Installing ESXi 7.0

The R640 vSAN Ready Node server includes the iDRAC module that aids customers with hardware-level deployment and overview.

Follow these steps: 

1. From Dell Technologies Online Support, download the iDRAC console, the Dell EMC ESXi 7,0 image, and additional information about the PowerEdge R640. 
2. Create a RAID 1 vitual disk on the Dell EMC BOSS drive as described on Page 21 of the Dell EMC Boot Optimized Server Storage-51 User's Guide.
3. Attache the ISO image to the iDRAC console by selecting Connect Virtual Media > CD/DVD > Choose File, then browsing and selecting the ISO file for installation
   1. When attached, the server reboots, and you have selected the boot process through the Lifecycle Controller
4. When you access the ESXI installer, select the VD created and configure the ESXi host with the required network settings.

Adding hosts to vCenter Server

When ESXi is installed and configured on all target hosts, add and configure hosts in vCenter Server.

Enabling vSAN

After you add the hosts to the vCenter Client, enable vSAN while creating a cluster and adding a cluster name. When the vSAN is enabled, your hosts are in maintenance mode.

1. Select the cluster. Under Configuration, click Quickstart and then click Configure, as shown in the following figure: 
   Figure 10. Configure the cluster
2. Under Configure cluster, click Distributed switches, select the number of distributed switches required for the cluster, and then click Next.
3. Configure the new switch by selecting the number of port groups, assigning port groups to the switch and NICs to be used across each server, and then click Next, as shown in the following figures:

Figure 11.   Configure the switch

Figure 12.   Configure the switch

4. Under Storage traffic:

Assign a vLAN (see Best Practices), as shown in the following figure:

Figure 13. Assign a vLAN

Configure IPs for vSAN traffic, as shown in the following figures.

Note: The autofill feature is useful to prevent errors and save time.

Figure 14. Configure IPs

Figure 15. Configure IPs using autofill

5. Under Advanced options, select the options that apply to your deployment and click Next.

6. Under Claim disks, claim disks for the cluster by following volumes best practices in Best Practices and click Next:

Figure 16. Claim disks

7. Optionally, enable the vSAN Support Insight and configure proxy settings.

8. Review all selections and click Finish to configure the cluster.

Creating policies for deployment

When the cluster is configured, it is available for deployment of volumes, VMs, and so on. Before creating volumes, we recommended that you create a policy or edit available policies that govern the deployment of volumes.

1. In the vCenter client, click Policies and Profiles, as shown in the following figure: Figure 17. Select Policies and Profiles
2. Click VM Storage Policies to view all the policies that are available by default, as shown in the following figure:  Figure 18. Select VM Storage Policies
3. Do one of the following:
   1. Select a default VM storage policy.
   2. Click Create VM Storage Policy, complete the fields, and click Next, as shown in the following figure:   Figure 19. Create a VM storage policy 
   3. Note: We created a new storage policy for our operating system and backup drives.
4. Select options to define the policy structure and click Next.
   1. Note: We selected Enable rules for “vSAN” storage.
5. Configure rules for availability and advanced policies based on the type of volumes and click Next, as shown in the following figures:

   1. Note: Select the type of rules carefully as they impact performance and space consumed significantly. For more information, see Volume layout.   Figure 20. Manage policy availability  Figure 21. Set advanced policy rules

6. Review storage compatibility with the vSAN datastore, and then review and complete creating the Storage Policy.

   1. You can apply the policy for any volumes created on the vSAN datastore.

Creating VMs

Create VMs for running SQL Server. For information about how to create and manage VMs, see the VMware documentation.

Note: To simplify deployment of multiple SQL Server VMs, we used the VMware cloning feature. For information about the cloning feature, see Clone an Existing Virtual Machine.

Installing and configuring Red Hat Enterprise Linux

After the VMs are created, install the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system. For step-by-step instructions and for more information about the installation, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 installation tips and tricks.

 SQL Server 2019 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux supports the XFS file system, which we used for our deployment. We also used kernel settings for high performance and the specific tuned-adm profile. For information about how to enable these features, see Performance best practices and configuration guidelines for SQL Server on Linux.

Installing SQL Server

For detailed steps for installing SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Red Hat.