Tag Archives: CMC

A Closer Look at the Dell FD332 for FX Architecture

[updated 4.13.15 Today Dell officially started shipping the FC430 and the FD332 Storage blocks for the Dell FX Architecture.  The FC430 is a slick, server offering for many workloads, but many questions pop up around what the FD332 is and how it can be used, so in today’s post I’m hoping to clarify it for you.

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A First Look at Dell’s FX Architecture

Today Dell announced a new server architecture that combines characteristics of both rack servers and blade servers into a new architecture, known as PowerEdge FX.  Today I’ll give you a first look into the platform.  First off – according to Dell’s Product Development team, this platform was not designed to replace Dell’s blade server portfolio.  Instead it was created to help bridge the gap between blade servers and rack servers.  As you look at this new infrastructure, you may ask is it really a “blade server?”  I’ve always claimed if it shared power, cooling and networking, it’s a “blade server” however I’ll let you form your own opinion. Continue reading

Industry’s First Ever See Through Blade Chassis

Are you one one of those people who feel that blade servers are too complex?  Do you have problems understanding what’s going on inside of a blade chassis?  If you said yes to either of the above questions, then you’ll want to check this blade chassis out.


One of my peers at Dell, Max Abelardo, recently created a sturdy plexiglass mock up of the Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade chassis to help demonstrate the simplicity of Dell’s blade solution.  According to Max, he started pondering the idea with a buddy who is a wood worker and 3.5 weeks later it was done.  Yes, this is a working mockup but probably not ideal for a datacenter.  Don’t go to your nearest Dell Solutions Center looking for one of these, because you won’t find it.  Max only made one and he uses it for his customers.  For more details on how this was made, I encourage you to reach out to Max on Twitter at @mabelard.

Enjoy.

Clear-M1000e_front

Clear M1000e - rear

Clear M1000e - Early Build

Clear M1000e - Early Build (rear)

Clear M1000e - Side

Clear M1000e - CMC

Clear M1000e - midplane

Clear M1000e - midplane2

Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com.  He has over 15 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace.  Since 1997 Kevin has worked at several resellers in the Atlanta area, and has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware and Citrix virtualization.  Kevin works for Dell as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market.

Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are personal views and may or may not reflect any of the contributors’ employer’s positions. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any employer.

A Detailed Look at Dell PowerEdge VRTX

PowerEdge VRTX - Front View with 2.5 DrivesWhat happens when you merge rack servers with blade servers? You get the newly announced Dell PowerEdge VRTX. Three years in the making, the Dell PowerEdge VRTX (pronounced “ver-tex”) is advertised as a revolutionary, easy-to-manage office-optimized data center that converges servers, storage and networking into a compact package. In the following post, I’ll give you a deep-dive look into the Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution.

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An Introduction to Dell PowerEdge VRTX

An Introduction to Dell PowerEdge VRTX

Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com.  He has over 15 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace.  Since 1997 Kevin has worked at several resellers in the Atlanta area, and has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware and Citrix virtualization.  Kevin works for Dell as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market.

Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are personal views and may or may not reflect any of the contributors’ employer’s positions. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any employer.

Dell Adds Multi Blade Chassis Management, But Wait – There's More

Dell recently notified me the latest version – ver 3.1 – of the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) added multi-chassis management capability.  In other words, you can have one IP address to manage multiple chassis.  Now you may ask, so what?  Other vendors have had this feature already, so what’s the big deal.  Here’s what’s big about this announcement: Continue reading

The Best Blade Server Option Is…[Part 2 – A Look at Dell]

Updated 11/4/2010 at 3:51 p.m. Eastern
-added links to Remote Console sessions on 11G blade servers
 
One of the questions I get the most is, “which blade server option is best for me?” My honest answer is always, “it depends.” The reality is that the best blade infrastructure for YOU is really going to depend on what is important to you. Based on this, I figured it would be a good exercise to do a high level comparison of the blade chassis offerings from Cisco, Dell, HP and IBM. If you ready through my past blog posts, you’ll see that my goal is to be as unbiased as possible when it comes to talking about blade servers. I’m going to attempt to be “vendor neutral” with this post as well, but I welcome your comments, thoughts and criticisms.   In today’s post, I’ll cover Part 2 of the series where I dig into Dell’s offering – so get a cup of java, sit back and enjoy the read. Continue reading