Overview

The IBM System Storage DS3950 Express Models 94 and 98 and the EXP395 Express Expansion Unit deliver 8 Gbps FC/1 Gbps iSCSI high-performance and affordable host midrange disk storage solution.

DS3950 Express Models 94 and 98
The DS3950 Express Model 94 (SEO, part number 181494H) and DS3950 Express Model 98 (SEO, part number 181498H) disk systems are packaged in 3U rack mountable enclosure that houses 16 drive bays, redundant dual-active intelligent RAID controllers, and dual power supplies and cooling components. On its initial release, both express models of the DS3950 had an internal storage capacity of up to 16 TB physical storage using 1000 GB SATA DDMs or up to 9.6 TB physical storage using 600 GB Fibre Channel DDMs. In subsequent controller releases, the DS3950 supports 900GB 10K FC-SAS and 3TB SAS disk drives.

EXP395 Express Storage Expansion Unit
The EXP395 Express Expansion Unit (SEO, part number 181492H) is packaged in a 3U rack-mountable enclosure, contains 16 drive bays, dual switched 4 Gbps ESMs, and dual power supplies and cooling components. On its initial release, the EXP395 Expansion Unit had a physical storage capacity of up to 16 TB per enclosure using 1000 GB SATA DDMs, and up to 9.6 TB per enclosure using 600 GB FC DDMs. In subsequent controller releases, the EXP395 supports 900GB 10K FC-SAS and 3TB SAS disk drives.Up to six EXP395 expansion units can be attached to a DS3950.

Choose disks by capacity or Option (left sidebar) or IBM Replacement Part FRU or Feature Code (right sidebar) for more information.

EXP395 Expansion Units connect to the DS3950 Models 94 and 98 via high-speed 4 Gbps FC disk expansion ports. The EXP395 has four FC disk expansion ports, and dependent upon your storage configuration, either two ports or all four disk expansion ports will be used. To make use of the disk expansion ports, they must first be populated with shortwave 4 Gbps SFP transceivers. The first set of two expansion ports are populated with the SFP transceivers at the factory and are used to connect an expansion unit to the controller or to the last expansion unit in the chain of expansion units. The second set of two-disk expansion ports are populated with 4 Gbps SFP transceivers using option (SEO, part number 26K7941) which supplies two 4 Gbps short wave SFP transceivers. The second set of two-disk expansion ports are used on the last expansion unit in the chain, when attaching an additional expansion unit. The newly added expansion unit then becomes the last expansion unit in the chain of expansion units.

Contact us if you need more information or integration assistance for your IBM DS3950 or EXP395 configuration.