When thinking of a VMware vSAN-based integrated solution, the virtualization layer is a key technology piece. That virtualization layer abstracts the classical hardware domains—compute, storage, and network—to present users with a consolidated view of their data center hardware resources through the vSphere abstractions.

In addition to the virtualization layer, the underlying hardware continues to plays a main role. It is responsible for the specific characteristics of its processors, memory, I/O devices, and storage, and for the available form factors in which that set of hardware resources can be installed and deployed.

The rack mount, tower, modular, and ruggedized servers that are used to deploy a vSAN Ready Node environment offers customers robust choices to adapt infrastructure to their specific business needs.

Figure 5.        Dell vSAN Ready Nodes portfolio

VMware with vSAN can host almost any existing workload. This ability gets a boost when the underlying platform is also capable of showing different forms, sizes, and infrastructure offerings, such as those in the Dell PowerEdge portfolio.

Some of the most common data center choices are the types of servers that can be installed within a rack: rackmount and blade servers. These server types achieve optimal space and power utilization when customers want compute density, which is a key design criteria for many facilities.

The range of rack mount and composable infrastructure available in the Dell vSAN Ready Node family is extensive, as 14 different server types qualified. This wide range of options allows customers to find the perfect resource fit for their specific workload demands. It is likely that the exact compute, storage, and network specifications that customers want are available among the 14 server platforms.

This range of options also enables price flexibility, as customers can choose the most affordable options to suit their needs.

Even platform homogeneity represents an operational savings opportunity. Many companies have gone through infrastructure standardization campaigns to explore the benefits of sizing, designing, operating, servicing, and life cycle managing the most homogeneous server platform possible. The broader the server offering, the greater the chance that the bare metal deployments require alignment with the VMware-based infrastructure.

The rack mount format offers servers ranging from 1 to 2U, and from one to four sockets. Rack servers can include up to 112 Intel Xeon Scalable processors, 6 TB of RAM, and 24 direct-attach NVMe drives, and in the PowerEdge R840 in just 2Us.

Figure 6.        Rackmount Dell vSAN Ready Node R840

The following graphic shows the full rackmount and composable portfolio.

Figure 7.        Dell vSAN Ready Nodes full portfolio (Branded ones)

As 5G and edge have become mainstream, they have enabled new business opportunities such as next-generation applications and services.

There is an increasing need for businesses to have IT resources as close as possible to the data creation place. But the edge has some constraints in space, power, and cooling coupled with limited bandwidth and limited IT staff. There are options to mitigate the challenges in this space in the Dell vSAN Ready Node portfolio:

• Dell XR2 vSAN Ready Node: Built for rugged environments, this option can operate in temperatures up to 45⁰C and avoid thermal damage up to 55⁰C with high shock, vibration, dust, humidity, and electromagnetic interference (EMI). With a minimal footprint of 1U and short depth, this option is ideal for space-constrained installations.

Figure 8.        Dell XR2 vSAN Ready Node

• Dell T340 vSAN Ready Nodes: With the T340vSAN Ready Node, these reliable platforms in a tower form factor represent allow customers to build a scalable IT platform by starting small, with an affordable investment.

To address the demands and typical constraints of edge locations, the T340 provides a cyber-resilient architecture that includes reduced server size, thermal efficiency technologies, and advanced security features.

Figure 9.        Dell vSAN Ready Node T340

PowerEdge MX7000 vSAN Ready Nodes: These nodes host elastic compute and storage resources that are connected by a Smart I/O fabric in a flexible 7U modular enclosure, which can hold two and four sockets in its compute sleds.

The Dell MX750c vSAN Ready Node is one of the latest additions to the MX ecosystem, supporting up to two 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Ice Lake), 32x DIMMs, and PCIe Gen4, which enables faster NVMe drives and NICs.

The MX750c adds a flexible building block to the Dell vSAN Ready Node family that helps reduce deployment risks with certified configurations and improves storage efficiencies, which can help build vSAN clusters.

Dell MX750c vSAN Ready Nodes offer the platform flexibility that allows customers to add resources as business demands grow.

Figure 10.    Dell vSAN Ready Nodes MX750c