Your Browser is Out of Date

Nytro.ai uses technology that works best in other browsers.
For a full experience use one of the browsers below
Design Guide – Consuming PowerFlex Block Storage from Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure
Introduction Architecture Concepts and Requirements
Architecture Concepts and Requirements
Architecture concepts
Overview APEX Cloud Platform for Azure PowerFlex software-defined storage Data mobility Data encryption
Solution requirements
MC node and PowerFlex node hardware requirements Networking requirements Deployment model requirements Day 2 operations
Verification Summary and additional resources

Solution requirements

Home > APEX > Cloud Platforms > Guides > Design Guide – Consuming PowerFlex Block Storage from Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure > Solution requirements

Solution requirements

  • MC node and PowerFlex node hardware requirements

    When planning to order APEX Cloud Platform for Azure, you must determine whether you intend to consume PowerFlex block storage from your Azure Stack HCI cluster. For this configuration, each MC node must have a total of six 25 GbE Ethernet adapter ports.

    The ports will be used in the following ways:

    • Two ports will be dedicated to management and VM compute network traffic.
    • Two ports will be dedicated to Server Message Block (SMB3) for S2D storage traffic.
    • Two ports will be dedicated to PowerFlex storage traffic.
    Note: If NIC-level high availability (HA) is desired (your Network ATC intent is using physical ports from two separate NICs), three PCIe NIC cards from the same vendor and of the same model and speed are required. NIC-level HA across OCP and PCIe adapters is not supported.

    Only NVIDIA Ethernet adapters can be leveraged for this configuration. All adapter ports must be set to operate at 25GbE speed. Also, the NVIDIA NICs in each node must be using the same model and firmware revision and be installed in the same server slot across the cluster. To achieve NIC-level HA, you would need to populate your MC nodes with three NVIDIA PCIe NICs. For the specific Ethernet adapter models and configurations that have been validated by Dell Engineering, see Verification.

    Ethernet adapters are the only fixed component in the hardware configuration. With the other components in the MC nodes, you have the flexibility to select between numerous options. For example, there are a wide variety of processors, GPUs, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs), local disk types and sizes, and power supplies to choose from. All the supported hardware components can be found in the Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure Support Matrix.

    The only hardware requirement on the PowerFlex nodes prescribed by this DVD is the speed of the Ethernet adapters. The NVIDIA adapter ports in the MC nodes dedicated to PowerFlex connectivity and the NIC ports in the PowerFlex nodes must be 25 GbE. NICs running at 100 GbE have not been tested and validated with this integration. Any supported rack, appliance, or custom node form factor with 25 GbE NICs can be leveraged for this configuration. There are limitations on the PowerFlex software versions that can be used, which are mentioned in Deployment model requirements.

    For details about the specific hardware components, operating systems, networking, and systems management used for testing and validation in the Dell Engineering labs, see Verification.