Frequently Asked Questions: Dell PowerVault ME5

Entry Storage
Question: What is the short description for Dell PowerVault ME5?
Answer: Dell PowerVault ME5, the new gold standard for entry storage, is a block-level
storage platform ideal to meet the storage infrastructure needs of small and medium
size businesses (SMBs). PowerVault ME5 is optimized for SAN/DAS and validated
with Dell PowerEdge Servers to meet the performance, capacity and operational
simplicity requirements of price sensitive SMBs in support of a variety of high-value
workloads including HPC, Databases, VDI, Safety and Security, Backup, select Edge
use cases and others.

Question: What are the new orderable PowerVault ME5 models?

Answer: New base (RBOD) models:
- ME5012 (12 drives/2U) replaces ME4012 (2U)
- ME5024 (24 drives/2U) replaces ME4024 (2U)
- ME5084 (84 drives/5U) replaces ME4084 (5U)

Question: How has the product branding changed?

Answer: Product names will no longer carry “EMC” branding in the name.
New product brand: “Dell PowerVault ME5”
It will take a few months before product bezels, documentation, solutions etc. will all
change to the new branding.

Question: Are the new PowerVault ME5 RBODs an upgrade or refresh?

Answer: PowerVault ME5 RBOD’s are a complete HW refresh – this is not an upgrade.

Question: When will PowerVault ME5 be orderable & available?

Answer: General availability and orderability is February 22, 2022
- Customers can purchase PowerVault ME5 directly from www.dell.com
- ABU sales teams and Partners will continue to order PowerVault ME5 via
OSC/DSA
- EMEA and APJ sales teams will continue to use Gii to order PowerVault ME5

Question: How will PowerVault ME5 be priced?

Answer: Approximate street pricing for a valid configured ME5012 will start as low as $12,000
(USD), ME5024 as low as $13,000 (USD) and ME5084 as low as $40,000 (USD). Actual
prices may vary based on a variety of factors.

Question: What are some of the ideal use cases for PowerVault ME5?
Answer: PowerVault ME5 is an ideal SAN/DAS solution for these use cases:
- VMware and Microsoft Virtualization

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 - Virtual Desktop Integration (500 desktops)
- Safety and Security (CCTV at the Edge)
- HPC Parallel File Systems (BeeGFS, PixStore, NFS)
- Microsoft SQL Databases
- PowerEdge Server Capacity Expansion (DAS)
o PowerVault ME5 is PowerEdge 16G ready
- Select Edge use cases including Oil and Gas Exploration and Cloud Gaming
along with CCTV
- Low-cost backup storage
o PowerVault ME5 is Veeam certified

Question: What are some of the main PowerVault ME5 selling opportunities?
Answer: - Directly attached to Dell PowerEdge Servers – server capacity expansion
- Small-to-medium size businesses with budget constraints
- Applications not requiring low latency flash and NVMe performance
- Customers looking to refresh PowerVault ME4 and competitive arrays
- Opportunities to sell PowerVault ME for Edge use cases and into OEM

Question: What are the new features of PowerVault ME5 over PowerVault ME4?
Answer: PowerVault ME5 includes:
- Up to 2X more performance (up to 640K IOPs)
- New/faster Intel Xeon Processor with 2X more cores
- 70%+ overall increase in sequential Read/Write throughput
- Up to 4X more capacity to 6.0PB (Firmware is designed to accommodate up to
8PB when higher capacity drives become available)
- 2X more controller memory (16GB per controller / 32GB total)
- New 25Gb iSCSI optical and 32Gb FC protocols
- Increased virtual pool size to a maximum of 4PB per controller (8PB total)
- Support for new 7.68TB SSD
- Enhanced PowerVault Manager navigation and functionality including capacity &
activity monitoring
- New bi-directional async replication in a switched environment (ME4 to ME5;
ME5 to ME4; ME5 to ME5)
- PowerEdge 16G ready (when 16G launches)
- Enhanced SupportAssist functionality

Question: What is not changing with PowerVault ME5?

Answer: No changes to:
- Bezels (except for the ‘luggage tag’ identification)
- PowerVault branded EBOD models
- PowerVault min/max drive counts
- All-inclusive software including OME and Nagios support
- ME4 drives will not be supported in ME5 arrays or JBODs connected with ME5
- Management ecosystem support for CloudIQ, Nagios Core & XI, OME
- Number of expansion enclosures supported behind each ME5 RBOD model

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 Note: Check the ME5 Sourcebook for important limitations

Question: Which host operating systems will PowerVault ME5 support?

Answer: Supported ME5 host operating systems:
- Windows 2022, 2019, 2016
- RHEL 8.2, 7.8
- SLES 15.2, 12.5
- VMware 7.0, 6.7
- Citrix XenServer 8.x, 7.x

Question: Will PowerVault ME5 offer both single and dual controller arrays?
Answer: Yes, single and dual for ME5012 and ME5024. ME5084 is dual only

Question: Which drives and capacities will be supported on PowerVault ME5?

Drive Type Capacity ME5012 ME5024 ME5084 ME412 ME424 ME484
NLSAS 3.5" 4TB Yes N/A Yes Yes N/A Yes
8TB Yes N/A Yes Yes N/A Yes
12TB Yes N/A Yes Yes N/A Yes
16TB Yes N/A Yes Yes N/A Yes
16TB FIPS Yes N/A Yes Yes N/A Yes
18TB Yes N/A Yes Yes N/A Yes
10K 1.2TB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
2.4TB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
2.4TB FIPS Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SSD 2.5” 960GB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
1.6TB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
1.92TB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
3.84TB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
3.84TB FIPS Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
7.68TB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

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Question: What are the capacity expansion configuration/rules will PowerVault ME5 support?

Question: Will virtual and linear mode configurations still be options with PowerVault ME5?
Answer: Yes. One difference is that the 8PB maximum capacity of ME5 will be supported in
both modes unlike ME4

Question: Will PowerVault ME5 controllers remain active-active?

Answer: Yes.

Question: How many servers can PowerVault ME5 support in a DAS configuration?
Answer: PowerVault ME5 configured as DAS will support up to 8 servers (8 ports)

Question: Who are the main PowerVault ME5 competitors?

Answer: ME5 primarily competes against the following arrays:
- HPE MSA
- NetApp Engenio and FAS/AFF
- Huawei Oceanstor
- IBM Flash System 5015

Question: Will PowerVault ME5 competitive battle cards be available on Klue?

Answer: No. All ME5 battle cards will be accessible via Storage Central or directly from the
PowerVault ME5 Knowledge Center

Question: Will PowerVault ME5 include data reduction features?

Answer: No.

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Question: How do I know which controller to quote?
Answer: With the Optical iSCSI and FC controllers being separate, this comes down to the
speed and connection type the end user requires. The most important elements are:
- Bandwidth. Measured in bps. 10Gbps and 25Gbps are the most common for
iSCSI arrays. 8Gbps, 16Gbps and 32Gbps are common for Fiber Channel Arrays.
- Medium Type. This is the physical “cable” that the signal will travel over.
o Electrical Signal over copper
o Light Signal over Fiber-Optic cable
- Termination Type. This is fixed port that “connects” the port to the cable.
o RJ45 – Copper connection used for 1 and 10Gbps connections over Ethernet
Cable.
o SFP+ for 10Gbps and SFP28 for 25Gbps Optical connections. Both are used for
iSCSI.
o SFP+ for 8Gbps, 16Gbps, and 32Gbps Optical connections. These are optical Fiber
Channel transceivers and must plug into a Fiber Channel capable port.

Question: If I know my controller, then what cables and optics will I need?
Answer: The Dell Networking Optics and Cables Interop Matrix is a great source of
information for find the correct cable for a variety of platforms.
- SAS: Choose the correct length of SAS cable for your customers environment.
No Optics needed. Mini-SAS = 6Gbps, HD Mini-SAS = 12Gbps
- iSCSI Copper: 1Gbps and 10Gbps over Cat6 ethernet cabling. No Additional
Optics needed.
- iSCSI Optical: Transceivers will need to match the speed of the network. 10Gbps
will use SFP+, while 25Gbps will use SFP28 transceivers.
o One thing of note: DAC cables can be used in place of Optic transceivers for
distances 5M or shorter.
- FC: Choose the transceiver that matches the speed of the network. 8, 16, or 32GB.

Question: What optics should I use if I need to connect to another vendor’s switch?
Answer: On the PowerVault ME4 side you will find the optics on the Support Matrix.
However, connecting to other vendors switch or network card will require the
vendors optics and be connected over Fiber Optic patch leads (LC to LC) OM3. This
also applies to other vendors servers when connecting through direct attach using
optics.

Question: Can I use DAC cables to connect to another vendor switch or NIC?
Answer: No. Dell DAC cable are designed specifically to work with Dell Networking and
supported NIC’s. Please see the Support Matrix

Question: Can I connect a PowerVault ME5 directly to a fiber optic patch panel?
Answer: No. PowerVault ME5 needs to connect to a switch with the appropriate optics, then
using the uplink from the switch to the fiber optic patch panel

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Question: When will PowerVault ME4 EOL be announced?
Answer: PowerVault ME4 EOL will be communicated on or about ME5 external
announcement (2/23/22). Please look for a 411-communication describing the details.

Question: What all-inclusive software will be shipped with PowerVault ME5?

Answer: All the same software titles that were included with ME4 will also be included with
ME5. Only async replication* has been slightly enhanced for cross-gen replication:
- ADAPT RAID: (like Dynamic Disk Pooling - DDP) reduces drive rebuild times
- Thin Provisioning: Allocate and consume physical storage capacity as needed in
disk pools. Thin is virtual mode only.
- SSD Read Cache: Increase execution speed of applications by caching previously
read data
- *Replication: Safely replicate (async only) data over a switched environment to
any global location and between PowerVault ME arrays (ME4 to ME5; ME5 to
ME4; ME5 to ME5) with mirroring and thin provisioned pool support
- Snapshots: Easily recover files after accidental deletion or alteration with
Redirect on Write snaps
- 3 Level Tiering: Get great performance with less hardware expense
- Volume Copy/Clones: Enable seamless volume relocation and disk-based backup
and recovery with a full, replicated copy of source data
- Encryption (SEDs): Render data useless to unauthorized users with drive-level
encryption, even if the drive has been removed from the enclosure (internal key
management included)
- Virtualization Support: VMware vSphere, vCenter SRM, Microsoft Hyper-V

Question: What’s the difference between virtual storage and linear storage modes?
Answer: Virtual Storage Mode (system default) is the most common selection and is
recommended for most environments. Virtual storage allocates space in pages and
allows data to be moved to improve system performance of the storage system.
Virtual storage can support thin provisioning (user selectable), tiering, replication,
and many other features not available to linear configurations.

Linear Storage Mode is used in applications where performance and data workloads
dictate that data be allocated on disks in a contiguous fashion. Users in streaming
media and video editing environments may prefer the performance and raw capacity
available to a linear storage configuration. Features such as thin provisioning,
tiering, and replication are not available in a linear storage environment. Linear
storage is like thick provisioning.

Question: What type of management GUI is included with PowerVault ME5?

Answer: PowerVault ME5 will include an enhanced version of PowerVault Manager, a single
ME5 array management HTML5 GUI, with navigation and feature enhancements.

Question: What are the IO options offered with PowerVault ME5?

Answer: They include per controller:
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 - 4 ports 32/16Gb FC
- 4 ports 25/10Gb iSCSI SFP+
- 4 ports 10/1Gb iSCSI BaseT
- 4 ports 12Gb SAS

Question: Will PowerVault ME5 be included in PowerSizer?

Answer: Yes. ME5 is supported in PowerSizer 3.5: https://powersizer.dell.com

Question: Is PowerVault ME5 available to OEM customers through the Dell Technologies OEM
Solutions group?
Answer: Yes, the ME5 platform is OEM-Ready and available to OEM vendors just like the ME4
has been. OEM-Ready means the hardware, software, documentation and packaging
is available to order as de-branded (i.e. no Dell branding). The ordering of these
OEM-Ready systems is through the standard ordering tools and these de-branded
systems will ship as de-branded out of manufacturing. The OEM solutions team has
gone a step further by supporting customized branding options too. Custom
branding is where we allow an OEM customer to have their name and their logo on
the ME5 systems (i.e. a customer’s name and logo is on the hardware and user
interface). To order a custom branded system for an OEM customer, engage with
your OEM Solutions rep as custom branding is performed at a customer’s site or via
2nd touch.

Question: Why is “customized branding” so important to OEM customers?

Answer: Typically, OEM customers are looking to incorporate (embed, integrate or attach) the
Dell technology (e.g. Dell PowerVault ME5) with their own intellectual property (IP).
OEMs will then bring this complete solution (their IP with our technology) to market
and sell it to their customers as their own solution. In many instances these OEM
customers want to utilize the Dell brand as it represents quality, innovation and
worldwide reach. From time to time, OEM customers have unique GTM
requirements requiring a de-branded solution (i.e. no Dell branding) or a rebranded
solution (i.e. have their name and logo on the bezel, user interface, etc.).

Question: What solutions will be available and documented for PowerVault ME5?
Answer: The documented solutions that are available for ME5 can be found at:
https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/t/powervault/
1. SQL Server Best Practices for ME5
2. Hyper-V Best Practices for ME5
3. VMware Best Practices for ME5
4. VDI Best Practices for ME5
5. Small-Scale VDI Reference Architecture (500 desktops)

Question: What Support options will be available for PowerVault ME5?

Answer: There are two support options available for PowerVault ME5. Customers can choose
from:

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 • Dell ProSupport Plus for Enterprise provides proactive and predictive
measures to get ahead of problems before they happen.

• Dell ProSupport for Enterprise offers highly trained experts around the
clock and around the globe to address your IT needs, minimize disruptions
and maintain a high level of productivity.

Learn more at ProSupport Enterprise Suite

Question: What deployment options will be available for PowerVault ME5?

Answer: There are two deployment options available for PowerVault ME5. Customers can
choose from:

• Dell ProDeploy Plus for Enterprise the most complete deployment offer
available in the market, ensures you are ready for today and prepared for
tomorrow.

• Dell ProDeploy for Enterprise provides expert planning, installation and

configuration to help customers rapidly adopt new technologies and set the
organization up for success.

Learn more at ProDeploy Enterprise Suite

Question: Will PowerVault ME5 continue to be included in Future Proof?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Will PowerVault ME5 continue to be supported by CloudIQ?

Answer: Yes. CloudIQ will support ME5 in the same manner it does for ME4

Question: Will new product images be created for PowerVault ME5?

Answer: New ME5 product images will be available in the DAM. The only change to the
images is the updated “luggage tag” with the model’s name. These images will be
undergoing addition changes that reflect the update product bezel branding

Question: Where will PowerVault ME5 content reside online?

Answer: Storage Central / PowerVault ME5 Knowledge Center

Question: Who are the PowerVault ME5 PLM regional contacts?

Product Offer Manager Megumi Almendares
Americas NA ME4 PLMs Travis Fisher/ Rob Fanning
NA Storage PLM Mark Suchanek
LATAM Storage PLM Leticia Goldani
ME/MD Product Offer Manager Yee Sheng Tan
APJ Storage PLMs Bipin K
ME4 PLMs Patrick Quah
GC Storage PLM Yi Yang

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 ME4 PLMs Chuntao Hong / Yunzhao Li
ME/MD Product Offer Manager Lieza Sison
EMEA ME4 PLM Martin Pritchard / Selim Selveroglu

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