A few weeks ago, Dell Technologies announced a new release of Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure that introduced a multitude of new features as well as support for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI version 23H2. Today, we are announcing the availability of a new architectural option for Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure customers – extending the Azure Stack HCI storage fabric to Dell PowerFlex software-defined storage

Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure has an architecture designed around common building blocks for compute, software-defined storage, and automated management and operations.

Explanation of Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure that includes the common building blocks

Figure 1. Dell APEX Cloud Platforms common infrastructure

The new capability offers customers the unique advantage of having the flexibility to utilize Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) alongside Dell PowerFlex, Dell Technologies’ enterprise-class software-defined storage option. APEX Cloud Platform for Azure is the only offer in the Microsoft Premier Solutions for Azure Stack HCI category that supports linear scaling of storage independently from Azure Stack HCI resources. APEX Cloud Platform for Azure with PowerFlex utilizes PowerFlex storage nodes for block storage. Any of the Dell PowerFlex product variants—rack, appliance, or custom node—can be utilized to satisfy the solution. PowerFlex provides a multitude of essential features:

Ability to host a wide range of business workloads, including:
- Mission-critical databases and applications that require high transactional performance and low latency
- Applications that require consistent I/O performance, such as those used for streaming, ingestion, and reporting transactions within AI and data analytics environments
Highly-available platform at six 9s (99.9999%), which translates to just 31.5 seconds of platform downtime a year. On top of that resiliency, the platform incorporates exceptionally fast rebuild and rebalance operations.
Modular scale-out architecture, built to support exponential data growth

This new storage option, designed to co-exist with—not replace—Microsoft S2D, has been tested in a proof of concept by both Dell Technologies and Microsoft engineering teams, ensuring that the solution supports the uses cases and features described previously.

“As we continue to innovate and empower our customers with cutting-edge solutions, the partnership with Dell and Microsoft is paramount. With the Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, customers gain great flexibility and simplicity by leveraging Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct alongside Dell’s enterprise-class software defined block storage. By integrating Microsoft Azure Stack HCI with Dell software-defined block storage, this solution gives businesses the autonomy to deploy workloads across on-premises and in the Azure cloud.” – Meena Gowdar, Group Principal PM Manager, Azure Edge and Platform, at Microsoft.

The architecture of the tested solution is illustrated in the following figure:

Figure 2. Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure with Dell PowerFlex high-level architecture

As you can see in Figure 2, the components of a Microsoft S2D-only option overlap completely with the option integrating Dell PowerFlex custom nodes.

This architecture has been designed with the following principles in mind:

High availability – designed to avoid single points of failure in the compute, storage, and networking domains
Scalability – enabling you to size the infrastructure accordingly to meet initial deployment demands while also allowing infrastructure assets to grow as demand scales up
Manageability – leveraging a set of familiar tools to manage the environment
Simplicity – providing a seamless experience for presenting this new external storage to Azure Stack HCI for IT administrators already familiar with S2D

Tested configuration

The Dell Technologies engineering team performed the testing and validation of the PowerFlex storage configuration using the following building blocks:

Eight MC-760 HCI nodes
Eight Dell PowerFlex R760 custom nodes

This was deployed and connected as shown in the following figure:

This network diagram show 8 MC 760 nodes on the left with 8 custom PowerFlex storage nodes on the right. Each side is connected to its own pair of L2 Top of Rack switches, which are then redundantly connected to an L3 pair of switches.

Figure 3. Dell SDS validated configuration

Note: A fully-supported Dell Validated Design will be available at a later date, providing a more complete set of guidance for configuration, deployment, and design.

To learn more, read the detailed architectural white paper, Enabling Mission Critical Workloads on APEX Cloud Platform for Azure with Dell PowerFlex .

For more information on Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure, please check the Resources section.

Resources

Author: William Leslie, Director, Cloud Platform Technical Marketing

X: @williamleslie8

Your Browser is Out of Date

What’s New in Dell APEX Cloud Platform for Microsoft Azure: Dell Software Defined Storage with Dell PowerFlex

Tested configuration

Resources