IBM Systems
Data Sheet
IBM FlashSystem 5200 | Data
sheet
Bringing NVMe-accelerated storage
Highlights performance and new levels of cost-
efficiency to smaller deployments in
• Affordably accelerate
workloads in only 1U enterprises of all sizes
• Leverages the power of IBM
Spectrum® Virtualize for Startup companies, entry-level enterprises, remote offices,
rich data services and network edge locations – these are the most common
business environments around the world, by far. They may
• Benefit from hybrid cloud
storage capabilities to
not have thousands of employees, but they are still adopting
increase business agility the same technologies as their larger competitors – hybrid
cloud architectures, real-time analytics, artificial intelligence
• Extend wide-ranging data
(AI), and blockchain, among many others. And they still
services across hundreds of
require IT infrastructure that provides great flexibility and
external systems
scalability, wide-ranging data services, seamless movement
• Rely on powerful AI- within cloud architectures, and perhaps most importantly —
enhanced tools to optimize
Speed.
storage operations
• Deliver rock-solid data For enterprises more sensitive to affordability, it is especially
resilience and business important to be able to start with small capital investments
continuance and add capabilities and components as their business and
IT requirements grow.
These are the types of organizations that turn to IBM
FlashSystem 5200. This compact new member of the IBM
FlashSystem family of leading-edge storage systems offers
the same levels of functionality as other family members –
but in an efficient smaller form factor that enables
enterprises to start with a very modest initial storage
investment without sacrificing performance and then easily
expand capacity and capabilities as needs grow and change.
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
IBM FlashSystem 5200
A family of cost-efficient, high-performance storage solutions
The IBM FlashSystem family has evolved and adapted to changing requirements – single
platform approach, better flash management and durability, hardware-driven data reduction
and encryption, IBM FlashCore® technology innovation, new hybrid cloud capabilities, and
incorporation of NVMe, among many other changes. The major improvements have been
towards simplicity, cost-efficiency, density, and blazing fast performance.
IBM FlashSystem storage solutions are:
Starting on FlashSystem 5200 the family is NVMe-accelerated with control enclosures that are
end-to-end NVMe-enabled, with flexibility to choose and mix between FlashCore Modules,
industry standard NVMe drives and storage-class memory. The systems offer industry-leading
performance and scalability with support for bare-metal, virtual, and containerized
environments.
Built with IBM Spectrum Virtualize, which delivers a full range of industry-leading data services
such as dynamic tiering, IBM FlashCopy® management and data mobility among many other
advanced data management features.
Ready for hybrid cloud, with support for private, hybrid, or public cloud deployments. The
solutions come with ready-to-use, proven, validated “cloud blueprints”.
Designed to address rising cyber threats with high-performance data encryption and by isolating
immutable data copies with Safeguarded Copy.
IBM Storage support for Ansible® -- the Red Hat® open source IT configuration management
and automation platform continue to be enhanced including automation for HyperSwap® for high
availability configurations for mission-critical workloads.
Cost-efficient, with innovative data reduction pool (DRP) technology that includes deduplication
and hardware-accelerated compression technology1, plus SCSI UNMAP support and all the thin
provisioning, copy management, and efficiency you’d expect from IBM Spectrum Virtualize-
based storage
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
Supporting hybrid storage, with multiple expansion enclosure options based on 12 Gb/s SAS
that support both solid state drives (SSD) and hard disk drives (HDD)2
AI-enhanced through the IBM Storage Insights analytics, resource management, and support
platform. Plus, IBM Spectrum Virtualize functionality includes AI-based data placement for
optimal data center performance and zero-downtime data migration.
The new IBM FlashSystem 5200 is the most compact storage system ever produced by IBM. It
is designed to accelerate a wide range of enterprise deployments with bare metal, virtualized, or
containerized servers. Leveraging IBM Spectrum Virtualize, IBM Storage Insights software
and end-to-end NVMe protocols, these new systems bring the performance and functionality
needed for almost any workload, delivering a lot more work using fewer drives and rack space
than traditional SAS or even traditional flash systems, with as low as 70 microseconds latency3,
as much as 1.7 petabytes of usable capacity in only one rack unit, HyperSwap high availability
technology, 3-site replication, scalability and data reduction.
Powerful to the core
FlashSystem 5200 brings all the simplicity and innovation of earlier family members, then adds
an extremely important new capability – entry-level NVMe all-flash flexibility and affordability.
The new IBM FlashSystem 5200 offers storage solutions that are simple enough for every
environment; powerful enough for all environments.
It’s time to revolutionize the entry-enterprise storage space. IBM FlashSystem 5200 introduces
affordable end-to-end NVMe systems that allows enterprises of all sizes to start “small” and
grow as their business requires in both performance and capacity. A single FlashSystem 5200
with only three NVMe FlashCore Modules (FCM), delivers the same throughput as a system with
twenty-four SAS SSDs. And, like all IBM FlashSystem models, it also leverages IBM Spectrum
Virtualize for data management and hybrid cloud functionality.
The basic system is comprised of an NVMe dual controller 1U control enclosure that can support
up to 12 FCM, industry standard SSDs, or storage-class memory drives. These drive
technologies can be mixed in the same chassis and come in various sizes that provide up to
460TB of raw storage capacity and 1.7PB effective capacity within a single 1U system. Up to
512GB of controller cache is available with multiple 16/32 Gb FC, 12Gb SAS, or 10/25Gb
Ethernet I/O adapters. IBM FlashSystem 5200 can support Fibre Channel (FC), NVMe-oF, iSCSI,
and RoCE/iWARP RDMA protocols. The systems allow 4-way clustering for scale up to the multi-
petabyte range, and the capability to connect up to 20 SAS expansion enclosures per system for
nearly limitless scale out options.
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
IBM FlashSystem 5200 leverages the advantages of IBM FlashCore storage media that provides
greater flash density and higher capacity than any industry-standard flash drives. Purpose-
engineered FCMs utilize powerful inline, hardware-accelerated data compression and
encryption technologies that provide consistent compression and encryption across the full
range of workloads – with no performance penalties. IBM invented several technologies to make
QLC perform and endure as well as TLC. FCMs use QLC combined with dynamic SLC allocation,
smart data placement (hotter read data placed on lowest latency pages) and read heat
assessment. QLC enables a 38.4TB module (densest NVMe SSD in the industry). Additionally,
FCMs provide Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 Level 1 encryption with
Gemalto SafeNet KeySecure or IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager centralized key
management and full hot-swap capabilities.
IBM FlashSystem 5200 can operate in distributed RAID (DRAID) 1, 5, or 6 modes. A key
advantage is its ability to operate at full DRAID protection and efficiency with only three drives.
This means that cost-sensitive users can start with a smaller capital expenditure and add
capacity as needed. IBM DRAID 1 data can be read from all three drives, which provides a
performance boost over traditional RAID 1 approaches, as well as allowing full recovery with
loss of one drive. And assuming DRAID 1, the systems can achieve 1.5 million input/outputs per
second (IOPS), under 70 microsecond latency, and 21 GB/s throughput.
Award-winning capabilities
All IBM FlashSystem solutions leverage the proven capabilities of IBM Spectrum Virtualize
software-defined storage (SDS) for data and storage management. IBM Spectrum Virtualize has
been helping enterprises improve infrastructure flexibility and data economics for more than 15
years. It offers an industry-leading spectrum of features and functionality, including enhanced
cloud functionality, comprehensive data reduction, and support for leading-edge container
technologies that can provide enterprises with the capabilities they need to capture and keep
competitive advantage across the full spectrum of modern business environments.
IBM Spectrum Virtualize delivers a full range of sophisticated storage functionality, including:
IBM HyperSwap for non-disruptive application and data mobility between data centers
Support for host-side virtualization solutions, including VMware virtual machines, Microsoft
Hyper-V, and IBM PowerVM, among others
Support for more than 500 external, heterogeneous storage systems from a wide variety of
vendors
Powerful DRP technology that includes deduplication, compression, and automated thin
provisioning
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
IBM Easy Tier® AI-driven automated tiering functionality
Safeguarded Copy for isolated and immutable copies plus software-based encryption that can
be extended across all managed systems
IBM FlashCopy and IBM Remote Mirror for local and remote three-site replication
IBM FlashSystem 5200 solutions can lower both capital expenditures and operational costs by
extending a rich set of data services across existing heterogeneous external storage or by
adding SAS drive expansion enclosures, thanks to the extensive AI-enhanced storage resource
management, predictive analytics, automated support, and data placement provided by IBM
Spectrum Virtualize. Once under IBM Spectrum Virtualize management, data in external storage
systems becomes part of the IBM FlashSystem solution and can be managed in the same way
as internal drives. External systems inherit all the IBM Spectrum Virtualize functional richness
and ease-of-use features incorporated into the IBM FlashSystem 5200 platform, including
advanced replication, high-performance thin provisioning, encryption, isolated and immutable
copies, compression, deduplication, and Easy Tier functionality that improve administrator
productivity and boost storage utilization while also enhancing and extending the value of
existing storage investments.
HyperSwap functionality enables a pair of IBM FlashSystem 5200 systems to support servers in
multiple data centers. When combined with server data mobility functions such as VMware
vMotion or IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility, HyperSwap enables nondisruptive storage and
VM mobility between data centers up to 300 km (186 miles) apart. IBM Spectrum Virtualize
three-site replication capability runs data copies at both metro and global distances to offer a
variety of recovery point and time options.
Designed for cost-efficiency
IBM FlashSystem 5200 is not only compact with low total cost of ownership (TCO), the high
density of FCM drives and the data reduction options within IBM Spectrum Virtualize help
transform the economics of data storage. When DRP is applied to new or existing storage, they
can significantly increase usable capacity while maintaining consistent application performance.
This can substantially reduce costs for storage acquisition, rack space, power, and cooling, while
extending the useful life of existing storage assets. DRP capabilities include:
Block deduplication that works across all the storage in a DRP to minimize the number of
identical blocks
Compression technology that provides consistent performance across application workload
patterns
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
SCSI UNMAP support that de-allocates physical storage when operating systems delete logical
storage constructs such as files in a file system
In addition to built-in cost-efficiency features, IBM FlashSystem 5200 capacity can be procured
using the IBM Storage Utility pricing model. This offering allows you to predict monthly data
capacity costs and only pay for the capacity you need, whether your data grows or shrinks. No
need to over-purchase or lease large amounts of capacity for “just in case” needs. Simply use
the data that your business needs and the IBM Storage Utility offering will take care of the rest.
Simplified management
IBM FlashSystem 5200 is designed to be easy to use from the very start. The innovative user
interface enables administrators to perform configuration, management, and service tasks in a
consistent manner over multiple storage systems — even from different vendors — vastly
simplifying management and helping reduce the risk of errors. Plug-ins to support Microsoft
System Center Operations Manager and VMware vCenter help enable more efficient,
consolidated management in these environments.
IBM Storage Inisghts in the cloud and IBM Spectrum Control on premises provide organizations
with an end-to-end view of storage health, long-term performance analytics and capacity
statistics for IBM FlashSystem 5200 and the surrounding storage infrastructure.
Rock solid data resilience
IBM Spectrum Virtualize in FlashSystem storage solutions also provides enterprise-grade
system availability and data security features that include nondisruptive data migration and
remote mirroring using IBM HyperSwap technology, plus “six nines” availability, isolated and
immutable data copies, hardware-accelerated data-at-rest encryption, and an IBM distributed
RAID technology that can reduce disk rebuild times substantially compared to traditional RAID
solutions. The systems leverage the cost advantages of multiple flash drive options and feature
an intuitive user interface, synchronous/asynchronous replication, and more than 600
application programming interfaces (APIs). Plus, IBM FlashSystem provides affordable,
nondisruptive upgrade paths that deliver increased performance, scalability, and functionality.
As systems became linked with external networks, organizations adopted a “defense-in-depth”
security mode so that if the perimeter was breached, there were additional layers of security to
protect critical information. Safeguarded Copy enables the ability to create immutable and
isolated copies that are hidden, non-addressable and cannot be altered or deleted. In the event
of a cyber attack, these copies can be quickly restored to support recovery and minimize
impact.
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
In addition, physical isolation layers can be created by storing sensitive copies in immutable
storage, cloud environments or off-line write-once read many (WORM) tape devices to provide
true “air-gap” protection. And with more organizations looking to adopt data resilience solutions
that go beyond simple data backup and recovery, the IBM Spectrum Protect portfolio is the
perfect complement for IBM FlashSystem. It provides unified end-to-end workload protection,
both on-premises and in the cloud, including applications, VMs, file systems, SaaS workloads,
AWS EC2 instances, and containers.
IBM FlashSystem 5200 provides advanced capabilities that can help maximize data protection,
security and high availability to significantly reduce the risk of disruption and financial losses
due to user errors, malicious destruction or ransomware attacks.
Greater storage visibility, insight, and control
Because data is the resource that drives your business, storage systems take on even greater
importance. IBM Storage Insights and IBM Storage Insights Pro provide critical capabilities that
enhance your experience with IBM Storage, including:
A single dashboard so you can see the status of all your IBM block storage at a glance
Trend information about capacity and performance so you can make better and more informed
decisions
Storage health information that helps you bring your configuration in line with best practices
Monitoring of Brocade and Cisco switches and fabrics to help identify saturation, congestion,
and fabric errors that might impact your storage performance
When support is needed, the ability to easily open a ticket, upload log information and view
open tickets
Detailed configuration data available to IBM specialists to help close tickets quickly.
Delivered as a service from IBM Cloud at no charge, AI-enhanced Storage Insights is quick and
easy to set up and requires no ongoing software maintenance. Storage Insights Pro is an
upgrade that provides more detailed information and additional capabilities. IBM Spectrum
Control software provides similar capability for clients who prefer an on-premises solution.
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
Hybrid cloud, virtualized and container environments
The challenge for organizations these days is how to take advantage of hybrid cloud technology
without the expense of replacing current storage with cloud-capable storage systems. IBM
Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud functionality enables the replication of heterogeneous
storage between on-premises data centers and IBM Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It
provides the ability to use cloud capabilities for setting up a disaster-recovery target or for
workload migration between on-premises and cloud-based resources. By leveraging IBM
Spectrum Copy Data Management software, cloud storage may be used for data copies as well.
The IBM Spectrum Virtualize functionality in IBM FlashSystem 5200 complements server
virtualization technologies such as PowerVM, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere.. Similar
to provisioning virtualized servers, provisioning capacity with IBM FlashSystem 5200 is
designed to become an almost entirely automated function.
Containers are an open-source technology that wraps applications with everything needed to
run in any environment. Containerization is a key enabling technology for flexibly delivering
workloads to private and public cloud and DevOps. IBM FlashSystem 5200 supports Red Hat
OpenShift and Kubernetes container environments, accelerating the deployment of persistent
volumes with the IBM block storage CSI driver, certified by Red Hat and IBM.
World-class support
IBM FlashSystem 5200 offers world-class customer support, product upgrade and guarantee
programs:
IBM Storage Expert Care service and support is simple. Select from basic or advanced support
options and the period that best fits your needs with predictable and upfront pricing that is a
fixed percentage of the system cost.
The IBM Data Reduction Guarantee helps reduce planning risks and lower storage costs with
baseline levels of data compression effectiveness in IBM Spectrum Virtualize-based offerings.
The IBM Controller Upgrade Program enables customers of designated all-flash IBM storage
systems to reduce costs while maintaining leading-edge controller technology for essentially
the cost of ongoing system maintenance.
The IBM High-Availability Guarantee helps enterprises avoid the costs and risks related to
business downtime by ensuring the availability of business-critical data and storage systems.
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
1
HW accelerated compression starts with FlashSystem 5200.
2
IBM FlashSystem 9200 and 9200R are only all-flash models.
3
Based on IBM internal analysis, February 2021. Actual performance results will vary.
IBM Flashsystem 5200 at a glance
Models IBM FlashSystem 5200
Host interface 10 Gbps Ethernet (iSCSI), 25/10 Gbps Ethernet (iSCSI, iSER - iWARP, RoCE)
16 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC, FC-NVMe), 32 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC, FC-NVMe)
User interface IBM Spectrum Virtualize web GUI and CLI
Supported drives 2.5-inch NVMe FlashCore Modules (FCM):
• 4.8 TB, 9.6 TB, 19.2 TB and 38.4 TB self-compressing FCM
2.5-inch NVMe flash drives - industry standard:
• 800 GB, 1.92 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB and 15.36 TB
Storage Class Memory (SCM):
• 375 GB, 750 GB, 800 GB, 1.6 TB
Max IOPs 1.5M IOPs
Min Latency Under 70µs
Max Bandwidth 21 GB/s
RAID levels Distributed RAID 1, 5 and 6
Maximum drives 748 per control enclosure; 2,992 per clustered system
supported
IBM FlashSystem 5200 control enclosures support the following expansions:
• Small form-factor enclosure: 24 x 2.5-inch drives
• Large form-factor enclosure: 12 x 3.5-inch drives
• High-density expansion enclosure: 92 x 3.5-inch drives
Fans and power Fully redundant, hot-swappable
supplies
Rack support 1U - 19-inch” / 29" depth enclosure
Cores per control 16/64
enclosure/clustere
d system
Cache per control 64 or up to 512 GB/256 GB or up to 2.04 TB
enclosure/clustere
d system
Management IBM Spectrum Virtualize licensed machine code
software
Advanced features • Virtualization of internal storage
included with each
system • Data migration
• Data Reduction Pools with thin compression, deduplication, and thin provisioning
• UNMAP
• Remote mirroring
• Easy Tier
• FlashCopy
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
Additional • External virtualization
available
advanced features • Encryption
• IBM Spectrum Control
• IBM Storage Insights Pro
Warranty FlashSystem 5200 (4664) Hardware Warranty:
• 1-year limited warranty
• 9 x 5 on-site limited support
• Upgradeable to IBM Storage Expert Care:
⚬ IBM Storage Expert Care Basic:
▪ Extended 9 x 5 on-site hardware support for the duration of the contract
▪ License machine code subscription and support for the duration of the contract
▪ Guidance on installation, usage and configuration
▪ Automated ticket management and alerting
⚬ IBM Storage Expert Care Advanced:
▪ Extended 24 x 7 on-site hardware support for the duration of the contract
▪ License machine code subscription and support for the duration of the contract
▪ Guidance on installation, usage and configuration
▪ Automated ticket management and alerting
▪ Predictive issue resolution
Software Warranty:
IBM Spectrum Virtualize licensed machine code governed by the IBM Agreement for
Machine Code
• Included with the machine's warranty
• Extended through hardware support via IBM Storage Expert Care
Replication • FlashCopy
services
• Metro Mirror (synchronous) and Global Mirror (asynchronous)
Control enclosure • Height: 4.3 cm (1.7 in.)
dimensions
• Width: 44.6 cm (17.5 in.) (19 in. rack standard)
• Depth: 77.0 cm (30.3 in.)
Control enclosure • Fully configured (12 drive modules installed): 19.5 kg (43.0 lb)
weight
Supported For a list of currently supported servers, operating systems, host bus adapters,
systems
clustering applications and SAN switches and directors, refer to the IBM System Storage
Interoperation Center.
https://www.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/ssic/interoperability.wss
Independent For a list of high-quality solutions with our partner ISVs, including access to solution
software vendor
(ISV) solutions briefs and white papers, refer to the ISV Solutions Resource Library.
https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/pub/systems/whyibm/programs
Performance numbers are based on IBM internal analysis, February 2021. Actual performance results will vary.
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
Why IBM? For more information
Powerful all-flash block storage solutions Visit our solutions page to learn more about
that provide affordable, high-performance the FlashSystem family of data
enterprise-grade functionality for businesses systems, or contact your IBM representative
of all sizes. Unique IBM FlashCore Modules or IBM Business Partner. If you need to
provide unparalleled density, endurance, and be connected, fill out this form to schedule a
performance. Built with IBM Spectrum consult with an IBM storage expert.
Virtualize and the AI-powered storage
management and proactive support of IBM Additionally, IBM Global Financing provides
Storage Insights, FlashSystem delivers numerous payment options to help you
consistent rich data services across on- acquire the technology you need to grow
premises, hybrid cloud, containerized or your business. We provide full lifecycle
virtualized environments. management of IT products and services,
from acquisition to disposition. For more
information, visit: ibm.com/financing
IBM Systems
Data Sheet
IBM Spectrum®
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