The Advantages of Configuring a PowerEdge Server with Agnostic SSD Drives
Download PDFMon, 16 Jan 2023 13:44:28 -0000
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Summary
Dell EMC gives customers the option to purchase an Agnostic (Dell Branded), SSD drive with their PowerEdge server configuration. Although some customers prefer specific SSD vendors, most PowerEdge owners do not prefer one brand name over another, especially when they benefit from picking agnostic offerings This DfD debriefs why agnostic drives are included as an option and highlights how PowerEdge customers benefit from going agnostic with their SSD drive selection.
What is an Agnostic Drive?
When configuring a PowerEdge server with components, Dell EMC prefers to give customers ample solid-state drive (SSD) options to meet their server requirements. These choices have traditionally consisted of approved drive vendors, such as Intel or Samsung, but now include one more alternative; agnostic (Dell-branded) SSDs.
The underlying concept is that without an agnostic choice to select, customers may be subject to trade-offs associated with a specific brand, such as prolonged lead times or premium pricing. By purchasing a large pool of SSD hardware from approved vendors, Dell EMC can provide a drive configuration with minimal trade-offs. The primary drawback of agnostic is that customers can’t pick the exact drive brand they want. However, this strategy is advantageous for the 65% of customers who do not prefer one brand name over another or are willing to disregard brand name for the advantages that will be discussed within this paper.
Rigorous Validation
Agnostic SSD drives are put through the same rigorous qualification process as vendor-specific drives. First, the manufacturing process is heavily scrutinized for quality standards, including quality control processes that will confirm every drive is compatible with all other components installed in PowerEdge servers. Then once within a server, each drive must meet the exact specifications for performance, duty cycles, mean time between failure (MTBF) and rotational vibration to pass reliability testing standards and move forward for sales distribution. Additionally, once off the shelf, a full history report for traceability is available in case proactive replacement is needed.
Figure 1: Agnostic (Dell Branded) SSD
Dell Firmware
Similarly, both agnostic and branded drives have Dell firmware installed that enhances PowerEdge servers in the following ways:
- Mode page settings that are compatible with PowerEdge Raid Controller (PERC) & Dell HBA
- Proprietary VPD page for system inventory management and quality tracking
- Support for live firmware updates and compatibility with Dell Update Package (DUP)
- Tuned to PowerEdge hardware for optimal performance, stability and reliability
Improved Supply Chain
The agnostic SSD supply chain model focuses heavily on mitigating the possibility of a supply disruption by purchasing large volumes of SSD drives from approved vendors. Approved SATA drive vendors include Micron, Intel, Kioxia (previously Toshiba), Hynix and
Samsung, while the approved SAS drive vendors include Kioxia, Samsung and Western Digital. By working with multiple vendors, Dell EMC can keep a constant supply of drive configurations in stock, which may enable significantly reduced lead times.
Reduced Price
Purchasing large volumes of SSD drives introduces greater pricing competition between vendors. Because Dell EMC manages all software processes, any major vendor differentiators aside from the hardware are eliminated. This allows for a more aggressive pricing landscape for vendors trying to sell drives in volume.
The pricing reduction of agnostic drives compared to vendor-specific drives presents significant savings. The exact savings will vary based on several factors, such as the drive size, type and market timing. Agnostic SSD prices can range from 10% to 30% less than vendor-specific list prices, with the savings percentage generally increasing with the drive size. Most Dell EMC customers can expect to average about a 15% drive price reduction when choosing agnostic.
Figure 2: Various agnostic drive approved
Conclusion
Dell EMC offers customers more options with the inclusion of agnostic SSD drives. Configuring a PowerEdge server with agnostic SSD drives ensures shortened lead times, significant price reductions, and consistent implementation.
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Dell PowerEdge Boot Optimized Storage Solution – BOSS-N1
Fri, 27 Jan 2023 21:58:02 -0000
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Summary
Our latest generation HW RAID BOSS solution (BOSS-N1) incorporates NVMe Enterprise class M.2 NVMe SSDs. It includes important RAS features such as rear or front facing drives on our new rack servers and full hot-plug support, so a server does not need to be taken offline in case of an SSD failure. When operating a RAID 1 mirror, a surprise removal and addition of a new SSD automatically kicks off a rebuild on the new RAID 1 member SSD that was added, so there is no need to halt server operations.
Available on the newest generation of PowerEdge systems, BOSS-N1 provides a robust, redundant, low-cost solution for boot optimization.
Introduction
The Boot Optimized Storage Solution (BOSS-N1) provides key, generational feature improvements to the highly popular BOSS subsystem and its existing value proposition. It incorporates an NVMe interface to the M.2 SSDs to ensure high performance and the latest technology. BOSS was originally designed to provide a highly reliable, cost-effective solution for separating operating system boot drives from data drives on server-internal storage. Many customers, particularly those in the Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) arena and those implementing Software Defined Storage (SDS), require separating their OS drives from data drives. They also require hardware RAID mirroring (RAID 1) for their OS drives. The main motivation for this is to create a server configuration optimized for application data. Providing a separate, redundant disk solution for the OS enables a more robust and optimized compute platform.
Figure 1. Installing the BOSS-N1 monolithic controller module
The Boot Optimized Storage Solution (BOSS-N1) is a simple, highly reliable and cost-effective solution to meet the requirements of our customers. The NVMe M.2 devices offer similar performance as 2.5” SSDs and support rear or front facing drive accessibility with full hot-plug support on monolithic platforms and includes surprise removal. Our design frees up and maximizes available drive slots for data requirements.
BOSS-N1 provides a secure way of updating the controller firmware
- Each of the firmware components is authenticated before being stored to firmware slot
- Authentication requires the use of public and private asymmetric key pair. This protected key pair is uniquely generated for Dell through a hardware security module (HSM) server.
- BOSS-N1 firmware updates can be updated using DUP from both In-band (Operating System) and Out-of-band (iDRAC) interfaces
You can manage BOSS-N1 with standard well-known management tools such as iDRAC, OpenManage Systems Administrator (OMSA), and the BOSS-N1 Command Line Interface (CLI).
BOSS-N1 hardware components
Figure 2. BOSS-N1 monolithic card
Figure 3. BOSS-N1 modular
Key features of BOSS-N1:
- Supports one (1) or two (2) 80 mm M.2 Enterprise Class NVMe SSDs
- M.2 devices are read-intensive (1 DWPD) with 480GB or 960GB capacity
- Fixed function hardware RAID 1 (mirroring) or single drive RAID 0
- Rear or front facing module for quick and easy accessibility to the M.2 SSDs on monolithic platforms
- Full hot-plug support on monolithic platforms
- M.2 drive LED functionality on monolithic platforms
- Managing BOSS-N1 is accomplished with standard, well-known management tools such as iDRAC, OpenManage Systems Administrator (OMSA), and the BOSS-N1 Command Line Interface (CLI)
BOSS-N1 supported operating systems
Windows Servers
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
Linux
- RHEL 8.6
- SLES 15 SP4
- Ubuntu 20.04.4
VMware
- ESXi 7.0 U3
- ESXi 8.0
References
- For more information about BOSS-N1, see the BOSS-N1 User’s Guide.
- For more information about iDRAC, such as the iDRAC User’s Guide and the iDRAC Release Notes, see the Dell Support site.
- For more information about OpenManage Server Administrator, see the OMSA 9.5 User’s Guide.
Top 5 Reasons to Migrate to the PowerEdge T550 from the Previous-Generation T440 and T640
Tue, 17 Jan 2023 08:25:05 -0000
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Summary
The Dell EMC PowerEdge T550 is the next-generation performance mainstream tower by Dell Technologies. By consolidating the most valuable features from the previous-generation T440 and T640, the T550 is offered as the successor intended to run performance use cases and workloads in medium businesses, Edge, ROBO and enterprise data centers. This DfD will inform readers on how decision making led to merging the T440 and T640 into the T550, as well as give five top reasons why customers will be excited to transition over to this new powerhouse - the T550.
Merging the T440 and T640
Development of the PowerEdge T550 heavily focused on aligning what it would offer to what customers actually used in ROBO, Edge, SMB, and enterprise datacenter environments. Sales data from the previous-generation T440 and T640 were often used to navigate decision-making and generally pointed to a clear, general consensus. A few examples are below:
- GPU attach rates on the more-capable T640 were rarely populated in full, resulting in under-utilized space
- Specific desirable features in the T640, such as NVMe support, were not present in the T440
- Top bin CPU support was not present in the T440
These observations allowed engineering to refine what the next performance mainstream PowerEdge tower would look like. By eliminating the less desirable features and keeping the most valuable ones, the T550 has essentially merged both of its predecessors into a handcrafted, next-generation powerhouse. The remainder of this DfD will highlight the top five reasons why we believe our customers will benefit from transitioning over to the T550, a few of which are direct results from the merger.
*Please note that the T640 lifecycle is extended to mid-2022 for customers who choose to stay on 2nd Generation Xeon®, and the T440 lifecycle is extended until mid-2023 for customers who choose to bridge from 2nd Generation Xeon® to 4th Generation Xeon®
Figure 1 – Side angle of the sleek, new PowerEdge T550
Five Most Valuable Impacts
3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors
The 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor family was designed to generate higher productivity and operational efficiency for dense workloads, such as AI, ML/DL and HPC. In addition to full-stack support for the T550, various architectural design refinements have returned significant performance improvements across multiple benchmarks, including:
- SPECrate 2017 (a throughput measurement metric) observed a 57.1% performance improvement for Floating Point when compared to 2nd Generation Xeon, as published here
- SPECspeed 2017 (a time-based measurement metric) observed a 50.3% performance improvement for Floating Point when compared to 2nd Generation Xeon, as published here
- Gen-on-Gen performance improvement average of 1.46x, as observed by Intel
Top-of-the-line features are integrated into 3rd Generation Xeon Scalable CPUs to give users more functionality. Enhanced Speed Select Technology (SST) functionalities, including base frequency, core power, and turbo frequency, offers a finer control over CPU performance for cost optimization. Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) offers maximum privacy and protection by encrypting sections of memory to create highly secured environments to store sensitive data.
3200 MT/s Memory Speed
Memory speeds have risen by 20% over the previous-generation T440 and T640, increasing from 2666 MT/s to 3200 MT/s. Additionally, the number of supported memory slots has jumped from 6 to 8 – a 33% increase in DIMM capacity. Allowing more data to be stored in memory, with faster DIMM speeds, will significantly reduce data transfer times for memory-intensive workloads like databases, CRM, ERP, or Exchange.
PowerEdge Enterprise Features
The PowerEdge advantage lies within the robust environment offered to enterprise customers. The PowerEdge Raid Controller 11 (PERC11) now provides NVMe HW RAID, granting users the ability to back up data from their most powerful storage devices. In addition to hard drives, fans, PSUs, and Internal Dual SD Modules (IDSDM), hot-plug support is now also offered for front access BOSS (2x M.2 internal), allowing the server to keep running when a critical component swap is needed. Even the T550s smaller form factor (10% less volume than T440 and 15% less volume than T640) now allows GPUs to be used in tower format, so that max performance can be achieved whether in the datacenter or in the office closet.
Legacy Boot support has been deprecated by Intel and replaced with the superior UEFI Secure Boot (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), which has better programmability, greater scalability, and higher security. UEFI Secure Boot also provides faster booting times and support for 9ZB, while legacy BIOS is limited to 2.2TB boot drives. Lastly, although not a newly supported feature, customers can continue to optimize server management with iDRAC9 (Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller), which provides administrators with an abundance of server operation information to a dashboard screen that can be remotely accessed and managed. Countless operational conditions are always monitored, giving small businesses more flexibility to allocate limited resources and manpower elsewhere.
PCIe Gen4
Support for five slots of PCIe Gen4, the fourth iteration of the PCIe standard, is now included. Compared to PCIe Gen3, the throughput per lane doubles from 8GT/s to 16GT/s, effectively cutting transfer times in half for data traveling from PCIe devices to CPU. This feature will be extremely effective for customers adopting dense components, like NVMe drives or GPUs.
MVP (Most Valuable Peripherals)
Decision making for peripheral support came as a direct result from the T440 and T640 merger. Sales data indicated what customers valued most, and the T550 achieved a perfectly balanced blend of storage, PCIe and GPU capability. To begin, the number of storage devices supported was met in the middle, with availability for up to 24x SAS/SATA drives (T440 maxed out at 16x, and the T640 maxed out at 32x). This also includes NVMe drives support, with the inclusion of an 8x SAS/SATA + 8x NVMe configuration! *Note that customers seeking 32x SAS/SATA drives can still leverage the T640 tower until mid-2022, or R740xd2 rack if that is a better suited solution.
The number of PCIe slots were also blended, with five slots available for x16 PCIe Gen4, and one slot available for x8 PCIe Gen3. This is a great compromise, as customers will still be receiving more total lanes (88 lanes on T550 vs. 64 lanes on T640). Lastly, after observing low GPU attach rates on the T640, the T550 offers up to 2x DW or 5x SW GPUs – a much more accurate representation of what customers have been using for AI/HPC workload support. The latest and greatest GPU models are now supported, including the NVIDIA T4, A10, A30 and A40. Lastly, NVLink bridging can now be utilized to create a high-bandwidth link between compatible GPUs! This will drive performance for workloads like databases, virtualization, and medium duty AI/ML.
Performance Comparison
Dell Technologies commissioned Grid Dynamics to validate the performance uplift for various T550 use cases when compared to the previous-generation T640. Figures 2-4 below illustrate just a few examples of the boosted performance seen on the T550. The full whitepaper can be seen here.
Figure 2 – I/O operations comparison for processing the same amount of retail video streams. The T550 does I/O writing 26.26% faster than T640.
Figure 3 – Comparison of time spent to train an ML model depending on the number of SKUs for retail inventory decision making. The T550 uses 25.77% less time to train the ML model than T640.
Figure 4 – Comparison of transactions committing speed when measuring database-related operations over a VM. The speed of transaction commits is 19.8% higher on the T550 compared to T640.
Final Words
The PowerEdge T550 has been handcrafted to offer a wide array of customers the most valuable features and support for performance workloads such as data analytic, virtualization, and medium duty AI/ML, in addition to more mainstream workloads such as collaboration, database, and CRM.