System Overview; Introduction - Dell PowerEdge R820 Technical Manual

1 System overview

Introduction

Designed to excel at running a wide range of applications and virtualization environments for both
midsize and large enterprises, the Dell™ PowerEdge™ R820 rack server is a compute-intensive
performance platform with highly scalable memory (up to 1.5TB) and impressive I/O capabilities to
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match. With four Intel Xeon E5-4600 processors and the ability to support dual RAID controllers,
the R820 can readily handle very demanding, mission-critical workloads, like data warehousing,
e-commerce, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), databases and data node high-performance
computing (HPC).
Manage data overload
Keep pace with the explosion of data in the virtual age with the flexible, powerful I/O and storage
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capabilities of the R820. Up to 16 internal hard drives and integrated PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 enabled
expansion slots greatly increase your capacity, while optional hot-plug, front-access Express Flash
PCIe solid-state drives (SSD) (up to four) enable performance-enhancing, in-box storage tiering.
Moreover, Dell Select Network Adapters, our flexible NIC technology, let you choose the right
network fabric to match your needs without using up a valuable PCIe slot.
Accelerate the solution
Boost the performance of your HPC or 2D VDI environment by combining the PowerEdge R820's
memory density with an optional graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerator. Choose from a range
of GPU options for greater assisted performance.
Virtualize more with the R820
Maximize your data center's application capacity by expanding your virtual environment using the
PowerEdge R820's large memory footprint, I/O options, flexible fabric choices and up to 32 cores in
a four-processor configuration. Choose an industry-leading hypervisor and take advantage of our
system management capability to manage both physical and virtual assets. The R820 can also help
maximize your virtual machines' uptime using redundant failsafe hypervisors on its internal dual SD
module. Dell OpenManage Integration with Microsoft System Center for Hyper-V and VMware
vCenter for ESXi can help you easily manage complex virtual environments.
Simplified systems management, without compromise
The Dell OpenManage systems management portfolio includes Integrated Dell Remote Access
Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller. This embedded feature helps IT administrators
manage Dell servers in physical, virtual, local and remote environments, operating in-band or out-
of-band, with or without a systems management software agent installed.
OpenManage iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller integrates and connects to leading third-party
systems management solutions (such as those from Microsoft, VMware and BMC Software), so users
can maintain a single point of control and capitalize on an existing systems management investment.
OpenManage simplifies the lifecycle of deploying, updating, monitoring and maintaining Dell
PowerEdge servers.
5 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide