N6240 models

IBM System Storage N6240 storage controllers include:

Model C21 - An active/active dual-node base unit
Model E11 - A single-node base unit with an I/O Expansion Module (IOXM)
Model E21 - The coupling of two Model E11 units

Exx models contain an I/O expansion module that provides additional PCIe slots. The I/O expansion is not available on Cxx models.

The Model E11 can be upgraded to a Model E21; model upgrades are disruptive.

Each chassis is a 3U storage controller that must be mounted in a standard 19-inch rack. The N6240 storage controllers do not include storage in the base chassis.

Note: All these models may be configured as gateways. If they are to be used as gateways, all Licensed Function Indicator features must be those with the suffix, GW (for example, SnapRestore - GW).

All N6240 models feature:

High data availability and system-level redundancy designed to address the needs of business-critical and mission-critical applications
Single, integrated architecture designed to support concurrent block I/O and file serving over Ethernet and Fibre Channel SAN infrastructures
High throughput and fast response times for database, email, and technical applications
Support of enterprise customers requiring unified access to Network Attached Storage (NAS) via Fibre Channel (FC) or Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI)
Attachment of Fibre Channel (FC), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) disk expansion units designed to allow deployment in multiple environments, including data retention, NearStore, disk-to-disk backup scenarios, and high-performance, mission-critical I/O intensive operations

All these models support the EXN1000 SATA storage expansion unit, the EXN4000 FC storage expansion units, the EXN3000 SAS/SATA expansion unit, the EXN3200 SAS expansion unit, and the EXN3500 SATA expansion unit. At least one storage expansion unit must be attached to the N series system.

Table 1. N6240 physical attributes
Attribute	C21	E11	E21
Number of controllers	2	1	2
Rack space required	3U	3U	6U
Quad core 2.3 GHz CPU	2	1	2
Random access memory (GB)	16	8	16
4-Gb Fibre Channel ports	4	2	4
6-Gb SAS ports	4	2	4
Disk drives supported	600	600	600
1-Gb Ethernet ports	4	2	4
PCIe expansion slots	4	6	12
Serial console ports	2	1	2
LAN management (RLM) ports	2	1	2
Redundant power supplies and cooling fans	Yes	Yes	Yes

Optional HBA features can be used to increase the maximums as follows. Note that each platform is limited by the maximum number of adapters that can be installed.

Attribute	C21	E11	E21
FC loops	8	13	26
FC loops (dual-path)	4	n/a	13
SAS stacks	n/a	13	12
SAS stacks (dual-path)	4	n/a	13
10-Gb Ethernet ports	8	8	16
10-Gb FCoE ports	8	8	16
EXN1000 storage expansion units	42	42	42
EXN3000 storage expansion units	25	25	25
EXN3200 storage expansion units	12	12	12
EXN3500 storage expansion units	25	25	25
EXN4000 storage expansion units	42	42	42