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Dell UnityVSA can run on any server that supports VMware ESXi and meets minimum hardware requirements. If local storage is used, a hardware RAID controller on the ESXi server is recommended to be used to configure redundant storage for Dell UnityVSA. If storage is being provided from a redundant storage system or server SAN, a RAID controller on the ESXi server is not required. A full description of the minimum server requirements for a single Dell UnityVSA instance is detailed in Table 4.
Minimum requirement | Recommended requirement | |
ESXi requirements | ||
ESXi 6.5+ | ESXi 6.5+ | |
Hardware processor | Xeon E5 Series Dual Core CPU 64-bit x86 Intel 2GHz+ (SSE4.2 or greater) | Xeon Silver 4110 or higher |
Hardware memory | 20GB minimum for ESXi 6.5 | 36GB minimum for ESXi 6.5+ |
Hardware network | 1x 1GbE (management and IO traffic go through the same physical port) | 1x 10GbE (management and IO traffic go through the same physical port) |
Hardware RAID | RAID Controller: 512MB NV cache and battery backed recommended | RAID Controller: 512MB NV cache and battery backed recommended |
Disk | Any disk type as system disks | SSD as system disks |
Datastore requirements | ||
VMware datastore (NFS and VMFS supported) | No particular requirement | Full-SSD datastore |
Dell UnityVSA SP requirements | ||
Virtual processor cores | 2 (2GHz+) | 2 (2GHz+) |
Virtual system memory | 12GB | 12GB |
Virtual network adapters | 6 (4 adapters for I/O, 1 for Unisphere, and 1 for system use) | 6 (4 adapters for I/O, 1 for Unisphere, and 1 for system use) |
Dell UnityVSA HA has similar physical requirements as Dell UnityVSA Single-SP on a per SP basis. In terms of VMware requirements, a vCenter is mandatory in addition to the configuration of internal networks. To comply with best practices, Dell UnityVSA HA requires a separate ESXi host for each SP that is deployed. The white paper titled Dell UnityVSA provides further detail on the best practices and the exact VMware requirements. A full description of recommended server requirements for both the 2-core and 12-core CPU deployments of the Dell UnityVSA HA are outlined below.
| 2-core Dell UnityVSA | 12-core Dell UnityVSA |
ESXi requirements | ||
ESXi host configuration | ESXi 6.5+ with both SPs on separate ESXi hosts | ESXi 6.5+ with both SPs on separate ESXi hosts |
Hardware processor | Xeon Silver 4110 or higher | Xeon Silver 4110 or higher |
Hardware memory | 36GB for ESXi 6.5 or later per host | 120GB for ESXi 6.5 or later per host |
Hardware network | 3 x 10 GbE (1 physical port for SP management and IO ports, 2 for inter-SP network) | 3 x 10 GbE (1 physical port for SP management and IO ports, 2 for inter-SP network) |
Hardware RAID | RAID card 512MB NV cache, battery backed recommended | RAID card 512MB NV cache, battery backed recommended |
Disk | No particular disk type | SSD as system disks |
Switch requirements | ||
Hardware switch | 10GbE port support | 10GbE port support |
Datastore requirements | ||
VMware datastores (NFS and VMFS supported) | One full-SSD shared datastore and a separate full-SSD local swap datastore | One full-SSD shared datastore and a separate full-SSD local swap datastore |
Virtual processor cores | 2 (2GHz+) for each SP | 12 (2GHz+) for each SP |
Virtual system memory | 12GB for each SP | 96GB for each SP |
Virtual network adapters | 9 for each SP (4 ports for I/O, 1 for Unisphere, 1 for system use, and 3 for internal communication) | 9 for each SP (4 ports for I/O, 1 for Unisphere, 1 for system use, and 3 for internal communication) |
vCenter | Required | Required |
VLANs | 3 (1 for Common Messaging Interface (CMI) SP-to-SP communication, 1 for Heartbeat 0, and 1 for Heartbeat 1) VLANs must be unique and not used elsewhere on the network | 3 (1 for Common Messaging Interface (CMI) SP-to-SP communication, 1 for Heartbeat 0, and 1 for Heartbeat 1) VLANs must be unique and not used elsewhere on the network |
For more information about the Dell UnityVSA and Dell UnityVSA HA, see the white paper titled Dell UnityVSA available on the Dell Technologies Info Hub.