Principled Technologies released a report earlier this month that compared certain administrative tasks between a Cisco UCS blade server solution and a Dell EMC PowerEdge MX solution and the results were quite surprising.
Principled Technologies tested the two modular platforms’ manageability using 4 different tasks:
- deploying a server
- provisioning assignable storage
- updating firmware
- implementing VMware vSAN
The report tested a Dell EMC PowerEdge MX7000 chassis plus a PowerEdge MX740c compute sled with a Cisco UCS 5108 chassis along with Cisco UCS B200 M4 and M5 servers.
Admin time (minutes: seconds) | Number of Steps Required | |||
Task Tested | Dell EMC PowerEdge MX | Cisco UCS | Dell EMC PowerEdge MX | Cisco UCS |
Deploying a server node (first single instance) |
02:18 | 04:12 | 12 | 17 |
Deploying a server node (subsequent single instance) |
00:43 | 03:04 | 9 | 10 |
Deploying a server node (subsequent multiple instances (x3)) |
00:48 | 09:12 | 9 | 30 |
Provisioning assignable storage |
01:37 | N/A – did not provide in-chassis storage |
5 | N/A |
Updating firmware (first single instance) |
01:42 | 06:32 | 10 | 29 |
Updating firmware (subsequent single instance) |
01:28 | 00:18 | 6 | 6 |
Updating firmware (subsequent multiple instances (x3)) |
01:30 | 00:54 | 6 | 18 |
Implementing VMware vSAN™ |
06:46 | 51:15 | 36 | 96 |
It is important to note that this project was commissioned by Dell EMC. To read the full report, including the complete list of hardware used and the specific steps taken for each task, please view the full report at https://www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/PowerEdge-MX-management-0119.pdf
Kevin Houston is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of BladesMadeSimple.com. He has over 20 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 has worked at Dell EMC since August 2011 as a Server Sales Engineer covering the Global Enterprise market from 2011 to 2017 and currently works as a Chief Technical Server Architect supporting the Central Enterprise Region.
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