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Dell PowerEdge M420 Technical Manual
Dell PowerEdge M420 Technical Manual

Dell PowerEdge M420 Technical Manual

Technical 2-socket, quarter-height blade server
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Summary of Contents for Dell PowerEdge M420

  • Page 2 Dell, the DELL logo, PowerEdge, EqualLogic, PowerVault, PowerConnect, OpenManage, and KACE are trademarks of Dell, Inc. Intel, Xeon, and Speed Step are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, SQL Server, BitLocker, ActiveX, Internet Explorer, and Hyper-V are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Thermal and acoustics..............................28 9 Operating systems and virtualization ........................... 30 Supported operating systems ............................30 Supported virtualization ..............................31 10 Dell OpenManage systems management ........................32 Systems management solutions ........................... 32 OpenManage systems management ........................... 33 Dell server management operations ..........................37 Appendix A.
  • Page 4 Table 1. New technologies ..............................6 Table 2. Comparison of PowerEdge M420, M520, and M620 ..................7 Table 3. Technical specifications ............................8 Table 4. Module features ..............................14 Table 5. Supported processors ............................17 Table 6. Memory technologies supported ........................18 Table 7.
  • Page 5 Enjoy remarkable computational density with the Dell™ PowerEdge™ M420 that can deploy up to 32 server nodes in just 10U of rack space. Scaling up to 16 processor cores and 192GB of RAM, each M420 couples processing power and memory capacity with tremendous I/O throughput, with up to two ports of 10Gb Ethernet available in an exceptionally compact, individually serviceable form factor.
  • Page 6: New Technologies

    A number of new technologies are featured on the PowerEdge M420 system, as shown in Table 1. New technologies Detailed descriptions ® This new family of Intel processors has embedded PCI Express (PCIe) lanes for ® ® Intel Xeon processor improved I/O performance and additional new features.
  • Page 7 Compared to the previous generation of Dell PowerEdge blade servers, the M420 has similar memory scalability, as well as more processor cores in a much denser form factor than ever before. Features include DDR3 memory, PCIe 3.0, dual internal SD module, and Dell’s next-generation iDRAC solution known as iDRAC7 Enterprise with Lifecycle Controller.
  • Page 8 Lifecycle Controller with Lifecycle Controller (standard option) (standard option) (standard option) Table 3 lists the technical specifications for the PowerEdge M420 blade server. For the latest information on supported features, visit Dell.com. Feature Technical specification Form factor; Quarter-height blade;...
  • Page 9 Enclosure) Systems Management  OpenManage Integrations and Connections: (Agent-free or with ® OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center OpenManage Server Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter™ Administrator [OMSA] ® ® ® ® Connections for HP Operations Manager, IBM Tivoli...
  • Page 10 Embedded hypervisor Or one SD card dedicated for vFlash media support For more information about the Dell blade solution, see the PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide or the M1000e Blade Chassis Specification Sheet on Dell.com. GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating...
  • Page 11 The M1000e chassis can contain a maximum of 32 blades with eight sleeves. It can be mixed with other existing Dell blades of half- height or full-height form factors and designed to mix with possible future half-height-double-wide and full-height-double-wide blades.
  • Page 12 The M420 is optimized for a densely populated chassis with effective and efficient cooling. Figure 2 shows one of eight sleeves containing four stackable blades in a fully loaded M1000e enclosure. PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 13 32 M420 modules. The M420 module shown in Figure 4 supports up to six DIMMS, two processors, and many other features that are described in this guide. Dell M420 Systems Owner’s Manual For additional system views, see the Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
  • Page 14 Quick Resource Locator (QRL)—a model-specific Quick Response (QR) code (shown in Figure 5) that is located on the server. Just use your smartphone to access the Dell QRL application to learn more about the server. PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 15  Contact Dell directly (by link) to get in touch with technical support and sales teams and provide feedback to Dell These codes provide an easy way to retrieve the critical support information you need when you need it, making you more efficient and effective in managing your hardware.
  • Page 16: System Features

    The Dell PowerEdge M420 system features the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family, offering an ideal combination of performance, power efficiency, and cost, featuring eight-core processing to maximize performance and performance/watt for datacenter infrastructures and highly dense deployments. These processors provide high performance no matter what your constraint is—floor space, power, or budget—and on workloads that range from the most...
  • Page 17 E5-2403 1.8GHz 6.4 GT/s Dell PowerEdge M420 Systems For information on processor installation and configuration, see the Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals. The Intel C600 chipset is implemented on the PowerEdge M420. For more information, visit Intel.com. PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 18 High memory density means there is no compromise when it comes to virtualization. Increase your uptime and reduce data loss due to Dell’s focus on reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features. RAS aids in the rapid and accurate diagnosis of faults that require service, increasing your memory reliability.
  • Page 19 DIMM voltage and speed. The operating speed of the memory is also determined by the maximum speed supported by the processor, the speed settings in the BIOS, and the operating voltage of the system. PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 20: Memory Ras Features

    ∞ *Although the M420 supports DIMM speeds of 800MT/s and 1066MT/s, you can only purchase this system with DIMM speeds of 1333MT/s and 1600MT/s on Dell.com. Reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features help keep the system online and operational without significant impact to performance, and can decrease data loss and crashing due to errors.
  • Page 21 SSD (3GB) 50GB, 200GB Dell provides highly capable RAID options for you to ensure that your data remains safe. Dell’s RAID controller options offer impressive performance improvements. The internal RAID controllers have a dedicated connection to the system board.
  • Page 22  RAID 0  RAID 1  Microsoft Windows support  Linux support  Virtualization support  Embedded on system board  PCIe 3.0  Local support for self-encrypting disk (SED)  UEFI browser   PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 23 The Dell PowerEdge M420 offers balanced, scalable I/O capabilities, including one integrated PCIe 3.0 capable mezzanine card slot. With M420, the job of deploying, updating, and monitoring is fast and easy. System management integration features include the following: Pre-boot: Use the Dell Lifecycle Controller graphical user interface (GUI) to set configuration ...
  • Page 24 QLogic QME2662 2P 16Gb Emulex LPm16002B-D 2P 16Gb For the latest information on supported mezzanine cards for the M420, visit Dell.com. The full-height, single wide M420 sleeve holds up to four M420 blades in four slots: a, b, c, and d.
  • Page 25 Examples of fabric interconnectivity and their associated parameters are illustrated in Figure 7. PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 26 PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 27 Table 14 lists the tools and technologies Dell offers to help you achieve your data center goals by lowering power consumption and increasing energy efficiency.
  • Page 28 Thermal control of fan speed optimizes the thermal settings for your environment to reduce fan consumption and lower system power consumption. Idle power enables Dell servers to run as efficiently when idle as when at full workload. With the thermal design and reliability of Dell products, you can have the capability to operate at excursion-based temperatures.
  • Page 29: Specifications

    30°C ambient, performance impacts may be seen. For more information see Dell PowerEdge M420 Systems Owner's Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals. The acoustical performance of the PowerEdge M420 is reflected in Table 15. Four sleeves, each containing four typically configured M420 blades, were installed in the M1000e host chassis;...
  • Page 30 The Dell PowerEdge M420 supports a wide range of industry-standard operating systems and virtualization software. Table 16 lists the operating systems supported on the M420. For the latest information on supported operating systems, see Dell.com/OSsupport. Operating System Platform Edition Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3...
  • Page 31 Enterprise Virtualization v3.1 FI = factory install; DIB = drop-in-box v4.1 U3 image is available from support.dell.com, either as an upgrade to v4.1 U2 or for a clean install No OpenManage support; drop-in-box license registration card only PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 32 Dell systems management solutions include a wide variety of tools, products, and services that enable you to leverage an existing systems management framework. As shown in Figure 8, Dell systems management solutions are centered around OpenManage server management, featuring iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller.
  • Page 33 OpenManage simplifies the lifecycle of deploying, updating, monitoring, and maintaining your Dell PowerEdge servers. The Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller is the heart of the generation of Dell PowerEdge server embedded management functionality. In addition to enabling agent-free management, iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller provides remote access to the system—whether or not there is a functioning operating system running on the server.
  • Page 34 Enterprise is available for the PowerEdge M420, and Dell also offers an option of iDRAC7 Express for Blades. A detailed feature comparison for iDRAC7 Enterprise and iDRAC7 Express for Blades is shown in Table 20. iDRAC7 iDRAC7 Feature (function)
  • Page 35 Dell blade chassis. The CMC is a hot-pluggable module inserted in the back of a Dell blade chassis. It provides a secure interface that enables an administrator to inventory, perform configuration and monitoring tasks, remote power on/off blades, and enable alerts for events on servers and components in the blade chassis.
  • Page 36  Dell Update Packages—The Dell Update Packages (DUP) is a self-contained executable in a standard package format that updates a software element on a Dell server such as the BIOS, a driver, firmware and other software updates. ...
  • Page 37  BMC Software—Dell and BMC Software work together to simplify IT by ensuring tight integration between Dell server, storage, and network management functionality and the BMC Software process and data center automation products.
  • Page 38 Services Manager  BMC BladeLogic integration with Lifecycle Controller    iDRAC7 with LifeCycle Dell OpenManage Essentials Dell Update Catalogs for Microsoft Controller  System Center Configuration Dell OpenManage ITA  Manager  Lifecycle Controller GUI Dell Management Console ...
  • Page 39 Machine Manager (SCVMM) Maintain Replace parts:  Dell Lifecycle Controller Integration (DLCI) for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager  Dell Systems For additional detailed information on Dell’s systems management portfolio, see the Management Overview Guide on Support.Dell.com/Manuals. PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 40 501.5mm 564.9mm The weight of a maximum-configured M420 blade server is 12.0 kg (26.5 lb). The Dell PowerEdge M420 iDRAC7 incorporates an integrated video subsystem. The graphics ® controller is the 2D Matrox G200. The video frame buffer (16MB) is contained within the iDRAC7 RAM (256MB) device.
  • Page 41: Processors

    For additional information about environmental measurements for specific system configurations, see Dell.com/environmental_datasheets. Table 23 details the environmental specifications for the M420. Fresh Air: temperature, humidity, altitude de-rating Continuous 10°C to 35°C (50°F to 95°F) at 10% to 80% relative humidity with 26°C (78.8°F) maximum operation dew point (maximum wet bulb temperature).
  • Page 42 –15.2m to 3048m (–50 ft to 10,000 ft) Storage –15.2m to 12,000m (–50 ft to 39,370 ft) Airborne contaminant level Class G1 or lower as defined by ISA-S71.04-1985 USB peripherals are supported through the front USB ports, which are USB 2.0 compliant. PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 43: Chipset

    System Management BIOS Reference www.dmtf.org/standards/smbios/ Specification, v2.7 www.trustedcomputinggroup.org Trusted Platform Module Specification, v1.2 UEFI www.uefi.org/specs Unified Extensible Firmware Interface Specification, v2.1 www.usb.org/developers/docs Universal Serial Bus Specification, Rev. 2.0 Windows Logo www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/hwrequirements.mspx Windows Logo Program System and Device Requirements, v3.10 PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...
  • Page 44 Table 25 provides a list of documents and websites that provide for more information on the Dell PowerEdge M420. Resource Description of contents Location PowerEdge M420 This manual is provided in HTML format on the CD Support.Dell.com/Manuals Systems Owner’s provided with the M420 system, and also in HTML and Manual PDF format at the Dell support site.
  • Page 45: Storage

    Dell.com/EnergySmart Data Center system efficiency Assessment Energy Smart The Dell online advisor console enables easier and more Dell.com/ESSA Solution Advisor meaningful estimates to help you determine the most (ESSA) efficient configuration possible. Use ESSA to calculate the power consumption of your hardware, power infrastructure, and storage.
  • Page 46 PowerEdge M420 Technical Guide...