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Setting Up Your  

Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 

Series Storage System

© 2019 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.

2019-10

1  Before you begin

 

WARNING:

 Before you set up and operate your Dell EMC storage system, 

review the safety instructions that came with it.

Unpack storage system equipment

An ME4 Series storage system includes:

2  Mount the enclosures

 

WARNING:

 Potential injury: chassis is heavy.

•  Use at least two people to mount a 2U chassis. Use a mechanical lift to mount a 5U chassis.  
•  The rack may fall over if allowed to become top-heavy. Load the rack from the 

bottom up with the heaviest chassis at the bottom.

Secure the controller enclosure to the rack using the mounting screws located in the 
plastic bag.

2U enclosure

1. 

Remove the rack mounting rail kit from the box and inspect for damage:

a. 

Set each location pin at the rear of the rail into a rear rack post hole. Attach the bracket 
to the rear rack post: use the washers and screws supplied. Leave the screws loose.

b. 

Extend the rail to fit between the front and rear rack posts, and attach the 
bracket to the front rack post using the washers and screws supplied.

c. 

Tighten the two clamping screws located along the inside of the rear section of 
the rack bracket.

d. 

Repeat the above sequence of steps for the companion rail.

2. 

Install the enclosure into the rack:

a. 

Keeping the enclosure level, carefully insert the chassis slides into the rack rails 
and push fully in.

b. 

Tighten the mounting screws in the rear kit brackets.

Scan to see how-to videos, documentation, 
and troubleshooting information.

Quick Resource Locator

Dell.com/QRL/Storage/ME4series

Figure 1. 

2U enclosure

Figure 3. 

2U rack mount

Figure 4. 

5U rack mount

Figure 2. 

5U enclosure

c. 

Remove the enclosure until it reaches the end and hard stops approximately 400 mm 
(15.75 inches). Tighten the mounting screws on the front of the rail kit bracket.

d. 

Return the enclosure to the fully home position.

5U enclosure

The 5U enclosure is shipped without the disks installed. Before mounting, also 
remove the rear panel modules to reduce the enclosure weight. 

1. 

With the preassembled rails at their shortest length, locate the rail location 
pins inside the front of the rack, and extend the length of the rail assembly to 
position the rear location pins. Ensure the pins are fully inserted in the square or 
round holes in the rack posts. 

2. 

Fully tighten all clamping screws and middle slide locking screws. 

3. 

Ensure the four rear space clips (not shown) are fitted to the edge of the rack post.

4. 

Slide the enclosure until it is fully seated on its rails.

A

B

C

1

2

7

6

8

3

4

5

9

Item Description

Item Description

1

Front rack post - square hole

6

Clamping screw (B)

2

Rear rack post - square hole

7

2U enclosure fastening screw (C)

3

Left rail

8

Clamping screw (B)

4

Rail location pins

9

Exploded view of Ops panel cover, to 
show left ear flange fastening screw (A)

5

Locking screw

Item Description

Item Description

1

Fastening screws (A)

6

Middle slide locking screws

2

Left rail

7

Rear left portion of 5U chassis

3

Rear rack post - square hole

8

Front rack post - square hole

4

Clamping screw (B)

9

Front left portion of 5U chassis 
shown for reference

5

Rail location pins

A

B

C

8

3

4

1

7

2

5

6

1

4

9

Figure 6.

 5U dual–controller cabling (reverse method)

Figure 5. 

2U dual–controller cabling: maximum 10 enclosures (reverse method)

0A

1A

2A

3A

0B

1B

2B

3B

0A

1A

2A

9A

0B

1B

2B

9B

5. 

Fasten the front and rear of the enclosure using the enclosure fastening screws.

 

CAUTION:

 Once the enclosure is mounted, dispose of the lifting straps. 

The straps are not suitable for reuse.

Reinsert the rear panel modules, and install the disks into the drawers accessed from 
the front panel 

per the instructions in the 

Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series 

Storage System Deployment Guide

.

•  Expansion cables (1 per expansion module)
•  Optional enclosure bezel with key (1 per 

2U enclosure)

•  I/O module blank (2U single-controller 

storage system only)

•  Disk drive blank (if 2U storage system is 

not fully populated)

•  Appropriate rackmount kit for 2U or 5U 

enclosure

•  Documentation
•  2U or 5U enclosure
•  Power cables (2)
•  Separately packaged disk drives (5U 

enclosure only)

•  Fibre Channel or iSCSI SFP+ transceivers or 

cables (1 per host port)

•  Host cables (1 per controller module host port)

Develop a configuration plan

Before installing the storage hardware, develop a configuration plan where you can 
record host server information, switch information, and network information.

Consider plans for multipath/failover

Redundancy is provided by multipathing, which allows alternate paths if a data path 
fails. It is recommended to use multipathing, so that volumes are mapped to ports in 
more than one Fibre Channel or iSCSI fabric.

Connect optional expansion enclosures

You can connect a maximum of nine 2U expansion enclosures or three 5U expansion 
enclosures to a 2U or a 5U controller enclosure. A 2U controller enclosure can be connected 
to a mixture of 2U12 and 2U24 expansion enclosures, or 5U84 only. A 5U controller enclosure 
can only be attached to 5U expansion enclosures. Each expansion enclosure includes two 
expansion modules.
Figure 5 shows reverse cabling of a dual-controller 2U enclosure and supported 
2U expansion enclosures configured with dual expansion modules. Figure 6 shows 
reverse cabling of a dual-controller 5U enclosure and supported 5U expansion 
enclosures configured with dual expansion modules. Reverse cabling allows any 

expansion enclosure to fail—or be removed—while maintaining access to other 
enclosures. The middle SAS ports on expansion modules are not used. 

3  Connect to the management   

 network

Each controller’s network port must be connected to a management network. 
The network port provides access to management interfaces and is used to send 
notifications, SNMP traps, and support data. See figures 7 and 8.

1. 

Connect an RJ45 Ethernet cable to the network port on each controller. 

2. 

Connect the other end of each Ethernet cable to a network that your  

 

management host can access (preferably on the same subnet).

Notes, cautions, and warnings

 NOTE

:

 

Indicates important information that helps you make better use of your 

product.

CAUTION:

 Indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data 

and tells you how to avoid the problem.

WARNING:

 Indicates a potential for property damage, personal 

injury, or death.

Figure 7. 

2U SAN connections

Summary of Contents for EMC PowerVault ME4 Series

Page 1: ...Setting Up Your Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System 2019 Dell Inc or its subsidiaries 2019 10 ...

Page 2: ...ide of the rear section of the rack bracket d Repeat the above sequence of steps for the companion rail 2 Install the enclosure into the rack a Keeping the enclosure level carefully insert the chassis slides into the rack rails and push fully in b Tighten the mounting screws in the rear kit brackets Figure 1 2U enclosure Figure 2 5U enclosure Expansion cables 1 per expansion module Optional enclos...

Page 3: ...ew Item Description Item Description 1 Fastening screws A 6 Middle slide locking screws 2 Left rail 7 Rear left portion of 5U chassis 3 Rear rack post square hole 8 Front rack post square hole 4 Clamping screw B 9 Front left portion of 5U chassis shown for reference 5 Rail location pins A B C 8 3 4 1 7 2 5 6 1 4 9 5 Fasten the front and rear of the enclosure using the enclosure fastening screws CA...

Page 4: ...odules are not used 3 Connect to the management network Each controller s network port must be connected to a management network The network port provides access to management interfaces and is used to send notifications SNMP traps and support data See figures 7 and 8 1 Connect an RJ45 Ethernet cable to the network port on each controller 2 Connect the other end of each Ethernet cable to a network...

Page 5: ...Storage System Support Matrix Fibre Channel Install and connect each HBA to a switch that is connected to the host ports on the two controllers shown in figures 9 12 In hybrid examples one server and switch manages FC traffic and another server and switch manages iSCSI traffic For FC each initiator must be zoned with a single or multiple host ports only single initiator single target or single ini...

Page 6: ...erver connections Figure 13 2U direct attached SAS host server connections Figure 12 5U switch attached FC iSCSI hybrid host server connections SAS Install and connect each HBA directly to the host ports on the two controllers shown in figures 13 and 14 ...

Page 7: ... to configure the storage system NOTE HTTPS must be used to access the storage system during deployment NOTE Do not turn on more than one unconfigured controller enclosure at a time to avoid IP conflicts In a supported web browser 1 Type https 10 0 0 2 to access controller A on an IPv4 network Type https fd6e 23ce fed3 19d1 1 to access controller A on an IPv6 network 2 Click Get Started If a licen...

Page 8: ...t 4 If using the iSCSI software initiator it should connect pairs of target initiator addresses for multipath using the initiator applet or CLI 5 Configure MPIO or DM Multipathing for the volumes on the host SAS 1 Write down the SAS WWN of each HBA to complete the Host Setup Wizard 2 From the Storage Manager interface run the Host Setup Wizard 3 Configure MPIO or DM Multipathing for the volumes on...

Page 9: ...L Storage ME4series Notes cautions and warnings NOTE Indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product CAUTION Indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem WARNING Indicates a potential for property damage personal injury or death ...

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