44 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
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---
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date: 2013-06-04
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title: Dell Announces VRTX
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category: Opinions
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featured_image: /images/PowerEdge-VRTX-Front-View-with-2.5-Drives.png
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---
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Dell has announced the new PowerEdge VRTX (pronounced Vertex). The
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name comes from a vertex being "the intersection of multiple lines",
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alluding to this being a mixture of a rack server, a blade server and a
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SAN.
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It is aimed at branch offices, so it contains 4 servers, storage,
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networking and (unusually) the ability to add PCI-e cards (up to 8,
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including 3 FH/FL). These cards can be connected to which ever server
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you want. These features put in competition with the HP C3000 and the
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Supermicro OfficeBlade.
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The other 2 are basically standard blade chassis that have been given
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quiet fans and IEC power connectors. You can pick and choose storage,
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PCI-E and compute blades depending on your needs. They also have the
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full array of networking options: anything from 2 1Gb uplinks to full on
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40GB QDR infiniband. VRTX on the other hand is a fixed configuration of
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a 2U SAS array (either 2.5" or 3.5" disks) and 4 compute servers. You
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can add PCI-e cards, but support is limited. Basically, it expands the
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limited networking available in the blades themselves (no 10Gb at
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launch, max of 8x 1Gb uplink with no redundant fabric). There is support
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for a GPU, but it is AMD only with no Nvidia Tesla support.
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So what we have is a system that takes the same amount of space as it
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competitors and is less flexible. So why would you want it? In several
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cases I have wanted something that would give me a simple solution to
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run VMware (or similar) properly (i.e. shared storage and at least 2
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nodes) and go in the corner of the office on a standard plug. The other
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solutions can do this with a bit of thought (more so with the
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Supermicro), but the VRTX will do that out-of-the-box.
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If I could make 1 request of Dell, it would be to do a "VRTX lite"
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that drops the PCI-e slots and (perhaps) halves the number of disks and
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servers. To get a pair of computer servers and a small SAN in a 4 bay
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NAS sized box would be awesome for many a SMB branch office.
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<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/16IlDQnIMrk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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