The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is Dell's answer to the needs of ROBO and small offices that can benefit from the convergence of compute, networking and storage within a tower chassis with a footprint barely larger than a standard PC. Like its 12G-based predecessor, the 13G-enabled VRTX supports up to four server nodes (blades) with options for 25x 2.5-inch drive bays or 12x 3.5-inch bays. Some of the most significant advances for the VRTX platform are offered via the new 13G M630 server node which features increased performance, storage capacity, and management functionality over its 12G M620 predecessor.
Gaining support for the 13G M630 is part of the core VRTX value proposition. Our evaluation chassis is actually identical to the one we reviewed last year, down to the scratches. Being able to leverage the same chassis a year later with current 13G generation blades is a significant advantage for the ROBO/small office market. Investments in traditional rack infrastructures would have to be replaced, with some ability to reuse some parts. With VRTX, businesses get to take advantage of 12G and 13G server nodes in the same chassis if they like, or they can upgrade to 13G without losing core components like RAID cards, shared storage and networking. The blades may also be supplanted to the M1000e blade chassis if needed.
When comparing the M620 12G to the M630 13G nodes, the core differences come down largely to CPU platform updates and storage. Where the M620 supported Intel Sandy/Ivy Bridge with DDR3, the M630 brings in Haswell support with DDR4. The M630 also gets new local storage offerings that vastly improve its flexibility and performance profile including 4x 1.8” SSDs, 2x 2.5” PCIe SSDs, 2x SATA HDD/SSDs or 2x SAS HDD/SSDs.
Dell PowerEdge VRTX Specifications
Dell PowerEdge M630 Blade Server
The M630 provides flexibility to optimize in-server storage and I/O performance, allowing you to tailor your servers to your workloads today and tomorrow. With a range of drive options from two 2.5” hard drives or Express Flash PCIe SSDs to up to four 1.8” SSDs, it’s easy to configure in-server storage to meet your needs. For network flexibility, the M630 features Dell Select Network Adapters. These modular integrated NICs offer you a choice of fabric, speed and vendor, allowing you to precisely address workload bandwidth requirements and enable rapid access to the storage resources your server or cloud requires — NAS or SAN.
Management
The Dell PowerEdge VRTX is easy to manage and fits right in with other Dell Enterprise server platforms. The VRTX chassis has its own management controller which handles global settings such as chassis cooling modes, power supply configuration, storage provisioning, mapping of the internal PCIe slots, and settings for its on-board 1GbE or 10GbE switch. All of this is wrapped in a GUI that follows the same layout and design of Dell's iDRAC management for individual servers, which is also seamlessly included for each node for compute-related configuration. This level of integration makes it incredibly easy for novice or "many hats" IT workers to quickly get up to speed and put the VRTX into production without needing outside help.
Conclusion
This platform update highlights two core benefits; VRTX's ability to support emerging server technology and Dell's ability to innovate within their blade server line. On the VRTX side, the same platform that we reviewed last year now supports 13G server nodes with nothing more than a firmware update which brings the CMC up to speed with the 13G nodes. 12G server nodes and 13G server nodes place nicely within the VRTX ecosystem, offering a lot of options when it comes to outfitting the chassis. On the M630 13G side, Dell has dropped in the latest processor technology from Intel, DDR4 RAM and new integrated storage offerings that didn't exist on the M620. The blades are now faster than ever and storage options abound thanks to support for HDD/SSD and 1.8" and 2.5" PCIe form factors. The net result is that ROBO and small office users can benefit from the progressions Dell has made here with VRTX and the 13G blades to have a converged system that can meet today's needs while offering a path forward should those needs change over time.
The UGREEN DXP480T Plus offers an alluring blend of portability and performance in a tiny body with 4 M.2 NVMe…
TrueNAS has gained traction in the self-host and homelab communities for several reasons. One primary reason is that it's free…
The Intel Data Center GPU Flex Series 170 ia tantalizing for organizations that want to provide their VDI users with…
The UGREEN DXP6800 Pro is an exciting addition to the prebuilt NAS segment and stands out as a sophisticated solution…
Overall, the Latitude 9450 2-in-1 gets our strong recommendation for a skinny high-end business 2-in-1 convertible. (more…)
For the 2024 eclipse we needed fast, reliable storage that could handle a few bumps and bruises along the way…