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Spotlight - The New Dell PowerEdge VRTX
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Spotlight - The New Dell PowerEdge VRTX

earlearl Member
edited October 2013 in General

Saw this on Dells website a couple of weeks back.. been drooling over it, can't wait till they are available as off lease..

Anyone have one of these in the office yet?


http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/poweredge-vrtx/pd

`
Drive Bays

Up to 12 x 3.5in NLSAS, SAS, or SAS SSD hot-plug drives or
Up to 25 x 2.5in NLSAS, SAS, or SAS SSD hot-plug drives

Integrated Ethernet Switch

1GbE internal switch module (standard) with 16 internal 1GbE ports and 8 external portsEthernet pass-through module with 8 external ports (optional)

RAID Controllers

Shared PERC 8
PERC H810

I/O Expansion Slots

8 flexible PCIe slots:
    3 full-height/full-length slots (150W) with double-wide card support (225W)
    5 low-profile/half-length slots (25W)

Power

Redundant power supply units:

100V-240V auto-sensing redundant power supplies support 2+2 (AC redundancy), and 3+1, 2+1, and 1+1 (power supply redundancy) modes

Cooling

VRTX comes standard with six hot-pluggable, redundant fan modules and four blower modules:

Based on Dell Energy Smart Technologies, VRTX fans and blowers are a breakthrough in power and cooling efficiency. Fans and blowers deliver low-power consumption and use next-generation fan technologies to ensure the lowest possible amount of fresh air is consumed to cool the enclosure.

Chassis

Form factors:

Tower or 5U rack enclosure

Tower configuration:
48.4cm (19.1in) H with system feet x 31.0cm (12.2in) W with system feet opened x 73.0cm (28.7in) D
Weight (empty) = 31.7kg (69.7lb)
Weight (maximum) = 74.8kg (164.9lb)

Rack configuration:
21.9cm (8.6in) H x 48.2cm (19.0in) W x 73.0cm (28.7in) D
Weight (empty) = 24.7kg (54.5lb)
Weight (maximum) = 68.7kg (151.5lb)

Server node options

Dell PowerEdge M620 and M520 servers`

Thanked by 1forthcloud

Comments

  • Getting one of these for our colo at work... Prices?!

  • @BradND said:
    Getting one of these for our colo at work... Prices?!

    From what I read it's $10k to $30k depending on the configuration.. 2 servers with 2-4 TB of storage may go for around $10k

  • Looks like a great piece of kit for a small office to run virtualisation, plenty of space for expansion.

  • That would make a beauty or a workhorse!

  • earlearl Member
    edited October 2013

    @mikeg said:
    Looks like a great piece of kit for a small office to run virtualisation, plenty of space for expansion.

    Yup! the great thing about it is, you can plug it in a regular wall outlet and does not need the 220V like the other blades require..

    And suppose to have minimal noise.. cause it was meant to be run in a office environment..

  • @NickGH said:
    That would make a beauty or a workhorse!

    Sexy looking thing!! lol, especially when equipped with 2.5" drives

  • The Dell representative is trying to sell us some VRTXs since the market presentation last july. IBM is selling a similar concept, with higher price tag.
    I don't see a lot of value on this type of small business/branch office server chassis:

    • First of all, a traditional rack solution is cheaper, unless you plan to repurpose some otherwise unused blades that you may already have.

    • The server closet is still needed, because the VRTX is noisy (slightly less than a blade chassis), you don't want sensitive equipment on a open floor, and you need some control on the ambient temperature.

    • Do you really want to power the main office server from a regolar electrical outlet, the one that is shared with unknown assorted office equipments? You still need a dedicated power line and a UPS system, so no savings.

    On the plus side, setup time is certainly shorter than a rack solution (great if you need to move around things at short notice), and the all-in-one concept does simplify the budgeting/purchase process.

  • earlearl Member
    edited October 2013

    @pcan said:
    First of all, a traditional rack solution is cheaper, unless you plan to repurpose some otherwise unused blades that you may already have.

    if what I'm reading is correct $10K for such a system is quite reasonable, considering you can have 25 x 2.5" or 12 x 3.5" drives on board..

    • The server closet is still needed, because the VRTX is noisy (slightly less than a blade chassis), you don't want sensitive equipment on a open floor, and you need some control on the ambient temperature.

    While I can't really comment much since I don't own one.. but the Dell video seems to suggest otherwise, it was meant to be use in an office environment, so low noise and low heat and this video seems to suggest the claims are true..

    • Do you really want to power the main office server from a regolar electrical outlet, the one that is shared with unknown assorted office equipments? You still need a dedicated power line and a UPS system, so no savings.

    Well I would imagine you need a UPS regardless, but considering that this is catered towards small office, I would think if there was no power in the building then I don't see why you would need the server as all the computers in the building would be powered off anyhow? so a small UPS that will allow for a graceful shutdown of the server would probably be enough..

    Also don't office towers have generators installed? incase of a blackout at least the elevators etc will still run, maybe you could tap into one those outlets..

  • earl said: Also don't office towers have generators installed? incase of a blackout at least the elevators etc will still run, maybe you could tap into one those outlets..

    Not usually, well a lot of the ones I have seen anyway. There are many that refuse to put an extra dime into the infrastructure... there are a ton who simply think they are not needed. Narrow minded world we live in...

  • @NickGH said:
    Not usually, well a lot of the ones I have seen anyway. There are many that refuse to put an extra dime into the infrastructure... there are a ton who simply think they are not needed. Narrow minded world we live in...

    Well I don't mean lowrise offices, but I would think that highrise buildings would have generators built in.. while I doubt that the generator would power the whole building, but should provide for essential services, like ventilation elevators etc..

  • It is quiet when load is low. When idling, you can safely place even some modern 2U rack server in a office environement. At higher load and with a meaningful configuration, the VRTX still have 6+4 fans, a couple of E5 processors to cool, and many high performance drives. I haven't experienced a fully loaded VTRX in action, but seems to be hardly the silent machine that Dell tries to sell. The idle and sparingly populated demo unit placed in a 22 C room I saw was very quiet, as you hear in the video. Don't know how the noise will be with 4 dual socket nodes and more than 5 drives, under load and in summer at 30 C. I concede that will be lower than a couple of traditional servers on same conditions.

    The elevator auxiliary power is off-limits, don't even think of tapping on that line. A UPS with enough supply to gracefully shutdown a reasonable number of big Windows VMs (terminal servers, domain controller etc) is about the same size of the VRTX itself and needs a dedicated line, because it will trip a standard office sourge protector.

    The VRTX technology is cool and will fit many needs: this is obvious. But, on a business perspective, it is not the universal solution that Dell tries to sell. At the prices I know, it is not my main choice when cost is a factor. Compare the VRTX price to two R420 plus a md3220i (real prices, not the list prices on Dell web site).

    VRTX may eventually be cheap on extremely low configurations. Dell marketing strategy is to sell the barebone at low price, and options at higher margin. I guess that the RAID Bios is locked to Dell disks only.

  • earlearl Member
    edited October 2013

    @pcan said:
    It is quiet when load is low. When idling, you can safely place even some modern 2U rack server in a office environement. At higher load and with a meaningful configuration, the VRTX still have 6+4 fans, a couple of E5 processors to cool, and many high performance drives. I haven't experienced a fully loaded VTRX in action, but seems to be hardly the silent machine that Dell tries to sell. The idle and sparingly populated demo unit placed in a 22 C room I saw was very quiet, as you hear in the video. Don't know how the noise will be with 4 dual socket nodes and more than 5 drives, under load and in summer at 30 C. I concede that will be lower than a couple of traditional servers on same conditions.

    >

    Yeah I can't really comment more since I don't have one.. and is reasonably new so not too many reviews..

    The elevator auxiliary power is off-limits, don't even think of tapping on that line. A UPS with enough supply to gracefully shutdown a reasonable number of big Windows VMs (terminal servers, domain controller etc) is about the same size of the VRTX itself and needs a dedicated line, because it will trip a standard office sourge protector.

    I don't mean to tap into it directly, I was saying that the infrastructure is in place, I'm sure they can come to a solution..

    also you need a UPS regardless of what system you get, so this really negates on why you should not buy one, I was looking on the wiki it seems that there are four 1100 watt power supplies in the VRTX so maybe getting 4 of something like this would suffice? looks cheap at $240/pc

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842106116&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction

    The VRTX technology is cool and will fit many needs: this is obvious. But, on a business perspective, it is not the universal solution that Dell tries to sell. At the prices I know, it is not my main choice when cost is a factor. Compare the VRTX price to two R420 plus a md3220i (real prices, not the list prices on Dell web site).

    Well yes I agree I don't believe this is the solution for everyone, but they seem to be targeting the small retail or insurance broker, dentist.. maybe suitable for them..

  • Four cheap individual UPSs are a bit of maintenance nigtmare (and not really power efficient). I would use something like this: http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SURT8000XLI
    It also has a secondary power output with independent breaker, useful for network gears.

    small retail or insurance broker, dentist..

    According to my experience, they don't want to pay the hefty surcharge and management complexity of a HA solution. A single server is more common here. VRTX has bigger targets.

  • earl said: Well I don't mean lowrise offices, but I would think that highrise buildings would have generators built in.. while I doubt that the generator would power the whole building, but should provide for essential services, like ventilation elevators etc..

    True True.

    Thanked by 1earl
  • GaNiGaNi Member
    edited October 2013

    @NickGH off-topic,

    how come is your site using the same template as(or vice-versa) http://ixam-hosting.com/index.php

  • NickGHNickGH Member
    edited October 2013

    @GaNi said:
    NickGH off-topic,

    how come is your site using the same template as(or vice-versa) http://ixam-hosting.com/index.php

    To be honest they probably bought the same template We did, It is in the works for a more customized one. We bought this one in the beginning (we have been hosting VPS's for less than a year) to get started knowing we would have someone create a custom one around the 12-15 month mark. New logo's are mostly done and the template is next.

  • I have a Dell Poweredge VRTX with three M620 blades.

    I'm taking offers.

    Please email me for exact specifications
    [email protected]

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