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E2E Deployment and Operations Guide with Switchless Networking: Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies
About using this guide Deployment Introduction Solution Overview Solution Deployment Switchless Architecture with Network ATC
Switchless Architecture with Network ATC
Requirements for switchless storage network topologies
Setup IPs manually on SMB NICs
Creating a cluster
Creating network intents for switchless
Enabling Storage Spaces Direct
Configuring host management network as a lower-priority network for live migration
Updating the page file settings
Configuring a cluster witness
Best practices and recommendations
Update the hardware timeout for the Spaces port Antivirus exclusions
Enabling BitLocker
Recommended next steps
Deployment services
References GPU Integration Day 1 operations Managing and monitoring clusters with Windows Admin Center Dell OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center Updates and maintenance Secure connect gateway References

Requirements for switchless storage network topologies

Home > Integrated Products > Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies > Guides 22H2 and earlier > E2E Deployment and Operations Guide with Switchless Networking: Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies > Requirements for switchless storage network topologies

Requirements for switchless storage network topologies

  • Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI encompasses various configurations across our portfolio of servers. In each of these platforms, various chassis riser configurations may be available, which determine the total number of network adapters allowed. Often, the BOSS or HBA adapters consume up to two of the available PCIe slots. Additionally, some models may not be able to physically accommodate the additional network adapters that are required for a switchless network topology, such as the AX-640 with a 12x 2.5" hard drive chassis configuration, which has limited PCIe slots. Instead, dual-port rNDC is required for RDMA traffic.

    The following RDMA network adapters are validated with three-node switchless mesh topologies:

    • Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx Dual Port 25 GbE
    • Mellanox ConnectX-5 Lx Dual Port 25 GbE
    • Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx Dual Port 25 GbE
    • QLogic FastLinQ 41262 Dual Port 25 GbE
    • Intel E810-XXV Dual Port 10/25 GbE SFP28 Adapter

    The following table lists the maximum number of RDMA network adapters that can be physically installed into each platform.

    Table 4. Maximum network adapters per platform
    Description AX-640 AX-650 AX-6515 AX-740xd/AX-750/AX-7525 AX-760
    Available PCIe slots for NICs 0-2 1-3 1 2-4 2-4
    Note: The number of PCIe adapters varies depending on the platform and chassis configuration selected. Ensure the correct configuration supports three cluster nodes for dual-link full mesh topology. For example, because AX-6515 only supports a single RDMA PCIe network adapter, it only supports three-node single link switchless mesh topologies.

    The following table lists the number of PCIe network adapters that are required per clustered node to create a full mesh switchless interconnect.

    Table 5. Number of network adapters that are required per clustered node
    Description 3-node cluster
    Single-link full mesh* 1 RDMA network adapter
    Dual-link full mesh 2 RDMA network adapters

    *For single-link full mesh interconnect topologies, 10 GbE (or faster) external management network switch connectivity is required. This network provides redundancy for storage network traffic if a storage network link (cable, port, or card) fails.

    *Single-link full mesh is not recommended for high-performance configurations where the VM or storage is expected to have high throughput requirements.

    Note: Dell Solutions for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI requires that the LOM/rNDC/OCP integrated network ports be used for external management network connectivity on each server node. Ideally, these ports should be connected to redundant Top-of-Rack (ToR) network switches.

    If a storage network cable or port fails on single-link full mesh topologies, storage traffic between the affected nodes are rerouted automatically over the management network. Since the management network does not support the RDMA protocol, TCP storage traffic is sent over the management network.

    Dell Technologies recommends Direct Attach Copper (DAC) cabling instead of Active Optical Cabling (AOC) and optical transceivers, especially for direct server-to-server storage network connectivity. DAC cabling offers a cost-effective, highly reliable solution for short distance data transmission. AOC and optical transceivers generally require higher power consumption from each server. Optical transceivers may also require the proper polarity of fiber optic cable in order to allow server-to-server network communication. For instances when optical cables are required, ensure that only Dell validated, high temperature optical transceivers are used for Intel QLogic and Mellanox 25 GbE network adapters.