Front cover Lenovo System x3850 X6 and x3950 X6 Planning and Implementation Guide Last Update: October 2018 Covers the sixth generation Provides technical information about Enterprise X-Architecture servers all server features Explains what planning activities Describes how to manage the server you need to do with Lenovo XClarity Administrator David Watts Rani Doughty Ilya Solovyev Lenovo System x3850 X6 and x3950 X6 Planning and Implementation Guide October 2018 SG24-8208-01 Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on page ix. Last update on October 2018 This edition applies to Lenovo System x3850 X6 and x3950 X6, machine type 6241, with Intel Xeon Processor E7-4800/8800 v2, v3 and v4 processors. © Copyright Lenovo 2018. All rights reserved. Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract Contents Notices . ix Trademarks . .x Summary of changes. xi October 2018 . xi February 2017 . xi October 2016 . xii August 2016 . xii June 2016 . xii September 2015. xiii September 2014. xiii June 2014 . xiii Preface . .xv The team who wrote this book . .xv Comments welcome. xvi Chapter 1. Introduction. 1 1.1 Target workloads. 2 1.1.1 Databases. 2 1.1.2 Business analytics . 2 1.1.3 Virtualization . 3 1.1.4 Enterprise applications: ERP and CRM . 4 1.2 Key features . 4 1.3 Positioning. 5 1.4 Storage versus in-memory data . 7 1.5 Flash storage . 8 1.6 Energy efficiency. 8 1.7 Services offerings . 9 1.8 About this book . 10 Chapter 2. New technology in X6 servers. 11 2.1 Modular design . 12 2.1.1 Compute Books . 14 2.1.2 Storage Book . 17 2.1.3 Primary I/O Book. 17 2.1.4 More I/O Books . 18 2.1.5 Power supplies . 19 2.2 System architecture . 20 2.2.1 x3850 X6. 20 2.2.2 x3950 X6. 22 2.3 Processors . 24 2.3.1 Intel Xeon processor E7-4800/8800 v4 product family . 25 2.3.2 Intel Xeon processor E7-4800/8800 v3 product family . 26 2.3.3 Intel Xeon processor E7-4800/8800 v2 product family . 27 2.3.4 Intel Xeon E7 features . 27 2.3.5 Compute Books . 31 2.4 Memory . 33 2.4.1 Operational modes . 34 © Copyright Lenovo 2018. All rights reserved. iii 2.4.2 Memory mirroring and rank sparing . 38 2.4.3 Chipkill . 42 2.4.4 Redundant bit steering . 42 2.4.5 Advanced Page Retire . 42 2.5 PCIe 3.0 . 43 2.6 Internal storage . 43 2.6.1 Storage Book . 44 2.6.2 SAS/SATA SSD technology . 44 2.6.3 NVMe SSD technology . 45 2.6.4 Flash Storage Adapters . 47 2.7 Unified Extensible Firmware Interface . 49 2.8 Integrated Management Module . 49 2.9 Scalability . 50 Chapter 3. Product information . 53 3.1 Product features . 54 3.1.1 Fast application performance . 54 3.1.2 Agile system design . 55 3.1.3 Resilient platform . ..