Demartek Evaluation of Dell PowerEdge VRTX Shared PERC8 in Failover Scenario

20 May 2014

Dell introduced its PowerEdge VRTX integrated IT solution for remote-office and small-office environments. This solution integrates servers, storage, networking and management in a single chassis designed with dimensions, acoustics and security for the office setting. The PowerEdge VRTX is an ideal platform for clustered servers because it contains the network and storage infrastructure needed for clustered servers within a single chassis. In order to provide enterprise-class fault tolerance for clustered servers, the PowerEdge VRTX can be configured with an optional, redundant PERC that eliminates any single point of failure in access to internal shared storage, and provides next-level data protection inside the chassis.

With the PowerEdge VRTX solution, Dell brings enterprise class high availability shared storage in a low-cost platform that does not require an external storage network, which can be cost prohibitive for these environments. Important applications such as databases, email applications and others can be deployed onto the PowerEdge VRTX platform with the redundant RAID controllers in a high availability configuration for relatively low cost compared to larger platforms that require additional, often expensive, equipment.

In order to validate the fault-tolerance of the Dell SPERC8 storage adapters, Dell commissioned Demartek to build a Windows Server 2012 R2 failover cluster with a PowerEdge VRTX system using two SPERC8 adapters, and run a database workload, testing the failover functions. The redundant PERC adapters were configured in an active/standby configuration where the second PERC was hot and ready to take over the workload in the event of failure of the first PERC adapter.

View the Demartek Evaluation of Dell PowerEdge VRTX Dual SPERC8 Failover
(PDF, 1278 KB)