC offers several advantages over the HMC, including the ability to manage both Power Systems servers and Power Systems blades based on Power Architecture.

IBM/BNT Switches for Power Systems:

Three IBM BNT data center Ethernet switches are available for IBM POWER7 processor-based servers. They offer three great top-of-rack (TOR) alternatives for the access or distributed layer for IBM Power Systems data center switching environments. They are the IBM BNT RackSwitches: G8124ER (1455-24E), G8052R (1455-48E), and G8264R (1455-64C).

Clustering enhancements:

Three QLogic 4X QDR IB switches can now be ordered with Power Systems hardware and supported on Power Systems. They provide up to 36-port, 72-port and 324-port capability (7874-036, 7874-072 and 7874-324). Plus a new PCIe Gen2 low-profile IB QDR adapter provides high-speed 4X InfiniBand connections for AIX/Linux clusters to these switches.

Save/Restore enhancements:

A new 2U I/O drawer (#5724) replaces the existing media I/O drawer for the Power 795 which holds DVD or tape drives. In addition, the existing Ultrium5 or LTO-5 tape drive is added to the Power 750 internal tape and to the Power 795 media drawer drive options.

IBM i existing I/O enhancements:

IBM i 6.1 with 6.1.1 machine code will now support the previously announced PCIe RAID and SSD SAS Adapter (#2053, #2054, and #2055) with its 177 GB SSD Modules. Previously this was support required IBM i 7.1 or required IBM i 6.1 with VIOS. Also the previously announced PCIe Riser Card (Gen 2), will have direct support with IBM i 7.1.

Additional information about future planned I/O enhancements is now available on the Product Preview / Statement of Direction.

October 2010

Power Systems I/O enhancements announced in October 2010 include:
Optional PCIe Gen2 slots and two new PCIe Gen 2 adapters are introduced on the Power 720 and 740 Express servers and are planned to be available in December, 2010. These can provide greater bandwidth than using Gen1 slots and adapters.

• The PCIe Riser Card (#5685) provides four PCIe Gen2 low-profile (LP) slots in the Power 720/740 system unit. The riser card supports both Gen1 and Gen2 Low Profile PCIe adapters. It is initially supported on AIX and Linux.
• The PCIe2 (Gen2) Low Profile 2-port 10GbE SR Adapter (#5284) and the PCIe2 (Gen2) Low Profile 2-Port 10GbE SFP+ Copper Adapter (#5286) are supported in the new Gen2 PCIe Riser Card.

Additional LTO-5 support for IBM i 6.1 is planned to be available starting 26 November. The IBM tape libraries TS3100, TS3200, TS3310, and TS3500 with LTO-5 drives will be supported after applying the then available latest IBM i PTFs.

PCIe Cryptographic Adapter support is planned to be expanded 19 November. IBM i 6.1 support is added to the existing AIX and IBM i 7.1 support. The PCIe Cryptographic adapter provides additional performance and function with improved RAS features compared to the PCI-X predecessor. The adapter provides a powerful, tamper-resistant solution for POWER7 and POWER6 clients who handle secure cryptographic and digital signature workload in their business.

• August 2010

  PCIe-based SSD offering

  SSD or flash technology can provide a tremendous number of I/O operations per second compared to spinning disk drives, helping to slash I/O-bound batch window times and improve interactive or query response times. The PCIe RAID & SSD SAS Adapter is a new SSD offering designed to provide greater capacity, smaller footprint and lower list price per GB in many POWER7® processor-based server configurations, when compared to the currently available SSD storage module which plugs into a SAS disk bay. The currently available 69 GB SSD remains available and continue to be an excellent choice for many configurations.

  The new PCIe-based SSD offering consists of a double-wide SAS PCIe adapter which has sockets directly on the adapter for up to four 177 GB SSD modules (over 700 GB per adapter). These 177 GB SSD modules use a new eMLC flash technology that offers enterprise class performance and reliability. The new offering is available with the Power 710, 720, 730, 740, 750, 755, 770 and 780.

  The PCIe RAID & SSD SAS Adapter is supported by these operating systems, or later – AIX® 5.3, IBM i 7.1, RHEL 5.5 or SLES 10.

  PCIe Crypto Coprocessor 4765-001 supported on IBM i 7.1

  The PCIe Crypto Coprocessor 4765-001, previously announced for AIX, is now supported on IBM i 7.1. IBM cryptographic adapters are suited to applications requiring high-speed, security-sensitive, RSA acceleration, cryptographic operations for data encryption and digital signing, secure management and use of cryptographic keys, or custom cryptographic applications. The PCIe Crypto Coprocessor, which provides both cryptographic coprocessor and secure-key cryptographic accelerator functions in a single PCIe card, is designed to meet the needs of clients with banking, credit card or finance applications, especially those who require hardware designed to meet FIPS 140-2 level 4 security.

  LTO5 Tape drive for the Power 720 and 740 Express

  Internal tape drive options are expanded with the addition of a SAS HH LTO5 tape drive which can be placed in the Power 720 or 740 Express system unit. Existing external LTO5 tape options remain available for other POWER6 and POWER7 processor-based servers.

  IBM 7216-1U2 Multi-media Storage Enclosure

  This compact (1U) multi-media storage enclosure may be externally attached to POWER7 processor-based servers. It provides a slightly lower U.S. list price than the predecessor IBM 7214-1U2 enclosure and can accommodate a variety of the latest level removable media and storage devices. Supported drives include SAS LTO5 tape, SAS DAT320 tape, USB DAT320 tape, SATA DVD-RAM and USB Removable Disk (RDX).

  IBM i I/O enhancements

  IBM i has several I/O enhancements. In addition to the support of the PCIe Crypto card, support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), external LTO-5 drives, IOP-less ProtecTIER, and a new 283 GB 10k RPM internal disk drive is added.

  • FCoE or Converged Network Adapter support is provided with IBM i 6.1 or later and with VIOS to use the full NIC, Fibre Channel and NPIV functions of the FCoE adapters now available on Power servers.
  • LTO-5 support for the IBM TS2250 and TS2350 is now available for IBM i 6.1 or later.
  • Smart IOA support (IOP-less) for the IBM ProtecTIER is now available for IBM i 6.1.
    Previously only IOP-based support had been available and this enhancement provides for great configuration flexibility, lower cost configurations and support on POWER7 servers by IBM i.
  • The 283 GB 10k RPM disk drive is a Small Form Factor (SFF) SAS drive supported by IBM i 6.1 or later.

• April 2010

  IBM introduces the PCIe Cryptographic Coprocessor 4765-001. It provides additional performance and function with improved adapter reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features. The adapter provides a powerful, tamper-resistant solution for POWER7 and POWER6® clients who handle secure cryptographic/digital signature workload in their business in a highly efficient manner.

  The PCIe adapter hardware offers up to two to seven times the performance and provides better scalability compared to the existing PCI-X generation of cryptographic coprocessor adapter. The potential performance and scalability gains can result in more work done per adapter and fewer adapters per server compared to the predecessor PCI-X adapter.

  IBM cryptographic adapters are suited for applications requiring high-speed, security-sensitive, RSA acceleration, cryptographic operations for data encryption and digital signing, secure management, and use of cryptographic keys, or custom cryptographic applications. These can include financial applications such as PIN generation and verification in automated teller and point-of-sale (POS) transaction servers, remote key loading of ATMs and POS terminals, Web-serving applications, Public Key Infrastructure applications, smart card applications, and custom proprietary solutions. Clients with banking, credit card, or finance applications, should value these cryptographic adapters highly, especially if you require hardware designed to meet the FIPS 140-2 level 4 security.

  The PCIe cryptographic adapter is ordered using feature code #4807, #4808 or #4809. The predecessor #4764 PCI-X adapter is still available for AIX and IBM i. AIX supports the new PCIe adapter.

• February 2010

  DAT tape drive

  IBM is introducing new DAT320 entry tape drive for the Power 750 and Power 520/550. It offers signficant price/performance advantages compared to the previous generation DAT tape drive, the DAT160 80/160 GB tape drive. Compared to the DAT160, the new DAT320 for entry servers has up to 100% more capacity, up to 75% better performance, and uses up to 50% less power. The DAT320 160/320 (#5661) stores up to 320 GB of data on a single cartridge using typical 2X hardware compression, a standard capability provided in the tape drive. It provides up to 160 GB of capacity without compression. Using 2X compression, its rated speed is up to 86 GB/hour, filling a DAT320 cartridge in about four hours. The drive can read/write both DAT320 and DAT160 cartridges, but cannot read the older technology DAT72 cartridge. The DAT320 can be placed in the half-high removable media bay in the POWER6 520/550 and POWER7 750.

• October 2009

  Several very useful I/O enhancements to Power Systems are being introduced in October 2009 which build on Power System consolidation and integration strengths. The most intriguing technology introduced is Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) or Fibre Channel over Converged Enhanced Ethernet (FCoCEE) which is a new, emerging technlogy allowing consolidation of Fibre Channel and Ethernet infrastructures. This consolidation can offer a number of benefits including fewer PCIe adapters, fewer switches, more flexible resource usage, energy savings, easier operations and more. FCoE is being introduced for all POWER6 Power Systems. Other enhancements represent more typcal technology enhancements and fuflfillments of previously shared statements of direction. These include new:

  • SSD performance and configuration flexibility enhancments
  • 3 new larger capacity SFF SAS disk drives
  • a more cost effecitve 12X-attached PCIe I/O drawer for 19-inch racks
  • IBM i support for a PCIe disk controller with cache
  • dual controller support for the PCI-X 1.5GB disk controller
  • a high performance, very cost effective, removable disk drive to replace or augment entry tape drives

  
  

  • FCoE/FCoCEE

    Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) or Fibre Channel over Converged Enhanced Ethernet (FCoCEE) is an emerging standard in the computer industry which is gaining a lot of momentum. It offers several important potential benefits.

    • It can save PCI slots by allowing one PCI adapter to replace two adapters (one Ethernet + one Fibre Channel adapter). The FCoE adapter is therefore also called a Converged Network Adapter (CNA).
    • The adapter savings benefit might then grow to saving I/O drawers if enough PCI adapter slots are saved.
    • It can save rack space by using just one FCoE switch instead of separate switches from both Ethernet and Fibre Channel.
    • In addition, if an I/O drawer is avoided can save additional rack space.
    • It can simplify wiring by using Ethernet cabling instead of Ethernet plus Fibre Channel cabling
    • It can offer additional flexibility over time by being able to more easily adjust its usage with the same hardware to changing client requirements
    • Given a converged wiring and switching structure, it can offer operational savings since fewer unique networks have to be managed.

    The feature #5708 10Gb FCoE PCIe Dual Port Adapter is announced for POWER6 520, 550, 560, 570, 575 and 595. The NIC (Network Interface Card) traffic functionality is supported by AIX, IBM i, Linux and VIOS. The Fibre Channel capability is supported by AIX, Linux and VIOS. NPIV functionality for the FC interface is not announced but there is a statement of direction for this NPIV and for IBM i support in 2010. FCoE capability is similarly announced for the Power Bladecenter using the #8275 10GbE FCoCEE expansion card.

    #5708 has two 10 Gb ports. A port can run just NIC traffic, just FC traffic or a mixture of NIC and FC traffic. This gives the FCoE adapater great flexibility and very nice performance characteristics in a single PCIe adapter.

    FCoE can be implemented along with existing FC and Ethernet infrastructures allowing a controlled, smooth transition. The cabling from a FCoE adapter in the server typically attaches to a FCoE switch and then a connection is made to device or another switch (FCoE, Ethernet or FC). The FCoE adapter in the server can attach directly to an Ethernet switch instead of a FCoE switch, but in this case FC usage is not supported. Note that most of today's FC attached tape drives/libraries or FC attached disk storage systems do not also have a FCoE interface today. Until the storage device offers a FCoE interface, the cabling will be Ethernet from the FCoE adapter in the server to a FCoE switch and then will be FC from the FCoE switch to either the device or to existing FC switches.

    Both the #5708 PCIe adapter and the #8275 10GbE FCoCEE expansion card can use the two FCoE switches announced by IBM in July 2009, the IBM Converged Switch B32 (5758-B32) and the Cisco Nexus 5000 for IBM System Storage (3722-S51).

  • SSD performance and configuration flexibility is enhanced

    Solid State Drives (SSD) could already provide amazing levels of I/O performance compared to typical spinning disk drives. The overall performance of SSD plus their controller has been further enhanced with the addition of skip-ops support. Though application dependent, skip-read-write can provide up to a 40% boost in overall throughput for a controller and a set of SSD.

    In addition, SSD configuration flexibility is improved by adding support for SSD in the 12X-attached PCIe I/O drawers (#5802 and #5803) announced in April 2009. In these I/O drawers small form factor SSD (#1890 and #1909) are controlled by a pair of PCIe 380MB Cache Adapters (#5903).

  • SFF SAS disk drives - 2X previous capacity

    Three Small Form Factor (SFF) SAS disk drives in 139, 146, and 300GB capacities boosts the SFF server storage capacity on IBM Power 520, 550, 560, 570, 575, and 595 servers. The 139 GB (#1888) is a 15k rpm drive supported by IBM i. The 146 GB (#1886) is a 15k rpm drive and the 300 GB drive (#1885) is a 10k rpm drive supported by AIX and Linux. The new hot-swappable SAS drives are available on the POWER6 processor-based family of servers in the SFF drive bays. These drives double the previously available capacities of SFF drives available on Power.

  • 12X-attached PCIe I/O drawer - better fit for some clients

    A diskless 19-inch PCIe 12X I/O drawer (#5877) provides a better match for clients using a complete SAN storage strategy and implementing virtualization products such as virtual partition migration. The new drawer joins the recently announced 19-inch I/O drawer(#5802) on the Power 520, 550, 560, and 570. Like the #5802 I/O drawer, the new drawer has 10 PCIe slots but the #5877 has zero disk bays, offering a lower purchase price and lower maintenance price compared to the feature 5802 drawer with its 18 disk bays. Other than no disk bays, configuration considerations are basically the same between the two 19-inch 12X-attached, PCIe I/O drawers. This fulfills the statement of direction, issued in April 2009, when the #5802 was announced.

  • IBM i support dual PCIe adapters with cache improves SFF and PCIe usage

    This enhancement makes the energy/space efficient SFF disk drives in the #5802/5803 12X-attached I/O drawers much more attractive to IBM i clients. i clients using internal disk drives generally find controllers with write cache to be very beneficial to performance. Prior to this announcement i cleints needed to use PCI-X adapters with cache for disk drives in I/O drawers. Expanding PCIe options also means that a larger portion of newer technology PCIe I/O drawers can be used versus earlier technology PCI-X I/O drawers.

    IBM i 6.1 with 6.1.1 machine code or later supports the PCIe 380 MB Cache SAS RAID Adapter (#5903), fulfilling another statement of direction announced April 2009. A pair of #5903 adapters are always configured together to provide redundancy of both controller and write cache (dual adapter support). This feature is supported on POWER6 processor-based servers. The #5903 was already supported by AIX and Linux.

  • Dual controller support for largest cache controller

    The most powerful disk drive and solid state drive (SSD) controller available today from IBM Power Systems is the PCI-X DDR 1.5GB Cache SAS RAID Adapter. Its functionality is enhanced in October by providing dual controller support for AIX, IBM i and Linux. Prior to this announcement, pairs of this adapter could be used to provide the highest level of adapter redundancy, but then each adapter's disk drives or SSD had to also be mirrored. There were thus two sets of drives, each handled by their own adapter. With this enhancement, clients can choose to have one set of disk drives controlled jointly by the two controllers thus expanding the available protection options with two controllers to include RAID5 and RAID6. For some environments, this will be a lower cost configuration using a smaller number of drives.

    AIX 5.3 or later, IBM i 6.1 with 6.1.1 machine code or later, and Linux RHEL4.8 or SLES10 or laterr is required. The PCI-X DDR 1.5GB Cache SAS RAID Adapter uses feature codes #5904 (no blind swap cassette), #5906 (with blind swap cassette Gen-2), and #5908(blind swap cassette type Gen-3. Paired controllers may reside in different I/O drawers for increased availability. For IBM i, the paired adapters must be used in a single-system configuration and the non-paired indicator is not used.

  • Removable Disk Drive

    This entry tape alternative can lower total cost, improve performance, and improve reliability. This AIX option uses a USB attached docking station and uses ruggedized disk drives in a cartridge to provide a great alternative to DAT72, DAT160, VXA-2, VXA-320, and 8mm tape single drives and tape cartridges. The cost of the docking station is extremely affordable. The Removable Disk Drive cartridges has a higher price than tape cartridges, but can be used many, many more times. And when combined with its ruggedness, no need for cleaning tapes, reduced air movement needed, and other operational savings; the overall cost can be very attractive.

    Clients wishing to do data logging will be especially interested. Data logging applications want to log each transaction not only into their data base, but for resiliency of the data and a short recovery point; they also want to write out the transaction immediately to tape to enhance its portability in case of a problem. But this short, frequent start/stop workload is very hard on the tape drive and the tape cartridge media causing shorter media life and increasing the repair actions on the drive over time. But this workload can be a great fit for the removable disk drive.

    This isn't a device for everyone as larger capacity / faster tape drives or tape drives with auto loaders or in tape libraries remain strong requirements for many larger clients. The USB Removable Disk Drive is positioned as an entry tape drive alternative.

    The USB docking station is available on the Power 520/550 as an internal USB docking station (#1103) and located in the half-high media bay in the system unit. A functionally equivalent external USB docking station (#1104) is available for Power 520/550/560/570. These docking stations support rugged removable disk cartridges in 160 GB capacity (#1106) and 500 GB capacity (#1107).

Multiple new I/O enhancements are announced for Power Systems servers in October 2011 including:

• High-performance PCIe SAS Adapter for larger numbers of solid-state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs)
• Entry cost 2-port Async Adapter
• Four additional 10Gb Ethernet adapter options
• Four-port 8 Gb Fibre Channel adapter
• Larger-capacity 15k rpm SFF disk drive (283 GB or 300 GB)
• Massive 1TB RDX Removable Disk Drive Cartridge

The PCIe2 1.8 GB Cache RAID SAS Adapter (#5913) is a large-cache PCIe SAS adapter that provides high-performance capabilities for large quantities of SSDs or HDDS. It is the most advanced SAS controller ever offered, allowing clients to reduce the number of PCI slots required and thus help minimize the overall I/O configuration. To support its higher-speed interface and high-density ports, new 6 Gb SAS AA, AT, YO, and X cables are also introduced.

The 2 Port Async EIA-232 PCIe Adapter (#5289 or #5290) is a significantly lower-cost option for AIX and Linux clients compared to the functionally equivalent 4-port Async EIA-232 PCIe Adapter (#5785 or #5277).

Two new low profile PCIe2 Ethernet 4-port adapters (#5279 or #5280) for Linux provide additional capabilities and speed options.   Two of 4 ports are 10Gb and two are 1Gb.   
Plus two new PCIe2 Ethernet features for full high equivalents of the existing low profile Gen2 2-port 10Gb Adapters expand configuration options (#5287 or #5288).    

The PCIe2 8x 4-port Fibre Channel Adapter (#5729) is a new PCIe Gen2 adapter. It provides four 8 Gb Fibre Channel ports and doubles both the number of ports and the total bandwidth available on a Fibre Channel adapter.  With the additional ports and bandwidth, clients can increase virtualization and consolidation of Fibre Channel configurations while conserving valuable PCIe Gen2 slots.

283 GB and 300 GB capacity points are added to the 15, 000 rpm SFF disk drive options, doubling the 15, 000 rpm capacity previously available for POWER7 clients with SFF bays. Four feature codes are used to indicate whether the drive is 283 GB or 300 GB and whether it has a SFF-1 (Gen1) or SFF-2 (Gen2 for the EXP24S) carrier (#1948, #1953, #1879 or #1880).

The 1TB Removable Disk Drive Cartridge (#EU01) provides a RDX disk drive in a rugged cartridge to be used in the USB-attached RDX Internal and External Docking Stations (#1103, #1104, or #1123).  This option may be an excellent alternative to DAT160 or QIC tape drives.