United States
Q
What is the Dell PowerVault MD38xx series?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx series is a line of dense, high-performance block storage arrays designed for midrange workloads, offering up to 15 drives in a 1U chassis with 12Gb/s SAS connectivity.
Q
What drive types and capacities does the Dell PowerVault MD38xx support?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx supports SAS, NL-SAS and SSD drives ranging from 300GB to 16TB per drive, providing up to 240TB of raw capacity in a single chassis.
Q
How scalable is the Dell PowerVault MD38xx array?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx scales to 480 drives by cascading up to four 12Gb/s SAS expansion enclosures per controller, enabling petabyte-class capacity growth.
Q
Which RAID levels are supported by the Dell PowerVault MD38xx?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx supports RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 5 and 6, offering flexible data protection and performance tuning for diverse workloads.
Q
What host connectivity options does the Dell PowerVault MD38xx offer?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx provides dual active-active 12Gb/s SAS host ports with multi-path support for high availability and optimized throughput.
Q
What management tools are available for the Dell PowerVault MD38xx?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx integrates with Dell Storage Manager for unified array management and Dell EMC OpenManage for monitoring and alerting.
Q
Can the Dell PowerVault MD38xx integrate with VMware and Hyper-V?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx is certified for VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, ensuring seamless deployment and optimized performance in virtualized environments.
Q
What performance can I expect from the Dell PowerVault MD38xx?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx delivers up to 330,000 IOPS and 4.6GB/s throughput per array, supporting demanding database, virtualization and tiered storage applications.
Q
What are the power and cooling specifications for the Dell PowerVault MD38xx?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx features redundant, hot-swap power supplies and fans in a 1U chassis, providing high efficiency and low power consumption to meet data center standards.
Q
What warranty and support options are available for the Dell PowerVault MD38xx?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx includes a 3-year ProSupport warranty with optional ProSupport Plus for 24×7 expert support and next-business-day onsite hardware replacement.
Q
How do I expand capacity on a Dell PowerVault MD38xx array?
A
To expand Dell PowerVault MD38xx capacity, connect additional MD38xx or MD3812 expansion enclosures via SAS ports and use Dell Storage Manager to configure the new drives.
Q
What security features does the Dell PowerVault MD38xx offer?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx offers optional FIPS 140-2 self-encrypting drives and instant secure erase capabilities to protect data at rest and meet compliance requirements.
Q
With which server platforms is the Dell PowerVault MD38xx compatible?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx is compatible with Dell PowerEdge servers running Windows Server, major Linux distributions, VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V for broad deployment flexibility.
Q
What network requirements are needed to deploy the Dell PowerVault MD38xx?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx requires 12Gb/s SAS HBAs or a SAS switch for host connectivity and recommends redundant paths for high availability.
Q
How long does it take to deploy the Dell PowerVault MD38xx array?
A
Dell PowerVault MD38xx deployment typically completes in under one hour using Dell Storage Manager wizards for rack installation, cabling and RAID configuration.
Q
What use cases are best suited for the Dell PowerVault MD38xx?
A
The Dell PowerVault MD38xx is ideal for virtualization, OLTP databases, backup targets and general-purpose block storage where scalable, cost-effective performance is crucial.
