Tue, 14 Nov 2023 21:27:38 -0000
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Modernizing applications, barring monoliths that are tightly coupled with the underlying infrastructure, means consolidating, repurposing, or refactoring legacy software and applications. It also means modernizing the platform infrastructure to create new business value from existing applications and to ensure that it aligns closely with current business needs. Legacy modernization leverages, rather than upgrading, retiring an existing system, or replacing it wholesale, extending the lifespan of an organization’s applications and taking advantage of technical innovations.
Planning to modernize legacy or even modern applications from a physical to a virtual environment is very important. There are many options available for application modernization or legacy modernization.
The one discussed in this blog is about migrating an entire database to a new environment with a container orchestrator such as VMware Tanzu. In this study, migrating a MySQL workload from an older PowerEdge MX740c environment to a newer PowerEdge MX750c consolidates the hardware platform and reaps the benefits of VMware Tanzu containers.
To help organizations understand the value of refreshing their older Dell PowerEdge hardware to newer 15G compute sleds with VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) containerization, we conducted a series of tests:
The PowerEdge MX is designed for the software-defined data center—able to support a combination of dense virtualization, software-defined storage, software-defined networking, artificial intelligence, and big data projects. PowerEdge MX, with its kinetic infrastructure, is uniquely designed without a mid-plane, enabling support for multiple generations of technology releases—processor technologies, new storage types and new connectivity innovations—well into the future. By creating on-the-fly hardware capacity, overprovisioning and stranded assets are reduced as performance and efficiency are optimized.
Whether your target application is e-commerce, a critical financial application, or some other business-specific application, the process of application modernization encompasses the whole range of things you can do to an application to:
Dell PowerEdge MX provides an intelligent and modular framework that enables data and workload mobility across the infrastructure, while VMware Tanzu speeds the overall application modernization, making that process simpler, more agile and efficient, and less costly.
So, when you pair PowerEdge MX with VMware Tanzu, it combines software designed, customizable modules of compute, storage, and networking with a modular cloud native application platform that gets apps to production faster and adapts quickly to changing business, customer, and security requirements.
Finally, the goal of application modernization should be to deliver the specific set of benefits you need, not all possible benefits. Successful application modernization depends on choosing the right applications, processes, and tools. VMware Tanzu container technology brings various benefits by packaging applications and their run-time environments into executable modules of software that have a small footprint, are portable, are easy to build and deploy, and optimized to have low runtime overhead. In this way, VMware Tanzu delivers the expertise and advanced tooling to help an organization's modernization journey.
To access the reports of the study, see the following:
Author: Thomas MM
Tue, 14 Nov 2023 21:26:35 -0000
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Dell Technologies and VMware have created a viable solution with low hardware entry requirements with the new VMware ESA profile, AF-0, to help customers ride the competitive edge, with lower total cost of ownership.
VMware has added the new ESA AF-0 to the ReadyNode profile with minimum hardware requirements for host CPU, memory, and networking, and with the full performance benefits of a single storage tier comprised of NVMe devices. With the vSAN ESA AF-0 profile, VMware and Dell Technologies offer customers simplified IT environments, plus the latest 16G server technology, performance, low failure, and maintenance domains, with a competitive advantage that flexibly aligns with business objectives.
At Dell Technologies, we understand this. And with VMware, our focus is to help you achieve your goals easily and on your terms. Dell Technologies ReadyNodes built on PowerEdge servers are tested and validated building blocks for the vSAN ESA solution.
The new ReadyNodes profile, AF-0, helps customers in a wide deployment use case, but not limited to:
Table 1. An example of a Dell vSAN ESA ReadyNode AF-0 configuration
Components | Description | Quantity |
ESXi Pre-Installed | Yes |
|
System | vSAN Express Storage Architecture AF-0 | 2 |
CPU | Intel Xeon Gold 6434 3.7G, 8C/16T, 16GT/s, 23M Cache, Turbo, HT (195W) DDR5-4800 | 2 |
Memory | 16GB RDIMM, 4800MT/s Single Rank, 4800MT/s RDIMMs | 8 |
Storage Tier | 1.6TB Enterprise NVMe Mixed Use AG Drive U.2 Gen4 with carrier | 2 |
NIC | Broadcom 57414 Dual Port 10/25GbE SFP28, OCP NIC 3.0 | 1 |
Boot Device | BOSS-N1 controller card + with 2 M.2 480GB (RAID 1) | 1 |
VMware vSAN ESA introduces several new enhancements. These deliver better performance and make improved data durability and resilience available across all ESA profiles, from AF-0 to AF-High Density for small and medium businesses to large enterprises.
Figure 1. VMware vSAN ESA ReadyNode profiles
The five enhancements are:
These enhancements to vSAN ESA, and the introduction of the AF-0 ReadyNode profile to the Dell PowerEdge server portfolio, provide a winning combination for small and medium businesses, small datacenters, and edge environments.
Dell PowerEdge servers are built to support an organization’s quest to adopt and acquire the latest technologies for their IT requirements. Although providing these technological enhancements is imperative, it is important to note that business needs vary, and the latest technologies must flexibly align these enhancements across small and medium business to large organizations.
Figure 2. Dell vSAN ReadyNodes portfolio for the AF-0 profile
Dell PowerEdge servers are designed for the modern evolving data center, providing the productivity and performance for diverse workloads. Available in different form factors, they are engineered to run the most demanding applications across industry segments to address the challenges of digital transformation. The portfolio of PowerEdge servers configured for VMware vSAN Ready Nodes, is jointly engineered, validated, and certified, and one of the broadest in the industry. When you build a vSAN Cluster, Dell Technologies and VMware strongly recommend using tested and certified ReadyNodes that are validated to provide predictable performance and scalability.
With combined solutions featuring Dell PowerEdge servers, and VMware vSAN 8, customers get improved performance, reduced risks, a certified platform, and can scale as needed to accelerate their journey with a competitive edge towards digital transformation.
Author: Thomas MM
Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:50:27 -0000
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Dell and VMware collaborate to streamline and expedite the integration of software and hardware, enabling the delivery of tailored solutions for your business requirements. Leveraging our strong partnership, Dell vSAN Ready Nodes provides the latest versions of VMware vSphere®, VMware vSAN™, and VMware Cloud Foundation as soon as they become available. The introduction of VMware vSAN 8.0 - Express Storage Architecture, along with support for stretched clusters and expanded disaggregated storage capabilities, marks a significant milestone. In the ongoing development of vSAN 8 Update1, both vSAN OSA and vSAN ESA architectures are continuously improved and enriched with additional features, such as efficient data services and an optimized architecture for NAND Flash utilizing NVMe as the protocol bus. As vSAN 8 introduces groundbreaking updates that enhance performance and efficiency, this paper delves into the key factors that contribute to Dell vSAN ReadyNode as a differentiated but compatible certified hardware.
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are x86 servers built on the Dell PowerEdge portfolio of Intel and AMD processors-based servers, which have been pre-configured, tested and certified for VMware Hyper-converged Infrastructure.
For more information on Dell vSAN ReadyNodes Certification, visit https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/p/dell-emc-vsanready-node-certification/.
vSAN is a software-defined storage solution built from the ground up for VMware vSphere Virtual Machines and containers. This solution abstracts and aggregates the server’s local disks in a vSphere cluster to create a storage solution that is provisioned and managed from the vCenter. As vSAN is embedded within the vSphere hypervisor, compute and storage for the VMs and containers are delivered from the same Dell PowerEdge server platform running the hypervisor.
vSAN original storage architecture consists of two tiers: a cache and a capacity tier. The cache tier performs read caching and write buffering, and the capacity tier functions as persistent storage. vSAN uses disk groups to manage the relationship between cache and capacity tiers. Each host contributing storage (either an All-Flash or a Hybrid Configuration of magnetic disks and flash drives) to a vSAN cluster will consist of at least 1-disk group that contains one cache device and between one and seven capacity devices. Whether hybrid or all-flash configuration, the cache drive must be a flash drive. vSAN uses the cache device for both a read/write cache (70%/30%) in a hybrid configuration, and in an all-flash configuration, the cache device is dedicated (100%) as a write cache.
VMware vSAN OSA ReadyNode configuration with Cache & Capacity Tiers
vSAN OSA AF-6 Dell PowerEdge R760 | ||
Generation: Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire-Rapids-SP) - Profile: AF-6 Series - Raw Storage Capacity: Up To 38.4 TB | ||
Components | Details | Qty |
ESXi Pre-Installed? | Yes |
|
System | PowerEdge R760 | 4 |
CPU | Intel Platinum 8470 2.00 GHz 52 Core | 8 |
Memory | DIMM,32GB,4800,2RX4,16G, DDR5R | 64 |
Caching Tier | 800GB Solid State Drive SAS Mixed Use 24Gbps 2.5 inch Hot-Plug Drive | 16 |
Capacity Tier | 1.92TB SSD SATA 6Gbps 2.5in SE5031 | 80 |
Controller | HBA355i Front | 4 |
NIC | Intel(R) Ethernet 25G 2P E810-XXV OCP | 4 |
Boot Device | BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 Sticks 240G (RAID 1) or higher | 4 |
Supported Releases | ESXi 8.0 U1 (vSAN 8.0 Update 1), ESXi 8.0 (vSAN 8.0), ESXi 7.0 U3 (vSAN 7.0 Update 3) | 4 |
Table 1. vSAN OSA ReadyNode Configuration
vSAN Express Storage Architecture is an alternative architecture that builds on the existing Original Storage architecture. Compared to OSA which is a two-tier architecture, the ESA architecture is single-tiered, optimized for high performance NVMe-based flash devices for both on-premises and cloud environments. Some of the structural changes include a new Log-Structured Filesystem-LFS, a write optimized log-structured object manager, a new native snapshot engine, and a new object format. Some of the achievements of the new capabilities are space efficiency of RAID 5/6 erasure coding with the performance of RAID-1, Adaptive RAID-5 erasure coding for space savings on clusters with as few as 3-hosts, HCI Mesh support for 10-client cluster, lower TCO by removing dedicated cache devices by using a single-tier, simplified management, and smaller failure domains by removing construct of disk groups. Customers can now choose the best architecture for their hardware while building new clusters with unprecedented levels of performance. Finally, vSAN Express Storage Architecture is available as new deployments, and an existing cluster cannot be upgraded to vSAN ESA.
Fig.1. Integrating optional hardware optimized architecture in vSAN
vSAN ESA AF-6 Dell PowerEdge R760 | ||
Generation: Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire-Rapids-SP) Profile: vSAN-ESA-AF-6 Raw Storage Capacity: Up To 51.2 TB | ||
Components | Details | Qty |
System | PowerEdge R760 | 4 |
CPU | Intel Platinum 8462Y 2.80Ghz 32 Core | 8 |
Memory | 64GB DDR-4, 3200, 2RX4 ,8G, DDR4, R | 16 |
Storage Tier | Dell Ent NVMe PM1735a MU 6.4TB | 8 |
NIC | Intel(R) Ethernet 25G 2P E810-XXV OCP | 8 |
Boot Device | BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 Sticks 120G or higher (RAID 1) | 4 |
Supported Releases | ESXi 8.0 U1 (vSAN 8.0 Update 1), ESXi 8.0 (vSAN 8.0) | 4 |
Table.2. vSAN ESA ReadyNode Configuration
Components | vSAN OSA Modifiable | vSAN ESA Modifiable | vSAN OSA Guidance | vSAN ESA Guidance |
CPU | Yes | Yes |
|
|
Memory | Yes | Yes |
|
|
Caching Tier | Yes | NA |
|
|
Capacity Tier | Yes | NA |
|
|
Storage Device | NA | Yes |
|
|
Additional Certified IO Controller | Yes | NA |
|
|
Change in Storage Protocol | No | NA |
|
|
NIC | Yes | Yes |
|
|
Boot Device Controller | Yes | Yes |
|
|
Table.3. Allowable configuration changes in vSAN ReadyNodes
For detailed FAQs on VMware vSAN, visit https://core.vmware.com/resource/vsan-frequently-asked-questions-faq#section1.
Components | Description | Quantity |
DellStar Quote No. | 18070029 |
|
ESXi Pre-Installed | Yes |
|
System | VSAN-RN R660 | 4 |
CPU | Intel® Xeon® Gold 6430 2.1G, 32C/64T, 16GT/s, 60M Cache, Turbo, HT (270W) DDR5-4400 | 2 |
Memory | 32GB RDIMM, 4800MT/s Dual Rank, RDIMMs | 16 |
Storage Tier | 3.2TB Enterprise NVMe Mixed Use AG Drive U.2 Gen4 with carrier | 10 |
NIC | Broadcom 57414 Dual Port 10/25GbE SFP28, OCP NIC 3.0 | 1 |
Boot Device | BOSS-N1 controller card + with 2 M.2 480GB (RAID 1) | 1 |
Table.4. An example of Dell vSAN ESA ReadyNode configuration from the Dell Configurator
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes for both OSA and ESA are certified hardware for building vSAN clusters. These ReadyNodes are ideal for building data center and cloud environments that deploy hyperconverged building blocks for varied scenarios. Dell Technologies provides multiple vSAN Ready Node options that are built on the Dell PowerEdge servers and support multiple vSAN editions and versions till the latest vSAN 8 U1. Dell Technologies provides a wide range of options for selecting the vSAN server model and storage controller as well as magnetic disks, SAS SSD, NVMe, NIC controllers, and accelerators, combined with VMware ESXi for both OSA and ESA configurations. There are multiple ReadyNode options available for different performance and workload requirements.
Dell vSAN OSA Guide > https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_vsan_rn_guide.pdf
Dell vSAN ESA Guide > https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_vsanesa_guide.pdf
Dell Technologies and VMware strongly recommend using tested and certified ReadyNodes that are validated to provide predictable performance and scalability when building a vSAN Cluster. Dell Technologies provides varied options for vSAN ReadyNodes for both Original Storage Architecture and Express Storage Architecture. To configure a Dell vSAN ReadyNodes listed for ESA solution, visit https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=vsanesa. On the configurator page 1, for ‘Choose Step 1’, select the vSAN ReadyNode Vendor as Dell. Next, choose the ‘vSAN ESA Server Model’ and processor vendor from a range of validated and certified 15G and 16G server models and processor from Intel or AMD. Next, choose the ‘ReadyNode Profile’ from AF-0 to AF-8. Once the required options are chosen, click on ‘Configure vSAN ESA ReadyNode.’ In Step 2, for ‘Configure’, select host configuration of sockets, cores, memory, storage type, number of storage devices, capacity, network speed, and number of network adapters. Next, click Step 3 to ‘Consume’. The configurator then builds the configuration chosen as per the requirements for the solution.
Note: There is only one storage tier in vSAN ESA configuration, unlike OSA configuration that requires two types of disks for cache and capacity tiers.
Dell Technologies vSAN ESA Ready Nodes | ||||||||
Server | PowerEdge R660 | PowerEdge R760 | PowerEdge R760xa | |||||
CPU | 2 Sockets, 72 Cores Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids-SP) | 2 Sockets, 72 Cores Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids-SP) | 2 Sockets, 32 Cores Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids-SP) | |||||
Memory | 1024 GB 32 DDR5 DIMM slots, supports RDIMM 8 TB max, speeds up to 4800 MT/s | 1024 GB 32 DDR5 DIMM slots, supports RDIMM 8 TB max, speeds up to 4800 MT/s | 512 GB 32 DDR5 DIMM slots, supports RDIMM 8 TB max, speeds up to 4800 MT/s | |||||
Storage | 10 x 6.4 TB Dell U.2 Ent NVMe PM1735a MU 6.4 TB [3 DWPD] | 16 x 6.4 TB / 24 x 3.2 TB Dell Ent NVMe CM6 MU 6.4 TB [3DWPD] Dell U.2 Ent NVMe P5620 MU 3.2 TB [3 DWPD] | 6 x 3.2 TB Dell Ent NVMe CM6 MU 3.2 TB [3DWPD]
| |||||
Network Speed Host NIC | 2 x 100 Gb
1 | 2 x 100 Gb
1 | 1 x 25 Gb
1 | |||||
ReadyNode Profile
Available Profiles | AF-8
AF-0, AF-2, AF-4, AF-6 | AF-8
AF-0, AF-2, AF-4, AF-6 | AF-2
AF-0 | |||||
|
|
|
| |||||
Server | PowerEdge R6615 | PowerEdge R6625 | PowerEdge R7615 | PowerEdge R7625 | ||||
CPU | 1 Socket, 64 Cores AMD EPYC Genoa | 2 Sockets, 128 Cores AMD EPYC Milan | 1 Socket, 48 / 64 Cores AMD EPYC Genoa | 2 Socket, 128 Cores AMD EPYC Genoa | ||||
Memory | 768 GB 12 DDR5 DIMM slots, supports RDIMM 3 TB max, speed up to 4800 MT/s | 768 GB 24 DDR5 DIMM slots, supports RDIMM 6 TB max, speeds up to 4800 MT/s | 768 GB 12 DDR5 DIMM slots, supports RDIMM 3 TB max, speeds up to 4800 MT/s | 768 GB 24 DDR5 DIMM slots, supports RDIMM 6 TB max, speeds up to 4800 MT/s | ||||
Storage | 10 x 6.4 TB Dell U.2 Ent NVMe P5620 MU 6.4 TB [3 DWPD] | 7 x 6.4 TB Dell U.2 Ent NVMe P5620 MU 6.4 TB [3 DWPD] | 16 x 6.4 TB / 3.2 TB Dell U.2 Ent NVMe PM1735a MU 6.4 TB [3 DWPD] Dell U.2 Ent NVMe P5620 MU 3.2 TB [3 DWPD] | 14 x 3.2 TB Dell U.2 Ent NVMe PM1735a MU 6.4 TB [3 DWPD] Dell Ent NVMe CM6 MU 3.2 TB [3DWPD] Dell U.2 Ent NVMe P5620 MU 3.2 TB [3 DWPD] | ||||
Network Speed Host NIC | 2 x 25 Gb
1 | 2 x 25 Gb
1 | 2 x 25 Gb
2 | 2 x 25 Gb
2 | ||||
ReadyNode Profile
Available Profiles | AF-6
AF-0, AF-2, AF-4 | AF-6
AF-2 | AF-6
AF-0, AF-2 | AF-6
AF-0, AF-2 |
When choosing the hardware, it is important to define the workload profile requirement for the use case. Once this is done, filter and search ReadyNode offerings to determine the approximate configuration that meets the defined requirement. Finally, choose the vSAN ESA ReadyNode aligned with the selected profile.
Description | vSAN-ESA-AF-0 | vSAN-ESA-AF-2 | vSAN- ESA-AF-4 | vSAN- ESA-AF-6 | vSAN- ESA-AF-8 | vSAN-ESA-AF-High- density |
Node Capacity (TB) (Min) | 3.2 | 15 | 20 | 40 | 60 | 100 |
CPU (#cores) per Node (Min) | 16 | 32 | 40 | 48 | 56 | 48 |
Memory (GB) (Min) | 128 | 512 | 512 | 768 | 1024 | 768 |
Number of storage devices (Min) | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Device Endurance | 1 DWPD or higher | 3 DWPD | 1 DWPD or higher | |||
Network (GbE) (Min) | 10 | 25 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 50 |
Device Guidance
Device Type and Protocol: NVMe TLC. The vSAN ESA ReadyNode is certified with NVMe and allows no change to the device type.
SSD Performance Class: Class F or higher, (Class F (100000 - 349999 WPS), Class G (350000+ WPS))
Endurance Class:1 DWPD or higher
Capacity:1.6TB or higher
Sizing Assumptions Used For vSAN ESA ReadyNode Profiles
Network: Dual port NIC recommended for redundancy.
Device Capacity: The capacity point is for guidance only. You can choose different capacity points as long as Node Capacity and Performance/Endurance classes are met.
Number of Storage Tier Devices: The number of Storage Tier devices has an impact on the performance of vSAN ESA. The minimum quantity is 4 devices per node. We recommend configuring more for better performance.
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are built on trusted and proven PowerEdge Servers, speeding up the deployment with pre-configured, pre-tested configurations that are validated and certified to run VMware vSAN and help build a solution to meet an organization’s growing needs from the start. vSAN ESA ReadyNode solutions are based for different workload requirements, built for capacity and performance, and are available in the above form factors for entry, mid, and high demand workloads as specified in the Available ReadyNode profiles, from AF-0, AF-2, AF-04, AF-06 and AF-8.
As newer technologies and innovations evolve with VMware vSAN, Dell Technologies vSAN ReadyNodes ensure the pace is maintained with the newer generation of PowerEdge servers that are certified as ReadyNodes to run VMware’s latest vSAN software, providing the much-needed computing, networking, and storage requirements.
Dell Technologies and VMware provide business value to customers, delivering integrated solutions that accelerate the journey to digital transformation. Our partnership offers deep integration of VMware’s innovative technology with the unique combination of hardware and vSAN software while providing choice and flexibility to consume the latest technology. The Dell Technologies and VMware partnership provides a unique advantage, given that our infrastructure solutions are optimized for VMware solution stacks.
Author: Thomas MM, Technical Marketing Engineering, Linka Biaggi, Product Marketing
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 18:36:32 -0000
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VMware vSphere with Tanzu is used to transform vSphere to a platform for running Kubernetes workloads natively on the hypervisor layer. When enabled on a vSphere cluster, vSphere with Tanzu provides the capability to run Kubernetes workloads directly on ESXi hosts and to create upstream Kubernetes clusters within dedicated resource pools. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is an enterprise ready Kubernetes runtime built to run consistently with any app on any cloud. It runs the same Kubernetes workloads across the data center, public cloud, and edge for a consistent, secure experience for on-demand access and to keep your workloads properly isolated and secure.
Graphics processing units (GPU) are dedicated parallel hardware accelerators originally designed for accelerating graphics intensive processing. Today, GPUs have become an essential part of artificial intelligence workloads, especially machine learning and deep learning. Moreover, containers help organizations modernize applications and to align closely with current business needs (see Consolidate your VMs and Modernize Aging Environments with PowerEdge MX750c Compute Sleds and VMware Tanzu). It is only logical to empower container-based applications and workloads to leverage any accelerators that the hardware infrastructure can provide.
As investments in artificial intelligence grow, and organizations explore using AI workloads for critical business workloads, VMware vSphere with Tanzu containerized environments provide the ability to rapidly deploy applications. Although generic applications do well with standard containers, computationally demanding workloads can benefit tremendously with GPU accelerators that can help process multiple computations concurrently. VMware Tanzu Kubernetes on NVIDIA GPUs enables enterprises to adopt and deploy artificial intelligence workloads, such as machine learning and deep learning.
The NVIDIA Ampere A100 is a powerful graphics processing unit (GPU). The A100 Tensor Core GPU runs diverse compute intensive applications at every scale running in modern cloud data centers. Some compute-intensive applications include AI deep learning (DL) training and inference, data analytics, scientific computing, genomics, edge video analytics and 5G services, graphics rendering, cloud gaming, and many more. Using NVIDIA GPUs to accelerate container workload performance is the key to rapid scalability and superior performance of containers with GPUs.
NVIDIA GPUs with their simultaneous processing capabilities, supported by thousands of cores, help accelerate a wide range of applications across industry segments such as:
In this study, we used ResNet-50—a deep learning image classification workload—on a Dell PowerEdge R750 server with an NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU running VMware vSphere with Tanzu. NVIDIA vGPU software “creates virtual GPUs that can be shared across multiple virtual machines, accessed by any device, anywhere”. Companies can use NVIDIA vGPU software for a wide range of workloads. This approach combines the management and security benefits of virtualization with the performance of GPUs, from which many modern workloads can benefit. The results show that the PowerEdge R750 with an NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU in a VMware Tanzu Kubernetes environment with GPU virtualization can support flexibly apportioning GPU compute capability across multiple machine learning workloads in VMware Tanzu Kubernetes clusters.
Modern data centers require fast, flexible cloud enabled infrastructure to respond to complex compute demands. Dell PowerEdge servers provide a scalable business architecture, intelligent automation, and integrated security for workloads from traditional applications and virtualization to cloud-native workloads. The Dell PowerEdge difference is that we deliver the same user experience, and the same integrated management experience across all our servers, so you have one way to patch, manage, update, refresh, and retire servers across the entire data center. PowerEdge servers also incorporate the embedded efficiencies of OpenManage systems management that enable IT pros to focus more time on strategic business objectives and less time on routine IT tasks.
The Dell PowerEdge R750, powered by 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, is a rack server that optimizes application performance and acceleration. The R750 is a dual-socket 2U rack server that delivers outstanding performance for the most demanding workloads. It supports eight channels of memory per CPU, and up to 32 DDR4 DIMMs at 3200 MT/s speeds. In addition, to address substantial throughput improvements, the PowerEdge R750 supports PCIe Gen 4 and up to 24 NVMe drives with improved air-cooling features and optional Direct Liquid Cooling to support increasing power and thermal requirements. These features make the R750 an ideal server for data center standardization on a wide range of workloads, including database and analytics, high performance computing (HPC), traditional corporate IT, virtual desktop infrastructure, and AI/ML environments that require performance, extensive storage, with Data Processing Unit (DPU) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) support.
About the author: Thomas MM works in the technical marketing team that focuses on Dell PowerEdge with VMware software. With vast experience in the IT industry in various roles, Thomas specializes in PowerEdge servers and VMware software and works to create technical collateral that highlights the many unique benefits of running VMware software on PowerEdge servers for Dell and VMware customers and partners.
Fri, 13 Jan 2023 10:00:33 -0000
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Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are simple solution that help accelerate VMware vSAN deployments, as the hardware is pre-configured and tested with optimally configured CPU, memory, Network Interface Controllers, SSD and HDD, pre- loaded with VMware vSphere and vSAN software, offered in varied capacities for different workloads, with a certification from both Dell EMC and VMware.
Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes lessen project risks and reduce the time taken to procure hardware and software, build, validate, certify and run a hyperconverged solution.
Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are hyperconverged building blocks built on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers that are preconfigured, tested and certified to run VMware vSAN™, a radically simply software-defined storage solution. Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are offered in varied configurations designed to meet VMware vSAN specifications and are ideal for on-premises and cloud environments. For customers, it simplifies the path to HCI and reduces risks with a validated, tested, and certified ready to run Dell EMC vSAN Ready node.
All Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are required to go through a certification process. This involves jointly testing for performance, feature and faults, different types and quantity of CPU's, memory and disks, network controllers, and stress tests for a period that ensures the robustness and resiliency of the hardware.
The following diagram depicts the certification process for the Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes.
Figure-1. Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node certification process.
VMware vSAN, is built from the ground up and certified to be listed on the VMware Compatibility guide-VCG website. Each vSAN Ready Node is configured with the right hardware, specific firmware and driver versions, configuration type of Hybrid or All-Flash drives, ESXi version, combined with the best performance and availability of support used in a VMware vSAN Cluster. The certification process requires the base server platform, and the driver versions of the peripheral devices of the hardware under test be I/O Vender Partner certified. This ensures that the Ready Nodes listed in the vSAN Compatibility Guide are specific versions for every certification and not just minimums. For customers, this means a vSAN HCI node has been tested thoroughly with the base hardware and exact configurations that is listed in the VCG, enabling in choosing the ‘Most Optimized vSAN Cluster’ configuration a simple task. A change in this combination requires recertification even if a specific component has been tested with or changed from the previous version. Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node Certification happens on three levels: vSAN Ready Nodes-comprising of one or more chassis, individual components, such as a Storage I/O Controller and PCIe or NVMe devices, with the rest of the base hardware made of certified components.
Benefits
Hyperconverged solutions offer inherent benefits, not just consolidated hardware with a license. Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes provides enterprises the right Ready Node profiles for your workloads, a single SKU, a modular and scalable platform with a lower TCO compared to a disparate solution and ease of use in managing resources. With the Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes created jointly with Dell EMC and VMware, hundreds of hours of testing and certification makes it the obvious choice for any enterprise’s need for a hyperconverged solution.
Figure-2. Benefits of Certified VMware vSAN solution.
Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are an ideal choice for enterprises planning to adopt a Hyperconverged Infrastructure solution. Choose a pre-validated reference architecture designed and tested to utilize the latest server and storage technologies that are ready to use as an exact end-to-end solution.
Today's enterprises face more stringent IT budgets, and customers are exploring technologies to lower the total cost of ownership drastically. Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes help streamline HCI adoption and reduce costs with a scale-up/scale-out architecture that adapts to a rapidly changing business need. To learn more on Dell EMC vSAN Certifications visit the website here.