External Storage - Dell PowerEdge R820 Technical Manual

Express Flash drives use PCIe and SSD technologies to provide performance, scalability, and optimal
serviceability. Accelerated performance with high IOPs is made possible without requiring processor
resources or capturing DRAM. Also, Express Flash drives use a standardized 2.5-inch hot-plug form
factor that saves critical PCIe slot space by moving drives from the back to the front of the system
and allows a common management process for all drives.
The PowerEdge R820 has an option to support up to four 2.5-inch, hot-plug Express Flash drives
with capacities of 175GB or 350GB.
External storage for the R820 is available through optional HBAs for SAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel.
For more information, see Dell.com/Storage.
Dell provides highly capable RAID options for you to ensure that your data remains safe. Dell's RAID
controller options offer impressive performance improvements, including the following features:

FastPath™ I/O: This feature can help accelerate performance when operating on SSDs.

Split mirror: This function allows you to break mirrored disk connection in order to quickly
replace a drive.

Physical disk power management (Dimmer Switch™): This feature allows for power control of
spare or idle drives, which can save energy and operating expenses.
The newest line of PERC (PowerEdge RAID Controller) cards offer high I/O performance for
database applications and streaming digital media environments. The internal RAID controllers have
a dedicated connection to the motherboard. The R820 supports the new PERC 8 family of
controllers with improved functionality and faster performance.
The default PERC for the R820 is a mini-type PERC. However, for a system with an internal GPU
card or a card between half-length and ¾-length, use the adapter-type PERC. The R820 also
supports the new software RAID solution that supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. The R820 supports the
PERC cards listed in Table 13. For more information about the latest PERC offerings, see
Dell.com/PERC.
Controller Description
PERC H810 Eight-port, external and
External 6Gp/s PCIe RAID controller
22 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Features
Includes 1GB NV DDR3
cache, premium
performance and feature
set, security SED/EKMS,
and SSD as cache
RAID
modes Form factor
supported
0, 1, 10, 5,
Adapter
50, 6, 60
Usage
model
Premium
performance