Review: Fujitsu Primergy RX2540 M1

Introduction and spec

Servers based on Intel's Haswell-based Xeon processors are fast becoming commonplace with all the big vendors (and most of the small ones) having now refreshed their product lines with the new silicon. Not least Fujitsu, which added the RX2540 M1 to its Primergy line-up at the start of the year to better meet the needs of businesses looking to host demanding compute-hungry applications.

Design

Built to the usual high standard expected of a Fujitsu Primergy server, the RX2540 M1 is a 2U rack mount beast, delivered in the now familiar black and green livery of the Primergy family. Designed for tool-free maintenance, the top simply lifts off for ease of access and there are dual redundant power supplies which slide into place at the rear. The review system came with 800W supplies, although lower (400W) alternatives are available, and higher – 1200W – for more power-hungry configurations.

The processors account for much of that power consumption with two sockets to take Intel E5-2600 v3 Xeons, managed by an Intel C610 chipset. Ours came with a pair of E5-2660 V3 chips fitted, these midrange 2.6GHz processors equipping the server with a total of 20 cores/40 threads for a relatively modest TDP of 105W per socket.

Of course you don't have to stick with these chips. Indeed, a further 20 processor SKUs can be specified, ranging from 6 to 18 cores per processor at varying clock speeds to suit a variety of workloads. But watch out for heavy price penalties at the high end as these can add significantly to the overall cost.

Memory can be costly too, as in addition to the new Xeons, the latest ultra-quick DDR4 RAM is employed on this server with, as might be expected, ECC protection as standard. Up to 768GB can be accommodated in total, in 24 DIMM slots, the review system shipping with a decent 128GB on just eight 2133MHz RDIMM modules.

Storage options

Yet more care is needed when it comes to storage, with different chassis configurations required depending on the number and physical size of drives you want to support. Go for 3.5-inch disks, for example, and you can have four, eight or twelve bays, with four located at the rear of the chassis on the 12-bay model.

Opt for 2.5-inch and you have exactly the same choice of setups – the 2.5-inch disks screw into the same caddies as the larger disks – plus a 24-bay chassis with disks mounted vertically for database and other storage-heavy applications.

Just make sure you order the right configuration at the outset as upgrades are not possible for every combination.

In terms of the disks themselves there's the usual suspect list made up of SATA and SAS magnetic disks plus SSDs in varying capacities. Ours had four 300GB SAS drives, in 2.5-inch format with a 15K spin speed.

The disks can all be cabled to the integrated controller but, on this type of server, a plug-in RAID adapter is more usual. To this end the review system came with one of Fujitsu's own, a PRAID EP400i card based on an LSI 12Gbps RAID-on-Chip processor offering RAID levels 0,1,5 and 6 with optional flash-based backup.

Keeping cool

Of course all this hardware can generate a lot of heat so cooling is looked after by a bank of five hot-swap fans in the centre of the chassis plus a couple of smaller fans in the power supplies. These make the usual jet engine "woosh" as the server powers up, but otherwise, proved no noisier than those employed in other rack-mount systems we've tested.

The RX2540 M1 also features Fujitsu's latest Cool-safe Advanced Thermal Design (ADT) technology, supposedly enabling it to operate in relatively high ambient temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius.

Networking, management and verdict

The usual connectivity options are built into the RX2540 M1, mostly in the form of USB and network ports. To this end the server we were sent had four Gigabit network interfaces round the back. However, instead of an on-board controller, they came in the form of plug-in module or "DynamicLOM" in Fujitsu-speak.

Short for LAN on Motherboard, this small adapter plugs into a custom connector rather than taking up a PCIe slot, with the option of upgrading to 10GbE if required. Alternatively, buyers with less demanding requirements can swap the four Gigabit ports for two and save a little money.

Unlike rivals HP and Dell, Fujitsu offers little in the way of lifecycle management tools but there is a built-in remote management controller on the RX2540 M1 – a Fujitsu iRMC S4, with its own independent network interface. This can be accessed through a browser, providing remote access to monitor and manage both the hardware and, via a Java-based remote console, the operating system on the server.

It's not the prettiest of interfaces but it does cover all the more important bases, including power management, and proved to be as responsive as any we've used.

And lastly, there's plenty of space for further IO expansion with six PCIe slots on the motherboard which, using optional risers, can be extended to eight to take all manner of plug-in adapters.

Verdict

Performance-wise the RX2540 M1 delivers what you would expect from a dual-socket server, especially one with an over-abundance of cores and threads at its disposal. Moreover, with no significant bottlenecks in the Fujitsu design compared to other vendors it offers excellent value for money, the review system selling for £9,560 ex VAT (around $14,100, AU$18,460).

Yes, the management software is looking a little dated, but it works, and that apart you get a lot for your money from this solid midrange rack-mount server.

We liked

A workmanlike and very capable design, the Primergy RX2540 M1 delivers a high basic spec plus a full complement of configuration options. We particularly liked the DynamicLOM networking module which makes it easy to add 10GbE without taking up a PCIe slot, and the built-in remote management controller which started working as soon as the server was powered up.

There's also plenty of room for expansion, whether adding Fibre Channel adapters or GPU cards, and the thermal design should help save money on data centre cooling.

We disliked

In terms of hardware the Primergy RX2540 M1 is as good as similar rack-mount servers from the likes of Dell and HP. On the downside it lacks a few bells and whistles, such as the internal dual SD card for an embedded hypervisor on Dell Poweredge servers, for example. Other than that, however, the only real issue we had was with the management software, which could do with a bit of a refresh, particularly in the interface department.

Final verdict

Fujitsu has employed the latest Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors and DDR4 memory to good effect, creating a very flexible dual-socket server that can be configured to handle a wide variety of workloads. A little over-the-top for file and print duties, it has the processing power and data capacity to be configured to handle everything from web, email and database hosting to large scale virtualisation, VDI and private cloud deployments.

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