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Memory mirroring mode installation order

Memory-mirroring mode provides full memory redundancy while reducing the total system memory capacity in half. Memory channels are grouped in pairs with each channel receiving the same data. If a failure occurs, the memory controller switches from the DIMMs on the primary channel to the DIMMs on the backup channel. The DIMM installation order for memory mirroring varies based on the number of processors and DIMMs installed in the server.

Memory mirroring guidelines:
  • Memory mirroring reduces the maximum available memory by half of the installed memory. For example, if the server has 64 GB of installed memory, only 32 GB of addressable memory is available when memory mirroring is enabled.

  • Each DIMM must be identical in size and architecture.

  • DIMMs on each memory channel must be of equal density.

  • If two memory channels have DIMMs, mirroring occurs across two DIMMs (channels 0/1 will both contain the primary/secondary memory caches).

  • If three memory channels have DIMMs, mirroring occurs across all three DIMMs (channels 0/1, channels 1/2, and channels 2/0 will all contain primary/secondary memory caches).

With one processors

The following table shows the DIMM population sequence for memory mirroring when one processor is installed.

Table 1. Memory Mirroring with one processor
TotalProcessor 1
DIMMs161514131211109 87654321
8*16141210 7531
16*16151413121110987654321
Note

* Sub NUMA Clustering (SNC2) feature can only be enabled when DIMMs are populated in this specified sequence. The SNC2 feature can be enabled via UEFI.

With two processors

The following table shows the DIMM population sequence for memory mirroring mode when two processors are installed.

Table 2. Memory mirroring with two processors
TotalProcessor 1
DIMMs161514131211109 87654321
16*16141210 7531
32*16151413121110987654321
TotalProcessor 2
DIMMs32313029282726252423222120191817
16*32302826 23211917
32*32313029282726252423222120191817
Note

* Sub NUMA Clustering (SNC2) feature can only be enabled when DIMMs are populated in this specified sequence. The SNC2 feature can be enabled via UEFI.