Welcome to the VxRail Appliance Version 4.0 Technical Differences Course.

Transcription

1 Welcome to the VxRail Appliance Version 4.0 Technical Differences Course. Copyright 2016 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Published in the USA. EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. The trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively "Trademarks") appearing in this publication are the property of EMC Corporation and other parties. Nothing contained in this publication should be construed as granting any license or right to use any Trademark without the prior written permission of the party that owns the Trademark. EMC, EMC², the EMC logo, AccessAnywhere Access Logix, AdvantEdge, AlphaStor, AppSync ApplicationXtender, ArchiveXtender, Atmos, Authentica, Authentic Problems, Automated Resource Manager, AutoStart, AutoSwap, AVALONidm, Avamar, Aveksa, Bus-Tech, Captiva, Catalog Solution, C-Clip, Celerra, Celerra Replicator, Centera, CenterStage, CentraStar, EMC CertTracker. CIO Connect, ClaimPack, ClaimsEditor, Claralert,CLARiiON, ClientPak, CloudArray, Codebook Correlation Technology, Common Information Model, Compuset, Compute Anywhere, Configuration Intelligence, Configuresoft, Connectrix, Constellation Computing, CoprHD, EMC ControlCenter, CopyCross, CopyPoint, CX, DataBridge, Data Protection Suite. Data Protection Advisor, DBClassify, DD Boost, Dantz, DatabaseXtender, Data Domain, Direct Matrix Architecture, DiskXtender, DiskXtender 2000, DLS ECO, Document Sciences, Documentum, DR Anywhere, DSSD, ECS, elnput, E-Lab, Elastic Cloud Storage, Xaminer, Xtender, EMC Centera, EMC ControlCenter, EMC LifeLine, EMCTV, Enginuity, EPFM. eroom, Event Explorer, FAST, FarPoint, FirstPass, FLARE, FormWare, Geosynchrony, Global File Virtualization, Graphic Visualization, Greenplum, HighRoad, HomeBase, Illuminator, InfoArchive, InfoMover, Infoscape, Infra, InputAccel, InputAccel Express, Invista, Ionix, Isilon, ISIS,Kazeon, EMC LifeLine, Mainframe Appliance for Storage, Mainframe Data Library, Max Retriever, MCx, MediaStor, Metro, MetroPoint, MirrorView, Mozy, Multi-Band Deduplication,Navisphere, Netstorage, NetWitness, NetWorker, EMC OnCourse, OnRack, OpenScale, Petrocloud, PixTools, Powerlink, PowerPath, PowerSnap, ProSphere, ProtectEverywhere, ProtectPoint, EMC Proven, EMC Proven Professional, QuickScan, RAPIDPath, EMC RecoverPoint, Rainfinity, RepliCare, RepliStor, ResourcePak, Retrospect, RSA, the RSA logo, SafeLine, SAN Advisor, SAN Copy, SAN Manager, ScaleIO Smarts, Silver Trail, EMC Snap, SnapImage, SnapSure, SnapView, SourceOne, SRDF, EMC Storage Administrator, StorageScope, SupportMate, SymmAPI, SymmEnabler, Symmetrix, Symmetrix DMX, Symmetrix VMAX, TimeFinder, TwinStrata, UltraFlex, UltraPoint, UltraScale, Unisphere, Universal Data Consistency, Vblock, VCE. Velocity, Viewlets, ViPR, Virtual Matrix, Virtual Matrix Architecture, Virtual Provisioning, Virtualize Everything, Compromise Nothing, Virtuent, VMAX, VMAXe, VNX, VNXe, Voyence, VPLEX, VSAM-Assist, VSAM I/O PLUS, VSET, VSPEX, Watch4net, WebXtender, xpression, xpresso, Xtrem, XtremCache, XtremSF, XtremSW, XtremIO, YottaYotta, Zero-Friction Enterprise Storage. Revision Date: Oct/2016 Revision Number: VCE-7WN-VXRAP40TCHDF <4.0> 1

2 This course provides insight into the technical differences introduced in VxRail Appliance version 4.0. We will discuss the new features and enhancements as well as enhancements to both hardware and software components. Lastly we will review the enhanced management capabilities to perform additional administrative task such as software upgrades, adding capacity to a node and increased component replaceable procedures all of which was not available for the customer to perform in prior releases. 2

3 VxRail Appliance continues to evolve with extending hardware platforms, software enhancements and new maintenance procedures. This module covers a high level overview of the new and enhanced features introduced in VxRail 4.0 Appliance. We will review the hardware options as well the new software features and functionality. 3

4 VxRail Appliances are highly configurable and scalable, offering the flexibility of a broad set of configuration options. Version 4.0 of VxRail Appliance introduces new Dell-based models including high capacity and memory support, a GPU option for high performance VDI environments and an available additional 10GbE network cards for increased performance, connectivity and network segregation. The Quanta-based server refresh included a processor refresh utilizing Intel Broadwell processor with additional expanded memory options. VxRail 4.0 will support both Quanta and Dell based platforms with a 3-node cluster configuration option for a low entry-point. 4

5 Management enhancements includes the ability for customers to perform upgrades to their VxRail systems, including major software upgrades. They will also be able to add additional capacity drives to their cluster. Other CRU procedures will be available for customers to perform themselves as well. Note: VxRail 4.0 will continue to not be customer installable. 5

6 The software enhancements introduced in VxRail Appliance 4.0 includes support for multiple disk groups (at least 2) per node to optimize performance of Dell models. This will also reduces the failure domain and may improve performance. The addition of additional networking cards (NICs) allows customers to segment their network for increased performance and to allocate network bandwidth to business-critical applications and resources. Dell-based single nodes can be shutdown from the VxRail Manager UI for service and maintenance purposes. The disk replacement process has been improved to now allow hot-swappable replacement without the need to place the node in maintenance mode or to power down. 6

7 This module covers details into the hardware portfolio updates and components options introduced in VxRail Appliance 4.0. We will start with discussing the new Dell-based models along with some of the specific options including the GPU and additional NIC options. We will continue with the details on the hardware refresh of the Quanta based servers. We will conclude with how VxRail 4.0 now supports a 3-node VxRail cluster deployment as an entry point for VxRail clusters. 7

8 Dell EMC and VMware enhance the VxRail 4.0 portfolio featuring new Dell PowerEdge based models, powered by VMware Virtual SAN. It offers extreme configuration flexibility allowing customers to choose performance, graphics and capacity as required for VMware environments to benefit VxRail hyper-converged in more use cases. 8

9 The following VxRail Appliance 4.0 model serial description describes the use cases for each node type. The G-Series are the Gen 2 Quanta models for general purpose and VDI use cases. The E-series is a low cost 1U single node utilizing Dell PowerEdge R630 and is available in 10GbE or 1GbE network NICs. This model is also ideal for the low-entry 3-node cluster configuration. The P-series is the performance optimized offered with Dell PowerEdge R730 nodes offering extra networking NICs for high-end use cases such as business critical workloads. With the V-series, the Dell PowerEdge R730 node is optimized for VDI environments with optional GPU cards along with extra networking NICs as well. Finally the S-series nodes (Dell PowerEdge R730XD) are designed for storage dense capabilities for use cases such as collaboration, data, and analytics type use cases. 9

10 The new Dell-base systems offer support for GPUs for high performance VDI environments, increased storage, CPU core, and memory density. The Dell-based VxRail models will also offer additional 10GbE networking cards per node as well. The Dell-based systems will be orderable with new add-on options including: Choice of processors Choice of RAM Choice of drive combinations 10

11 This diagram shows the available disk drives for the Dell VxRail models. 11

12 The new VxRail model naming reflects configuration flexibility and distinguishes between form factors and use cases. Please become familiar with the naming convention. 12

13 The E-Series utilizing Dell s R630 is a entry VxRail Appliance node for remote office, stretch cluster or entry workloads in a 1U1N chassis configuration. It features includes single or dual socket and up to 18 cores per CPU with up to 768Gb of RAM. The Dell R630 can also hold up to 10 X 12Gb SAS drive slots (2.5 ) in 1 or 2 disk groups with up to 4 capacity drives per group. Maximum capacity for the R630 is 30.7TB SSD or 16TB HDD <No need to record the following for the Voiceover> From the backplane you can notice some of the networking options including a 2x10GbE + 2x1GbE or a 4x10GbE + 2x1GbE*. Drive slots numbering location:

14 The P-Series utilizing a Dell R730 is a optimized designed nodes offer high performance nodes optimized for heavy workloads such as databases and is configured in a 2U1N chassis configuration. The optimized nodes includes single or dual socket and up to 22 cores per CPU with up to 1,536Gb of RAM. The R730 P-Series can hold up to 16 x12gb SAS drive slots (2.5 ) in 1 to 4 disk groups with up to 3 capacity drives each. Maximum capacity for the R730 (Optimized node) is 46TB SSD or 24TB HDD <No need to record the following for the Voiceover> From the backplane you can notice some of the networking options including a 2x10GbE + 2x1GbE or a 4x10GbE + 2x1GbE Drive slots numbering location:

15 The V-Series utilizing Dell s R730 designed as a VDI Optimized node designed for graphics ready support for up to 2 graphics accelerators for specialized use cases such as high-end 2D/3D visualization and comes configured in a 2U1N chassis configuration. It features includes single or dual socket with up to 20 cores per CPU with up to 768Gb of RAM The R730 can hold up to 16 x12g SAS drive slots (2.5 ) in 1 to 4 disk groups with up to 3 capacity drives each. Maximum capacity for the R730 (VDI Optimized node) is 46TB SSD or 24TB HDD The R730 VDI node also supports up to 2 PCIe GPUs (Nvidia or AMD). <No need to record the following for the Voiceover> From the backplane you can notice some of the networking options including a 2x10GbE + 2x1GbE or a 4x10GbE + 2x1GbE. Drive slots numbering location:

16 The S-Series utilizing Dell R730xd which offers a capacity optimized nodes with expanded storage for use cases such as collaboration, data, & analytics and comes configured in a 2U1N chassis configuration. It features includes single or dual socket with up to 18 cores per CPU with up to 768Gb of RAM The R730 can hold up to 12 x x G SAS drive slots in 1 or 2 disk groups with up to 6 capacity drives each. Maximum capacity for the R730xd is 48TB HDD <No need to record the following for the Voiceover> From the backplane you can notice some of the networking options including a 2x10GbE + 2x1GbE or a 4x10GbE + 2x1GbE with dual processor configurations only Front drive slots: Rear drive slots: (SSD drives) 16

17 Dell GPU option in the V-Series VDI optimized nodes provides increased performance for organizations running VDI environments with VxRail Appliance. This technology enables the virtualization of physical GPUs into full-featured virtual GPUs providing maximum performance and scalability. The option is available for up to two accelerators/gpus and supports environments that require processing acceleration, including graphics-intensive virtual desktop infrastructure. Dell-based VxRail models also has the option to support up to three networking cards on each node. 17

18 The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (idrac) with Lifecycle Controller is embedded within every VxRail Appliance Dell PowerEdge node and provides functionality that helps IT administrators deploy, update, monitor, and maintain Dell servers with no need for any additional software to be installed. Quanta and Gen1 hardware use the IPMI/BMC interface providing the same basic capabilities. 18

19 Starting with Version 4.0, the VxRail Appliance all Quanta (Gen 2) servers will be utilizing the Intel Broadwell family processors. This will enable a pure 12G SAS environment for VxRail Appliances. Along with a processor refresh VxRail 4.0 also has expanded memory configuration as well as storage expansion options. 19

20 With a Quanta based systems, each appliance can contain up to 4 independent nodes. <CLICK> Each node contains a set of compute, memory, storage, and network ports. <CLICK> With the Dell based systems, each server is an independent node containing a set of compute, memory, storage, and network ports. With both types of hardware, nodes can be ordered in multiple configuration options. When configuring a VxRail System a minimum of 3 nodes are needed to be configured to form a cluster. 20

21 VxRail 4.0 now offers support for a 3-node VxRail cluster deployment as an entry point for VxRail clusters. <CLICK> With the Quanta-based hardware, each appliance holds up to four nodes. With a 3-node cluster, a chassis with 3 nodes will be populated and an available empty slot for expansion. You can use the empty slot in the chassis for future expansion. <CLICK> With the Dell-based hardware servers, 3 similar Dell nodes will be needed to form a three node cluster. <CLICK> When scaling to a fourth node, the additional node needs to be the same configuration type as the first 3 nodes. While Virtual SAN fully supports 3-node configuration this configuration can behave differently than configurations with 4 or greater nodes. In particular, in the event of a failure, there are no resources to rebuild components on another host in the cluster to tolerate another failure. Also with a 3-node configuration there is no way to migrate all data from a node during maintenance. In 3-node configuration there are 2 replicas of the data and a witness, and these must all reside on different hosts. A 3-node cluster can only tolerate 1 failure. The out come of this are that if a node fails, Virtual SAN cannot rebuild components, nor can it provision new VMs that tolerate failures. It cannot re-protect virtual machine objects after a failure until the failed components are restored. 21

22 The following rules must be followed when scaling out a VxRail Appliance 4.0 cluster. All other combinations should be supported in a single cluster, as long as all nodes are running the same version of VxRail 4.0 software. Note: Maximum of 64 nodes per cluster is supported but does require a RPQ when scaling greater than 32 nodes. A maximum of 8 nodes is supported on 1GbE networks clusters 22

23 The following backward compatibility matrix provides details on the supported VxRail Appliance models with the various VxRail Appliance software releases. 23

24 This module covers software enhancements and features that support Dell hardware. 24

25 VxRail Appliance software version updated components are listed here for your review. 25

26 On each ESXi host that contributes its local disks to a Virtual SAN cluster, disks are organized into disk groups. A disk group is a main unit of storage on a host. Each disk group includes one SSD and one or multiple HDDs (magnetic disks) or SSDs (Flash drives). Virtual SAN uses an aggregation of disk groups to back up a single datastore that is created for VxRail Appliance. In the disk group, the SSD primarily serves as a read cache write buffer, while the HDDs or SSDs are used for permanent storage. Typically, a higher SSD to HDD ratio, both in size and quantity, improves performance. The release of VxRail Appliance 4.0 will now support multiple disk groups with the Dellbased models. The diagram displayed also shows the maximum number of disk groups per Dell-based model. Note: Gen1/Gen2 models only support single disk groups including Gen3 Quanta models. 26

27 Dell-based network configuration information listed here applies when performing the initial initialization of the VxRail 4.0 cluster. Options are available to add additional 10Gb NIC card anytime after the initial setup has completed. The additional 10GB cards would need to be provisioned through vsphere. This is where customer can segregate their VxRail networks to allocate network bandwidth where applicable. 27

28 Starting with VxRail 4.0 customers will now be able to perform upgrades to their VxRail systems, including major upgrades. Customers will also be able to add additional capacity drives (HDD or SSD). Enhancement to VxRail Manager console allows for customer to perform single node shutdown of Dell nodes as well as built-in enhancement to the disk replacement process. Dell s Bare Metal Recovery (RASR) allows for re-image of the Dell nodes and to reset it to factory status. 28

29 Customers will be able to perform non-disruptive upgrades to their VxRail Appliance systems if they have the vsphere Enterprise/Enterprise Plus license. Upgrades on systems with vsphere Standard license will require services support to perform the upgrade. This new feature will offer a one-stop shop service for upgrading various components. The Features tab of the VxRail Manager Configuration window displays information about the applications and add-ons currently installed on your VxRail Appliance. It also allows customers to download updates for those components. Use the Features tab to view the following: Installed on this Cluster: The list displays the name, description, and installed version for the software and add-ons installed on your VxRail Appliance. Software updates: If an update is available for an application, an Update button is displayed. When a new version of an application is available, CONFIGURATION in the left navigation bar displays a highlighted number. 29

30 VxRail Appliance supported software upgrade path is listed here for your reference. Other supported upgrade path may be required to use the Mobile Build Server. In these cases all data must be backed up or migrated as this is a total data destruction and re-image of the VxRail Appliance being upgraded. 30

31 Add capacity disk (HDD or SSD) will now be customer installable as a CRU process. The process to Add-a-Disk will be performed from the VxRail Manager console in the Health tab under the Physical View. A SolVe Desktop procedure will be developed for the customer to perform the install. This will include adding capacity disk to an existing disk group or to create a new disk group with cache and capacity drives. 31

32 Dell single nodes can be shutdown from the VxRail Manager UI console. It is designed to enable Dell hardware replacement. Prior to shutdown, the VxRail Manager will perform a pre-check to validate the state of the cluster. 32

33 New enhancements have been made to the Disk Replacement (HDD or SSD) process by leveraging hot-plug capability for Dell-based systems. The enhancement features a hotswappable disk replacement process for Dell based node under software control without the need to enter maintenance mode or power cycle the node. With both Quanta and Dellbased nodes, users must follow the disk replacement procedures generated from the SolVe Desktop utility. 33

34 Another new feature of VxRail Appliance 4.0 is SSD wearing. SSD wearing is used for monitoring the remaining rated write endurance and is only supported on the Dell-based models. It offers three levels of monitoring events: Warning: 30% Error: 20% Critical: 5% Error and critical events will also be reported as well. 34

35 Dell s Bare metal recovery is used to fully re-image the Dell node and to reset it to factory status. There are two different procedures: Normal Procedure Mother Board Replacement Procedure 35

36 The following CRU procedure are now available for the customer to perform. It includes software upgrades and add additional capacity drives to a node. Other CRU processes will be available from the SolVe Desktop utility. 36

37 The SolVe Desktop provides procedures for common tasks such as FRU/CRU component replacement. Additionally, SolVe also includes only relevant information for end-users, is fully offline capable, and avoids out of date content. End-users also have access to up-todate Knowledge Base content. All relevant information is available to users at the time of procedure generation. Some component replacement procedures includes using the VxRail Manager to automate and to perform part of the replacement process utilizing the VxRail Manager console. Others FRU process may need some manual tasks to be performed. Follow the Dell part replacement procedures to replace these faulty components. 37

38 Dell EMC and VMware enhance the VxRail portfolio featuring new Dell PowerEdge based models, powered by VMware Virtual SAN, that offer extreme configuration flexibility allowing customers to choose performance, graphics and capacity as required for VMware environments to benefit from industry-leading VxRail hyper-converged in more use cases. VxRail 4.0 also supports a 3-node VxRail cluster deployment as an entry point for VxRail clusters. VxRail Appliance 4.0 now allow users to segregate network bandwidth with the additional NIC cards for business-critical applications and to resolve situations where several types of traffic compete for common resources on Dell-based models. Multiple disk groups supported on Dell platforms which reduces the failure domain while improving performance. Customers now have increased capabilities to perform software upgrades, capacity upgrades as well as component replacement process. 38

39 This concludes the Training. Thank you for your participation. 39