Dell EMC VxRail S Series User manual

Dell EMC VxRail™S Series Appliance
Owner's Manual
Regulatory Model: E31S Series
Regulatory Type: E31S001

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 ©2017 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.
2017 - 03
Rev. A01

Contents
1 Overview........................................................................................................................................................5
Supported congurations..................................................................................................................................................5
Front panel ......................................................................................................................................................................... 7
12 x 3.5-inch hard drive................................................................................................................................................7
Back panel...........................................................................................................................................................................8
Diagnostic indicators..........................................................................................................................................................9
Diagnostic indicators on the front panel....................................................................................................................9
Hard drive indicator codes..........................................................................................................................................11
NIC indicator codes.................................................................................................................................................... 12
Power supply unit indicator codes............................................................................................................................12
iDRAC Direct LED indicator codes............................................................................................................................14
Locating serial number of your appliance...................................................................................................................... 15
Looking up your appliance serial number in VxRail Manager.................................................................................16
Locating your physical VxRail™ Service Tag number.............................................................................................16
2 Documentation matrix.................................................................................................................................. 17
3 Technical specications................................................................................................................................18
Chassis dimensions...........................................................................................................................................................18
Chassis weight.................................................................................................................................................................. 19
Processor specications..................................................................................................................................................19
PSU specications............................................................................................................................................................19
Battery specications.......................................................................................................................................................19
Expansion bus specications...........................................................................................................................................19
Memory specications.................................................................................................................................................... 20
Hard drive specications.................................................................................................................................................20
Ports and connectors specications............................................................................................................................. 20
USB ports................................................................................................................................................................... 20
NIC ports.....................................................................................................................................................................20
Serial connector......................................................................................................................................................... 20
VGA ports.................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Internal dual SD Module.............................................................................................................................................21
Video specications..........................................................................................................................................................21
Environmental specications...........................................................................................................................................21
Particulate and gaseous contamination specications..........................................................................................22
Standard operating temperature..............................................................................................................................23
Expanded operating temperature............................................................................................................................ 23
Expanded operating temperature restrictions........................................................................................................ 24
4 Initial setup and conguration......................................................................................................................25
5 Pre-operating systems.................................................................................................................................26
Contents 3

Options to manage the pre-operating system applications........................................................................................26
iDRAC conguration........................................................................................................................................................ 26
Log in to iDRAC..........................................................................................................................................................26
6 Replacing and adding hardware................................................................................................................... 28
Using SolVe Desktop application for VxRail Series hardware tasks...........................................................................28
Memory.............................................................................................................................................................................28
General memory module installation guidelines......................................................................................................30
Expansion cards and expansion card riser.................................................................................................................... 30
Expansion card guidelines......................................................................................................................................... 30
7 Getting help.................................................................................................................................................32
Contacting Dell EMC....................................................................................................................................................... 32
Registering for online support........................................................................................................................................ 32
Accessing support resources..........................................................................................................................................32
4 Contents

Overview
The VxRail™S Series appliance is a hyper-converged appliance that supports:
• Up to two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors
• Up to 24 DIMMs
• Two AC or DC redundant power supply units
• 12 drive hard drives and 2 solid state drives (SSDs)
NOTE: The appliance supports only internal, hot swappable hard drives.
NOTE: In this document, HDD generically refers to both HDD and SSD.
Topics:
• Supported congurations
• Front panel
• Back panel
• Diagnostic indicators
• Locating serial number of your appliance
Supported congurations
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports the following congurations:
1
Overview 5

Figure 1. Supported congurations
1Cooling fan in the cooling fan assembly (6) 2 Processor (2)
3 DIMMs (24) 4 Internal USB port
5 Hard drive backplane (back) 6 Hard drive (2) (back)
7 Power supply unit (2) 8 PSU connector
9 Expansion card riser 3 10 Network daughter card
11 Expansion card riser 2 12 Expansion card riser 1
13 Hard drive backplane
6 Overview

Front panel
The front panel provides access to the features available on the front of the appliance, such as the power button, NMI button, appliance
identication tag, appliance identication button, and USB ports. The diagnostic LEDs are prominently located on the front panel. The hot
swappable hard drives are accessible from the front panel.
12 x 3.5-inch hard drive
Figure 2. 12 x 3.5-inch hard drive chassis
1Appliance identication button 2 Power button
3 NMI button 4 Information tag
5 Hard drives 6 USB management port/iDRAC Direct
7 Video connector
Table 1. Front panel of the 12 x 3.5-inch hard drive chassis
Item Indicator, Button, or Connector Icon Description
1 Appliance identication button Enables you to locate a particular appliance within a rack. The
identication buttons are located on the front and back panels.
Press the appliance identication button to turn the appliance ID on
or o.
NOTE:
• If the appliance stops responding during POST, press and
hold the appliance ID button (for more than ve seconds)
to enter BIOS progress mode.
• To reset the iDRAC (if not disabled in F2 iDRAC setup)
press and hold the button (for more than 15 seconds).
2 Power button Enables you to know the power status of the appliance. The power
indicator turns on when the appliance power is on. The power
button controls the power supply output to the appliance.
NOTE: On ACPI compliant operating systems, when the
power button is used to shutdown the appliance, the
operating system performs a graceful shut down the
appliance power is turned o.
Overview 7

Item Indicator, Button, or Connector Icon Description
3 NMI button Enables you to troubleshoot software and device driver errors when
running certain operating systems. This button can be pressed by
using the end of a paper clip.
NOTE: Use this button only if directed to do so by
qualied support personnel or by instructions in the
operating system’s documentation.
4 Information tag Contains appliance information such as Service Tag, NIC, MAC
address for your reference. The information tag is a slide-out label
panel.
5 Hard drives Up to twelve 3.5 inch hot-swappable hard drives.
6 USB management port/iDRAC
Direct
The USB management port is USB 2.0 compliant. Enables you to
connect USB devices to the appliance or provides access to the
iDRAC Direct features. For more information, see the Integrated Dell
Remote Access Controller User’s Guide at Dell.com/idracmanuals.
7 Video connector Enables you to connect a display to the appliance.
Back panel
The back panel provides access to the features available on the back of the appliance, such as the appliance identication button, power
supply sockets, cable management arm connectors, NIC ports, and USB ports. A majority of the expansion card ports can be accessed
from the back panel.
Figure 3. Back panel features
1Appliance identication button 2 Appliance identication connector
3 iDRAC8 Enterprise port 4 Half-height PCIe expansion card slot
5 Serial connector 6 Video connector
7 USB port 8 Full-height PCIe expansion card slot
9 Ethernet connector 10 Power supply unit 1
11 Power supply unit 2 12 Hard drive
8 Overview

Table 2. Back panel features
Item Indicator, button, or connector Icon Description
1 Appliance identication button The identication buttons on the front and back panels can be used
to locate a particular appliance within a rack.
Press to toggle the appliance identication (ID) on or o.
If the appliance stops responding during POST, press and hold the
appliance ID button for more than ve seconds to enter BIOS
progress mode.
To reset iDRAC (if not disabled in F2 iDRAC setup) press and hold
the button for more than 15 seconds.
2 Appliance identication
connector
Connects the optional appliance status indicator assembly through
the optional cable management arm.
3 iDRAC8 Enterprise port Dedicated management port.
4 Half-height PCIe expansion card
slot (3)
Enables you to connect up to three half-height PCI Express
expansion cards.
5 Serial connector Enables you to connect a serial device to the appliance.
6 Video connector Enables you to connect a VGA display to the appliance.
7 USB port (2) Enables you to connect USB devices to the appliance. The ports are
USB 3.0-compliant.
8 Full-height PCIe expansion card
slot (3)
Enables you to connect up to three full-height PCI Express
expansion cards.
9 Ethernet connector (4) Four integrated connectors that include:
• Two 10/100/1000 Mbps RJ45 connectors
• Two 100 Mbps/1 Gbps/10 Gbps SFP+ or RJ45 connectors
10 Power supply unit (PSU1) AC 1100 W or DC 1100 W
11 Power supply unit (PSU2) AC 1100 W or DC 1100 W
12 Hard drive (2) (back) Up to two hot-swappable 2.5-inch solid state drives.
Diagnostic indicators
The diagnostic indicators on the appliance indicate operation and error status.
Diagnostic indicators on the front panel
NOTE: No diagnostic indicators are lit when the appliance is turned o. To start the appliance, plug it into a working power
source and press the power button.
Overview 9

Table 3. Diagnostic indicators
Icon Description Condition Corrective action
Health indicator The indicator turns solid blue if the
appliance is in good health.
None required.
The indicator ashes amber:
• When the appliance is turned on.
• When the appliance is in standby.
• If any error condition exists. For
example, a failed fan, PSU, or a
hard drive.
Check the System Event Log or system messages for the
specic issue. For more information about error
messages, see the Dell Event and Error Messages
Reference Guide at Dell.com/openmanagemanuals >
OpenManage software.
The POST process is interrupted without any video
output due to invalid memory congurations. See the
Getting help section.
Hard drive
indicator
The indicator ashes amber if there is
a hard drive error.
Check the System Event Log to determine the hard drive
that has an error. Run the appropriate Online Diagnostics
test. Restart the appliance and run embedded diagnostics
(ePSA).
Electrical indicator The indicator ashes 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 system messages for the
specic 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.
Temperature
indicator
The indicator ashes amber if the
appliance experiences a thermal error
(for example, the ambient
temperature is out of range or fan
failure).
Ensure that none of the following conditions exist:
• A cooling fan has been removed or has failed.
• Appliance cover, cooling shroud, EMI ller panel,
memory module blank, or back ller bracket is
removed.
• Ambient temperature is too high.
• External airow is obstructed.
See the Getting help section.
Memory indicator The indicator ashes amber if a
memory error occurs.
Check the system event log or system messages for the
location of the failed memory. Reseat the memory
module. If the problem persists, see the Getting help
section.
Related links
Getting help
10 Overview

Hard 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 hard drive is currently in use or not. The status LED indicates the power condition of the
hard drive.
Figure 4. Hard drive indicators
1Hard drive activity indicator 2 Hard drive status indicator
3 Hard drive
NOTE: If the hard drive is in the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) mode, the status indicator (on the right side) does
not turn on.
Table 4. Hard drive indicator codes
Drive-status indicator pattern Condition
Flashes green twice per second Identifying drive or preparing for removal.
Overview 11

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 5. NIC indicators
1link indicator 2 activity indicator
Table 5. 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.
12 Overview

Figure 6. AC PSU status indicator
1 AC PSU status indicator/handle
Table 6. 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 eciency, 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 conguration to a low output conguration or vice versa, you must turn
o the appliance.
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.
E Not lit Power is not connected.
Overview 13

Figure 7. DC PSU status indicator
1 DC PSU status indicator
Table 7. 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 eciency, 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 conguration to a Low Output conguration 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.
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.
14 Overview

Figure 8. iDRAC Direct LED indicator
1 iDRAC Direct status indicator
The iDRAC Direct LED indicator table describes iDRAC Direct activity when conguring iDRAC Direct by using the management port (USB
XML Import).
Table 8. 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 conguring iDRAC Direct by using your laptop and cable (Laptop Connect):
Table 9. 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 "PSNT" (Product Serial Number Tag). The PSNT
is a 14-digit number used to identify your appliance to Dell EMC support.
NOTE: Only use the VxRail Appliance serial number to contact Customer Support. Sometimes, you may need to supply the 8-
digit Service Tag number
Overview 15

There are two identication 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 Srvice 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 identied 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 8-digit Service Tag, only if instructed by Technical Support.
Figure 9. VxRail™Service Tag
16 Overview

Documentation matrix
The documentation matrix provides information on documents that you can refer to for setting up and managing your appliance.
Table 10. 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 Help with admin tasks and includes conceptual information. emc.com/vxrailsupport
Release Notes Product-related information that includes critical information
about the release.
emc.com/vxrailsupport
Hardware Documents
Getting started with your
appliance
Technical specications. emc.com/vxrailsupport
Owner's Manual All the hardware details for your appliance along with
technical specications.
emc.com/vxrailsupport
Service Procedure Documents
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
Documentation matrix 17

Technical specications
The technical and environmental specications of your appliance are outlined in this section.
Chassis dimensions
Figure 10. Chassis dimensions
Table 11. Dimension details
Appliance Xa Xb Y Za (with
bezel)
Za (without
bezel)
Zb Zc
12 x 3.5-inch hard drive 482.4 mm 444.0 mm 87.3 mm 32.0 mm 18.0 mm 684.0 mm 723.0 mm
3
18 Technical specications

Chassis weight
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports 12 x 3.5-inch hard drive and two 2.5-inch back-accessible hard drives with maximum weight of
36.5 kg (80.47 lb)
Processor specications
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports two Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 product family processors.
PSU specications
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports two AC or DC redundant power supply units (PSUs).
Table 12. PSU specications
PSU Class Heat dissipation (maximum) Frequency Voltage
1100 W AC Platinum 4100 BTU/hr 50/60 Hz 100–240 V AC, autoranging
1100 W DC N/A 4416 BTU/hr N/A –(48–60) V DC
NOTE: Heat dissipation is calculated by 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 230 V.
Battery specications
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports CR 2032 3.0-V lithium coin cell battery.
Expansion bus specications
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports PCI express (PCIe) generation 3 expansion cards, which must be available on the system board by
using expansion card risers. This appliance supports three types of expansion card risers. The following table provides detailed information
about the expansion card riser specications:
NOTE: When using slot 1 and slot 2 on the riser, ensure that both the processors are available on the appliance.
Table 13. Expansion card riser specications
Expansion card riser PCIe slots on the riser Height Length Link
Riser 1 Slot 1 half-height low-prole x8
Riser 1 Slot 2 half-height low-prole x8
Riser 1 Slot 3 half-height low-prole x8
Riser 2 Slot 4 full-height full-length x16
Riser 2 Slot 5 full-height full-length x8
Riser 3 (alternate) Slot 6 full-height full-length x16
NOTE: When using slots 1 through 4 on the riser, ensure that both the processors are available on the appliance.
Technical specications 19

Memory specications
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports DDR4 registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) and load-reduced DIMMs (LRDIMMs). Supported memory
bus frequencies are 1866 MT/s, 2133MT/s, or 2400 MT/s.
Table 14. Memory specications
Memory module
sockets
Memory capacity Minimum RAM Maximum RAM
Twenty-four 288-
pins • 16 GB or 32 GB dual rank
(RDIMMs)
• 64 GB quad rank (LRDIMMs)
• 128 GB with dual processors
(minimum four memory modules
per processor)
• 64 GB with single processor
(minimum four memory modules)
• LRDIMM up to 786 GB with a
single processor
• LRDIMM up to 1,536 GB with dual
processors
• RDIMM up to 384 GB with a
single processor
• RDIMM up to 786 GB with a dual
processor
Hard drive specications
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports up to twelve 3.5-inch hard drives and two 2.5-inch back-accessible solid-state drives (SSDs).
Ports and connectors specications
USB ports
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports:
• One 4-pin USB 2.0 - compliant port on the front panel
• One USB management port/iDRAC Direct on the front panel
• Two 9-pin USB 3.0 - complaint ports on the back panel
NIC ports
The VxRail™S Series appliance supports four Network Interface Controller (NIC) ports on the back panel, which is available in one of the
following NIC congurations:
• Two 1 Gbps RJ45 connectors and two 10 Gbps SFP+ or RJ45 connectors
Serial connector
The serial connector connects a serial device to the appliance. The VxRail™S Series appliance supports one serial connector on the back
panel, which is a 9-pin connector, Data Terminal Equipment (DTE), 16550-compliant.
20 Technical specications