In today’s fast paced digital world, organizations that want to stay competitive require ongoing infrastructure updates and patches to ensure they’re getting the most from technology investments. Staying current with the latest software updates ensures that the infrastructure is secure and optimized for performance while providing users with the latest features and functionality to better serve business needs.

VxRail LCM is built on Ecosystem Connectors to integrate vSAN cluster software and PowerEdge server hardware so that the ESXi host can be managed as a single system. This system integration enables automation and orchestration necessary to deliver non-disruptive, streamlined HCI stack updates. Where VxRail LCM delivers differentiated value is the ability to deliver pre-validated set of software and firmware that ensures compatibility and compliance of the HCI stack configuration while maintaining the performance and availability required of the virtualized workloads running on the clusters.

The ability to test, validate, and produce a VxRail software bundle to support every vSphere release, any-to-any version update path, and the millions of VxRail configurations is termed as Continuously Validated States. These Continuously Validated States are recorded on the Electronic Compatibility Matrix. The VxRail team’s $60 million in equipment investment with 100+ team members dedicated to testing and quality makes this possible.

Figure 4.        Snapshot of VxRail release support matrix and resources invested to validate each release

Customer updateable software

VxRail software bundle is customer updateable by a fully automated and validated process. The single-click software update is initiated from VxRail Manager plug-in. It automatically downloads all software that is ready to be updated including VxRail HCI System Software, VxRail-provided vCenter Server, vSphere, and server component firmware and drivers. Customer-provided vCenter Server, vRealize Log Insight, SRS, and RecoverPoint for VMs are not part of VxRail life cycle management, and would need to be updated separately. The automated process consists of four steps.

1. Acquire VxRail software bundle. From the VxRail Manager UI, the update advisor tool lists the available update paths for the cluster. Users can select an update path to review a report on the component changes needed to complete the update. Once a decision has been made on the target version, users can initiate an internet download from the update advisor. For sites lacking internet connectivity, update bundles can also be locally uploaded to the cluster. In this scenario, users need to separately acquire the bundle and upload it from a machine in the same local network as the VxRail cluster.
2. Customers are encouraged to run the cluster readiness pre-check which can be initiated from the VxRail Manager UI. Upon completion, the pre-check report determines the readiness of the cluster to successfully complete a cluster update. If there are any reported issues, customers can address them in advance. The combination of this pre-check update, advisory report, and an estimated update time provides important information to schedule an accurate maintenance window.
3. At this point, the VxRail update bundle has been downloaded and staged on the VxRail Manager VM. At the user’s discretion, they can initiate the cluster update operation from the VxRail Manager UI. They have the option to schedule the update. To start a cluster update, user must provide proper credentials for vCenter, ESXi host, and VxRail Manager.

Optionally, in the latest VxRail software releases, customers can customize the update image with additional firmware and drivers for components that are not part of the Continuously Validated State such as Fibre-Channel HBAs. Previously, updating non-VxRail-managed components required a separate update.

4. During the update operation, users can monitor the progress from the VxRail Manager UI. When the cluster update completes, the final validation step ensures the update was successful, and the VxRail system is fully functional at the new, updated version of software. A copy of the updated bundle is also stored as a recovery bundle in VxRail Manager VM.

Alternatively, there is a REST API call that can execute the update once the software has been downloaded onto the VxRail system.

The following figure shows the four automated steps of a customer executed VxRail HCI system software update.

Figure 5.        VxRail update workflow

Step 3 is performed one node at a time, where the ESXi host is placed in maintenance mode, and using vMotion, the VMs are moved to other nodes making the update process non-disruptive. Even if the cluster is not licensed to make use of DRS, VxRail’s partnership with VMware allows VxRail Manager to enable DRS during a cluster update in order to move VMs from the ESXi host that is being updated to achieve non-disruptive updates. In the latest VxRail software versions, the cluster update operation has been enhanced by pre-staging the next node with the update bundle as the current node is processed.

This improvement reduces the time to update the node, ultimately reducing the overall time to complete a cluster update.

Serviceability

VxRail has its own monitoring and event alerting system that captures VxRail management issues and hardware related issues that are manifesting on the PowerEdge server. VxRail also integrates with vCenter Server so that the events generate alarms that can be seen on the vCenter Server UI. This integration along with existing health monitoring of vSphere and vSAN on vCenter provides end-to-end visibility of the full VxRail stack. For select events, VxRail can self-determine whether it requires the attention of the Dell technical support team to resolve. In these scenarios, VxRail automatically generates an alarm on vCenter Server, collects relevant logs necessary to troubleshoot the issue, and initiates a remote service call via SRS with Dell technical support to facilitate a case creation with the supporting log materials. This self-driving feature offloads decision-making of the IT administrator and speeds problem resolution.

VxRail also leverages VMware vRealize Log Insight to monitor system events and provide ongoing holistic notifications about the state of virtual environment and system hardware. It delivers real-time automated log management for the VxRail system with log monitoring, intelligent grouping, and analytics to provide better troubleshooting at scale across VxRail physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

Dell SRS is also accessible from within VxRail Manager plug-in or REST API to provide enterprise-class support and services. SRS includes online chat support and Dell field-service assistance.

Lifecycle management value tiers

VxRail has innovated in different aspects of lifecycle management. The figure below provides a model to help understand where the benefits fit with respect to the customer value chain. In short, it’s the how, what, and why.

Update orchestration is the foundation, or the mechanics, to deliver lifecycle management. It’s the how. Regarding lifecycle management of an HCI solution, having an automated and orchestrated workflow to update both hardware and software together is very beneficial to a customer. This reduces the time spent dealing with individual components separately. Having pre-update comprehensive health checks reduces the risk of update failure that ultimately impacts application uptime. An end-to-end update should be non-disruptive to improve uptime. VxRail delivers this value with its tight integration of VMware software and PowerEdge server hardware.

Rather than burdening the customer with the work and risk of defining and validating the configuration required for a full stack cluster update, configuration stability is having a pre-validated configuration that a customer needs to update to in order to take advantage of the latest features and security updates. Business operations are not impacted, and the customers are leveraging the latest capabilities while the platform continues to meet security standards and compliance. VxRail delivers this configuration stability with the Continuously Validated States. 

At the top of the customer value chain for lifecycle management is decision support. This is the area where HCI vendors will look to deliver in the next few years because it will help drive operational costs even further down. By using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve and enhance decision making, IT staff can further offload the burden of infrastructure management. This is an area that VxRail is starting to deliver some capabilities, most notably with SaaS multi-cluster management.

Figure 6.        Lifecycle management value tiers