Dell PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System Support Matrix

This section contains both general and model-specific connectivity and consideration rules for ME4 Series storage systems. The rules that are listed in the following table apply to all ME4 Series storage system models. For rules applying to specific ME4 storage system models, see Table 2 and Table 3.

Table 1. Rules for all ME4 Series storage systemsME4 Series storage system rules

Rule	SAS	10GBase-T iSCSI	CNC
Deploying a drive on a system writes metadata to the drive that is not compatible between ME Series storage systems. For this reason, ME4 Series storage systems do not support drives that have already been deployed either internally on an ME5 Series base system or on an expansion enclosure that has been used on an ME5 Series storage system. The reverse is also true: a drive that has been deployed on an ME4 Series storage system (internally or on an expansion) cannot be used in an ME5 Series system.
Maximum number of host servers that a single storage system can connect to with one RAID controller module installed	4	256	256
Maximum number of host servers that a single storage system can connect to with two RAID controller modules installed	8 (4, if using high availability or redundancy)	256	256
Maximum number of Dell 12 Gbps SAS HBA cards that are supported in a single host server that is attached to single storage system. Dell recommends that you use two Dell 12 Gb SAS HBA cards for all redundant cabling configurations.	2 (each card has two ports)	N/A	N/A
Unused ports on a Dell 12 Gbps SAS HBA card already connected to an ME4 SAS storage system cannot connect to another device (such as a tape drive or other model storage system)		N/A	N/A
Maximum number ME4 Series storage system to which a host server can connect	2 (HA)	4	4
A hot spare for a disk group must be a drive of equal or greater size than any of the member disks
On Linux systems, Device Mapper multipath is required for multipath support
Coexistence of several Linux multipath drivers is not supported. For an ME4 series storage system with Linux host servers, only the Linux Device Mapper failover driver is supported
Virtual disks on ME4 Series storage system cannot be used for booting
Disk Groups can be migrated between a ME4 Series storage systems by following the appropriate disk pool migration procedure
Maximum SSD cache size that is allowed is two SSDs
All iSCSI host ports on a controller must have the same port speed	N/A
Maximum 12 Gbps SAS cable length that is supported is 4 m
iSCSI network rules: If the iSCSI initiators are connected to ME4 Series storage systems through the network switches, ensure that your switches support IEEE 802.3x flow control, and the flow control is enabled for both sending and receiving on all switch ports and server NIC ports If you do not enable the flow control, your iSCSI storage may experience degradation of the I/O performance In addition to enabling the Ethernet IEEE 802.3x flow control, Dell recommends that you disable unicast broadcast storm control on the switch ports that are connected to the iSCSI initiators and target storage systems. Dell also recommends turning on the "PortFast" mode of the spanning tree protocol (STP) on the switch ports that are connected to the iSCSI initiators and target system Turning on the PortFast mode is different from turning off the whole operation of STP on the switch. With PortFast on, STP is still enabled on the switch ports. Turning off STP may affect the entire network and can leave the network vulnerable to physical topology loops.	N/A
For optimal I/O performance, avoid having more than one iSCSI session originating from one host iSCSI port to the same controller. Ideally, the iSCSI host NIC must connect to only one iSCSI target port on the storage subsystem	N/A
The FC can connect at either or 8 Gbps and 16 Gbps, however 16 Gbps is recommended NOTE Only 16 Gbps adapters are supported. See Supported Fibre Channel host bus adapters.	N/A	N/A
The 10GBaseT iSCSI controller module can auto-negotiate to 1 Gbps. The CNC requires a 10 Gbps connection	N/A
Remote replication is not supported when the replication connection is directly connected. It must be in a switch topology	N/A
Replication within iSCSI topology between ME4 series storage systems is supported regardless of connection speed. Replication between iSCSI and FC topology is not supported	N/A		N/A
Replication within FC topology between ME4 storage systems is supported regardless of connection speed. Replication between iSCSI and FC topology is not supported	N/A	N/A
Online Drive firmware upgrade is not supported and might cause hosts to lose connectivity with the storage system
When using drives that are 6 TB or larger, it is recommended to use either a RAID 6 Disk Group or an ADAPT Disk Pool. Due to the increased amount of time that is taken to reconstruct and copy-back, the chances for a second drive failure increases on either a RAID 1/10 or a RAID 5 Disk Group
Data Assurance capable drives are supported in the storage system, however the Data Assurance feature is not available for these storage systems
To create an NRAID, RAID 0, or RAID 3 (linear-only) disk group, you must use the CLI. For more information, see the Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System CLI Guide.
Disk groups and pools Maximum virtual pools per controller module = 1 Maximum usable virtual pool size per controller module = 512 TiB with the large pools feature disabled in the CLI and 1 PB with the large pools feature enabled in the CLI NOTE Active snapshots and replications use a substantial amount of the reserved space and undesired effects might occur if the reserved space is completely consumed. Use the CLI command show snapshot-space to monitor space usage. Maximum disk group size = Unlimited (non-ADAPT); 1 PB (ADAPT) Maximum disk groups per pool = 16 Maximum virtual disk groups per controller module = 16 Maximum linear disk groups per controller module = 32 Maximum dedicated spares per linear disk group = 4 Maximum global spares per system = 64 Maximum ADAPT groups per controller module = 4 Maximum ADAPT single disk size = 64 TiB ADAPT stripe width = 8+2
Minimum and maximum disks per virtual disk group: NRAID (non-RAID):1/1 (read cache only) RAID 0: 2/2 (read cache only) RAID 1: 2/2 RAID 3 Not supported RAID 5: 3/16 RAID 6: 4/16 RAID 10: 4/16 RAID 50: Not supported ADAPT: 12/128
Minimum and maximum disks per linear disk group: NRAID (non-RAID):1/1 RAID 0: 2/16 RAID 1: 2/2 RAID 3: 3/16 RAID 5: 3/16 RAID 6: 4/16 RAID 10: 4/16 RAID 50: 6/32 ADAPT: 12/128
Volumes, Initiators, hosts, and mapping: Maximum virtual volumes per system = 1024 Maximum linear volumes per system = 512 (recommended) Maximum volume size of a virtual volume = 128 TiB (approximately 140 TB) Maximum volume size of a linear volume = equal to the maximum size limit of the disk group Maximum mappable volumes (LUNs) per disk group = 128 Maximum mappable virtual volumes (LUNs) per pool = 512 Maximum mappable linear volumes (LUNs) per pool = 128 Maximum mappable volumes (LUNs) per controller module = 512 Maximum virtual volumes per pool = 1024 (512 base volumes and 512 snapshots) NOTE Active snapshots and replications use a substantial amount of the reserved space and undesired effects might occur if the reserved space is completely consumed. Use the CLI command show snapshot-space to monitor space usage. Maximum linear volumes per pool = 1024 Maximum virtual volumes per volume group = 1024 Maximum volume groups per controller module = 256 Maximum volumes per host port = 1024 (Microsoft Windows limits access to 256) Maximum initiators per host port = 1024 Maximum initiators per controller module = 4096 Maximum initiators per host = 128 Maximum hosts per host group = 256 Maximum host groups per system = 32 Maximum commands per LUN (preferred path = 4096 Maximum queue depth per host port = 1024
Supported FC/iSCSI module host-port configurations per controller module: 4 ports FC 4 ports iSCSI 2 ports FC and 2 port iSCSI	N/A	N/A
Virtual volume snapshots: Maximum snapshots per pool = 512 Maximum base volumes per system = 1024 Maximum base snapshots per volume 254 in the volume snapshot tree with a license and the large pools feature disabled in the CLI 8 in the volume snapshot tree with the large pools feature enabled in the CLI Maximum mappable snapshots per system = 1024 NOTE Active snapshots and replications use a substantial amount of the reserved space and undesired effects might occur if the reserved space is completely consumed. Use the CLI command show snapshot-space to monitor space usage.
Virtual volume replication: Maximum number of peer connections per system = 4 Maximum number of replicated volumes per system = 32 Maximum number of replicated sets for a volume = 1 Maximum number of volumes for a replicated volume group = 16, if no other volumes belong to a replication set Minimum replication frequency that can be scheduled = 1	N/A
Maximum SCSI reservations Per controller module = 1024 Per LUN = 1
Maximum SCSI registrations for virtual storage Per system: 32768 Per LUN: 4096
Maximum SCSI registrations for linear storage Per system: 32768 Per FC LUN: 128 Per iSCSI LUN: 85-128 depending on IQN length Per SAS LUN: 128
Presenting the same volume (LUN) through FC AND iSCSI to one or more hosts or host groups is not supported.	N/A	N/A

Table 2. Rules for ME4012 and ME4024 storage systemsME4012 and ME4024 storage system rules

Rule	SAS	10GBaseT iSCSI	CNC
System maximum is up to 4 PB or 336 disk drives, whichever comes first. For example: 336 disk drives x 12 TB = 4 PB 252 disk drives x 16 TB = 4 PB 224 disk drives x 18 TB = 4 PB
Up to nine additional ME412/ME424 expansion enclosures or three ME484 expansion enclosures are supported. A combination of ME412/ME424 and ME484 expansion enclosures is not supported. 2U12 storage system + nine 2U12 expansion enclosures = 120 disk drives 2U12 storage system + nine 2U24 expansion enclosures = 228 disk drives 2U12 storage system + three 5U84 expansion enclosures = 264 disk drives 2U24 storage system + nine 2U12 expansion enclosures = 132 disk drives 2U24 storage system + nine 2U24 expansion enclosures = 240 disk drives 2U24 storage system + three 5U84 expansion enclosures = 276 disk drives
Embedded SMI-S provider: Maximum mapping paths (where a path is a volume that is presented through a host port to an initiator) = 250 SMI-S is not supported for a system with 5U84 enclosures
Presenting the same volume (LUN) through FC AND iSCSI to one or more hosts or host groups is not supported.	N/A	N/A

Table 3. Rules for ME4084 storage systemsME4084 storage system rules

Rule	SAS	10GBaseT iSCSI	CNC
System maximum is up to 4 PB or 336 disk drives, whichever comes first. For example: 336 disk drives x 12 TB = 4 PB 252 disk drives x 16 TB = 4 PB 224 disk drives x 18 TB = 4 PB
Support for up to three ME484 additional expansion enclosures: 5U84 storage systems + three 5U84 expansion enclosures = 336 disk drives
Disk drive blanks are not required for empty drive slots
Minimum number of disks in an enclosure is 28 The number of rows must not differ by more than 1 between the top and bottom drawers. The rows should be populated from front to rear of drawer
SMI-S is not supported for a system with 5U84 expansion enclosures