Catalogue · IBM
IBM FlashSystem 9500
High-end · all-flash · multi-controller - Previous-generation 4U, 48-slot NVMe flagship FlashSystem, replaced by the FlashSystem 9600.
| Platform | |
|---|---|
| OEM | IBM |
| Family | FlashSystem |
| Class | High-end |
| Architecture | Multi-controller |
| Status | Legacy / superseded |
| Released | n/a |
| Operating system | IBM Storage Virtualize 8.7 |
| Controllers | 4 |
| Nodes | n/a |
| Cache / memory | 6,144 GB |
| Availability | n/a |
| Capacity and media | |
| Media | All-flash |
| Drive types | NVMe SSD, QLC NVMe, Storage-class memory, SAS SSD |
| Drive note | FlashCore Modules (2.5-inch U.2 NVMe, FCM4), industry-standard NVMe SSDs and up to 12 x 1.6 TB NVMe SCM drives in the control enclosure; SAS SSDs in expansion enclosures |
| Flash drive sizes | 1.6, 1.92, 3.84, 4.8, 7.68, 9.6, 15.36, 19.2, 30.72, 38.4 TB |
| HDD sizes | n/a |
| Maximum drives | n/a |
| Controller enclosure | 4U, 48 drive bays |
| Expansion | FlashSystem 9000 SFF expansion Model AFF (2U, 24 SAS SSDs; up to 6 per controller pair) or LFF HD Model A9F (5U, 92 SAS SSDs; up to 2 per pair) - 24 bays, 2U |
| Raw capacity | 32 PB |
| Cluster maximum | n/a |
| Effective maximum | 18.43 PB |
| Data reduction | 18,432 TB effective from two control enclosures with software data reduction at 5:1. With FCM inline compression alone at 3:1 the figure is 11,004 TB (5,502 TB per enclosure). |
| Protection | DRAID 1, DRAID 6 |
| Protection note | DRAID 5 and traditional RAID are not supported on FS9500 (product guide). |
| Performance and connectivity | |
| Maximum IOPS | 12,600,000 |
| Maximum throughput | 130 GB/s |
| Latency | 50 µs |
| Conditions | Machine types 4666-AH8/UH8 and 4983-AH8. One or two control enclosures can be clustered. A single system delivers up to 6.3M IOPS and 65 GBps; a two-enclosure cluster 12.6M IOPS and 130 GBps. The raw maximum is IBM's stated 32 PB Storage Virtualize architectural limit with expansion enclosures; the product guide gives 1,834 TB usable (DRAID 6, 48 FCMs) per enclosure. Cache is 3 TB per enclosure. Host ports: 48 PCIe ports per enclosure, 96 for two. Power is the maximum per control enclosure. Figures come from the Storage Virtualize 8.7 product guide. Volume and snapshot limits come from the V9.1.2.x Configuration Limits page, which allows one control enclosure per system on 9.1. |
| Protocols | Fibre Channel, NVMe over FC, iSCSI, iSER, NVMe over RoCE |
| Fibre Channel | 64 Gb |
| Ethernet | 100 GbE |
| Host ports | 96 |
| Limits | |
| Volumes / LUNs | 32,500 |
| File systems | n/a |
| Snapshots | 64,999 |
| Management and support | |
| Management | IBM Storage Virtualize GUI/CLI, IBM Storage Insights |
| Power | 3,300 W |
| Positioned for | Mission-critical, Databases, Virtualization |
| Warranty | 12-month parts-only machine warranty; IBM Storage Expert Care options |
| Design terms | Storage pool (data reduction pool) · Volume · Host cluster · Policy-based replication |
| Data services | |
✓ Deduplication
✓ Compression
✓ Thin provisioning
✓ Snapshots
? Clones
✓ Asynchronous replication
? Synchronous replication
✓ Active-active / metro
✓ Encryption at rest
✓ Immutable snapshots
✓ Ransomware detection
✓ Quality of service
✓ Automated tiering
✓ Cloud tiering
? VMware vVols
✓ Kubernetes CSI
✕ Native file services
✕ Native object (S3)
? Non-disruptive upgrades
✓ Scale-out
✓ stated by the OEM · ✕ not offered · ? not stated | |
| Source | |
| Product page | https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp5742.pdf |