Dell PowerEdge R640 compatibility

[sergiob2c]

I’m currently working on building a technical justification for migrating from VMware to Proxmox, and one of the key points I need to validate is hardware compatibility.

In particular, I’m analyzing a Dell PowerEdge R640 server and need to ensure it will be fully supported under Proxmox. Since Proxmox is based on Debian, I understand that compatibility largely depends on Linux kernel support (drivers for RAID controllers, NICs, HBAs, etc.), but I’m looking to properly document this with reliable, official sources.

Has anyone gone through a similar validation process or migrated this specific model (R640) to Proxmox? Any guidance on best practices for proving compatibility or recommended documentation sources (Dell, kernel.org, Debian HCL, etc.) would be really helpful.

 

[psalkiewicz]

Hi,
I have quite a lot of experience running proxmox on Dell servers from 13th to 17th gen. Generally speaking all of the hardware I know (including all the raid controllers, boss cards, idracs, etc) work natively with no issues on any modern linux. If you need any help with specific hardware please feel free to ask.

Unfortunately there is no official Proxmox PVE+Dell HCL. Mostly I guess because VMWare was a part of Dell not long time ago. PVE is based on Debian which is privately maintained so there is no legal entity to speak for it. The nearest and safest option is to use Ubuntu+Dell HCLs. You can easily prove that Ubuntu shares the same kernel and most of the packages with Debian and Proxmox PVE. Especially when we're talking about kernel modules and hardware compatibility.

Official Dell HCL for ubuntu:
https://linux.dell.com/files/supportmatrix/Ubuntu_LTS_Support_Matrix.pdf

Other way around - Ubuntu HCL for Dell:
https://ubuntu.com/certified/servers?q=dell&category=Server&release=24.04+LTS

 

[gasherbrum]

on hardware compatibility - proxmox has worked for me right out of the box on every install from a 15 year old desktop computer to every generation of dell servers, repurposed vxrail, to brand new xeon 6 stuff. vmware will stop supporting hardware more than 2 generations old which is pretty lame and not include the drivers on purpose, for example your r640 is not supported on vmware 9. you personally should not have any worry about things not being compatible with a regular dell server for its useful life

BUT i am sure you are just answering to management, for each thing you will need to dig a little like mentioned by croit. it may benefit you to contact a consultant as a trusted third party to provide more justification, even after paying for a consultant you will probably come out ahead financially compared to other hypervisor license fees

 

[d.oishi]

I think the points already raised by others regarding the HCLs provided by Proxmox, Dell, and VMware are correct.

In my experience, I have not yet encountered a case where Proxmox VE failed to run on a Dell server. This may be a somewhat strong way to put it, but my view is that if a piece of hardware runs Linux properly, Proxmox VE will generally run on it as well.

From a practical standpoint, I believe the best way to validate compatibility is to actually run Proxmox VE on the target hardware. By using the no-subscription repository, you can build an evaluation environment without additional subscription costs.

Also, I do not think the absence of an HCL necessarily has to be seen as a negative. An HCL clarifies which hardware is supported, but at the same time it also clarifies which hardware is not supported.

 

[spirit]

I have r610,r630,r640 in production. I never had problem with drivers.

 

[at4b]

Our R640/R740xd systems running 9.1 have had no issues at all. We do have Windows VM's which have been migrated from VMware which have various apps running on them. The servers all have H740p RAID controllers so XFS, not ZFS, is used on all of them. We also still have a number of old R630/R730xd systems which have run for years without issues, None of these systems run any migrated VMware VMs however.

Migrating VMware to Proxmox used to be almost a "black art". After the new migration tools for VMware were introduced by Proxmox recently, it is now almost a trivial exercise. Candidly, a lot of it will come down to whether you are a Windows shop or a Linux shop making the transition. Linux shops will find this far easier. I'd strongly recommend reviewing the Proxmox documentation and plan on following it to the letter. If you do, it will be an easy transition.