ThinkSystem 5300 Mainstream 6Gb SATA SED SSDs

The ThinkSystem 5300 Mainstream SATA 6Gb solid-state drives (SSDs) are high-performance self-encrypting drives (SEDs) that adhere to the Trusted Computing Group Enterprise Security Subsystem Class cryptographic standard (TCG Enterprise SSC or eSSC). They use Micron NAND flash memory technology with a SATA 6Gbps interface to provide an affordable solution for secure mixed read/write workloads.

Figure 1. ThinkSystem 5300 Mainstream SATA 6Gb SED SSDs

Self-encrypting drives (SEDs) provide benefits by encrypting data on-the-fly at the drive level with no performance impact, by providing instant secure erasure thereby making the data no longer readable, and by enabling auto-locking to secure active data if a drive is misplaced or stolen from a system while in use. These features are essential for many businesses, especially those storing customer data.

Rigorous testing of the 5300 Series SSDs by Lenovo through the ServerProven program assures a high degree of storage subsystem compatibility and reliability. Providing additional peace of mind, these drives are covered under Lenovo warranty.

The following table lists the ThinkSystem part numbers.

The following sections describe the benefits in more details.

When the self-encrypting drive is in normal use, its owner need not maintain authentication keys (otherwise known as credentials or passwords) in order 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.

Nearly all drives eventually leave the data center and their owner's control. Corporate data resides on such drives, and when most leave the data center, the data they contain is still readable. Even data that has been striped across many drives in a RAID array is vulnerable to data theft because just a typical single stripe in today’s high-capacity arrays is large enough to expose for example, hundreds of names and bank account numbers.

In an effort 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.

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.

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 "Safe Harbor" clauses in government regulations allow companies to not have to notify customers of occurrences of data theft if that data was encrypted and therefore unreadable.

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 just for the 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 data center (with or without authorization), 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.

The 5300 Mainstream SATA SED SSDs have the following features:

• Industry standard 2.5-inch form factor
• Compliant with the Trusted Computing Group Enterprise Security Subsystem Class cryptographic standard (TCG Enterprise SSC)
• Supports the SafeStore self-encrypting drive (SED) functionality of ThinkSystem RAID adapters
• New generation 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory
• Suitable for mixed read/write workloads with an endurance of 5 drive writes per day (DWPD) for 5 years
• 6 Gbps SATA host interface
• High reliability and enhanced ruggedness
• Absence of moving parts to reduce potential failure points in the server
• S.M.A.R.T. support
• Advanced Encrypting Standard (AES) 256-bit encryption
• Supports Sanitize Cryptographic Erase
• Full end-to-end data path protection:
  • Extended error correction code (ECC)
  • Exclusive-OR (XOR) parity to protect against Flash die failure
  • Parity-checked internal data paths without an external write cache
  • Power loss data management without the need for a supercapacitor

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. Mainstream SSDs typically have a better cost per read IOPS ratio but lower endurance and performance compared to Performance SSDs. SSD write endurance is typically measured by the number of program/erase cycles that the drive can incur over its lifetime, which is listed as total bytes written (TBW) in the device specification.

The TBW value that is assigned to a solid-state device is the total bytes of written data that a drive can be guaranteed to complete. Reaching this limit does not cause the drive to immediately fail; the TBW simply denotes the maximum number of writes that can be guaranteed. 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. Because of such behavior, careful planning must be done to use SSDs in the application environments to ensure that the TBW of the drive is not exceeded before the required life expectancy.

The 5300 Mainstream 1.92 TB drive has an endurance of 17,520 TB of total bytes written (TBW). This means that for full operation over five years, write workload must be limited to no more than 9,600 GB of writes per day, which is equivalent to 5.0 full drive writes per day (DWPD). For the device to last three years, the drive write workload must be limited to no more than 16,000 GB of writes per day, which is equivalent to 8.3 full drive writes per day.

The following table presents technical specifications for the 5300 Mainstream SATA SED SSDs.

The following tables list the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.

SAS and SATA SED drives require a supported controller, either a SAS HBA or a RAID controller, with SED support. SED support of RAID adapters is via the MegaRAID SafeStore functionality of the adapter. SED support of the SAS HBAs (where supported) is by using software on the server (SED commands are passed through the HBA to the drives).

The following table lists which ThinkSystem controllers support the use of SED drives.

To compare the capabilities of these adapters, see the Lenovo ThinkSystem RAID Adapter and HBA Reference:
https://lenovopress.com/LP1288

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 propduct guide for more information:

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

To effectively manage a large deployment of SEDs in Lenovo servers, IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager (SKLM) offers a centralized 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.

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

The following tables list the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.

The 5300 Mainstream SATA SED SSDs carry a one-year, customer-replaceable unit (CRU) limited warranty. When the SSDs are installed in a supported server, these drives assume the system’s base warranty and any warranty upgrades.

Solid State Memory cells have an intrinsic, finite number of program/erase cycles that each cell can incur. As a result, each solid state device has a maximum amount of program/erase cycles to which it can be subjected. The warranty for Lenovo solid state drives (SSDs) is limited to drives that have not reached the maximum guaranteed number of program/erase cycles, as documented in the Official Published Specifications for the SSD product. A drive that reaches this limit may fail to operate according to its Specifications.

The drives have the following physical specifications (approximate, without the tray):

• Height: 7 mm (0.3 in.)
• Width: 70 mm (2.8 in.)
• Depth: 100 mm (4.0 in.)
• Weight: 70 g (2.5 oz)

Shipping dimensions and weight - 2.5-inch drives (approximate, including the tray):

• Height: 63 mm (2.5 in.)
• Width: 174 mm (6.9 in.)
• Depth: 133 mm (5.2 in.)
• Weight: 434 g (1.0 lb)

The SSDs are supported in the following environment:

• Operating temperature: 0 to 70°C (32 to 158°F)
• Non-operating temperature: -40 to 85°C (-40 to 185°F)
• Relative humidity: 5 to 95% (non-condensing)

The 5300 Mainstream SATA SED SSDs conform to the following regulations:

• Micron Green Standard
• Built with sulfur resistant resistors
• CE (Europe): EN 55032 Class B, RoHS
• FCC: CFR Title 47, Part 15 Class B
• UL: UL-60950-1, 2nd Edition
• BSMI (Taiwan): approval to CNS 13438
• RCM (Australia, New Zealand): AS/NZS CISPR32 Class B
• KCC RRL (Korea): approval to KN 32 Class B, KN 35 Class B
• W.E.E.E.: Compliance with EU WEEE directive 2002/96/EC.
• TUV (Germany): approval to IEC60950/EN60950
• VCCI (Japan): 2015-04 Class B
• IC (Canada): CISPR32 Class B: Canadian ICES-003:2016

For more information, see the following documents:

• Product Guide on ThinkSystem 5300 Mainstream 6Gb SATA SSDs (non-SED)
  https://lenovopress.com/lp1255

• Lenovo ThinkSystem storage options product page
  https://lenovopress.com/lp0761-storage-options-for-thinksystem-servers

• Micron 5300 series product page
  https://www.micron.com/5300
• ServerProven for SSDs
  http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven
• Lenovo RAID Introduction
  https://lenovopress.com/lp0578-lenovo-raid-introduction
• Lenovo RAID Management Tools and Resources
  https://lenovopress.com/lp0579-lenovo-raid-management-tools-and-resources