System Overview; Introduction - Dell PowerEdge R720 Technical Manual

1 System overview

Introduction

The Dell™ PowerEdge™ R720 and R720xd are Dell's latest two-socket, 2U rack servers that are
designed to run complex workloads using highly scalable memory, I/O capacity, and flexible
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network options. Both systems feature the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 and E5-2600 v2
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product families which offer up to 24 DIMMS, PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0-enabled expansion slots and a
choice of network interface card technologies.
The PowerEdge R720 is a general-purpose platform with highly expandable memory (up to 768GB)
and impressive I/O capabilities to match. The R720 can readily handle very demanding workloads,
such as data warehouses, e-commerce, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), databases and
high-performance computing (HPC).
In addition to the R720's capabilities, the R720xd offers extraordinary storage capacity, making it well
suited for data-intensive applications that require storage and I/O performance, like medical imaging
and email servers.
Manage data overload
Keep pace with the explosion of data in the virtual age with the flexible I/O and storage capabilities
of the R720 and R720xd. The R720 supports up to sixteen internal hard drives to increase your
capacity, while optional hot-plug, front-access Express Flash PCIe solid-state drives (up to four)
enable performance-enhancing, in-box storage tiering.
The PowerEdge R720xd allows you to quickly access and process vast amounts of data with up to
twenty-six internal hot-plug hard disks. The R720xd is a great solution for any midsize or large
business that requires scalability in storage capacity.
Tailor your network fabric
The R720 and R720xd allow you to tailor your network throughput to match your application needs,
enabling added I/O performance. Dell's Select Network Adapter options let you choose the right
network fabric without using up a valuable PCI slot. You can pick speed, technology, vendor and
other options, like switch independent partitioning which lets you share and manage bandwidth on
10GbE connections.
Virtualize more
Maximize your data center's application capacity by expanding your virtual environment using the
large memory footprint of the R720 and R720xd. Choose an industry-leading hypervisor and take
advantage of our system management capability to manage both physical and virtual assets.
Redundant failsafe hypervisors can also help maximize your virtual machines' uptime.
Dell OpenManage™ Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter for ESXi can
help you easily manage complex virtual environments.
Simplified systems management, without compromise
The Dell OpenManage systems management 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.
PowerEdge R720 and R720xd Technical Guide
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