Lenovo ThinkSystem Mixed Use 24Gb SAS SSDs Instructions

Lenovo ThinkSystem Mixed Use 24Gb SAS SSDs

Introduction

The ThinkSystem Vendor Agnostic Mixed Use 24Gb SAS SSDs are general-purpose SSDs with an endurance of 3 drive writes per day. Vendor-agnostic SSDs are non-vendor-specific drives that can streamline and simplify the ordering and delivery of SAS SSDs. The drives offered in the Vendor Agnostic SSD program consist of readily available SSDsensuring the shortest supply lead time. With SED encryption as standard, Vendor Agnostic SSDs help ensure data security, even when the drive is removed from the server.

SED support: All drives listed in this product guide include SED drive encryption.

Did you know?

Unlike 6 Gb/s SATA drives, the 24 Gb/s SAS interface on these drives supports full duplex data transfer for higher performance, and enterprise-level error recovery for better availability. These features are essential for many businesses, especially those storing customer data.

Part Number Information

The following table lists the part numbers and feature codes. Table 1. Ordering part numbers and feature codes.

The part numbers include the following items

• One 2.5-inch solid-state drive
• Hot-swap drives include either a 2.5-inch or 2.5-inch ThinkSystem hot-swap tray
• Documentation flyer

Features

The Vendor Agnostic SSDs have the following features:

• Vendor-agnostic SSDs have the following features:
• 24 Gbps SAS interface
• SED drive encryption (TCG Opal or TCG Enterprise)
• Advanced ECC Engine and End-to-End Data Protection
• TLC V-NAND stacks the vertical NAND layers in three dimensions, solving the cell-to-cell interference that causes data corruption in planar NAND.
• Power Loss Protection (PLP) architecture
• Supports Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T).

SSDs have a huge but finite number of program/erase (P/E) cycles, which affect how long they can perform write operations and thus their life expectancy. Mixed-use SSDs have a higher write endurance compared to read-intensive SSDs.  A solid-state device does not fail upon reaching the specified TBW. However, at some point after surpassing the TBW value (and based on manufacturing variance margins), the drive reaches the end-of-life point, at which time the drive goes into read-only mode.

The benefits of drive encryption

Self-encrypting drives (SEDs) provide benefits in three main ways:

• By encrypting data on-the-fly at the drive level with no performance impact
• By providing instant secure erasure (cryptographic erasure, thereby making the data no longer readable). The following sections describe the benefits in more detail.

Automatic Encryption

A company must keep its data secure. With the threat of data loss due to physical theft or improper
inventory practices, the data must be encrypted. However, challenges with performance, scalability, and complexity have led IT departments to push back against security policies that require the
use of encryption. In addition, encryption has been viewed as risky by those unfamiliar with key management, a process for ensuring a company can always decrypt its data. Self-encrypting drives
comprehensively resolve these issues, making encryption both easy and affordable.

When the self-encrypting drive is in normal use, its owner need not maintain authentication keys (otherwise
known as credentials or passwords) to access the data on the drive. The self-encrypting drive will
encrypt data being written to the drive and decrypt data being read from it, all without requiring an authentication key from the owner.

Drive Retirement and Disposal

When hard drives are retired and moved outside the physically protected centre into the hands of others, the data on those drives is put at significant risk. IT departments retire for a variety of reasons, including:

• Returning drives for warranty, repair, or expired lease agreements
• Removal and disposal of drives
• Repurposing drives for other storage duties

To avoid data breaches and the ensuing customer notifications required by data privacy laws,
Companies use different methods to erase the data on retired drives before they leave the premises and
potentially fall into the wrong hands. Current retirement practices that are designed to make data unreadable rely on significant human involvement in the process, and are thus subject to both technical and
human failure. The drawbacks of today’s drive retirement practices include the following: drawbacks of today’s drive retirement practices include the following:

• Overwriting drive data is expensive, tying up valuable system resources for days. No notification of
  completion is generated by the drive, and overwriting won’t cover reallocated sectors, leaving that
  data exposed.
• Methods that include degaussing or physically shredding a drive are expensive. It is difficult to ensure the degauss strength is optimised for the drive type, potentially leaving readable data on the drive. Physically shredding the drive is environmentally hazardous, and neither practice allows the drive to be returned for warranty or an expired lease.
• Some companies have concluded the only way to securely retire drives is to keep them in their control, storing them indefinitely in warehouses. But this is not truly secure because a large volume of drives, coupled with human involvement, inevitably leads to some drives being lost or stolen.
• Professional disposal services are an expensive option and include the cost of reconciling the services, as well as internal reports and auditing. Transporting the drives also has the potential of putting the data at risk.

Self-encrypting drives eliminate the need to overwrite, destroy, or store retired drives. When the drive is to
be retired, it can be cryptographically erased, a process that is nearly instantaneous regardless of the capacity of the drive.

Instant Secure Erase

The self-encrypting drive provides instant data encryption key destruction via cryptographic erasure. When
it is time to retire or repurpose the drive, the owner sends a command to the drive to perform a
cryptographic erasure. Cryptographic erasure simply replaces the encryption key inside the encrypted
drive, making it impossible to ever decrypt the data encrypted with the deleted key.

Self-encrypting drives reduce IT operating expenses by reducing asset control challenges and disposal
costs. Data security with self-encrypting drives helps ensure compliance with privacy regulations without
hindering IT efficiency.

So-called “Harbourarbor” clauses in government regulations allow companies not to
have to notify customers of occurrences of data theft if that data was encrypted and therefore unreadable.
Furthermore, self-encrypting drives simplify decommissioning and preserve hardware value for returns and
repurposing by

• Eliminating the need to overwrite or destroy the drive
• Securing warranty returns and expired lease returns
• Enabling drives to be repurposed securely

Auto-Locking

Insider theft or misplacement is a growing concern for businesses of all sizes; in addition, managers of
branch offices and small businesses without strong physical security face greater vulnerability to external
theft. Self-encrypting drives include a feature called auto-lock mode to help secure active data against theft. Using a self-encrypting drive when auto-lock mode is enabled simply requires securing the drive with an authentication key. When secured in this manner, the drive’s data encryption key is locked whenever the
drive is powered down. In other words, the moment the self-encrypting drive is switched off or unplugged, it
automatically locks down the drive’s data.

When the self-encrypting drive is then powered back on, it requires authentication before being able to
unlock its encryption key and read any data on the drive, thus protecting against misplacement and. theft. While using self-encrypting drives, for instance, instant secure erase is an extremely efficient and effective
means to help securely retire a drive. Using self-encrypting drives in auto-lock mode provides even more
advantages.

From the moment the drive or system is removed from the centre (with or without authorisation), the drive is locked. No advance thought or action is required from the data center
administrator to protect the data. This helps prevent a breach should the drive be mishandled and helps
secure the data against the threat of insider or outside theft.

Technical Specifications

Server Support

The following tables list the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.

Part 1 to 4

Operating System Support

SAS and SATA SSDs operate transparently to users, storage systems, applications, databases, and operating systems. Operating system support is based on the controller used to connect to the drives. Consult the controller product guide for more information:

• RAID controllers: https://lenovopress.com/servers/options/raid
• SAS HBAs: https://lenovopress.com/servers/options/hba

IBM SKLM Key Management support

To effectively manage a large deployment of SEenovo Lenovo ThinkSystem Mixed Use 24Gb SAS SSDs servers, IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager
(SKLM) offercentralisedized key management solution. Certain Lenovo servers support Features on Demand (FoD) license upgrades that enable SKLM support. The following table lists the part numbers and feature codes to enable SKLM support in the management processor of the server.

FoD upgrades for SKLM support.

The IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager software is available from Lenovo using the ordering information
listed in the following table.

IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager licenses.

Physical Specifications

The Vendor Agnostic SSDs have the following dimensions (without the hot-swap tray):

• Height: 15 mm (0.6 in.)
• Width: 70 mm (2.8 in.)
• Depth: 100 mm (4.0 in.)

Operating Environment

Vendor-agnostic SSDs are supported in the following environments:

• Temperature, operating: 0 – 70 °C (32 – 158 °F)
• Temperature, non-operating: -40 to 85 °C (-40 – 185 °F)
• Relative humidity: 5 – 95% (noncondensing)
• Maximum altitude: -300 – 4,572 m (-1,000 to 15,000 feet)

Agency Approvals

Vendor Agnostic SSDs conform to the following regulations:

• UL
• TUV
• FCC
• IC
• CB
• CE Mark
• C-Tick Mark
• BSMI (Taiwan)
• KCC (Korea EMI)
• VCCI

Related Publications and Links

For more information, see the following documents:

• Lenovo ThinkSystem SSD Portfolio comparison
  • https://lenovopress.com/lp1261-lenovo-thinksystem-ssd-portfolio

• Lenovo RAID Introduction
  • https://lenovopress.com/lp0578-lenovo-raid-introduction

Related product families

Product families related to this document are the following:

• Drives

Trademarks

Lenovo and the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States. The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both:

• Lenovo®
• System x®
• ThinkSystem®
• The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
• AMD is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Intel® is a trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
• IBM® and IBM Security® are trademarks of IBM in the United States, other countries, or both.
• Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Warranty

The ThinkSystem Vendor Agnostic Mixed Use 24Gb SAS SSDs carry a one-year, customer-replaceable
unit (CRU) limited warranty. Solid State Memory cells have an intrinsic, finite number of program/erase cycles that each cell can incur. A drive that reaches this limit may fail to operate according to its Specifications.

Notices

Lenovo may not offer the products, services, or features Lenovo ThinkSystem Mixed Use 24Gb SAS SSDs discussed in this document in all countries. Consult your local Lenovo representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area.

Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions;tions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you. This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.  Lenovo may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time without notice.

The information contained in this document does not affect or change Lenovo product specifications or warranties. Nothing in this document shall operate as an express or implied license or indemnity under the intellectual property rights of Lenovo or third parties.  Therefore, the result obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Actual results may vary. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their specific environment.

Send us your comments in one of the following ways

• Use the online Contact Us review form found at: https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/LP2217
• Send your commenemailail to: comments@lenovopress.com
• This document is available online at: https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/LP2217.

FCC Compliance Statement

This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:

1. This device may not cause harmful interference, and
2. This device contains licence-exempt transmitter(s)/receiver(s) that comply with Innovation,
3. Science and Economic Development Canada’s licence-exempt RSS(s).
4. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
5. This device may not cause interference.

Customer Service

• Website: https://www.lenovo.com/
• Ph: 1-855-253-6686

FAQs

Q: Can I hot-swap the 24GB SAS SSD?

If your server and RAID setup let it, Lenovo ThinkSystem servers do support hot-swapping SAS SSDs. To prevent data loss, always make sure the OS or RAID controller supports hot-swap operations and adheres to the correct protocols.

Q: Where can I find detailed official instructions and firmware updates?

Lenovo Support has firmware updates and official Lenovo documentation for ThinkSystem SAS SSDs. For the best performance and dependability, always use the most recent firmware.

Q: Can these SSDs be used in a virtualised environment?

Indeed, virtualisation workloads like VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM are compatible with Mixed Use SAS SSDs. They can manage several virtual machines (VMs) at once thanks to their balanced read/write speed.

Q: What is the expected lifespan of these SSDs?

Workload and writing intensity determine lifetime. Under typical mixed-use workloads, Lenovo SAS SSDs usually endure for several years.

Q: Can I use these SSDs in external Lenovo storage enclosures?

To guarantee optimal performance and firmware support, always refer to Lenovo’s compatibility matrix for the particular enclosure model.