IBM 2B0F EJ0P 18 Bay Expanded Function Backplane 00E5064

The IBM EJ0P Storage Backplane provides 18 SFF-3 Bays and 8 1.8-inch bays for SSD, DVD Bay and Dual IOA with Write Cache for Power8 systems. The EJ0P storage backplane has dual integrated SAS controllers with write cache. IBM Power8 customers with write intensive workloads should upgrade from the EJ0N backplane to the EJ0P backplane to gain the performance advantage of write cache. The high performance controllers run 18 SFF-3 SAS bays, eight 1.8-inch SSD cage bays, and DVD bay in the system unit. Dual controllers (also called dual I/O adapters or paired controllers) and their write cache are placed in integrated slots and do not use PCIe slots. Write cache augments controller's high performance for workloads with writes, especially for HDD. 1.8 GB physical write cache is leveraged with compression to provide up to 7.2 GB cache capacity. The write cache contents are protected against power loss with flash memory and super capacitors removing the need for battery maintenance.

EJ0P is used with the expanded function disk backplane to support up to 18 small form-factor disk drives or solid-state drives and up to 8 1.8-inch form-factor solid state drives (SSD). Provides SAS RAID 0, 5, 6, 10, 5T2, 6T2, and 10T2 functions depending on the Operating System support for the attached disk drives in the expanded function Power8 system units and two external SAS ports that can be used to connect one external FC 5887. Patented Active/Active configurations with at least two arrays is supported. Easy Tier function is supported so the dual controllers can automatically move hot data to attached SSD and cold data to attached HDD for AIX/Linux/VIOS environments. Small Form Factor (SFF) or 2.5-inch drives are mounted on a carrier/tray specific to the system unit (SFF-3). The backplane has 18 SFF-3 bays.

This EJ0P backplane also enables two SAS ports EJ0Z on the rear of the system unit support the attachment of one EXP24S I/O drawer in mode1 holding HDD or SSD. Note the EJ0Z is an optional feature with EJ0P and one x8 PCIe slot is used by EJ0Z. The EJTM SSD cage is a required co-requisite feature on the 2-socket 4U server 8286-42A, but is not available on the 1-socket 4U server 8286-41A.

Note this backplane doesn't support split backplane. For split backplane use EJ0N + EJ0S backplane features. Both 5xx and 4k byte sector HDD/SSD are supported. 5xx and 4k drives cannot be mixed in the same array.

The feature EJ0P storage backplane option has expanded function compared to the feature EJ0N backplane. Feature EJ0P provides eighteen SSF-3 bays; a pair of integrated SAS controllers, each with 1.8 GB physical (effectively up to 7.2GB with compression) write cache; a DVD bay; two SAS ports enabled for attaching an external feature 5887 EXP24S Drawer; an eight-bay, 1.8-inch SSD Cage; and Easy Tier functionality. The SAS ports are indicated by the EJ0Z feature which is optionally ordered with feature EJ0P. The SAS ports are physically mounted on the rear of the server and use up one PCIe x8 slot. The SSD cage is indicated by feature EJTM feature and must also be ordered with feature EJ0P.

The dual SAS controllers provide both performance and protection advantages. Patented Active-Active capabilities enhance performance when there is more than one array configured. Each of the dual controllers has access to all the backplane SAS bays and can back up the other controller if there were to be a problem with the other controller. Each controller mirrors the other's write cache, providing redundancy protection. Integrated flash memory for the write cache content provides protection against electrical power loss to the server and avoids the need for write cache battery protection and battery maintenance.

All three of these backplane options support HDDs or SSDs or a mixture of HDDs and SSDs in the SFF-3 bays. "Mixing" HDD and SSD applies even within a single set of six bays of the split backplane option. Note, if mixing HDDs and SSDs, they must be in separate arrays (unless using Easy Tier function).

All three of these backplane options can offer different drive protection options: RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10. RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives of the same capacity. RAID 6 requires a minimum of four drives of the same capacity. RAID 10 requires a minimum of two drives. Hot spare capability is supported with RAID 5 or RAID 6. The high-performance, expanded-function dual-IOA backplane also proves Easy Tier functionality, which is also called RAID 5T2 (2-tiered RAID 5), RAID 6T2 (2-tiered RAID 6), and RAID 10T2 (2-tiered RAID 10).

Note: I/O performance-sensitive workloads with an appreciable percentage of writes should strongly consider using the feature EJ0P backplane with SAS controllers with write cache or use PCIe SAS controllers with write cache, especially for HDD. Note also that RAID 5 and RAID 6 result in more drive write activity than mirroring or than unprotected drives.

All three of these backplane options are supported by AIX, IBM i, Linux, and VIOS. If used by IBM i, to be a supported configuration, the drives must be protected by methods such as RAID 5, RAID 6, or mirroring. If used by AIX, Linux, or VIOS, it is highly recommended that the drives be protected, but not required.

If the client needs a change after the server is already installed, the backplane option can be changed. For example, the feature EJ0S split backplane can be added to an existing feature EJ0N backplane. Or the feature EJ0N can be removed and replaced by the expanded-function dual IOA feature EJ0P backplane. Or a feature EJ0P backplane could be replaced by a feature EJ0N and EJ0S backplane.

Unlike the hot plug PCIe slots and SAS bays, concurrent maintenance is not available for the integrated SAS controllers. Scheduled downtime is required if a service action is required for these integrated resources.

OS level required:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
• AIX 6.1 and 7.1 or later supported
• IBM i 7.1 TR8 and 7.2 or later supported
• Refer to Software requirements for specific O/S levels supported