VxRail drives the hyperconverged evolution with the release of 4.7.410
Wed, 24 Apr 2024 13:35:32 -0000
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VxRail announces new hardware and software in this latest release
January 6, 2020
VxRail recently released a new version of our software, 4.7.410, which we announced at VMworld EMEA in November. This release brings cutting-edge enhancements for networking options and edge deployments, support for the Mellanox 100GbE PCIe NIC, and two new drive types.
Improvements and newly developed functionality for VxRail 2-node implementations provide a more user-friendly experience. Now supporting both direct connect and new switched connectivity options. VxRail 2-node is increasingly popular for edge deployments, and Dell EMC continues to bolster features and functionality in support of our edge and 2-node customer base.
This release also includes improvements for VxRail networking capabilities that more closely align VxRail with VMware’s best practices for NIC port maximums and network teaming policies. VxRail networking enhancements more efficiently handle network traffic due to support for two additional load balancing policies. These new policies determine how to route network traffic in the event of bottlenecks, and the result is better/increased throughput on a NIC port. In addition, VxRail now supports the same three routing/teaming policies as VMware.
Dell EMC also announced support for Fiber channel HBAs in mid-summer of 2019, and with that, the 4.7.410 release has broadened capabilities by supporting external storage integration. VxRail recognizes that an external array is connected and makes it available to the vCenter for use as secondary storage. The storage is now automatically recognized during day 1 installation operations, or on day 2, when external storage is added to expand the storage capacity for VxRail.
In addition to the 4.7.410 release, VxRail added a new set of hardware choices and options to include the Mellanox ConnectX-5 100GBe NIC cards benefitting a variety of use cases including media broadcasting, a larger 8TB 2.5” 7200 rpm HDD commonly used for video surveillance, and a 7.6TB “Value SAS SSD”. Value SAS drives offer attractive pricing (similar to SATA) with performance slightly below other SAS drives and are great for larger read-friendly workloads. And finally, there’s big news for the VxRail E series platforms (E560/E560F/E560N) which all support the T4 GPU. This is the first time VxRail is supporting GPU cards outside of the V series. The Nvidia T4 GPU is optimized for high-performance workloads and suitable for running a combination of entry-level machine learning, VDI, and data inferencing.
These exciting new features and enhancements in the 4.7.410 release enable customers to expand the breadth of business workloads across all VxRail implementations.
Please check out these resources for more VxRail information:
VxRail 4.7.x Release Notes (requires log-in)
By: KJ Bedard - VxRail Technical Marketing Engineer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kj-bedard-50b25315/
Twitter: @KJbedard