Dell PowerEdge FD332 Storage Block for the FX2

Description

Dell's PowerEdge FX2 Converged Infrastructure platform is a high-density modular system that supports blade-like compute blocks and the PowerEdge FD332 Storage module. The PowerEdge FX2 is a highly scalable and flexible platform suitable for a number of common business applications or for use in extreme virtualization and high-performance computing. The Dell FD332 storage module occupies a half-width space on the FX2 chassis and can be paired with other compute modules such as the quarter-width FC430, the half-width FC630, or the full-width FC830 which supports up to four CPUs. The FD332 storage module is an excellent addition for applications that require high-performance scale-out storage like Hadoop, and is also ideal for database applications.

Performance

Neither the FX2 enclosure nor the PowerEdge FD332 storage module house any CPUs directly. All CPUs are housed on the supported compute modules. One, two, or three FD332 storage modules can be housed in the FX2 enclosure, and when teamed with an appropriate compute module can provide generous direct attached storage (DAS). The FD332 supports either one or two PERC HD controllers. With two PERC9 controllers the compliment of drives can be split equally between two compute modules. If just one Half-width FC630 compute module is installed in the upper left partition with three FD332 storage modules installed in the other three positions, all drives will automatically map to the installed compute block. The FD332 is not compatible with the FM120x4 compute module.

Memory

The Dell FD332 does not support any memory modules. When paired with an appropriate compute module, the compute module will automatically connect to either one, two four or six PCIe module slots on the FX2s chassis and automatically map to the FD332 storage module.

Storage

Up to 16 side mounted, small form factor, hot-plug SAS and SATA HDD and SSD drives. The front of the FD332 pulls out on an internal sleeve to reveal eight drives mounted on each side. Mixing of drives within the FD332 chassis is permitted and offers massive scale out for a variety of computing solutions. With a single quarter-width FC630 server module, up to three FD332 storage modules can be installed providing up to 48 SFF drives for some impressive storage, which is basically the equivalent of two R730 2u rack servers—in half the space! The FD332 supports one or two PERC 9 RAID controllers with RAID or HBA modes. With dual controllers, Administrators can mix and match drives for tiered storage and offer RAID or HBA modes or a combination of the two. The FM120X4 microservers are not compatible with the FD332.

Expansion

There are no PCIe slots on the FD332 storage module. The integrated PERC9 controllers provide the attached compute node with access to the hard drives through the PCIe 3.0 slots located on the FX2 chassis. Using iDRAC or the chassis management controller (CMC), Administrators can distribute access to the shared hard drives.

Management

Management of all this cutting-edge technology is accomplished through Dell's OpenManage systems management portfolio. iDRAC8 with Lifecycle controller is embedded on all the compute modules in the FX-series servers providing Administrators easy access to deploy, configure, and update. The iDRAC also enables Administrators to monitor the FD332 individually. The FX2 chassis with installed compute and storage modules can access the CMC to manage individual server or storage blocks, by FX2 chassis or multiple FX2 chassis.

Summary

Dell's FX-series platform offers extreme flexibility to adapt to your changing business needs with an easily managed, easy to scale system of components. The Dell PowerEdge FD332 provides the storage component while the other FX-series compute modules provide the processing power, and some impressive storage and memory of their own. The FX2 is a very flexible platform that can be configured to support any general use or mission critical business application and can quickly scale with the addition of more compute or storage modules or by daisy-chaining up to 20 FX2 chassis together.

FX2 Shared Infrastructure Platform

Dell's PowerEdge FX2 is a 2U converged infrastructure platform that offers the easy deployment of a rack server with the performance of a mini blade enclosure in a 2u rack space. There are two FX2 chassis. One with no PCIe slots, the FX2, and another which supports eight PCIe slots, the FX2s. Both are compatible with the PowerEdge FC430, PowerEdge FC630, PowerEdge FC830, and the FD332 storage block. However, the PowerEdge FM120x4 is designed specifically for the FX2 with no PCIe slots and cannot be used with the FD332 storage block.

FC430 Compute Module

The FC430 is a quarter-width compute module that can support two Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors or a single E5-1600 v3 processor. Up to eight FC430 compute modules can be installed in the FX2 chassis for a maximum of 2TB of memory. The FC430 can also be used with the other compute modules or the FD332 storage sled for access to 16 additional drives, which can be split between two servers. Two device bays up front supports either two 1.8-inch uSATA drives or an optional low-latency configuration that combines a single 1.8-inch drive with two QSFP+ compact, hot-pluggable transceiver connectors for Ethernet or Infiniband connectivity. Each compute sled has access to one PCIe 3.0 slot on the FX2s chassis. With an optimal balance of memory and storage, this module is perfect for high-speed I/O and mainstream enterprise workloads, including mid-sized virtualization and database environments. The low-latency Infiniband configuration is ideal for High Frequency Trading and High Performance Computing.

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FC630 Compute Module

The Dell PowerEdge FC630 is a half-width, two-socket compute module that can support a maximum of two Xeon E5-2600 v3 or E5-2600 v4 processors. Up to four FC630s can be installed in the FX2s chassis and each automatically connects maps to two of the eight PCIe modules. The FC630 can also be used in conjunction with other compute modules or the PowerEdge FD332 storage module for dense direct attached storage. The FC630 has 24 DIMM slots that can provide up to 1.5TB of memory. With four FC630 sleds installed in the FX2s enclosure, a maximum of 6TB of memory is available. Up front there's room for two 2.5-inch drives or another FC630 chassis that supports up to eight 1.8-inch SSDs. This unit is deal for large databases or highly virtualized environments.

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FC640 Compute Module

Designed for use in Dell's FX2s and FX2 2U enclosures, the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 server is a half-width, two-socket compute module. It provides dual 1st or 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with significantly improved performance, and up to 2TB of memory. You can install up to four of these compute sleds in the FX2 chassis supporting 2 processors each for eight processors total. With 4x of these half-width platforms installed the FX2 chassis will support a maximum of 8TB of memory—all in a 2U chassis. Each chassis is like a mini server cluster. Up to 20 individual FX2 chassis can be daisy-chained together providing an exceptionally scalable infrastructure. This system is ideal for a variety of high-performance applications.

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FC830 Compute Module

The FC830 is a four socket, full-width compute module that supports the Xeon E5-4600 v3 or E5-4600 v4 processors. Like the other compute modules, with the exception of the FX120x4, the FC830 can be used in conjunction with the other compute modules or with the FD332 for Direct Attached Storage. The FX2s chassis can support two full-width FC830 compute sleds or a single FC830 node with either four FC430s, two FC630s, or two FD332 storage modules. Each FC830 has 48 DDR4 DIMM slots, 12 slots per processor, for 1.5TB of memory per sled with transfer speeds of up to 2400 MT/s. The FC830 also features generous, scalable on-board storage with either 8 x 2.5-inch drives or an optional configuration with 16 x 1.8-inch SAS or SATA HDDs or SSDs. The FC830 is ideal for the database tier of web tech, HPC environments and large-scale virtualization.

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FM120x4 Compute Module for the FX2 chassis (no PCI)

The FM120x4 is a half-width compute module designed specifically for the FX2 enclosure without any PCIe slots. Offering a cost effective option, each compute sled features four Atom C2000 processors. The C2000 Atom processors are described by intel as a system-on-a-chip (SoC). With four modules installed up to 16 micro-servers are available in each FX2 chassis. The FM120x4 is the only compute module that uses the Intel Atom C2000 System on a Chip processor with up to eight cores. Each module supports four processors and each processor supports two DIMM modules, UDIMM only, for 8 DIMMS per sled. Each processor also supports one 2.5-inch HD or two 1.8-inch SSDs. No PCI slots are available and communications are handled by the pass through, with 2 per processor for 8 total that are capable of 1Gb through the FX2 chassis. Only software RAID is supported. This system is a lower cost alternative to the FX2s and is ideal for static web hosting and light-weight processing. The FM120x4 compute module is not compatible with the FD332 storage module.

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