Dell PowerEdge M640 CTO Blade Server

Description:
The Dell EMC PowerEdge M640 server blade is designed for use in both the Dell PowerEdge M1000e, and VRTX blade enclosures. Up to 16 half-height Dell M640 server nodes can be installed in the M1000e, or up to four in the VRTX system. The enclosures provide cooling, power, networking, and management, while the blades account provide the processing power, memory, and storage. The Dell EMC M640 is a high-density platform ideal for data center applications that need highly-scalable, multi-server, or clustering to support various workloads including high-performance computing and XaaS applications.

 

Performance:
This blade server can support one or two Intel Xeon Scalable processors which offer up to 28 cores each (a 27% increase over the previous generation). Scalable processors have four different options to choose from: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. For the highest core count, System Admins should opt for Platinum processors which are designed for I/O-intensive applications like real-time analytics. An improvement over Intel's previous generation processors, Intel's Ultra Path Interconnect (UPI) delivers improved inter-CPU bandwidth for I/O-intensive workloads.

 

Memory:
Maximize memory is achieved with up to 16 registered (RDIMM) or load-reduced (LRDIMM) DDR4 memory modules. Businesses that need to satisfy memory-intensive applications should opt to configure this server with LRDIMMs which support higher densities than RDIMMs. In fact, to reach the system's max memory footprint of 2TB, 128GB LRDIMMs must be used in all 16 memory slots. Support for DDR4 memory offers higher transfer rates at lower voltages than previous generation DDR3 memory. In addition to support for DDR4 memory, Xeon Scalable processors offer up to a 50% increase in memory capacity and bandwidth over the previous generation processors.

 

Storage:
Two small form factor drives sit at the front of the system to support a maximum of 12.8TB of storage. This system supports a mixture of different drive types including traditional hard-disk drives, solid-state drives, and high-performance NVMe SSDs. NVMe drives reduce I/O overhead to overcome the speed bottleneck of older SATA connections by connecting directly to the PCIe bus. A dedicated micro SD card for vFlash support allows system admins to turn host local SSDs into a caching layer for virtual machines. Dell's System Erase wipes all data from storage media to make server retirement or redeployment a simple and stress-free process.

 

Expansion:
For expansion, this modular server supports up to two PCIe 3.0 slots. Adding to this blade server's flexibility, System Administrators can choose between a Boot Optimized Server Storage (BOSS) featuring a pair of M.2 storage devices for failsafe OS support or dual SD cards. Two USB 3.0 ports are supported, one of which is an internal port and the other on the front panel.

 

Management:
Dell's OpenManage portfolio is a comprehensive one-to-one systems management solution with a customer-inspired design for easy installation and use. Automating a wide variety of necessary management tasks, OpenManage Essentials allows businesses spend less time performing routine management tasks thus increasing the overall productivity of their IT infrastructure. This software allows system admins to monitor third-party hardware in addition to Dell servers, networking, firewall appliances, and storage. The need for onsite support has been reduced with OpenMange Mobile, which allows system admins to monitor system status remotely through their smartphone or tablet and receive alerts if hardware availability is threatened. A premium license key will enable Dell's Server Configuration Management feature which streamlines server deployment, operating system installations, and agent-free updates.

 

Summary:
The Dell EMC PowerEdge M640 server blade is designed for Dell's PowerEdge VRTX and M1000e blade enclosures to provide exceptional performance and scalability. Powered by one or two Xeon Scalable processors, this server offers up to 27% more cores and a 50% increase in bandwidth compared to the previous generation processors. In just a small half-height chassis, this blade server supports up to 12.8TB of storage and 2TB of memory to easily handle complex applications like virtualization. Dell's OpenManage portfolio streamlines server deployment and automates routine management tasks to free up valuable System Admin time allowing businesses to increase the productivity instead of IT issues.

 

Dell EMC PowerEdge M640 Server Blade - Specifications

FORM FACTOR:

• Server Blade

PROCESSOR - 2 SOCKETS:

• Up to two Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors
• Up to 28 cores per processor

OPERATING SYSTEM:

• Canonical® Ubuntu® LTS
• Citrix® XenServer®
• Microsoft Windows Server® with Hyper-V
• Red Hat® Enterprise Linux
• SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server
• VMware® ESXi

MEMORY:

• 16 DDR4 DIMMs in total
• Supports RDIMM /LRDIMM speeds up to 2666MT/s, 2TB Max ECC Registered DDR4

 

STORAGE CONTROLLERS:

• Internal controllers: Software RAID S140, PERC9 H330, H730P
• Internal Dual SD Module
• M.2 available for Boot Optimized Storage System (BOSS)

DRIVE BAYS:

• Up to 2 x 2.5" SAS/SATA (HDD/SSD), NVMe SSD, max 12.8 TB

POWER SUPPLIES:

• The M640 leverages the power supplies in the M1000e or VRTX enclosure.
• Hot plug fans with full redundancy provided in the M1000e or VRTX enclosure.

DIMENSIONS:

• D: 544.32 mm x W: 50.35 mm x H: 197.9 mm (Handle push in)
• D: 564.87 mm x W :50.35 mm x H: 197.9 mm (Handle pull out)

EMBEDDED / AT-SERVER:

• iDRAC9 with Lifecycle Controller
• iDRAC Direct
• iDRAC REST API with Redfish
• Chassis Management Controller (CMC)

CONSOLES & MOBILE:

• OpenManage Enterprise (available soon)
• OpenManage Essentials
• OpenManage Mobile
• OpenManage Power Center

INTEGRATIONS:

• OpenManage integrations:
• Microsoft® System Center
• VMware® vCenter™
• BMC Software (available from BMC)

CONNECTIONS:

• Nagios Core and Nagios XI
• Oracle Enterprise Manager
• HPE Operations Manager i (OMi)

TOOLS:

• Dell EMC Repository Manager
• Dell EMC System Update
• Dell EMC Server Update Utility
• Dell EMC Update Catalogs
• iDRAC Service Module
• OpenManage Server Administrator
• OpenManage Storage Services

SECURITY:

• TPM 1.2/2.0 optional
• Cryptographically signed firmware
• Hardware Root of Trust
• Secure Boot
• System Lockdown
• System Erase

I/O & PORTS:

• Network daughter card options:
• 2 x 10GE + 4 X 1GE, 4 x 10GE

Front ports:

• Power button
• System ID / Status LED
• 1 USB 2.0 MicroAB port with iDRAC management function
• 1 USB 3.0 port

Video card:

• VGA controller integrated with iDRAC