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Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide
Introduction Plan the VxRail network
Plan the VxRail network
VxRail clusters and nodes
Network switch
VxRail relationship with the Ethernet switch VxRail node discovery and the Ethernet switch Basic switch requirements Switch performance considerations Storage network considerations Network redundancy and performance considerations
Data center network
Routing services
VxRail networking port options
VxRail Ethernet adapter options
VxRail FC adapter options
VxRail RoCE adapter options
VxRail DPU options
VxRail node connectivity options
VxRail networking rules and restrictions
Topology and connections
VxRail Cluster Types VxRail feature-driven decision points VxRail hardware and switch selection decision points Prepare the data center to implement VxRail Plan the VxRail cluster implementation Planning vSAN Witness Networking Planning VxRail Satellite Nodes Networking Configure the Network for VxRail Prepare to build the VxRail cluster VxRail network considerations after implementation Appendix A: VxRail Network Configuration Table Appendix B: VxRail Passwords Appendix C: VxRail cluster setup checklist Appendix D: VxRail Open Ports Requirements Appendix E: VMware VDS port group default settings Appendix F: Physical Network Switch Examples

VxRail clusters and nodes

VxRail clusters and nodes

  • VxRail consists of server nodes that are designed and engineered for VxRail. The VxRail physical node is a PowerEdge server that goes through VxRail product engineering specifications to produce a VxRail node ready for shipment. The set of components that are manufactured into VxRail nodes is based on the purchase order. The set of VxRail nodes is delivered ready for data center installation and connectivity into the data center network infrastructure.

    VxRail models

    Once the data center installation and network connectivity are complete, and the equipment is powered on, the VxRail management interface is used to perform the initialization process, which forms a VxRail cluster.

    A VxRail cluster starts with a minimum of two nodes and can scale to a maximum of 64 nodes. The selection of the VxRail nodes to form a cluster is primarily driven by planned business use cases, and factors such as performance, capacity, and network connectivity.

    The naming standards for VxRail models are structured to target specific objectives

    • E Series: Balanced compute and storage.
    • V Series: Virtual desktop enablement with support for GPUs.
    • P Series: High performance.
    • S Series: Dense storage.

    Newer VxRail new models use a naming standard that is more closely aligned with PowerEdge naming standards. This new naming standard now uses a two-character prefix instead of a single character, and consolidates three target objectives from the previous standard under a single model series.

    • VE-Series: Balance compute and storage requirements.
    • VP-Series: Support multiple business objectives, including high performance, storage density, and GPUs
    • VD-Series: Ruggedized, short-depth, sled-based models for space optimization

    Each VxRail model series offers choices for network connectivity. Every VxRail node includes support for base connectivity through onboard Ethernet ports. Network expansion is supported on VxRail nodes using available PCIe slots for Ethernet adapter cards. The number and type of PCIe slots that can be used for networking purposes depends on the model that is selected and the hardware configuration ordered.

    Each VxRail model series offers choices for network connectivity. The following figures show some of the physical network port options for the VxRail models:
    Figure 1. Back view of VxRail E-Series VE-Series nodes. Back view of VxRail E-Series VE-Series nodes
    Back view of VxRail E-Series Node
    With the 1U rack mount models, such as the VE-Series and E-Series models, PCIe slots can be used for network expansion. Certain models support both low-profile PCIe slots and full-height PCIe slots. The number and type of slots on each node vary depending on the hardware options that are configured, such as whether to include support for GPUs.
    Figure 2. Back view of VxRail VP-, V-, P-, and S-Series nodes. Back view of VxRail VP-, V-, P-, and S-Series nodes
    Back view of VxRail V-, P-, and S-Series Node
    The 2U models offer a higher number of PCIe slots in contrast to the 1U models. However, the 2U rackmount models can be configured at the time of ordering to address a wider range of use cases, which can reduce the number of available PCIe slots. For instance, network expansion options would be reduced in cases where those slots instead are populated with storage devices or GPUs.
    Figure 3. Back view of VxRail VD-Series rackable and stackable chassis options. Back view of VxRail VD-Series rackable and stackable chassis options
    Back view of VxRail VD-Series chassis with installed sleds

    The VxRail VD-Series support sleds of 1U in size and 2U in size, and both sled options are supported in either a rackable chassis or stackable chassis. Only the 2U sleds support network expansion outside of the onboard Ethernet ports through PCIe slots.