Dell FX2 Part 2: Compute
/Following from part 1 this post will take a closer look at the compute options available with the FX2. Due to its modular design the FX2 provides several different configuration options allowing it to cater for many different workloads. The graphic below show the four compute options available today.
Below are the hardware configurations available with each block.
| FM120x4 | FC430 | FC630 | FC830 | |
| Half width block | Quarter width block | Half width block | Full width block | |
| Each node contains 4 Micro Servers | Dual socket Intel E5-2600v3 processors (up to 14 cores) | Dual socket intel E5-2600v3 processors (up to 18 cores) | Quad socket Intel E5-2600v3 processors (up to 18 cores) | |
| AMD C2000 processor with 2/4/8 core options | 8 DIMM slots (up to 256 RAM using 32GB DIMMS) | 24 DIMM slots (up to 1.5TB RAM using 64GB DIMMS) | ||
| 2 DIMMS of memory per server | Dual SD cards | Dual SD cards | 48 DIMM slots (up to 3TB RAM using 64GB DIMMS) | |
| 2 x 1.8” SATA SSD | Up to 2 x 2.5" HDD/SSD or 8x1.8"SSD | Dual SD cards | Up to 8 x 2.5" HDD/SSD or 16 x 1.8" SSD |
The loan unit we have in our demo lab contains four FC430 compute blocks and each one has 128GB RAM with dual E5-2630 v3 processors. Management of the blocks is done using the CMC (Chassis Management Controller) and anyone familiar with iDRAC will recognise the layout. From here you have the ability to launch the remote console or local iDRAC GUI.
Under the chassis overview tab there is a friendly graphical interface showing the configuration of the chassis. Rolling your mouse over each component will reveal useful information about that component such as the power state and health status.
For easy deployments the FX2 allows to create and manage server profiles. These are managed from the “Server Overview” tab in the CMC. Profiles can be created for QuickDeploy to allow additional compute blocks to be deployed quickly and efficiently.
Server profiles also allows us to monitor configuration drift and ensure all settings are consistent across all blocks. One example being BIOS settings.
To sum up it’s fair to say the FX2 can be designed to run a variety of workloads and there is a large choice of hardware configurations to suit many different requirements.
The next part in this series will look at what storage options are available with the FX2.
Read the other atricles in the series:
