POWERSCALE F200 AND

F600 INSTALLATION AND

MAINTENANCE

PARTICIPANT GUIDE

PARTICIPANT GUIDE
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 PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance-SSP

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Table of Contents

PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance ......................................... 2

PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance Objectives ................................. 3
Overview .............................................................................................................................. 4
Gen 6.5 Hardware Components........................................................................................... 5
Architecture Overview .......................................................................................................... 7
Journal - NVDIMM ............................................................................................................... 8
Drive Bays ........................................................................................................................... 9
Capacity Options................................................................................................................ 10
Network Connectivity ......................................................................................................... 12
Breakout Cables ................................................................................................................ 13
Backend Switch Support .................................................................................................... 14
Under the Cover ................................................................................................................ 15
Hardware Monitoring - isi_hwmon ................................................................................... 21
Indicator Lights .................................................................................................................. 22
FRU Steps for Internal Components .................................................................................. 24
Serial Number .................................................................................................................... 27
Safety Precautions and Considerations ............................................................................. 29
FRUs and CRUs ................................................................................................................ 30
SmartPools Considerations ................................................................................................ 31

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 PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance

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 PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance

PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and

Maintenance

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 PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance

PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance

Objectives

The PowerScale F200 and F600 Installation and Maintenance course provides an
overview of the Dell EMC F200 and F600 products. Following this course, you will
be able to:
→ Explain the differences between the F200 and F600.
→ Identify the F200 and F600 hardware components.
→ Describe the CRUs and FRUs.

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Overview

F600 3-node cluster.

The introduction of the F200 and F600 offers a low entry price point for an all flash
solution. Also, the F200 and F600 have the flexibility to add nodes individually, as
opposed to a Generation 6 chassis with a two node minimum. The platforms offer a
range of network and capacity options.

• F200:
− Uses low-cost SAS SSDs
− Single-CPU platform
− Use cases: Remote office or back office, factory floors, IoT, retail. The F200
also targets smaller companies in the core verticals, and partner solutions,
including OEM.
− Similar performance but has a higher cost/TB than an H500.
• F600:

− Uses low-cost NVMe SSDs

− Dual-CPU platform
− Use cases: Performant workflows (M&E, EDA, HPC, and others), with some
cost sensitivity and less demand for capacity are ideal.
− Lower performance than F800 and F810

Tip: The front panel has limited functionality compared to previous

PowerScale generations. You can use the front panel to join a node
to a cluster, and it displays node name.

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Gen 6.5 Hardware Components

Gen 6.5 requires a minimum of three nodes to form a cluster. You can add single
nodes to the cluster. The F600 and F200 are a 1U form factor and based on the
R640 architecture.

Graphic shows F200 or F600 node pool.

1
5

8 2

7 4

1: Scaling out an F200 or an F600 node pool only requires adding one node.

2: For front-end connectivity, the F600 uses the PCIe slot 3.

3: Each Gen F200 and F600 node provides two ports for backend connectivity. The
PCIe slot 1 is used.

4: Redundant power supply units - When a power supply fails, the secondary
power supply in the node provides power. Power is supplied to the system equally
from both PSUs when the Hot Spare feature is disabled. Hot Spare is configured
using the iDRAC settings.

5: Disks in a node are all the same type. Each F200 node has four SAS SSDs.

6: The nodes come in two different 1U models, the F200 and F600. You need three
like nodes to form a cluster.

7: The F200 front-end connectivity uses the rack network daughter card (rNDC).

8: Each F600 node has 8 NVMe SSDs.

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Important: The F600 nodes have a 4-port 1 GB NIC in the rNDC

slot. OneFS does not support this NIC on the F600.

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Architecture Overview

Attribute F200 F600

Chassis PowerEdge R640 4x3.5” PowerEdge R640 10x2.5”

CPU Single Socket Intel Cascade Dual Socket Intel Cascade

Lake 4210 (2.2 GHz, 10C) Lake 4210 (2.2 GHz, 10C)

Memory 48 GB (6x8GB Single Rank 128 GB (8x16GB Dual Rank

DDR4 RDIMMs) DDR4 RDIMMs)
96 GB (6x16GB Dual Rank 192 GB (12x16GB Dual Rank
DDR4 RDIMMs) DDR4 RDIMMs)
384 GB (12x32GB Dual Rank
DDR4 RDIMMs)

Journal 16 GB (1x16GB Single Rank DDR4 NVDIMM-N)

IDSDM 1x32GB micro SD (PSI information and temporary storage for

FW upgrade binaries)

Storage 4x2.5” SAS SSD drives (in 8x2.5” NVMe SSD drives
3.5” carrier) (bays 0 and 1 are blank, bays
2–9 are populated)

Frontend ports 2x10/25GbE 2x10/25GbE

or 2x100Gb

Backend ports 2x10/25GbE 2x100GbE

or 2x40GbE

Risers Riser Config 4, 2 x LP Riser Config 2, 3x16 LP, 1A +

2A

Power Supply Dual Redundant 750 W 100 V – 240 V, 50/60Hz

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Journal - NVDIMM

The F200 and F600 use a 16 GB NVDIMM for the journal.

The NVDIMM battery protects the journal in an unexpected power loss situation
and enables vault operations.

The vault operation saves contents from DRAM to NVDIMM flash, and a restore
process moves contents from NVDIMM back to DRAM during BIOS initialization on
power-up.

isi_hwmon monitors NVDIMM and the NVDIMM battery. If the NVDIMM battery
cannot support a vault operation, the node becomes read-only.

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Drive Bays

F200 Front View

Bay 0 Bay 1 Bay 2 Bay 3

Bay 0 and bay 1 - Bay 2 and Bay 4 and Bay 6 and Bay 8 and
NOT USED bay 3 bay 5 bay 7 bay 9

F600 Front View

The F200 has four SAS SSDs numbered from 0 to 3 and uses no SAS expander.

The F600 drive bays 0 and 1 are empty due to the internal cabling layout of the
node. The F600 has eight NVMe SSDs that use bays 2 to 9.

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Capacity Options

Each tab shows the capacity options for the nodes and minimum cluster.

F200

The F200 is the entry-level all-flash platform. Each node has 4 x 3.5” drive bays
with 2.5” drive trays. The F200 uses enterprise SAS SSDs, and data reduction is
standard.

Minimum Node Size *With Data Reduction Minimum Cluster

(raw) Capacity

3.8 TB 5.8 TB 17 TB with 960 GB

SSDs

7.68 TB 11.5 TB 35 TB with 1.92 TB

SSDs

15.36 TB 23 TB 69 TB with 3.84 TB

SSDs

*Average data reduction modifier is 1.5x, including OneFS overhead. Data

reduction results vary.

F600

The F600 is a mid level all flash platform. Each node has 8 x 2.5” usable drive bays
that use NVMe SSDs. Data reduction is standard.

Minimum Node Size *With Data Reduction Minimum Cluster

(raw) Capacity

15.36 TB 23 TB 69 TB with 1.92 TB

NVMe SSDs

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30.72 TB 46.8 TB 138 TB with 3.84 TB

NVMe SSDs

61.4 TB 92.2 TB 276.5 TB with 7.68 TB

NVMe SSDs

*Average data reduction modifier is 1.5x, including OneFS overhead. Actual data
reduction results will vary.

Tip: OneFS introduces F600 NVMe drive support. The isi

devices command syntax remains the same.

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Network Connectivity

The graphic shows a closer look at the external and internal connectivity.

Slot 1 is used for backend communication on both the F200 and F600.

Slot 3 is used for the F600 2x 25 GbE or 2x 100 GbE front-end network
connections.

The rack network daughter card (rNDC) is used for the F200 2x 25 GbE front-end
network connections.

The F200 and F600 have no dedicated management port.

PCIe slot 1 - used for all BE PCIe slot 3 - used for F600
communication FE

FE FE

rNDC used for F200 FE

Note: the graphic shows the R640 and does not represent the F200 and F600 PCIe and rNDC
configuration.

Tip: Interfaces are named "25gige-N" or "100gige-N." Interface

names may not indicate the link speed. For example, the interface
name for NICs that are running at the lower speed such as 10 Gb
do not change to "10gige-1." You can use ifconfig to check the
link speed.

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Breakout Cables

Example 1:4 breakout cables.

The 40 GbE and 100 GbE connections contain 4 individual lines of 10 GbE and 25
GbE.

Most switches support breaking out a QSFP port into four SFP ports using a 1:4
breakout cable.

The backend is managed automatically when the switch detects the cable type as a
breakout cable.

The front-end is often configured manually on a per port basis.

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Backend Switch Support

The table shows the supported switches and the considerations.

Legend:
• S - 1:1 supported
• LC - Line card required
• BO - Breakout cable (1:4)
• AN - Auto-negotiate to lower speed
• NS - Not supported
• XS - Supported, but not recommended

Switch Gen 6: Gen 6: F200: 10 F200: 25 F600: 40 F600:

10 40 GbE GbE GbE 100 GbE
GbE GbE

Dell Z9100 BO S XS BO XS S

Dell Z9264 BO S XS BO XS S

Dell S4148 S NS S AN NS NS

Dell S4112 S NS S AN NS NS

Arista 7308 LC S LC LC/AN AN NS

Arista 7304 S LC S AN LC/AN NS

Celestica BO S BO BO/AN AN NS
D4040

Celestica S NS S AN NS NS
D2060

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Under the Cover

The graphic shows the F600 with the cover removed.

1
3
4 8

5 9
10
6
7
11

1: CPU2 is available on the F600. On the F200, this area is the location of the
NVDIMM battery.

2: CPU1 is populated on the F200 and F600.

3: High-performance fans. To maintain proper cooling while the system is on,

replace only one fan at a time. Fans are labeled 1 to 8. The topmost fan in the
graphic is fan 1.

4: NVDIMM battery. The NVDIMM battery is not hot-swappable. To prevent data

loss and potential damage to the node, ensure that the node, the LEDs on the
node, the LEDs on the NVDIMM and the LEDs on the NVDIMM battery are off
before removing the NVDIMM battery.

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5: Disk drives. The F200 uses SAS SSDs, and the F600 uses NVMe SSDs. Hard
drives are supplied in hot swappable hard drive carriers that fit in the hard drive
slots. You can check the status indicator on the carrier to identify a faulted hard
drive.

6: DIMM. The F200 uses 48 GB (6x8GB Single Rank DDR4 RDIMMs) or 96 GB

(6x16GB Dual Rank DDR4 RDIMMs). The F600 uses 128 GB (8x16GB Dual Rank
DDR4 RDIMMs), or 192 GB (12x16GB Dual Rank DDR4 RDIMMs), or 384 GB
(12x32GB Dual Rank DDR4 RDIMMs). Both the F200 and F600 journal use a
16GB NVDIMM (1x16GB Single Rank DDR4 NVDIMM-N).

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7: Backplane. Label each hard drive before removing from the node to ensure that
the drives are returned to the same drive bay.

8: Power supply units (PSU). The node needs one PSU for normal operation.
Remove and replace only one PSU at a time in a node that is powered on. PSUs
must be of the same type and have the same maximum output power.

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9: Internal Dual SD Module (IDSDM). The F200 and F600 nodes use one of the
two micro SD slots. The micro SD shows up in OneFS as a USB device (da0).
isi_hwmon monitors IDSDM. IDSDM in OneFS is used for secondary backup for
PSI information and temporary storage for FW upgrade binaries.

10: Frontend NIC. The F600 uses PCIe slot 3 for front-end connectivity, and the
F200 uses the rack network daughter card (rNDC).

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F200 rNDC.

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F600 PCIe card in the expansion card riser.

11: Backend. The backend NIC is installed in slot 1 for both the F200 and F600.
The F200 has a 25 GbE NIC while the F600 uses a 100 GbE NIC.

Backend NIC on the riser.

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Hardware Monitoring - isi_hwmon

OneFS uses isi_hwmon for hardware monitoring1, except for drives. It generates
alerts when the system is degraded or when you must replace the hardware.

Improvements to isi_hwmon include:

• Managing new event creation and event ending
• Command line to dump monitoring blocks diagnostic data
• Monitoring block dependencies
• Logging and debugging characteristics
• Logs at /var/log/isi_hwmon.log

OneFS has integrated support for the PowerTools Agent (PTA) and the iDRAC
Service Module (iSM) to support hardware monitoring in the F200/F600.

1The hardware that "isi_hwmon" monitors on the F200 and F600 are: iDRAC
Services, IDSDM, NVDIMM Battery, NVDIMM persistence, chassis fans, DIMM
health, chassis intrusion, system thermals, system power supplies, and system
sensors.

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Indicator Lights

Disk Drive

Upper - status indicator Lower -

activity indicator

SSD - indicators on left side of carrier.

The hard drive carrier LED indicator and a status LED indicator provide information
about the hard drive status. The activity LED indicator indicates whether the drive is
in use or not. The status LED indicator indicates the power condition of the drive.

See the PowerScale F200/F600 Hard Disk Drive Replacement Guide for a
complete list of indicator codes.

Status Indicator Condition

Flash green twice per second Identifying drive or preparing for removal

Off Ready for removal

Flash amber 4 times per second Drive failed

Solid green Drive online

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Power Supply Unit

Status Indicator

PSU indicator light on the handle.

The table describes the AC PSU status indicators.

Indicator Condition

Green PSU operational

Blinking amber Problem with PSU

No light PSU not receiving power

Blinking green PSU firmware update - interrupting power

can cause the PSU to lose functionality

Blinking green and turns off • Hot plugging - blinks green five times at a
rate of 4 Hz and turns off.
• PSU mismatch of efficiency, feature set,
health status, or supported voltage.

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FRU Steps for Internal Components

The graphic shows the high-level steps for node component replacements. Always
reference the appropriate PowerScale replacement guide for detailed procedures.

* Smartfail is used for drives that need replacement.

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9 10

1: If you are replacing a disk drive, use the management software to prepare the
hard drive for removal. If OneFS has not automatically Smartfailed the drive, you
can Smartfail the drive using the actions in the WebUI, Cluster management,
Hardware configuration, Drives page. You can also use the isi devices
smartfail command.

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Click image to enlarge.

2: Collect the cluster logs before all maintenance procedures. Cluster logs provide
snapshots of the cluster, which you can review to ensure that maintenance is
successful.

Click image to enlarge.

3: Power off the node before performing maintenance. The example shows using
the Configuration Wizard to shut down the node 5.

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Click image to enlarge.

4: Ensure that the node is powered off and then label the cables. Disconnect the
power and I/O cables from the node.

5: Extend the node using the two slam latches on the left and right side. Once you
extend the node, you can remove the cover to get access to the internal FRU
components.

6: The first step is to remove the cover. Reference the replacement guide and the
demonstration videos for detailed procedures.

7: Once you replace the component and install the cover, push the node inward
until it locks into place. If necessary, install the PSUs.

8: Reconnect I/O cables and then the power cables according to the labeling.

9: As a best practice to ensure that the system is healthy before declaring the node
or cluster ready for production, run health checks. Collect cluster logs after all
maintenance. Cluster logs provide snapshots of the cluster that you can review to
ensure that maintenance is successful.

10: After all work is complete, update the install database using the Business
Services portal.

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Serial Number

Use /etc/isilon_serial_number or isi_hw_status command to display

the node serial number.

The serial number should match the service tag.

The service tag is in the front of the system or may be on a sticker on the chassis
of the system. The mini Enterprise Service Tag (EST) is found on the back of the
system. Dell uses the information to route support calls to the appropriate
personnel.

Performing a chassis replacement2 should retain the service tag information.

F200 with the System Service Tag on the front.

1
2 3 4

5 6

1: Pull out the information tag in front of the system to view the Express Service
Code and Service Tag.

2 An F200/F600 chassis replacement is done when replacing a system board

(motherboard). The replacement retains the service tag data. iDRAC and OneFS
retain the Identify Module (IDM) settings. The replacement retains other critical
data and resources for the hardware. When the replacement is done, EasyRestore
runs to enable you to retain critical information that is not stored on the system
board.

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2: Top view of the service tag.

3: Back view of the service tag.

4: OpenManage Mobile (OMM) label.

5: Service Tag.

6: iDRAC MAC address and iDRAC secure password label.

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Safety Precautions and Considerations

Load Bearing: Nodes weigh 21.9 kg (48.3 lbs.). Do not attempt to lift
the system without help.

Prevent the risk of electrical shock. Do not open or remove the

system cover while the system is powered on.

Use an anti-static mat and an anti-static wristband while working on

components inside the system.

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FRUs and CRUs

Component FRU/CRU Link to High-Level

Replacement Video

Bezel CRU Not Available

SSD CRU Video

PSU CRU Video

Fans FRU Video

IDSDM FRU Not Available

SD Card FRU Not Available

DIMM and NVDIMM FRU Video

NVDIMM Battery FRU F200 Video

F600 Video

Motherboard FRU Not Available

System Battery FRU Video

CPU FRU Not Available

Backend NIC FRU Video

Frontend NIC - F600 FRU Video

Frontend NIC rNDC - FRU Video

F200

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SmartPools Considerations

Listed are areas to consider:

• Neighborhood splits are same as Gen 5 - first split when node 40 added to
cluster.
• L3 is disabled.
• 8K inodes are on by default.
• There are no changes to compatibility rules.
• Disk pool view:

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