System Overview; Introduction - Dell PowerEdge M820 Technical Manual

1 System overview

Introduction

The Dell™ PowerEdge™ M820's scalability makes it a perfect fit for core business applications or
consolidated workloads. Virtual environments supporting large numbers of sizeable virtual machines
® ®
will find the M820 a perfect choice. With up to four Intel Xeon E5-4600 processors and up to
1.5TB of RAM per node — 12TB of memory in just a single M1000e chassis — the M820's remarkable
computational capability and memory scalability can address even the toughest demands. With
Dell's Select Network Adapter, you can fully customize the I/O capabilities of the M820 to match the
networking technology that's right for your applications.
Ensure business continuity
Ensure maximum uptime with the fully redundant M-series power, cooling and networking
infrastructure designed to provide the stability and resiliency our customers demand for
enterprise-class deployments. The M820's design matches Dell's commitment to reliability with
features such as multiple hardware RAID choices and our unique failsafe virtualization technology,
which utilizes redundant SD media to provide failover capabilities for embedded hypervisors.
Simplified systems management, without compromise
The Dell OpenManage™ portfolio includes Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7)
with Lifecycle Controller. This embedded feature helps IT administrators manage Dell servers in
physical, virtual, local and remote environments, operating in-band or out-of-band, with or without
a systems management software agent installed. OpenManage iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller
integrates and connects to leading third-party systems management solutions (such as those from
Microsoft, VMware and BMC Software), so users can maintain a single point of control and capitalize
on an existing systems management investment. OpenManage simplifies the lifecycle of deploying,
updating, monitoring and maintaining Dell PowerEdge servers.
The PowerEdge M-series blade server line
Implement the right combination of features and performance scalability with the PowerEdge
M-series blade servers that can handle tough workloads in a data center of any size. In addition to
the world-class management features provided in all PowerEdge servers, the M820 also takes
advantage of the capabilities of the M1000e's Chassis Management Controller (CMC). The CMC
allows M-series blades to be managed individually or as groups, in single or multiple chassis, and
within a data center or in multiple geographically dispersed locations around the globe without
requiring an agent or additional hardware. PowerEdge M-series blade servers use the redundant
power, cooling and networking infrastructure provided by the Dell M1000e blade enclosure, which
is exceptionally easy to deploy and manage and maximizes power and cooling efficiency.
PowerEdge M820 Technical Guide
5