Control enclosure hardware components: Gen2/Gen2+

A system consists of one or more Storwize® V7000 Gen2 or Storwize V7000 Gen2+ (machine type 2076) rack-mounted enclosures. Control enclosures contain the node canisters that manage the system operation and provide the host interfaces. Expansion enclosures provide extra drives that can be managed by the system. Enclosures can support 2.5 inch (6.35 cm) small form factor drives or 3.5 inch (8.89 cm) large form factor drives.

There are several model types. The main differences among the model types are the following items:
  • Whether the model is Storwize V7000 Gen2 or Storwize V7000 Gen2+
    The following table summarizes the Storwize V7000 control enclosures and the supported expansion enclosures.
    Table 1. System model numbers
    Enclosure Machine type / model Description
    Storwize V7000 Gen3 2076-724 Control enclosure with up to 24 NVMe-attached IBM FlashCore® Modules or other self-encrypting NVMe-attached SSD drives
    2076-U7B Control enclosure with up to 24 NVMe-attached IBM FlashCore® Modules or other self-encrypting NVMe-attached SSD drives (leased for Cloud Storage environments only)
    Storwize V7000 Gen2+ 2076-AF6 Control enclosure, with up to 24 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) flash drives
    2076-624 Control enclosure, with up to 24 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) drives
    2076-U7A Control enclosure, with up to 24 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) drives (leased for Cloud Storage environments only)
    Storwize V7000 Gen2 2076-524 Control enclosure, with up to 24 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) drives
    2076-AFF Expansion enclosure, for up to 24 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) flash drives
    Expansion enclosures 2076-12F Expansion enclosure, for up to 12 3.5-inch (8.89-cm) drives
    2076-24F Expansion enclosure, for up to 24 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) drives

    This is the only expansion enclosure that is supported by model 2076-U7A.
    2076-92F Expansion enclosure for up to 92 3.5-inch (8.89-cm) or 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) flash drives
  • The number of drives that an enclosure can hold

    Drives are on the front of the enclosure. An enclosure can hold up to twelve 3.5-inch drives or up to twenty-four 2.5-inch drives.

  • Whether the model is a control enclosure or an expansion enclosure

    Control enclosures contain the main processing units that control the whole system. They are where external systems, such as host application servers, other storage systems, and management workstations are connected through the Ethernet ports or Fibre Channel ports. Control enclosures can also be connected to expansion enclosures through the serial-attached SCSI (SAS) ports.

    Expansion enclosures contain more storage capacity. Expansion enclosures connect either to control enclosures or to other expansion enclosures through the SAS ports.

  • If the control enclosure has either 1 Gbps Ethernet capability or 10 Gbps Ethernet capability
The machine type and model (MTM) are shown on labels on the front and the rear of each enclosure:
  • The left end cap label on the front of the enclosure indicates whether the enclosure is a control enclosure or an expansion enclosure.
  • The label on the rear of the left enclosure flange.
Note: Labels also show the enclosure serial number. You must know the serial number when you contact IBM® support.
You must be able to distinguish between control enclosures and expansion enclosures before you service the system. Be aware of the following differences:
  • The model type that is shown on the labels.
  • The model description that is shown on the left end cap.
  • The number of ports at the rear of the enclosure. Control enclosures have Ethernet ports, Fibre Channel ports, and USB ports. Expansion enclosures do not have any of these ports.