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Configuration 4. Four-Socket Upgradable / Storage Rich

The ThinkSystem SR950 is available in several configurations.

A 4-socket server capable of a simple upgrade to 8-socket and needing more than 12 drive bays with 4 processors.

  • Requires 4 processors, must be 8100 Series

  • 4 processors in a ring topology

  • 24 drive bays (including up to 4 NVMe)

  • 10 rear PCIe slots

  • Two compute trays, with one system board in each tray

  • Upgradable to 8-socket with two additional system boards

  • Once upgraded, the server will support 12 NVMe drives.

Processor configurations​

This configuration requires 4 processors installed in locations 1, 2, 5 and 6

Figure 1. Processor numbering (viewed from the front of the server)
CPU and DIMM layout for multiple-processor systems

PCIe slot connectivity​

The following table shows the processor to PCIe slot connectivity:
PCIe slotSlot locationDescription
1Riser 1Not connected
2Not connected
36
46
5I/O tray2
62
71
8 (ML2)1
9 (LOM)1 (PCH)
10Riser 2Not connected
11Not connected
125
135
14Not connected.
15 (ML2)Not connected.
162x8 RiserNot connected
171
M.2I/O tray1 (PCH)
Storage adapterUpper tray5
Storage adapterLower tray1

Drive bays​

Drives are all located at the front of the server, 12 drives at the front of the upper tray and 12 at the front of the lower tray. Drives are connected to 4-drive backplanes in a 2-by-2 configuration, as shown in the following figure. All drive bays are 2.5-inch form factor.

Two different drive backplanes are available for the server:

  • SAS/SATA backplane: Supports 4 SAS or SATA drives

  • AnyBay backplane:

    • Top two drives support SAS, SATA, or NVMe interface drives (Lenovo AnyBay). The server can support up to 12 NVMe drives, depending on the server configuration. The NVMe-capable drive bays are the even-numbered bays as shown in Figure 2.

    • Bottom two drive bays support SAS or SATA drives only

Regular 2.5-inch SAS/SATA drive bays support only SAS or SATA drives; however, the Lenovo AnyBay drive bay design allows a choice of SATA, SAS, or U.2 (NVMe) PCIe drives. This design enables the flexibility to configure some of the bays with high-performance PCIe SSDs while still using the other bays for high-capacity HDDs, which is an ideal solution for storage-tiering.

Figure 2. Drive bay locations

The following table lists the drive bays and NVMe support for the Four-Socket Performance configuration.
Installed processorsMaximum storageLocation of NVMe drives (see Figure 2)
424 drives (4 NVMe drives)Bays 8, 10 and 20, 22