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Dell Technologies - VxRail

- Jointly by Dell EMC and VMware

- Dell EMC PowerEdge 14th Generation - VMware - VSAN

- VxRail Appliances are built using a distributed-cluster architecture consisting of modular blocks that scale linearly as the system grows from as small as 3 nodes to as large as 64 nodes. Nodes are available with different form factors, with single-node appliances for use cases: E entrylevel systems; P performance optimized; V VDI optimized with GPU; and S storage-optimized configurations supporting high-capacity HDD drives

- All appliance models support either 10GbE or 1GbE network. 10Gb Ethernet networks are required for all-flash configurations and environments that will scale to more than 8 nodes. Additional ports are available, allowing the customer to expand VM-network traffic.

- Scale up and Scale out

The number of Ethernet switch ports required depends on the VxRail model and whether it is configured for hybrid storage or for all flash. The all-flash system requires two 10GbE ports, and hybrid systems use either two 10GbE ports per node or four 1GbE ports per node. For 1GbE networks, the 10GbE ports auto-negotiate down to 1GbE. Additional network connectivity can be accomplished by adding additional NIC cards. The additional PCIe NICs are not configured by VxRail management, but can be used by the customer to support non-VxRail traffic, primarily VM traffic. The additional ports are managed through vCenter. Network traffic is segregated using switch-based VLAN technology and vSphere Network I/O Control (NIOC). Four types of network traffic exist in a VxRail cluster:

Management - Management traffic is use for connecting to VMware vCenter web client, VxRail Manager, and other management interfaces and for communications between the management components and the ESXi nodes in the cluster. Either the default VLAN or a specific management

VLAN is used for management traffic.

vSAN - Data access for read and write activity as well as for optimization and data rebuild is performed over the vSAN network. Low network latency is critical for this traffic and a specific VLAN isolates this traffic.

vMotion - VMware vMotion allows virtual-machine mobility between nodes. A separate VLAN is used to isolate this traffic.

Virtual Machine - Users access virtual machines and the service provided over the VM network(s). At least one VM VLAN is configured when the system is initially configured, and others may be defined as required.

VxRail Manager - VxRail management platform, is the appliance hardware lifecycle management and serviceability interface for VxRail clusters. In newer VxRail version 4.7 plugin for vCenter allow the entire activities from within the vCenter.

vSphere - vCenter and ESXi,, vSAN Software Defined storage (at least 1 SSD required for VSAN)
After the hardware and network configuration is complete access VxRail cluster with default IP address of 192.168.10.200 and follow step by step procedure to configure VxRail. This can also be automated by putting all input values in JSON file. JSON files can be created using VxRail PEQ(pre engagement questionnaire).

Initial Screen on browser with 192.168.10.200