Dell recently released their 13th generation of its PowerEdge server range, PowerEdge FX architecture. PowerEdge FX enables you to scale your data center resources incrementally, as required to meet workload demands. Its modular architecture is scalable, to fit any IT environment and support legacy or modern IT infrastructure on a single platform. IT building blocks can be added and swapped including servers, DAS storage and IO modules with various processors, memory sizes and storage characteristics. This results in a flexible and agile data centre environment.
The FX2’s flexible design allows FX servers to efficiently handle a variety of storage traffic including: SAN, DAS and NAS. In addition you can choose to Manage FX servers individually with traditional rack servers to integrate easily into server-level processes. Or you may choose to manage FX servers collectively using the Dell Chassis Management Controller.
In addition, operations and productivity can be improved by automating server lifecycle management tasks, with the agent-free Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller which is added to every server node.
FX2 Model comparision:
FM120x4 | FC630 | |
Processor | 4 x Intel Atom processor C2000 product family | Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v3 product family |
Processor sockets: 2 | ||
Cache: 2.5MB per core; core options: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18 | ||
Operating System | Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 SP1, (includes Hyper-V®), Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (includes Hyper-V), Novell® SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux | Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 SP1, (includes Hyper-V®), Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (includes Hyper-V), Novell® SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® |
Chipset | SoC | Intel C610 series |
Memory | 2 x DIMMs DDR3 memory per SOC, UDIMM only, 8 per sled | Up to 768GB (24 DIMM slots): 4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB DDR4 up to 2133MT/s |
Hypervisor Support | Citrix® XenServer, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization | Citrix® XenServer®, VMware vSphere® ESXi™ |
Storage | 1 x 2.5″ SATA HD/SSD or 2 x 1.8″ uSATA SSD per Intel Atom processor | Hot-plug hard drive options: |
PowerEdge Express Flash NVMe PCIe SSD, SATA HDD/SSD or SAS HDD/SSD | ||
Up to 8 x 1.8” SSD or 2 x 2.5” | ||
Slots | N/A | Access to 2 x PCIe 3.0 (x8) expansion slots |
RAID Controllers | SW RAID | PERC S130 (SW RAID), PERC H330, PERC H730, PERC H730P |
Communications | 2 x 1Gb Ethernet ports per server, via 1Gb pass-through module only. | Blade NDC: 2 x 10GbE, 4 x 10GbE, 4 x 1GbE NDC Mezzanine cards supported in FX2s chassis configuration: Broadcom 4 x 1GbE, Intel 4 x 1GbE, Mellanox ConnectX-3 2 x 10GbE, Emulex 2 x 10GbE, Broadcom 2 x 10GbE, Intel 2 x 10GbE, Mellanox ConnectX-3 IB 2 x FDR1, Mellanox ConnectX-3 IB 2 x FDR10, Qlogic FC8, Emulex FC8 |
No PCIe card support. | ||
No FN IOA Aggregator support. | ||
Power | 1100W power supply via FX2 chassis | Chassis level – PowerEdge FX2 hot-plug PSUs: 1600W in 1+1 redundant or 2+0 non-redundant configurations |
Chassis | Half-width – supports up to four (4) sleds per PowerEdge FX2 enclosure | Form factor: Half-width – supports up to 4 sleds per PowerEdge FX2 enclosure |
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