
Dell PowerVault ME5084 Storage Array
Greater performance and scalability for a diverse set of high-value small to medium-sized business workloads
Overview:
PowerVault ME5 is the new gold standard for entry storage with blazing speed, higher capacity limits and even greater simplicity. PowerVault ME5 is a block-level entry storage platform with a dual-active controller architecture — optimized for SAN and DAS — ideal for high-performance computing, databases, small-scale VDI, security workloads and much more.
Entry storage purpose-built and optimized for SAN/DAS
The, simple, fast and affordable Dell PowerVault ME5 storage platforms are optimized to run a variety of mixed workload applications – physical and virtual – for small to medium size businesses. Whether you need to consolidate your block storage, support applications without the need for low latency flash and NVMe, take advantage of intelligent data management or scale capacity to keep pace with data growth, then PowerVault ME5 is ready to meet your growing business needs. The flexibility of PowerVault ME5 offers multiple protocols, supports a wide range of drive types and capacities, scales up to 8PB1 capacity, validated with Dell PowerEdge Servers (16G ready) and is delivered to you with all-inclusive software – so you’ll have the needed data services to store, manage, and protect your data.
Using fast Intel Xeon processors, Dell PowerVault ME5 storage implements a dual-active controller architecture, 12GB/sec read and 10GB/sec write throughput and uses a 12Gb SAS backend protocol for rapid capacity expansion.
Dell PowerVault ME5 base system and expansion models
The two non-dense ME5 base arrays start at 2U and the dense ME5 array starts at 5U. The base models all support dual-active controllers with each controller including 16GB of memory.
Optional ME5 expansion enclosures let you scale up to 336 drives or 8PB1 . PowerVault ME412 and ME424 expansion enclosures can only be used with either ME5012 or ME5024 base arrays. The ME484 dense expansion enclosure is supported behind any of the ME5 base arrays. A variety of SSD, 10K and NLSAS drives (including FIPS-certified SEDs) are available.
Features:
All-inclusive software innovation
PowerVault ME5 storage arrays deliver all the software you’ll need to store, manage and protect your data:
- ADAPT (Distributed RAID): Improved data protection functionality that delivers faster drive rebuild times
- Thin Provisioning: Allocate and consume physical storage capacity as needed in disk pools
- Snapshots:Easily recover data with point-in-time copies
- Replication:Replicate data to any global location and PowerVault ME storage system
- Volume Copy:Enables seamless volume relocation and disk-based backup and recovery
- SSD Read Cache: Increase execution speed of applications by caching previously read data
- 3-Level Auto-tiering:Optimizes data performance with less expense
- Virtualization integration:Integrate ME5 arrays with VMware vSphere and vCenter SRM and Microsoft Hyper-V
All-inclusive software simplicity
PowerVault ME5 provides features that simplify tasks such as system installation, configuration, and serviceability enabling IT generalists to manage resources more efficiently and focus on the bigger picture.
- Intuitive web-based (HTML5) management
- Simple to order with all-inclusive software
- Configurable in minutes
- Easily expandable
Optimized for SAN and DAS
PowerVault ME4 Series is purpose-built and optimized for SAN and DAS virtualized workloads. Connecting the PowerVault ME4 Series to a Dell PowerEdge Server to address the challenges of server capacity expansion or to a SAN for flexibility and PowerVault ME5 is purpose-built and optimized for SAN and DAS workloads. Connecting the PowerVault ME5 to a Dell PowerEdge server to address the challenges of server capacity expansion or to a SAN for flexibility and scalability ensures that business applications will always get high-speed and reliable access to their data – without compromise.
- Direct-attach to Dell PowerEdge servers
- Consolidate SAN storage
Protect your data
Keep your valuable information safe with these PowerVault ME5 features:
- Replication:Replicate data to any global location with either ME4 or ME5 target arrays and support for mirroring and thin-provisioned pools.
- Snapshots:Easily recover files after accidental deletion or alteration with Re-direct-on-Write snapshot copies.
- Virtual Disk Copy (VDC):Enable quick and seamless virtual disk relocation and disk-based backup and recovery with a full, replicated copy of source data.
- Self-encrypting drives (SEDs):Render data useless to unauthorized users with drive-level encryption, even if the drive has been removed from the enclosure.
Greater performance and capacity
PowerVault ME5, with faster Intel Xeon processors, dual-active controllers and a robust operating environment delivers:
- Up to 640K IOPs performance
- 12GB/s Sequential Read & 10GB/s Sequential Write throughput
- Up to 6.72PB capacity (Firmware is designed to support up to 8PB)
- 12Gb SAS backend for rapid capacity expansion
- ME5 firmware is designed to support up to 8PB as higher drive capacities are validated
Simple to navigate and configure, PowerVault ME5 is easy to provision and manage from anywhere, anytime with an intelligent, HTML5 web-based GUI. PowerVault Manager also helps alert you to identify problems and identify and resolve issues quicker.
Simplified management
Easily configure, provision and manage PowerVault ME5 from anywhere, anytime with an intelligent, HTML5 web-based GUI. PowerVault Manager also helps alert you to identify problems and identify and resolve issues quicker.
CloudIQ Storage Analytics
CloudIQ is Dell’s cloud-based AIOps application that uses telemetry, machine learning, and predictive analytics to provide PowerVault ME5 proactive health notifications, remediation advice, capacity projections, reclaimable storage identification, and more. CloudIQ is available with Dell ProSupport and ProSupport Plus services for Dell infrastructure systems at no additional cost.

Technical Specifications:
PowerVault ME4 Series | ME5012 | ME5024 | ME5084 |
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Chassis Overview | |||
Chassis format | All-in-one (single/dual controllers, internal drive bays, networking) with expansion options | ||
Rack size | 2U | 2U | 5U |
Controllers | 2 hot-swappable per chassis (dual active) Single/dual controller support for 2U |
2 hot-swappable per chassis (dual active) Single/dual controller support for 2U |
2 hot-swappable per chassis (dual active) Dual controller only support for 5U |
Processors | Intel Xeon Processor | Intel Xeon Processor | Intel Xeon Processor |
Internal storage | 12 x 3.5” drive bays (2.5” drive carriers supported) | 24 x 2.5” drive bays | 84x 3.5” drive bays (2.5” drive carriers supported) |
System memory | 16GBper controller (32GB total) | 16GBper controller (32GB total) | 16GBper controller (32GB total) |
Expansion Capacity | |||
Min/Max drive count | 2/264 | 2/276 | 28/336 |
Max raw capacity | 2.40PB (with 9xME412 expansion) 1.83PB (with 9xME424 expansion) 1.89PB (with 9xME424 expansion) 5.28PB (with 3xME484 expansion) |
2.34PB (with 9xME412 expansion) 5.22PB (with 3xME484 expansion) |
6.72PB (with 3xME484 expansion) |
NAS Support | Supported with NX Series Windows NAS appliance | ||
Storage media | SAS and NL-SAS drives; different drive types, transfer rates, rotational speeds can be mixed in the same system:
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Network and Expansion I/O | |||
Host interface | FC, iSCSI (optical or BaseT), SAS | ||
Max 32Gb FC ports | 8 per array (support auto-negotiate to 16Gb) | ||
Max 25Gb iSCSI ports | 8 SFP+ or SFP28 ports per array | ||
Max 10Gb iSCSI ports | 8 BaseT ports per array (only support auto negotiate to 1Gb) | ||
Max 12Gb SAS ports | 8 12Gb SAS ports | ||
Max management ports | 2 per array (1Gb BASE-T) | ||
Disk expansion protocol | 12Gb SAS | ||
Disk interface expansion ports | 2 12Gb SAS (wide-Port) per array (1 port per controller) Up to 9 2U expansion enclosures per 2U base array Up to 3 5U expansion enclosures per 2U base array Up to 3 5U expansion enclosures per 5U base array |
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ME4012 | ME4024 | ME4084 | |
Functional | |||
Array configurations | All-flash, hybrid flash, HDD only arrays | ||
Storage format | Native block-level SAN or DAS | ||
Data Optimization | |||
Auto-tiering | Up to 3 primary (media-based) tiers | ||
RAID support | RAID 1, 5, 6, 10, or ADAPT RAID; any combination of RAID levels can exist in single array | ||
Adapt | Distributed erasure coding that reduces rebuild times when drive failures occur | ||
Thin provisioning | Active by default on all volumes, operates at full performance across all features | ||
Snapshots | 1024 maximum snapshots per array | ||
Data Mobility and Migration | |||
Replication | Asynchronous replication via FC or iSCSI – ME4 to ME5; ME5 to ME4; ME5 to ME5 Target/source relationships may be one-to-many or many-to-one |
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Volume copy | Copy complete standalone volumes | ||
Data Protection, Disaster Recovery, Security | |||
Business continuity | VMware Site Recovery Manager | ||
Data-at-rest encryption | Self-encrypting drives (SEDs) in SSD or HDD formats Full Disk Encryption (FCE) based on AES-256 Drives certified to FIPS 140-2 Level 2 |
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Key manager | Internal controller key management | ||
Management | |||
Management | PowerVault Manager HTML5 GUI element manager, CLI, OpenManage Enterprise 3.9 | ||
VMware vCenter | VMware vCenter plugin to manage ME5 arrays through vCenter. | ||
Scripting | CLI API Redfish/Swordfish REST API |
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Host OS support | Windows 2022, 2019 and 2016 RHEL 8.2 and 7.8 SLES 15.2 and 12.5 VMware 7.0 and 6.7 Citrix XenServer 8.x and 7.x |
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Virtualization integration | VMware vSphere (ESXi) vCenter; SRM Microsoft Hyper-V |
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ME5012 | ME5024 | ME5084 | |
Physical | |||
Rack size | 2U | 2U | 5U |
Height | 8.79 cm (3.46 inches) | 8.79 cm (3.46 inches) | 22.23 cm (8.75 inches) |
Width | 48.30 cm (19.01 inches) | 48.30 cm (19.01 inches) | 48.30 cm (19.01 inches) |
Depth | 61.87mm (24.36 inches) | 54.78mm (21.56 inches) | 981mm (38.62 inches) |
Weight at max configuration | 32.00 kg (71.00 lbs) | 30.00 kg (66.00 lbs) | 135.00 kg (298.00 lbs) |
Weight empty | 4.80 kg (10.56 lbs) without drives | 4.80 kg (10.56 lbs) without drives | 64.00 kg (141.00 lbs) without drives |
Power | |||
Power/wattage | 580W | 580W | 2200W |
Heat dissipation | 1980 BTU | 1980 BTU | 7507 BTU |
Voltage | 100-240 VAC | 100-240 VAC | 200-240 VAC |
Frequency | 50/60 Hz | 50/60 Hz | 50/60 Hz |
Amperage | 7.6-3.0A (x2) | 7.6-3.0A (x2) | 11.07-9.23A (x2) |
Environmental Operating Conditions | |||
Operating temperature | 5°C - 35°C (41°F - 95°F, derated by 1°C per 300mm above 900m) | ||
Non-operating temperature | -40°C to 70°C (-40 to 158°F) Maximum temperature changes in an hour: 20°C | ||
Operating humidity ranges (non-condensing) | -12C dew point minimum, 8% to 85% maximum, non-condensing | ||
Non-operating humidity (noncondensing) | 21°C dew point maximum, 5% to 100% maximum, non-condensing | ||
Services, Warranties | |||
Services | Dell ProSupport Enterprise Suite and DellProDeploy Enterprise Suite. Optional ProSupport Plus is available offering pro-active and preventative services to improve performance and stability. | ||
System sizing | Dell Power Sizer |
Solutions & Services:
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Documentation:
Dell PowerVault ME5 Storage Arrays Specification Sheet (.PDF)
Pricing Notes:
- Pricing and product availability subject to change without notice.