Dell EMC VxRail Appliances on 14th Generation
PowerEdge Servers
E Series Owner's Manual
Notes, cautions, and warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.
Copyright © 2018 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other
trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.
2018 - 08
Rev. A02
Contents
1 Overview........................................................................................................................................................5
Front view........................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Left control panel view................................................................................................................................................6
Right control panel view..............................................................................................................................................8
Back view of the appliance...............................................................................................................................................9
Drive indicator codes........................................................................................................................................................10
NIC indicator codes...........................................................................................................................................................11
Power supply unit indicator codes...................................................................................................................................11
iDRAC Direct LED indicator codes..................................................................................................................................14
Locating serial number of your appliance...................................................................................................................... 14
Looking up your appliance serial number in VxRail Manager.................................................................................15
Locating your physical VxRail Service Tag number................................................................................................ 15
2 Documentation matrix.................................................................................................................................. 16
3 Technical specications................................................................................................................................17
Chassis dimensions...........................................................................................................................................................17
Chassis weight..................................................................................................................................................................18
Processor specications.................................................................................................................................................. 18
PSU specications............................................................................................................................................................18
Battery specications.......................................................................................................................................................18
Expansion bus specications...........................................................................................................................................18
Memory specications.....................................................................................................................................................19
Storage controller specications.................................................................................................................................... 19
Hard drive specications..................................................................................................................................................19
Ports and connectors specications.............................................................................................................................. 19
USB ports.................................................................................................................................................................... 19
NIC ports.....................................................................................................................................................................20
Serial port....................................................................................................................................................................20
VGA ports................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Internal dual SD Module.............................................................................................................................................21
Environmental specications...........................................................................................................................................21
Particulate and gaseous contamination specications..........................................................................................22
Standard operating temperature..............................................................................................................................23
Expanded operating temperature............................................................................................................................ 23
Expanded operating temperature restrictions........................................................................................................ 24
Thermal restrictions...................................................................................................................................................24
Ambient temperature limitations.............................................................................................................................. 24
4 Initial setup and conguration......................................................................................................................25
5 Pre-operating systems.................................................................................................................................26
Contents
3
Options to manage the pre-operating system applications........................................................................................26
iDRAC conguration........................................................................................................................................................ 26
Log in to iDRAC..........................................................................................................................................................26
6 Replacing and adding hardware................................................................................................................... 28
Using SolVe Desktop application for VxRail Series hardware tasks...........................................................................28
Supported hardware components................................................................................................................................. 28
System memory............................................................................................................................................................... 29
General memory module installation guidelines......................................................................................................30
Expansion cards and expansion card riser..................................................................................................................... 31
Expansion card installation guidelines.......................................................................................................................31
7 Getting help.................................................................................................................................................33
Contacting Dell EMC....................................................................................................................................................... 33
Registering for online support........................................................................................................................................ 33
Accessing support resources..........................................................................................................................................33
4 Contents
Overview
The VxRail
™
E Series appliance is a hyper-converged appliance that supports:
• Up to two Intel Xeon Processor Scalable Family processors
• 10 x 2.5 inch hard drives or solid state drives (SSDs)
• 24 DIMM slots
• Two AC or DC redundant power supply units
NOTE: The appliance supports only internal, hot swappable hard drives.
NOTE: In this document, HDD generically refers to both HDD and SSD.
Topics:
• Front view
• Back view of the appliance
• Drive indicator codes
• NIC indicator codes
• Power supply unit indicator codes
• iDRAC Direct LED indicator codes
• Locating serial number of your appliance
Front view
You can access the components such as power button, NMI button, appliance identication tag, appliance identication button, and USB
ports from the front of the appliance. The diagnostic LEDs are prominently located on the front panel. The hot swappable hard drives are
accessible from the front panel.
Figure 1. Front view of 10 x 2.5 inch hard drive chassis
Table 1. Front panel features
Item Ports, panels, and slots Icon Description
1 Left control panel N/A
Contains the appliance health and appliance ID, status LED.
• Status LED: Enables you to identify any failed hardware
components. There are up to ve status LEDs and an overall
1
Overview 5
Item Ports, panels, and slots Icon Description
appliance health LED (Chassis health and appliance ID) bar. For
more information, see the Status LED indicators section.
2 VGA port Enables you to connect a display device to the appliance. For more
information, see the Technical specications section.
3 Right control panel N/A Contains the power button, USB port, iDRAC Direct micro-USB, and
the iDRAC Direct status LED.
4 Drive slots N/A Enable you to install drives that are supported on your appliance. For
more information about drives, see the Technical specications
section.
Left control panel view
Figure 2. Left control panel view
Table 2. Left control panel features
Item Indicator Icon Description
1 Status LED indicators N/A Indicate the status of the appliance. For more information, see the
Status LED indicators section.
2 Appliance health and
appliance ID indicator
Indicates the appliance health. For more information, see the
appliance health and appliance ID indicator codes section.
Status LED indicators
NOTE
: The status LED indicators are always o and only turns on to a solid amber if any error occurs.
Table 3. Status LED indicators and descriptions
Icon Description Condition Corrective action
Drive indicator The indicator turns solid amber if
there is a drive error.
• Check the System Event Log to determine if the drive
has an error.
• Run the appropriate Online Diagnostics test. Restart
the appliance and run embedded diagnostics (ePSA).
6 Overview
Icon Description Condition Corrective action
• If the drives are congured in a RAID array, restart the
appliance, and enter the host adapter conguration
utility program.
Temperature
indicator
The indicator turns solid amber if the
appliance experiences a thermal error
(for example, the ambient
temperature is out of range or there is
a fan failure).
Ensure that none of the following conditions exist:
• A cooling fan has been removed or has failed.
• Appliance cover, air shroud, memory module blank, or
back ller bracket is removed.
• Ambient temperature is too high.
• External airow is obstructed.
If the problem persists, see the Getting help section.
Electrical indicator The indicator turns solid amber if the
appliance experiences an electrical
error (for example, voltage out of
range, or a failed power supply unit
(PSU) or voltage regulator).
Check the System Event Log or appliance messages for
the specic issue. If it is due to a problem with the PSU,
check the LED on the PSU. Reseat the PSU. If the
problem persists, see the Getting help section.
Memory indicator The indicator turns solid amber if a
memory error occurs.
Check the System Event Log or appliance messages for
the location of the failed memory. Reseat the memory
module. If the problem persists, see the Getting help
section.
PCIe indicator The indicator turns solid amber if a
PCIe card experiences an error.
Restart the appliance. Update any required drivers for the
PCIe card. Reinstall the card. If the problem persists, see
the Getting help section.
NOTE: For more information about the
supported PCIe cards, see the Expansion card
installation guidelines section.
Appliance health and appliance ID indicator codes
The appliance health and appliance ID indicator is located on the left control panel of your appliance.
Figure 3. Appliance health and appliance ID indicators
Table 4. Appliance health and appliance ID indicator codes
Appliance health and appliance ID indicator code Condition
Solid blue Indicates that the appliance is turned on, appliance is healthy, and
appliance ID mode is not active. Press the appliance health and
appliance ID button to switch to appliance ID mode.
Blinking blue Indicates that the appliance ID mode is active. Press the appliance
health and appliance ID button to switch to appliance health mode.
Solid amber Indicates that the appliance is in fail-safe mode. If the problem
persists, see the Getting help section.
Overview 7
Appliance health and appliance ID indicator code Condition
Blinking amber Indicates that the appliance is experiencing a fault. Check the
Appliance Event Log or the LCD panel, if available on the bezel, for
specic error message. For more information about error messages,
see the Dell Event and Error Messages Reference Guide at Dell.com/
openmanagemanuals > OpenManage software.
Right control panel view
Figure 4. Right control panel view
Table 5. Right control panel features
Item Indicator, button, or
connector
Icon Description
1 Power button Indicates if the appliance is turned on or o. Press the power button
to manually turn on or o the appliance.
NOTE: Press the power button to gracefully shut down an
ACPI-compliant operating system.
2 USB port (2) The USB ports are 4-pin, 2.0-compliant. These ports enable you to
connect USB devices to the appliance.
3 iDRAC Direct port The iDRAC Direct port is micro USB 2.0-compliant. This port enables
you to access the iDRAC Direct features. For more information, see
the iDRAC User’s Guide at Dell.com/idracmanuals.
4 iDRAC Direct LED N/A The iDRAC Direct LED indicator lights up to indicate that the iDRAC
Direct port is connected. For more information, see the iDRAC Direct
LED indicator codes section.
5 VGA port Enables you to connect a display device to the appliance. For more
information, see the Technical specications section.
8 Overview
Back view of the appliance
You can access the components such as appliance identication button, power supply sockets, cable management arm connectors, iDRAC
storage media, NIC ports, and USB ports from the back of the appliance. Most of the expansion card ports can be accessed from the back
panel. The hot swappable power supply units are accessible from the back panel.
Figure 5. Back view of appliance with 3 PCIe expansion slots
Table 6. 10 X 2.5 inch drive appliance with 3 PCIe expansion slot
Item Ports, panels, or slots Icon Description
1 PCIe expansion card slot(s) N/A
The expansion slot(s) enable you to connect PCI Express expansion
cards. For more information on the expansion cards that are supported
on your appliance, see the Expansion card guidelines section.
2 Power supply unit (2) N/A For more information about the PSU congurations, see the Technical
Specications section.
3 NIC port (4) The NIC ports that are integrated on the network daughter card (NDC)
provide network connectivity. For more information about the supported
congurations, see the Technical specications section.
4 USB 3.0 (2) The USB ports are 9-pin and 3.0-compliant. These ports enable you to
connect USB devices to the appliance.
5 VGA port Enables you to connect a display device to the appliance. For more
information, see the Technical Specications section.
6 Serial port Enables you to connect a serial device to the appliance. For more
information, see the Technical Specications section.
7 iDRAC9 Enterprise port Enables you to remotely access iDRAC. For more information, see the
iDRAC User’s Guide at Dell.com/idracmanuals.
8 CMA power port N/A The Cable Management Arm (CMA) power port enables you to connect
to the CMA.
9 Appliance identication
button
The Appliance Identication (ID) button is available on the front and back
of the appliances. Press the button to identify a appliance in a rack by
turning on the appliance ID button. You can also use the appliance ID
button to reset iDRAC and to access BIOS using the step through mode.
Overview 9
Drive indicator codes
Each hard drive carrier has an activity indicator and a status indicator. The indicators provide information about the current status of the
hard drive. The activity LED indicates whether the hard drive is currently in use or not. The status LED indicates the power condition of the
hard drive.
Figure 6. Drive indicators
1
drive activity LED indicator 2 drive status LED indicator
3 drive
Table 7. Drive indicator codes
Drive status indicator code Condition
Flashes green twice per second Identifying drive or preparing for removal.
O Drive ready for removal.
NOTE: The drive status indicator remains o until all drives are
initialized after the appliance is turned on. Drives are not ready
for removal during this time.
Flashes green, amber, and then turns o Predicted drive failure.
Flashes amber four times per second Drive failed.
Solid green Drive online.
10 Overview
NIC indicator codes
The NIC on the back panel has an indicator that provides information about the network activity and link status. The activity LED indicates
whether the NIC is currently connected or not. The link LED indicates the speed of the connected network.
Figure 7. NIC indicators
1
link indicator 2 activity indicator
Table 8. NIC indicators
Convention Status Condition
A Link and activity indicators are o The NIC is not connected to the network.
B Link indicator is green The NIC is connected to a valid network at its maximum
port speed (1 Gbps or 10 Gbps).
C Link indicator is amber The NIC is connected to a valid network at less than its
maximum port speed.
D Activity indicator is ashing green Network data is being sent or received.
Power supply unit indicator codes
AC power supply units (PSUs) have an illuminated translucent handle that serves as an indicator and DC PSUs have an LED that serves as
an indicator. The indicator shows whether power is present or a power fault has occurred.
Overview
11
Figure 8. AC PSU status indicator
1 AC PSU status indicator/handle
Table 9. AC PSU status indicators
Convention Power indicator
pattern
Condition
A Green A valid power source is connected to the PSU and the PSU is operational.
B Flashing green When the rmware of the PSU is being updated, the PSU handle ashes green.
C Flashing green and
turns o
When hot-adding a PSU, the PSU handle ashes green ve times at 4 Hz rate and turns
o. This indicates a PSU mismatch with respect to eciency, feature set, health status,
and supported voltage.
NOTE: Ensure that both the PSUs are of the same capacity.
CAUTION: For AC PSUs, use only PSUs with the Extended Power Performance
(EPP) label on the back.
D Flashing amber Indicates a problem with the PSU.
CAUTION: When correcting a PSU mismatch, replace only the PSU with the
ashing indicator. Swapping the PSU to make a matched pair can result in an
error condition and unexpected appliance shutdown. To change from a high
output conguration to a low output conguration or vice versa, you must turn
o the appliance.
CAUTION: AC PSUs support both 220 V and 110 V input voltages. When two
identical PSUs receive dierent input voltages, they can output dierent
wattages, and trigger a mismatch.
CAUTION: If two PSUs are used, they must be of the same type and have the
same maximum output power.
CAUTION: Combining AC and DC PSUs is not supported and triggers a
mismatch.
12 Overview
Convention Power indicator
pattern
Condition
E Not lit Power is not connected.
Figure 9. DC PSU status indicator
1
DC PSU status indicator
Table 10. DC PSU status indicators
Convention Power indicator pattern Condition
A Green A valid power source is connected to the PSU and that the PSU is operational.
B Flashing green When hot-adding a PSU, the PSU indicator ashes green. This indicates that there is a
PSU mismatch with respect to eciency, feature set, health status, and supported
voltage. Ensure that both the PSUs are of the same capacity.
C Flashing amber Indicates a problem with the PSU.
CAUTION: When correcting a PSU mismatch, replace only the PSU with the
ashing indicator. Swapping the PSU to make a matched pair can result in an
error condition and unexpected appliance shutdown. To change from a High
Output conguration to a Low Output conguration or vice versa, you must
turn o the appliance.
CAUTION: If two PSU are used, they must be of the same type and have the
same maximum output power.
CAUTION: Combining AC and DC PSU is not supported and triggers a
mismatch.
D Not lit Power is not connected.
Overview 13
iDRAC Direct LED indicator codes
The iDRAC Direct LED indicator lights up to indicate that the port is connected and is being used as a part of the iDRAC subsystem.
NOTE: The iDRAC Direct LED indicator does not turn on when the USB port is used in the USB mode.
Figure 10. iDRAC Direct LED indicator
1
iDRAC Direct status indicator
The following table describes iDRAC Direct activity when conguring iDRAC Direct by using the management port (USB XML Import).
Table 11. iDRAC Direct LED indicators
Convention iDRAC Direct LED
indicator pattern
Condition
A Green Turns green for a minimum of two seconds to indicate the start and end of a le transfer.
B Flashing green Indicates le transfer or any operation tasks.
C Green and turns o Indicates that the le transfer is complete.
D Not lit Indicates that the USB is ready to be removed or that a task is complete.
The following table describes iDRAC Direct activity when conguring iDRAC Direct by using your laptop and cable (Laptop Connect):
Table 12. iDRAC Direct LED indicator patterns
iDRAC Direct LED
indicator pattern
Condition
Solid green for two seconds Indicates that the laptop is connected.
Flashing green (on for two
seconds and o for two
seconds)
Indicates that the laptop connected is recognized.
Turns o Indicates that the laptop is unplugged.
Locating serial number of your appliance
To get support for your appliance, use the VxRail Appliance serial number, also called the Product Serial Number Tag (PSNT). The PSNT is
a 14-digit number used to identify your appliance to Dell EMC support.
14
Overview
NOTE: Only use the VxRail Appliance serial number to contact Customer Support. Sometimes, you may need to supply the 7-
digit Service Tag number.
There are two identication tags on your appliance:
• The VxRail appliance serial number—You can nd the serial number in VxRail Manager, or printed on the information tag.
• The Service Tag — You can nd the Service Tag printed on the physical appliance.
Looking up your appliance serial number in VxRail Manager
1 In VxRail Manager, on the left navigation bar, click Health.
2 To display appliance information, click Physical.
3 Observe the VxRail Appliance serial number, listed under the appliance ID as the PSNT.
Locating your physical VxRail Service Tag number
Your hardware is identied by a unique Service Tag number. The Service Tag is found on the front of the appliance by pulling out the
information tag.
Alternatively, the information may be on a sticker on the chassis of the appliance. This information is used by Dell EMC to route support
calls to the appropriate personnel.
NOTE
: Use the 7-digit Service Tag, only if instructed by Technical Support.
Figure 11. VxRail Service Tag
Overview
15
Documentation matrix
The documentation matrix provides information on documents that you can refer while setting up and managing your appliance.
Table 13. Documentation matrix
Document Provides information about... Location
Software Documents
Online help in the VxRail
Manager UI
all admin tasks, licensing, and product architecture
information.
VxRail Manager Online Help
Administrator Guide admin tasks and conceptual information. emc.com/vxrailsupport
Release Notes the product and any critical information about the release. emc.com/vxrailsupport
Hardware Documents
Getting started with your
appliance
setting up your appliance. emc.com/vxrailsupport
Owner's Manual hardware details for your appliance along with technical
specications.
emc.com/vxrailsupport
Service Procedure Documents
SolVe Desktop application the SolVe Desktop application. The SolVe Desktop application
gathers critical information from EMC product guides and
combines it with expert Dell EMC support advice to generate
a procedure document that is concise and task driven.
EMC Online Support site
NOTE: Download the SolVe Desktop
application, all generators are
available within the Solve Desktop.
2
16 Documentation matrix
Technical specications
The technical and environmental specications of your appliance are outlined in this section.
Chassis dimensions
Figure 12. Chassis dimensions
Table 14. Dimension details
Appliance Xa Xb Y Za (with
bezel)
Za (without
bezel)
Zb
*
Zc
10 x 2.5 inches
482.0 mm
(18.97
inches)
434.0 mm
(17.08 inches)
42.8 mm
(1.68 inches)
35.84 mm
(1.41 inches)
22.0 mm
(0.87 inches)
733.82 mm
(29.61 inches)
772.67
mm
(30.42
inches)
3
Technical specications 17
Chassis weight
Table 15. Chassis weight
System Maximum weight (with all hard drives/SSDs)
VxRail E Series 21.9 kg
(48.28 lbs)
Processor specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports up to two Intel Xeon Processor Scalable Family processors.
PSU specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports two AC or DC power supply units (PSUs).
Table 16. PSU specications
PSU Class Heat dissipation
(maximum)
Frequency Voltage
1100 W DC Gold 4416 BTU/hr 50/60 Hz –(48–60) V DC
1100 W Mixed Mode
HVDC (for China
and Japan only)
Platinum 4100 BTU/hr 50/60 Hz 100–240 V AC and 200–380 V DC
1100 W AC Platinum 4100 BTU/hr 50/60 Hz 100–240 V AC, autoranging
NOTE: If an appliance with 1100 W AC or HVDC PSU operates from 100 to 120V, the power rating per PSU is derated to 1050 W.
NOTE: Heat dissipation is calculated using the PSU wattage rating.
NOTE: This appliance is also designed to connect to the IT power systems with a phase to phase voltage not exceeding 240 V.
Battery specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports CR 2032 3.0-V lithium coin cell battery.
Expansion bus specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports PCI express (PCIe) generation 3 expansion cards, which must be available on the system board by
using expansion card risers.
Table 17. Expansion card riser
specications
Supported VxRail congurations Riser conguration and
supported risers
Slot description PCIe slots (Height and
length)
Processor
connection
VxRail E Series appliance
Riser conguration 2 (1A
+2A)
Three x16 slots
Slot 1: x16 low prole, half
length
Processor 1
Slot 2: x16 low prole,
half length
Processor 1
18 Technical specications
Supported VxRail congurations Riser conguration and
supported risers
Slot description PCIe slots (Height and
length)
Processor
connection
Slot 3: x16 low prole,
half length
Processor 2
Riser conguration 4 (1A) Two x16 slots
Slot 2: x16 low prole,
half length
Processor 1
Memory specications
Table 18. Memory specications
DIMM type DIMM rank
DIMM
capacity
Single processor Dual processors
Minimum RAM Maximum RAM Minimum RAM Maximum RAM
LRDIMM Quad rank 64 GB 384 GB 768 GB 768 GB 1536 GB
RDIMM Dual rank 16 GB 96 GB 192 GB 192 GB 384 GB
RDIMM Dual rank 32 GB 192 GB 384 GB 384 GB 768 GB
Storage controller specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports:
• Internal storage controller cards: HBA330 and Boot Optimized Server Storage (BOSS-S1).
Hard drive specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports NVMe, SAS, SATA, Nearline SAS hard drives or SSDs.
Table 19. Supported drive options
Ten drive appliances Up to ten 2.5 inch, hot swappable NVMe, SAS, SAS/SATA SSD, or Nearline SAS hard
drives.
NOTE: VxRail E Series appliance supports NVMe drives in cache tier, slots
8 and 9 only.
Ports and connectors specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports USB ports, NIC ports, VGA ports, serial connector, and an IDSDM card that supports two internal
dual SD module.
USB ports
The following table provides more information about the USB specications:
Technical
specications 19
Table 20. USB specications
Appliance Front panel Back panel Internal
Ten hard drive appliances Two 4-pin, USB 2.0-compliant
port
Two 9-pin, USB 3.0-compliant
ports
One 9-pin, USB 3.0-compliant
ports
One 5-pin micro USB 2.0
management port
N/A N/A
NOTE: The micro USB 2.0-compliant port on the front panel can only be used as an iDRAC Direct or a management port.
NIC ports
The VxRail E Series appliance supports four Network Interface Controller (NIC) ports on the back panel, which is available in one of the
following NIC congurations:
• Four RJ-45 ports that support 100 M, 1 G and 10 Gbps
• Four SFP+ ports that support 10 Gbps
Serial port
The serial connector connects a serial device to the appliance. The VxRail E Series appliance supports one serial connector on the back
panel, which is a 9-pin connector, Data Terminal Equipment (DTE), 16550-compliant.
VGA ports
The Video Graphic Array (VGA) port enables you to connect the appliance to a VGA display. The VxRail E Series appliance supports one 15-
pin VGA port on the front and back of appliance.
Video specications
The VxRail E Series appliance supports integrated VGA controller with 4 MB SPI capacity.
Table 21. Supported video resolution options
Resolution Refresh rate (Hz) Color depth (bits)
640 x 480 60, 70 8, 16, 32
800 x 600 60, 75, 85 8, 16, 32
1024 x 768 60, 75, 85 8, 16, 32
1152 x 864 60, 75, 85 8, 16, 32
1280 x 1024 60, 75 8, 16, 32
1440 x 900 60 8, 16, 32
1920 x 1200 60 8, 16, 32
20 Technical specications
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