Summary of the content on the page No. 1
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and
expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server
Product Guide
March 2009
IBM System x3550 M2
Product Overview
Outstanding innovation in only 1U
Suggested Uses: All sectors requiring highly available, energy-efficient, rack-optimized solution
for physical and virtual intensive commercial environments like eBusiness/eCommerce,
collaboration, virtualization, database, and enterprise
Summary of the content on the page No. 2
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server with a new generation United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). UEFI provides a more intuitive user interface and understandable event logs and better management. With the inclusion of unique IBM service and support features such as the IMM, light path diagnostics, IBM Systems Director 6.1, IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager, IBM ™ Ser
Summary of the content on the page No. 3
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server • Two available high-performance PCIe x16 adapter slots in all models. Optionally, if desired, the riser card containing one of the PCIe slots can be exchanged for a riser containing a PCI- X/133 adapter slot. • Installing the ServeRAID MR10i option upgrades the basic ServeRAID functionality controller with 256MB of low-cost, battery-backed cache to
Summary of the content on the page No. 4
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server the Virtual Media Key and the ServeRAID-BR10i controller can be installed and replaced without tools. This means less time (and therefore less money) spent servicing the x3550 M2. Similarly, hot-swap/redundant HDDs, fans and power supplies, as well as online mirrored memory, mean greater system uptime while these components are being serviced.
Summary of the content on the page No. 5
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server a 2.26GHz processor can run the cores at 2.4GHz. With only one or two cores active, the same processor can run those cores at 2.53GHz. Similarly, a 2.93GHz processor can run at 3.06GHz or even 3.33GHz. When the cores are needed again, they are dynamically turned back on and the processor frequency is adjusted accordingly. Intel Extended Memory 64
Summary of the content on the page No. 6
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server This new processor design comes with some trade-offs in memory capacity, performance, and cost: For example, greater memory capacity comes with lower memory speed. Alternatively, it is possible to achieve the same memory capacity at lower cost but at a lower memory speed. Regardless of memory speed, the Xeon 5500 platform represents a significant i
Summary of the content on the page No. 7
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server The integrated ServeRAID-BR10i controller offers hardware RAID-0/1/1E support. The controller 6 provides data transfer speeds of up to 3Gbps per SAS port on an 8-lane 2.5 Gbps PCIe card. It connects to both SAS and SATA SSDs and tape drives. The x3550 M2 also supports full RAID-0/1/10/1E/5/6 support using the optional ServeRAID- MR10i card. It also
Summary of the content on the page No. 8
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server replacing the older parallel PCI and PCI-X buses. A x16 PCIe adapter offers approximately eight 7 ttimes the maximum throughput of a 133MHz PCI-X adapter . (A x1 adapter offers throughput similar to a 66MHz PCI-X slot.) There is a built-in riser card in x3550 M2 that provides a PCIe connector (x8 connector wired with x4 lanes) for an internal RAID
Summary of the content on the page No. 9
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server and doesn’t cool as well as at lower elevations. In most servers, the fans run fast all the time to allow for use at high elevations, wasting power. The altimeter allows the IBM fans to run at lower speeds at lower altitudes. Why not simply run the fans at 100% capacity all the time? For several good reasons: to reduce the ambient noise, reduce the
Summary of the content on the page No. 10
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server Rack Cable Management and KVM Console Switching IBM Advanced Cabling Technology (ACT) is an optional feature that offers many advantages over standard KVM cabling across the entire System x product line. So now you can interconnect all of your servers with one smart cabling architecture. ACT cabling eliminates the need for one- to-one direct conne
Summary of the content on the page No. 11
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server power needs, by providing the following information for specific configurations of System x and BladeCenter systems: power input (watts), PDU sizing (amps), heat output (BTUs), airflow requirements through chassis (CFM), VA rating, leakage current (mA), and peak inrush current (amps). IBM ServerGuide (installed from CD) simplifies the process of in
Summary of the content on the page No. 12
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server The IMM alerts IBM Systems Director to anomalous environmental factors, such as voltage and thermal conditions—even if the server has failed. The x3550 M2 also supports an optional IBM Virtual Media Key for additional systems management capabilities, including: • Predictive Failure Analysis for system fans • Graphical console redirection over LAN
Summary of the content on the page No. 13
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server lets you keep your fingers on the pulse of your e-business. Processors — The Intel Xeon processor provides high clock rates, dual- or quad-cores, 64-bit extensions, a large cache and advanced features for availability and manageability. Large cache size, combined with a fast 1333MHz or 1066MHz front-side bus, reduces memory latency and facilitates
Summary of the content on the page No. 14
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server IBM System x3550 M2 Images Front View Rack Release Button Video CD-RW/DVD Port Combo Drive Pop-Out Light Light Path Hot-Swap Status Path Diagnostics Diagnostics 2.5” HDD LEDs USB 2.0 Panel Panel Eject Bays Ports Button Inside View USB ServeRAID Hypervisor Hot-Swap Power Controller Key Supplies Hot-Swap HDD Bays Processor Ho
Summary of the content on the page No. 15
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server IBM System x3550 M2 Specifications Machine type 7946 -12x, -22x, -3Ax, -32x, -42x, -52x, -62x, -92x Form factor 1U Quad-core Xeon E5504 @2.0GHz (-22x), E5506 @2.13GHz (-3Ax), E5520 @2.26GHz (-32x), L5520 @ LV2.26GHz (-42x), Dual-core Xeon Processor type E5530@2.4GHz (-52x), E5540 @2.53GHz (-62x), E5502 @1.86GHz (-12x) X5570 @2.93GHz (-92x),
Summary of the content on the page No. 16
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server IBM System x3550 M2 Specifications # of PCIe x16 slots (5GBps) 2 (standard # of PCI-X/133 slots (1GBps) 2 (optional in place of PCIe slot) # of 33MHz legacy PCI slots None # of video ports 2 (one front, one rear) Video controller Matrox G200eV (in IMM) Video memory 16MB SDRAM Maximum video resolution at 32-bit 1280x1024 32-bit color at 60Hz c
Summary of the content on the page No. 17
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server IBM System x3550 M2 Specifications 10 Length of limited warranty 3 years (parts and labor) The IBM System x3550 M2 is an extremely energy efficient, powerful system, incorporating The Bottom Line significantly redesigned management tools and abundant IBM-unique innovations: Price/Performance • High-throughput processors — 2.0 to 2.96GHz quad-c
Summary of the content on the page No. 18
x3950 M2 x3850 M2 x3755 x3655 x3650 M2 x3610 x3550 M2 x3455 x3450 x3350 x3250 M2 Distributed Deployment Security Systems Management High Availability Density I/O and Storage Integer Performance Memory Throughput Floating Point Performance Scalability Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server Advanced Chipkill ECC memory protection, and either Memory mirroring • Slotless hardware-
Summary of the content on the page No. 19
Leadership enterprise server with significantly lower cost of ownership in a highly available and expandable, rack-dense, 1U dual-socket server For More Information IBM System x Servers http://ibm.com/systems/x Electronic Service Agent http://ibm.com/support/electronic IBM System x and BladeCenter Power Configurator http://ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/powerconfig Standalone Solutions Configuration Tool http://ibm.com/serv