Inspur i24M6 2U4N Chassis Overview
Our chassis was a standard 2U form factor. On the front, we have a 2.5″ bay configuration. In this system, only two drives were populated per node. That is common in these systems as it allows for more airflow to reach the nodes without drives in front to block and heat inlet airflow.
These are NVMe drive bays and utilize tool-less 2.5″ drive mounting.
At the rear of the system, we get two nodes on either side and two power supplies in the middle of the chassis.
The power supplies are wider but also shorter than some other units we have seen in other systems. They also utilize a high-density connection instead of more common goldfinger designs.
Cooling this system is an array of four pairs of hot-swappable midplane fans. In some 2U4N chassis, the fans are placed on the nodes. Midplane fans require the top to be removed to service, but tend to offer better efficiency and thus lower power consumption.
The midplane has drive connectivity as well as high-density connections to mate each node. This is where each node’s high-density connectors mate to.
A feature that Inspur has, and that is becoming more common since we first started seeing it around five years ago is a centralized chassis management controller. This is another BMC that is found in the chassis that helps tie the fans and the nodes together. Many like to see the management at a chassis level to monitor power and cooling, but to also group nodes in the same chassis.
A fun feature of the Inspur i24 design is that the latch that keeps the expansion card slots in place on each node has a spot for a letter. Here we can see this black plastic in each node with a letter A, B, C, D. This allows each node to be easily identified so that one can tie out the front panel drives to each node on the rear. It is a small touch, but one that is appreciated in dense racks of these systems.
Overall, this is very similar to the previous generation Inspur i24 we reviewed.
Next, let us get to the management and performance.
