Dell EMC VMAX Upgrade Guide
Maximize the performance and lifespan of your Dell EMC VMAX (VMAX). Every upgrade option below is verified compatible.
Verified Specifications
| Processor Options | VMAX 250F/250FX (1-2 V-Bricks), VMAX 950F/950FX (1-8 V-Bricks). Per engine: 250F 4x Xeon E5-2650 v4 (48 cores/engine); 950F 4x Xeon E5-2697 v4 (72 cores/engine, up to 576/system); 4U engines |
| Memory Configuration | Cache: 250F 512 GB - 4 TB; 950F 1 TB - 16 TB; Vault-to-Flash via NVMe Flash SLICs |
| Drive Configurations | 250F: two 25-slot DAEs per V-Brick; 950F: two 120-slot DAEs, scales to 4.4 PB usable; 7.68/15.36 TB flash drives; inline compression |
| Networking Options | FC 8/16Gb, 10GbE iSCSI, SRDF; 950F adds FICON 16Gb (mainframe); InfiniBand 56 Gbps Dynamic Virtual Matrix |
| Specification Source | Dell official documentation (verified 2026-07-02) |
Upgrade Storage
Moving from spinning disk to SSD or NVMe storage provides the largest single performance improvement — often 10-50x faster I/O. Consider NVMe for boot drives and high-IOPS workloads.
005047873 EMC 73GB 10K 2Gb FC LFF HDD
005047874 EMC 36GB 10K 2Gb FC LFF HDD
005048031 EMC 146GB 10K 2Gb FC LFF HDD
005048128 EMC 146GB 10K 2Gb FC LFF HDD
005048129 EMC 73GB 10K 2Gb FC LFF HDD
005048255 EMC 146GB 10K 2Gb FC LFF HDD
Upgrade Power & Cooling
This category provides verified compatible upgrade paths. ICD engineers validate every part for compatibility with your specific server model and workload requirements.
045-000-175 Dell EMC AX100/AX150 Series Fan Module
071 EMC 518 400W Power Supply VNX
071-000-036 EMC VNX Dae 400W AC Power Supply
071-000-036-04 Dell EMC VNX 1100W AC Power Supply Unit (PSU)
071-000-199 EMC VNX/VMAX 1100W Power Supply Module
071-000-518 EMC VNX Spe 875W AC Power Supply
Upgrade Controllers
Upgrading your RAID controller enables faster disk I/O, larger cache, and support for newer drive technologies. Essential when adding NVMe or SAS-4 drives.
0998162-03 Dell Compellent SC4020 10GBE-ISCSI-2 Type a Controller
0998162-20 Dell Compellent SC4020 10G-ISCSI-2 Type a Controller E15M001
100-563-109 Dell EMC VNX5500 Storage Processor Unit Enclosure with 2X 110-113-112B SP
10N16 Dell Compellent SC4020 10G-ISCSI-2 Type a Controller Module (2X 10G Iscsi, 2X 6GB SAS)
110-113-106B Dell EMC VNX5300 Data Mover CPU Module - 2.13GHZ Cpu, 6GB RAM
110-113-112B Dell EMC VNX5500 Storage Processor
Upgrade Enclosure
This category provides verified compatible upgrade paths. ICD engineers validate every part for compatibility with your specific server model and workload requirements.
100-542-901-07 Dell EMC Unity Xt 380 OPE25 25X SFF Storage Array Enclosure
100-562-712 Dell EMC VNX Dae 25X2.5-INCH Disk Array Enclosure 2U
100-562-964 Dell EMC VNX Dae 25X2.5-INCH Disk Array Enclosure 2U
100-563-878 Dell EMC ES30 Disk Array Enclosure with 1X PSU and 2X Controller Card
SC400 Dell Compellent 12-BAY 3.5IN 12G SAS 2U Expansion Enclosure
SC420 Dell Compellent 24-BAY 2.5IN 12G SAS 2U Expansion Enclosure
Upgrade Networking
Stepping up from 1GbE to 10GbE or 25GbE eliminates network bottlenecks for VM migration, iSCSI storage traffic, and backup windows. Most modern workloads benefit from at least 10GbE.
019-078-032 Dell EMC 1/2/4 Gb SFP Fibre Channel Transceiver Module
019-078-041 Dell EMC SFP+ 10GBASE-SR Transceiver Module - 850NM Mmf 300M LC
019-078-042 Dell EMC 8GB SFP+ Fibre Channel Transceiver Module
019-078-045 Dell EMC 16GB SFP+ SR 850NM SHORT-WAVELENGTH Fibre Channel Transceiver Module
More Dell EMC VMAX Resources
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