Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 Server

Description

The modular design of the Dell EMC PowerEdge FX2 chassis enables you to scale infrastructure at will with additional compute, memory, or storage—it's like a mini blade enclosure. Power, cooling, network communications, and management are handled by the FX2 chassis. The FX2 chassis is also backwards compatible and can support the previous generation server sleds like the FC630 server node running Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors. Up to four Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 server nodes are supported in a single 2U FX2 chassis. It can be used in combination with other compatible server nodes like the FC440, FC630, FC830 or the FD332 Storage modules, each of which can support a different workload. Server sled configurations include quarter-width, half-width, and full-width compute sleds and the half-width, half-height storage module.

Performance

Performance on this system is substantial. It supports one or two first or second-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, including processors with up to 28 cores. The Xeon Scalable processors support six memory channels each, for improved throughput over the previous generation FC630 server sled, which supported dual Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors with a maximum of 22 cores, and only 4 memory channels.

Memory

There are 16 memory module slots on the system board with each processor supporting eight memory modules. Both registered (RDIMM) and load-reduced (LRDIMM) memory modules are supported on the Dell FC640 server, with RDIMMs providing the highest capacity at 2TB using 128GB memory modules in all 16 slots. The previous generation FC630 server sled has a total of 24 memory slots but with E5-2600 v4 memory modules it on supports four memory channels with three modules per channel, and a maximum capacity of 1.5TB. This system will also support the Apache Pass (AEP) Optane memory modules. Outfitted with four FC640 server nodes, the Dell FX2 chassis will support a maximum of 8TB in a 2U chassis.

Storage

A maximum of 12.8TB of storage is supported on the system when outfitted a maximum of two PCIe SSDs. Also supported are SAS and SATA hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD). NVMe drives are also supported but require an optional Universal Backplane. An internal dual SD module is perfect for hosting your OS or hypervisor in a RAID using mirror mode. Additional storage for the FX2 enclosure is provided by the PowerEdge FD332 storage module supporting up to 16x 2.5-inch drives per chassis. Up to three FD332 storage modules can be combined in a Dell FX2 chassis with a single Dell FC640 server node.

Expansion

There are two FX2 chassis to choose from one of which offers up to eight PCIe 3.0 expansion slots to support a variety of external hardware, including HD controllers for attached storage and faster network interface cards (NICs). Network communications are handled by the FX2 enclosure with a choice of two pass-through modules or a choice of three FN I/O modules that provide up to two to four ports and connection speeds of SFP+ 10GbE.

Management

Dell's Chassis Management Controller, or CMC, is supported on the FX2 chassis, which communicates with the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 8.0 on the Dell EMC FC640 server node. iDRAC Essentials 8.0 with Lifecycle controller comes standard on the system but can also be upgraded to support additional functionality with an Express or Enterprise license. The CMC manages all resources including server nodes, storage, networking, and power.

Summary

Designed for use in Dell's FX2 2U enclosure, the Dell EMC PowerEdge FC640 server module provides dual Intel Xeon Scalable processor supporting significantly improved performance, and up to 2TB of memory. You can install up to four of these compute sleds in the FX2 chassis to support up to eight processors, 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.

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.