What’s New: VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5.1 on Dell VxRail 7.0.450 Release and More!
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:11:47 -0000
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This latest Cloud Foundation (VCF) on VxRail release includes updated versions of software BOM components, a bunch of new VxRail platform enhancements, and some good ol’ under-the-hood improvements that lay the groundwork for future features designed to deliver an even better customer experience. Read on for the highlights…
VCF on VxRail operations and serviceability enhancements
View Nvidia GPU hardware details in VxRail Manager vCenter plugin ‘Physical View’ and VxRail API
Leveraging the power of GPU acceleration with VCF on VxRail delivers a lot of value to organizations looking to harness the power of their data. VCF on VxRail makes operationalizing infrastructure with Nvidia GPUs easier with native GPU visualization and details using the VxRail Manager vCenter Plugin ‘Physical View’ and VxRail API. Administrators can quickly gain deeper-level hardware insights into the health and details of the Nvidia GPUs running on their VxRail nodes, to easily map the hardware layer to the virtual layer, and to help improve infrastructure management and serviceability operations.
Figure 1 shows what this looks like.
Figure 1. Nvidia GPU visualization and details – VxRail vCenter Plugin ‘Physical View’ UI
Support for the capturing, displaying, and proactive Dell dial home alerting for new VxRail iDRAC system events and alarms
Introduced in VxRail 7.0.450 and available in VCF 4.5.1 on VxRail 7.0.450 are enhancements to VxRail Manager intelligent system health monitoring of iDRAC critical and warning system events. With this new feature, new iDRAC warning and critical system events are captured, and through VxRail Manager integration with both iDRAC and vCenter, alarms are triggered and posted in vCenter.
Customers can view these events and alarms in the native vCenter UI and the VxRail Manager vCenter Plugin Physical View which contains KB article links in the event description to provide added details and guidance on remediation. These new events also trigger call home actions to inform Dell support about the incident.
These improvements are designed to improve the serviceability and support experience for customers of VCF on VxRail. Figures 2 and 3 show these events as they appear in the vCenter UI ‘All Issues’ view and the VxRail Manager vCenter Plugin Physical View UI, respectively.
Figure 2. New iDRAC events displayed in the vCenter UI ‘All Issues’ view
Figure 3. New iDRAC events displayed in the VxRail Manager vCenter Plugin UI ‘Physical View’
Support for the capturing, displaying, and proactive dial home alerting for new iDRAC NIC port down events and alarms
To further improve system serviceability and simplify operations, VxRail 7.0.450 introduces the capturing of new iDRAC system events related to host NIC port link status. These include NIC port down warning events, each of which is indicated by a NIC100 event code and a ‘NIC port is started/up’ info event.
A NIC100 event indicates either that a network cable is not connected, or that the network device is not working.
A NIC101 event indicates that the transition from a network link ‘down’ state to a network link ‘started’ or ‘up’ state has been detected on the corresponding NIC port.
VxRail Manager now creates new VxM events that track these NIC port states.
As a result, users can be alerted through an alarm in vCenter when a NIC port is down. VxRail Manager will also generate a dial-home event when a NIC port is down. When the condition is no longer present, VxRail Manager will automatically clear the alarm by generating a clear-alarm event.
Finally, to reduce the number of false positive events and prevent unnecessary alarm and dial home events, VxRail Manager implements an intelligent throttling mechanism to handle situations in which false positive alarms related to network maintenance activities could occur. This makes the alarms/events that are triggered more credible for an admin to act against.
Table 1 contains a summary of the details of these two events and the VxRail Manager serviceability behavior.
Table 1. iDRAC NIC port down and started event and behavior details
Let’s double click on this serviceability behavior in a bit more detail.
Figure 4 depicts the behavior process flow VxRail Manager takes when iDRAC discovers and triggers a NIC port down system event. Let’s walk through the details now:
1. The first thing that occurs is that iDRAC discovers that the NIC port state has gone down and triggers a NIC port down event.
2. Next, iDRAC will send that event to VxRail Manager.
3. At this stage VxRail Manager will validate how long the NIC port down event has been active and check whether a NIC port started (or up) event has been triggered within a 30-minute time frame since the original NIC port down event occurred. With this check, if there has not been a NIC port started event triggered, VxRail Manager will begin throttling NIC port down event communication in order to prevent duplicate alerts about the same event.
If during the 30-minute window, a NIC port started event has been detected, VxRail Manager will cease throttling and clear the event.
4. When the VxRail Manager event throttling state is active, VxRail Manager will log it in its event history.
5. VxRail Manager will then trigger a vCenter alarm and post the event to vCenter.
6. Finally, VxRail Manager will trigger a NIC port down dial home event communication to backend Dell Support Systems, if connected.
Figure 4. Processing VxRail NIC port down events, and VxRail Manager throttling logic
Figure 5 shows what this looks like in the vCenter UI.
Figure 5. VxRail NIC port down trigger alarm in vCenter UI
Figure 6 shows what this looks like in the VxRail Manager vCenter Plugin ‘Physical View’ UI.
Figure 6. VxRail Manager vCenter Plugin ‘Physical View’ UI view of a VxRail NIC port down event
VCF on VxRail storage updates
Support for new PowerMax 2500 and 8500 storage arrays with VxRail 14G and 15G dynamic nodes using VMFS on FC principal storage
Starting in VCF 4.5.1 on VxRail 7.0.450, support has been added for the latest next gen Dell PowerMax 2500 and 8500 storage systems as VMFS on FC principal storage when deployed with 14G and 15G VxRail dynamic node clusters in VI workload domains.
Figure 7 lists the Dell storage arrays that support VxRail dynamic node clusters using VMFS on FC principal storage for VCF on VxRail, along with the corresponding supported FC HBA makes and models.
Note: Compatible supported array firmware and software versions are published in the Dell E-Lab Support Matrix for reference.
Figure 7. Supported Dell storage arrays used as VMFS on FC principal storage
VCF on VxRail lifecycle management enhancements
VCF Async Patch Tool 1.0.1.1 update
This tool addresses both LCM and security areas. Although it is not officially a feature of any specific VCF on VxRail release, it does get released asynchronously (pun intended) and is designed for use in VCF and VCF on VxRail environments. Thus, it deserves a call out.
For some background, the VCF Async Patch Tool is a new CLI based tool that allows cloud admins to apply individual component out-of-band security patches to their VCF on VxRail environment, separately from an official VCF LCM update release. This enables organizations to address security vulnerabilities faster without having to wait for a full VCF release update. It also allows admins to install these patches themselves without needing to engage support resources to get them applied manually.
With this latest AP Tool 1.0.1.1 release, the AP Tool now supports the ability to use patch VxRail (which includes all of the components in a VxRail update bundle including VxRail Manager and ESXi software components, and VxRail HW firmware/drivers) within VCF on VxRail environments. This is a great addition to the tool’s initial support for patching vCenter and NSX Manager in its first release. VCF on VxRail customers now have a centralized and standardized process for applying security patches for core VCF and VxRail software and core VxRail HCI stack hardware components (such as server BIOS or pNIC firmware/driver for example), all in a simple and integrated manner that VCF on VxRail customers have come to expect from a jointly engineered integrated turnkey hybrid cloud platform.
Note: Hardware patching is made possible due to how VxRail implements HW updates with the core VxRail update bundle. All VxRail patches for VxRail Manager, ESXi, and HW components are delivered in a the VxRail update bundle and leveraged by the AP Tool to apply.
From an operational standpoint, when patches for the respective software and hardware components have been applied, and a new VCF on VxRail BOM update is available that includes the security fixes, admins can use the tool to download the latest VCF on VxRail LCM release bundles and upgrade their environment back to an official in-band VCF on VxRail release BOM. After that, admins can continue to use the native SDDC Manager LCM workflow process for applying additional VCF on VxRail upgrades. Figure 8 highlights this process at a high level.
Figure 8. Async Patch Tool overview
You can access VCF Async Patch Tool instructions and documentation from VMware’s website.
Summary
In this latest release, the new features and platform improvements help set the stage for even more innovation in the future. For more details about bug fixes in this release, see VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell VxRail Release Notes. For this and other Cloud Foundation on VxRail information, see the following additional resources.
Author: Jason Marques
Twitter: @vWhipperSnapper
Additional Resources
- VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell VxRail Release Notes
- VxRail page on DellTechnologies.com
- VxRail Info Hub
- VCF on VxRail Interactive Demo
- Videos