The Ministry of Defence does not issue a Commissioning and Installation Satisfaction Report (CISR) easily. When RDP’s ROCK XSR servers were deployed at the Department of Defence Research and Development — Office of the Director General (Med and CoS) in North Delhi — the Defence team tested every application, every workload, every failure scenario before signing off.
They passed. Zero reported issues since commissioning. That is what it means to build servers for India’s defence infrastructure.
The Client: Ministry of Defence, DRDO
The Department of Defence Research and Development operates under the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. The Office of the Director General (Med and CoS) in North Delhi manages defence research coordination and medical services infrastructure — operations that demand computing resources with absolute reliability, security compliance, and zero tolerance for downtime.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Client | Ministry of Defence, Government of India |
| Department | Department of Defence Research and Development |
| Office | Office of DG (Med and CoS), North Delhi |
| Procurement | Government e-Marketplace (GeM) |
| GeM bid number | GEM/2025/B/6090458 |
| Product | RDP ROCK XSR — 2U Rack Server |
| Outcome | Deployed, commissioned, and operational |
| Certification | CISR (Commissioning and Installation Satisfaction Report) issued |
The Challenge: Defence-Grade Server Infrastructure
Defence computing requirements are structurally different from enterprise IT. The procurement mandate demanded:
- Security and reliability. Mission-critical applications demand zero tolerance for downtime, data loss, or hardware failure in a high-security environment. There is no acceptable failure mode.
- Make in India compliance. The procurement policy mandated preference for Indian OEM manufacturers aligned with Atmanirbhar Bharat — ruling out foreign-origin hardware for this deployment.
- GeM procurement compliance. All procurement had to execute through the Government e-Marketplace portal with full transparency and documentation.
- Performance headroom. The server configuration needed to support multiple concurrent defence applications, large data sets, and redundant storage at scale.
- Onsite support assurance. Three-year onsite warranty with firmware and software update commitments was mandatory for defence deployment.
The Solution: RDP ROCK XSR 2U Rack Server
RDP responded with the ROCK XSR — a purpose-engineered 2U rack server designed and manufactured at the 28,000 sq. ft. ISO 9001-certified facility in Hyderabad. Every unit undergoes cloud-synced quality control, PassMark benchmarking, and RAID configuration validation before dispatch.
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| Processor | 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4310 (12C/24T, 2.1 GHz base, 18 MB cache) |
| Chipset | Intel C621A (dual socket) |
| Memory | 128 GB DDR4 ECC RAM (2x 64 GB, 3200 MHz) |
| OS disk | 2x 960 GB SATA SSD (RAID 1) |
| Temp disk | 1x 960 GB SATA SSD |
| Active evidence disk | 2x 960 GB SATA SSD (RAID 0) |
| Case data disk | 7x 960 GB SATA SSD (RAID 5) |
| Case backup disk | 4x 2.4 TB SAS (RAID 5) |
| RAID controller | Hardware RAID 0/1/5/6/10 |
| Form factor | 2U rack with 24x 2.5-inch hot-swap bays |
| Power supply | 800W redundant (hot-swap) |
| OS | Windows Server Standard Edition |
| Warranty | 3 years onsite with firmware/software updates |
The dual Xeon Silver 4310 processors provide 24 cores and 48 threads of compute across two sockets — the parallel processing muscle needed for concurrent defence applications running simultaneously. The Intel C621A dual-socket platform gives this server hardware reliability comparable to enterprise data centre infrastructure, with PCIe Gen3 bandwidth, ECC memory support, and robust I/O throughput.
128 GB of ECC DDR4-3200 RAM ensures data integrity across all operations. In a defence computing environment where evidence handling, case management, and operational coordination run in parallel, memory errors are not an acceptable risk. ECC silently corrects single-bit errors before they can corrupt data or crash applications.
Multi-Tier Storage Architecture
The storage design is where the ROCK XSR’s defence-specific engineering is most visible. Five separate storage tiers — each with its own RAID configuration — ensure that different data types are isolated, protected, and optimised for their specific access patterns:
| Tier | Configuration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| OS | 2x 960 GB SSD (RAID 1) | Mirrored OS for instant recovery — no reinstallation downtime |
| Temp | 1x 960 GB SSD | Scratch space for processing, staging, and temporary workloads |
| Active evidence | 2x 960 GB SSD (RAID 0) | Maximum read/write speed for active case data requiring rapid access |
| Case data | 7x 960 GB SSD (RAID 5) | Protected storage for ongoing case files with single-drive fault tolerance |
| Case backup | 4x 2.4 TB SAS (RAID 5) | High-capacity archival for completed cases and long-term retention |
This is not a standard two-drive RAID 1 configuration with a data partition. This is purpose-architected storage where each data classification — OS, temporary, active evidence, case data, and case backup — lives on its own physical drives with its own redundancy model. If the active evidence RAID experiences a drive failure, the case backup, case data, OS, and temp drives are completely unaffected.
Deployment and Commissioning
RDP’s deployment team executed a structured, end-to-end installation and commissioning process at the Defence facility in North Delhi — adhering to the facility’s strict security protocols and operational requirements:
- Pre-delivery validation. Each server underwent comprehensive factory acceptance testing at RDP’s Hyderabad facility, including PassMark benchmarking, RAID configuration validation, OS imaging, and cloud-synced QC logging.
- Secure transit and delivery. Servers were packaged in anti-static, shock-proof enclosures and transported securely to the Ministry of Defence site under a tracked logistics chain.
- Physical installation. RDP engineers rack-mounted the 2U servers in compliance with the facility’s data centre standards, including power cabling, network connectivity, and cooling verification.
- OS and application configuration. Windows Server Standard Edition was configured and the Defence team’s application stack was deployed and tuned for optimal performance on the dual Xeon platform.
- Defence application testing and approval. The Ministry of Defence’s technical team conducted rigorous testing of all defence applications on the RDP ROCK XSR servers — evaluating performance, stability, data integrity, and security. All tests passed successfully.
- CISR issuance. Following successful commissioning, the Commissioning and Installation Satisfaction Report (CISR) was issued by the Defence team — formally certifying the deployment as complete and accepted.
The servers have been operational since commissioning with zero reported issues — delivering uninterrupted performance for India’s defence research missions.
The Outcome
| Outcome | Impact |
|---|---|
| Specification compliance | 100% — every parameter met or exceeded |
| Defence application testing | All tests passed — performance, stability, integrity, security |
| CISR certification | Issued — formal Defence acceptance of deployment |
| Uptime since commissioning | Zero reported issues |
| Procurement compliance | GeM-procured, Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat aligned |
| Support coverage | 3-year onsite warranty with firmware/software updates |
Trusted by Defence
When the Ministry of Defence’s technical team tests every application, evaluates every failure mode, and then issues a formal satisfaction report — that is not a procurement transaction. That is a trust certification. RDP earned it by delivering 100% specification compliance, passing rigorous defence testing, and maintaining zero-issue operations post-commissioning.
This deployment joins CERT-In’s 50-workstation deployment and Jharkhand’s state-scale PACS digitisation in a growing body of proof that Indian government and defence institutions trust RDP for mission-critical IT infrastructure. Make in India. Built for an AI-Ready India. Reliability is Our Product.
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