Dell’s PowerEdge XR7620 for Telecom/Edge Compute
Fri, 07 Jul 2023 15:03:04 -0000
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The XR7620 is an Edge-optimized short-depth, dual-socket server, purpose-built and compact, offering acceleration-focused solutions for the Edge. Similar to the other new PowerEdge XR servers reviewed in this blog series (the XR4000, XR8000, and XR5610)the XR7620 is a ruggedized design built to tolerate dusty environments, extreme temperatures, and humidity and is both NEBS Level 3, GR-3108 Class 1 and MIL-STD-810G certified.
XR7620 is intended to be a generational improvement over the previous PowerEdge XR2 and XE2420 servers, with similar base features and the newest components, including:
- A CPU upgrade to the recently announced Intel 4th Generation Xeon Scalable processor, up to 32 cores.
- 2x the memory bandwidth with the upgrade from DDR4 to DDR5
- Higher performance I/O capabilities with the upgrade from PCIe Gen 4 to PCIe Gen 5, with 5 x PCIe slots.
- Enhanced storage capabilities with up to 8 x NVMe drives, BOSS support, and HW-based NVMe RAID.
- Dense acceleration capabilities at the edge where there the XR7620 excels, with support for up to 2 x double-width (DW) accelerators at up to 300W each, or 4 single-width (SW) accelerators at up to 150W each. Filtered bezel for work in dusty environments
Targeted workloads include Digital Manufacturing workloads for machine aggregation, VDI, AI inferencing, OT/IT translation, industrial automation, ROBO, and military applications where a rugged design is required. In the Retail vertical, the XR7620 is designed for such applications as warehouse operations, POS aggregation, inventory management, robotics and AI inferencing.
For additional details on the XR7620’s performance, see the tech notes on the servers machine learning (ML) capabilities.
The XR7620 shares the ruggedized design features of the previously reviewed XR servers, and its strength lies in its ability to bring dense acceleration capabilities to the Edge, but instead of repeating the same feature and capabilities highlighted in previous blogs, I would like to discuss a few other PowerEdge features that have special significance at the Edge. These are in the areas of:
- Security
- Cooling
- Management
Security
Security is a core tenant and the common foundation of the entire PowerEdge Portfolio. Dell designs PowerEdge with security in mind at every phase in the server lifecycle, starting before the server build, with a Secure Supply Chain, extending to the delivered servers, with Secure Lifecycle Management and Silicon Root of Trust then secures what’s created/stored by the server in Data Protection.
This is a Zero Trust security approach that assumes at least privilege access permissions and requires validation at every access/implementation point, with features such as Identify Access Management (IAM) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
Especially at the Edge, where servers are not typically deployed in a “lights out” environment the ability to detect and respond to any tampering or intrusion is critical. Dell’s silicon-based platform Root of Trust created a secured booth environment to ensure that firmware comes from a trusted, untampered source. PowerEdge can also lock down a system configuration, detect any changes in firmware versions or configuration and on detection, can initiate a rollback to the last known good environment.
Cooling
blog, optimized thermal performance is critical in the design of resilient, ruggedized Edge Server designs. The PowerEdge XR servers are designed with balanced, cooling-efficient airflow and comprehensive thermal management that provide optimized airflow while minimizing fan speeds and reducing server power consumption. XR Servers have a cooling design that allows them to operate between -5oC to 55oC. Dell engineers are currentlyworking on solutions to extend that operational range even further.
As covered in a previousAll PowerEdge XR servers are designed with multiple, dual counter-rotating fans (basically 2 fans in 1 housing) and support for N+1 fan redundancy. While for NEBS certification, fan failure is only “evaluated”, to certify as a GR-3108 Class 1 device, the server must continue to operate with a single fan failure, at a maximum of 40oC for a minimum of four hours.
Management
All Dell PowerEdge servers have a common, three tier approach to system management, in the forms of the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC), Open Manage Enterprise (OME) and CloudIQ. These three tiers build upon Dell’s approach to system management, of a unified, simple, automated, and secure solution. This approach scales from the management of a single server, at the iDRAC Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) console, to managing 1000s of servers simultaneously with OME, to leveraging intelligent infrastructure insights and predictive analytics to maximize server productivity with CloudIQ.
Conclusion
The XR7620 is a valuable addition to the PowerEdge XR portfolio, providing dense compute, storage, and I/O capabilities in a short-depth and ruggedized form factor, for environmentally challenging deployments. But far and away, the XR7620’s best capability is a design that brings a dense GPU acceleration environment to the edge, while continuing the meeting the performance requirements of NEBS Level 3, an ability that has previously not been an option.
Dell’s focus on security, cooling, and management creates a solution that can be efficiently and confidently deployed and maintained in the challenging environment that is today’s Edge.
Author information
In closing out this blog series, I would like to thank you for taking your valuable time to review my thoughts on Design for the Edge. To continue these discussions, connect with me here:
Mike Moore, Telecom Solutions Marketing Consultant at Dell Technologies