PowerVault NX400 Network Attached Storage
Single-socket, 1U rack mount NAS server

Overview:

The next generation of affordable and reliable rack-mounted network-attached storage (NAS) offers you advanced data management and efficient data sharing. The Dell™ PowerVault™ NX400 array is designed to improve performance with the latest version of Microsoft® Windows® Storage Server.

Network attached storage that offers automated setup and data management capabilities for efficient data sharing.

• Single-socket, 1U rack mount NAS server
• Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2400 product family
• Up to 16GB2 memory
• Up to four hot-swap 3.5” NL-SAS or SAS drives for data and OS (OS partition is 120GB2)
• Up to 16TB2 raw capacity

Enhanced NAS

The PowerVault NX storage appliances are easy to use and manage through a familiar, central management interface for stand-alone or cluster configurations:

• OS preinstalled for easy deployment
• Optimized for file serving with Windows Storage Server 2012 R2

PowerEdge platforms

Rely on high speed and efficiency with NAS appliances built on 12th generation PowerEdge rack mount server technology.

• The latest generation multi-core Intel® Xeon® processors
• Options for SATA, NL-SAS and SAS drives

Updated OS

The PowerVault NX family features Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 software offering Microsoft® Windows Server® 2012 R2 performance and versatility in the NAS appliances. It includes the latest SMB 3.0 features that support Hyper-V® and SQL Server®, continuous availability and failover clustering with NFS and Internet SCSI (iSCSI), as well as the automatic detection and use of multiple network connections between small and medium business (SMB) client and server.

Data management

Efficiently utilize your NAS capacity resources and optimize your disk space with integrated features within the PowerVault NX family, including:

• Data deduplication
• Thin provisioning
• DFS-R synchronization capabilities across limited bandwidth network connections in distributed and remote office environments
• Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for SMB file shares that allows backup operations using snapshots of remote file shares supporting SMB-based server applications
• Work Folders that facilitate Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), while maintaining a high level of security
• New Storage Spaces functionality that includes SSD write-back cache improved API that adds cluster awareness and remote management of Storage Spaces features

Simple management

Spend less time managing data and more time building your business using either Microsoft® System Center and the Remote Desktop for Administration feature in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2, or the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC7) Enterprise Edition to manage your data.

Benefits:

Efficient dedicated data sharing

This entry-level file-sharing system, based on enterprise-class Dell PowerEdge™ 12th generation server technology, is easy to manage with its integration of Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 (standard Edition and Workgroup Edition). This specialized operating system helps control growing storage demands by making file storage more efficient than previous generation solutions.

Maintaining productivity is essential for any business, so NX400 offers disparate users simplified access to files and shares across a network-wide infrastructure, even to remote offices. File shares are easy to locate and resilient.

NX400 with Windows Storage Server 2012 (WSS2012) R2 helps eliminate data clutter by identifying duplicate files, storing one copy and replacing others with pointers1. It also has a single management interface that delivers improved managed file services across CIFS/NFS, and offers improved control and compliance over files, ideal for audit and planning purposes.

Room to grow your business

PowerVault NX400’s efficient file sharing is packaged in a small, 1U form factor, allowing extra room in your rack for other systems and components. Plus, its maximum 16TB2 capacity allows plenty of space to grow files and shares — designed so you have room to grow your business.

Simple deployment and management

Avoid the hassle of building a file server from scratch. PowerVault NX400 is optimized for storing, sharing, and protecting files, and is integrated and ready to go out of the box. In fact, the PowerVault NX400 can be ready to share files within minutes.

Take full advantage of the Initial Configuration Tasks wizard to streamline the setup process. Also, there is no need to buy additional Client-Access Licenses (CALs) for each user you add to your NX400. Support for multiple users is already built into this file-sharing system.

Put the latest storage technology to work for you

Dell integrates the best of our PowerEdge servers with Windows latest Storage Server operating system, designed to improve reliability and performance. WSS2012 R2 enables the Server Message Block 3.0 (SMB3.0) protocol, which can improve performance with multichannel failover, and is designed to increase the reliability of application specific capabilities for Microsoft SQL Server® and Hyper-V®.

Thin provisioning, deduplication and compression provides additional data management optimization by optimizing capacity allocation on the NAS. For remote offices, the new BranchCache® feature improves branch office connectivity on low-speed, high-latency links.

Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 features

A new feature in Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 is called Work Folders. This feature allows you to Bring-Your-Ownd-Device (BYOD) so you can access work files from your personal computer or device, while keeping your organization's data sage through centralized controls, encryption and lock screen passwords.

Additionally there are new Storage Spaces functions that include storage tiering, SSD write-back cache, parity storage spaces on failover clusters, dual parity storage spaces, and faster recovery. An improved Storage Management API adds cluster awareness and remote management for these new Storage Spaces features.

WSS2012 R2 also enhances several of the current WSS2012 features, such as SMB protocol, iSCSI Target, DFS Replication, Deduplication. Changes to Failover Clustering and enhanced support for Hyper-V have made it faster and easier to implement continuous availability.

Technical Specifications:

PowerVault NX400
Product Configurations
Storage	Always four (4) 3.5” internal drives that must be identical in capacity and type (NL-SAS or SATA)
Max Internal Capacity	16TB raw capacity (with 4TB NL-SAS)
Types of Data	File and Block (Microsoft iSCSI target)
Drive Capacities	SATA (7.2K): 500 GB, 1TB, 2TB NL-SAS (7.2K): 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB
External Expansion	PowerVault MD1200/MD1220
Technical Highlights
Form Factor	1U rack mount system
Processor	Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2403 (4 Core) 10M cache or E5-2420 (6 Core) 15M cache
File Access Protocols	CIFS, NFS, FTP, SMB3.0, SMB Direct (RDMA)
Block Access Protocols	Leverages shared storage back end for block access; Microsoft iSCSI Target
OS supported	Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 (Standard and Workgroup Editions)
Standard RAID Options	RAID 5
Custom RAID Options	0, 1, 5, and 10 with the PowerEdge Raid Controller (PERC) H310 and 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10 with PERC H710
RAID Controller	PERC H310 or H710 (internal drives) or H810 (optional for external drives)
Power
AC Power/Max Current	Redundant, 550W (Platinum)
Chassis
Weight (Maximum)	19.3 kg (42.55 lb)
Empty Weight	16.33 kg (36 lb)
Height	42.8 mm (1.68 in)
Width	48.2 cm (18.98”)
Depth (excludes bezel)	607.0 mm (23.9 inch)
Availability	Hot-plug hard drives, hot-plug power
Cluster Support	No
Rack support	Sliding ReadyRails™ for 4-post racks Static ReadyRails™ for 4-post & 2-post racks
Slots	2 PCIe slots One x8 PCIe slot with x4 bandwidth, half-length, half-height One x16 PCIe slot with x16 bandwidth, half length, full height
Features
Memory	8GB2 or 16GB
Internal storage	Always four (4) 3.5” internal drives that must be identical in capacity and type (NL-SAS or SATA)
Management	Dell OpenManage™ featuring Dell Management Console
Remote management	Optional iDRAC Enterprise or Native Java RDP plug-in
Data protection features	SIS, DFS-R, Snapshots (VSS), FCI
Regulatory	Regulatory Model: E07S Regulatory Type: E07S001 Product Safety, EMC and Environmental Datasheets Dell Regulatory Compliance Home Page Dell and the Environment

Management
Dell OpenManage™ featuring Dell Management Console, iDRAC 7 Enterprise, Native Java RDP plug-in or Windows Server Management interface

Data Protection Features
DFS-R (Replication), VSS (Snapshots)

Data Management Features
Data deduplication with compression, FCI (File Classification Infrastructure), FSRM (File Server Resource Manager)

Documentation:

Dell PowerVault NX400 Datasheet (.PDF)