IBM Flex System Storage Expansion Node
3
Support for up to 64 virtual drives, up to 128 drive groups, up to 16 virtual drives per one drive group,
and up to 32 physical drives per one drive group
Support for logical unit number (LUN) sizes up to 64 TB
Configurable stripe size up to 1 MB
Compliant with Disk Data Format (DDF) configuration on disk (COD)
S.M.A.R.T. support
Managed through the IMMv2 management processor on the compute node and with the MegaRAID
Storage Manager management software
Architecture
Figure 2 shows the architecture of the Storage Expansion Node when connected to a compute node.
Figure 2. Architecture of the Storage Expansion Node
The Expansion Node connects to a standard-width compute node using the interposer cable, which plugs
into the expansion connector on the compute node. This link forms a PCIe 3.0 x8 connection between
Processor 2 on the compute node and the LSI RAID controller in the Expansion Node. The result is that
the compute node sees the disks in the expansion node as locally attached. Management of the Storage
Expansion Node is via the IMM2 located on the compute node.
Note: The expansion connector in the x220 and x240 compute nodes is routed through processor 2.
Therefore, processor 2 must be installed in the compute node.
