The Lenovo ThinkAgile MX650 V3 2U Integrated System and Certified Node are 2-socket 2U systems that are designed for deploying highly available, highly scalable hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and software-defined storage (SDS) from Microsoft on Lenovo enterprise platforms that feature 5th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (formerly codenamed "Emerald Rapids) and 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (formerly codenamed "Sapphire Rapids). The MX650 V3 systems delivers fully validated and integrated Lenovo hardware and firmware that is certified for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI solutions.

The MX650 V3 systems are available either as an Integrated System or Certified Node:

MX Integrated Systems deliver fully validated and integrated Lenovo hardware and firmware, certified and preloaded with licensed Microsoft Azure software. They also include ThinkAgile Premier support with one single point of contact for support of the hardware and software.

MX Certified Nodes deliver fully validated Lenovo hardware and firmware, certified and can be preloaded with Microsoft Azure software. Certified Nodes do not include licenses to Microsoft Azure software and enhanced software support.

Combining performance and flexibility, the MX650 V3 systems systems are a great choice for enterprises of all sizes. The systems offer a broad selection of processors, memory and drives, and offers high performance features that industries such as finance, healthcare and telco need. Outstanding reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) and high-efficiency design can improve your business environment and can help save operational costs.

ThinkAgile MX Series platforms offer the choice of Azure Stack HCI Integrated System (Appliance) or Azure Stack HCI Certified Node. These validated platforms help modernize on-premises infrastructure with pre-tested, pre-configured, and easy-to-order configurations, with seamless Azure integration. As a direct and indirect Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, Lenovo offers cloud services and subscriptions through the Lenovo Cloud Marketplace, which enable HCI use cases with the ThinkAgile MX platforms.

• The integrated systems include the Azure Stack HCI operating system, which is delivered as an Azure subscription service via the Microsoft CSP program. It also includes ThinkAgile Premier support with one single point of contact for support of the hardware and warm-case transfer for software. Deployment and Update features in Windows Admin Center and tight integration with Lenovo XClarity make cluster management, hardware and software update management & enforcing site-wide policies easy for administrators. Azure hybrid by design, native integration with Azure services makes it easy for customers to adopt a hybrid cloud strategy for their workloads and use cases.
• The certified nodes deliver fully validated and integrated Lenovo hardware and firmware that is certified for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI solutions. These HCI Certified Nodes have the option of Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Edition for HCI functionality, and guest licenses are included.

Integrated System features

Certified Node features

The ThinkAgile MX Certified Node offers the following key features:

• Quick and convenient path to implement a hyperconverged solution powered by Windows Server 2019 Datacenter or Windows Server 2022 Datacenter with Hyper-V virtualization, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), Software Defined Storage (SDS), and Software Defined Networking (SDN) network virtualization.
• Streamlined management of Azure Stack HCI with unified single-pane-of-glass for creating and managing VMs, S2D volumes, and virtual networks through Windows Admin Center.
• Consistent, low latency performance with hypervisor-embedded architecture, built-in read and write cache, and support for NVMe PCIe drives.
• Provides per-VM storage performance management with policy-driven Quality of Service (QoS) and continuous built-in monitoring and alerting with cluster-wide performance and capacity metrics.
• Can sustain drive, server, or component failures with built-in resiliency for continuous availability.
• GPU support to enable AI training, inferencing and data visualization scenarios, HPC workloads, virtual desktops and graphics intensive applications.
• Built on proven and reliable Lenovo ThinkSystem servers that provide compute power and space efficiency for a variety of edge workloads and applications.
• Provides comprehensive hardware management with advanced systems management capabilities.
• Delivers fully validated and integrated hardware and firmware that is certified for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI solutions.
• Ready for out-of-box deployment with the optional Windows Server 2019 Datacenter, Windows Server 2022 Datacenter, or Azure Stack HCI OS preload.
• Provide flexibility in using the existing Microsoft Windows Server 2019 or 2022 enterprise license agreements or purchasing new software licenses from Microsoft or Lenovo.
• Optional Lenovo deployment services to get customers up and running quickly.

Hardware features

The MX650 V3 systems are based on the SR650 V3 and have the following hardware features:

Scalability and performance

The MX650 V3 systems offer numerous features to boost performance, improve scalability and reduce costs: 

• Supports one or two fifth-generation Intel Xeon Processor Scalable processors
  • Up to 64 cores and 128 threads
  • Core speeds of up to 3.9 GHz
  • TDP ratings of up to 350 W
• Supports one or two fourth-generation Intel Xeon Processor Scalable processors
  • Up to 60 cores and 120 threads
  • Core speeds of up to 3.7 GHz
  • TDP ratings of up to 350 W
• Support for DDR5 memory DIMMs to maximize the performance of the memory subsystem:
  • Up to 32 DDR5 memory DIMMs, 16 DIMMs per processor
  • 8 memory channels per processor (2 DIMMs per channel)
  • Supports 1 DIMM per channel operating at 5600 MHz (5th Gen processors) or 4800 MHz (4th Gen processors)
  • Supports 2 DIMMs per channel operating at 4800 MHz (5th Gen processors) or 4400 MHz (4th Gen processors)
  • Using 256GB 3DS RDIMMs, the server supports up to 8TB of system memory
• Supports up to eight single-width GPUs or four double-wide GPUs, for substantial processing power in a 2U system.
• Configurations with 2.5-inch drives support up to 24x hot-swap drives, all front or rear accessible
• Configurations with 3.5-inch drives support up to 12x 3.5-inch hot-swap front-accessible drives plus either 4x 3.5-inch or 4x 2.5-inch hot-swap rear-accessible drives
• Supports 16x NVMe drives without oversubscription of PCIe lanes (1:1 connectivity). The use of NVMe drives maximizes drive I/O performance, in terms of throughput and latency.
• Supports 12x SATA drives using the onboard SATA controller (no additional adapter needed), enabling lower cost, high capacity storage solution for cold or archival storage workloads.
• Supports high-speed HBA controllers providing 12 Gb SAS connectivity to the drive backplanes.
• Supports up to two externally accessible 7mm hot-swap drives with RAID functionality for operating system boot functions.
• Supports M.2 drives for convenient operating system boot functions. Available M.2 adapters support two M.2 drives in a RAID 1 configuration for performance and reliability.
• The server has a dedicated industry-standard OCP 3.0 small form factor (SFF) slot, with a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, supporting a variety of Ethernet network adapters. A simple-swap mechanism with a thumbscrew and pull-tab enables tool-less installation and removal of the adapter. The adapter supports shared BMC network sideband connectivity to enable out-of-band systems management.
• The server offers PCI Express 5.0 I/O expansion capabilities that doubles the theoretical maximum bandwidth of PCIe 4.0 (32GT/s in each direction for PCIe Gen 5, compared to 16 GT/s with PCIe Gen 4 and 8 GT/s with PCIe Gen 3). A PCIe 5.0 x16 slot provides 128 GB/s bandwidth, enough to support a dual-port 200GbE network connection.
• The server offers up to eight PCIe 5.0 slots, all with rear access, plus an internal bay for a cabled HBA, plus a slot dedicated to the OCP adapter.