Day 1 – Deploying an APEX Private Cloud Subscription
Fri, 04 Nov 2022 19:03:21 -0000
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Ordering and deploying new physical infrastructure for a business-critical application is often challenging.
This series of blogs reveals the Dell differences that simplify the complex task of infrastructure deployment[1], specifically the processes of fulfillment, configuration, and workload creation. These steps are typically referred to as Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2, respectively. Each blog in this series will show how an APEX subscription can remove complexity and achieve quicker time to value and operational efficiency. (In this blog series, we assume that the application being built requires the compute resources of a 4-node general purpose APEX Private Cloud Dell-integrated rack, ordered through the APEX console with typical network and power requirements.)
Before we dive in, let’s review briefly what has happened so far during the fulfillment stage after an order for a subscription is submitted. To get to this point, the APEX backend business coordination team has been orchestrating the entire fulfillment process, including people, parts, and procedures. The Dell Project Manager and Planning & Optimization Manager have been in frequent contact with the customer, assisting them with configuration and site review. Dell team members support the customer through the Enterprise Project Services portal: a planning and approval tool that allows customer visibility throughout the deployment process, from setting up the host network, to verifying and validating the new hardware. During planning, the Dell Customer Success Manager meets the customer and becomes the customer’s main point of contact for Day 2 operations and afterward.
Delivery day begins when Dell’s preferred shipping partner carefully escorts the rack from the customer loading area to the tile where it needs to be installed inside the customer’s data center. While the rack is being shipped and installed, the Dell Project Manager assigns and coordinates with an on-site professional services technician.
Day 1
Day 1 starts when the professional services technician arrives at the customer site, ready to configure the rack with the agreed upon options. The technician first inspects the rack inside and out, making sure that the wiring is secure and that there are no electrical or physical hazards. The technician then guides the customer or the customer’s electrician to plug the PDUs into datacenter power, and to power up the rack. The technician also plugs the customer provided network uplink cables into the APEX switches. When power and networking are connected, the technician verifies that all systems are in compliance and validated for the next steps.
The technician then configures the APEX switches and works with the customer to get the switches communicating on the customer’s core network, according to the specifications previously agreed upon during the planning meetings. Each APEX Private Cloud rack is pre-wired for 24 compute nodes, regardless of the number of nodes in a subscription. This forward-thinking feature is yet another Dell difference that simplifies rapid expansion. (When the need for an expansion arises, the customer can contact their CSM directly to expedite the order process. Both Dell-integrated and customer provided rack options come with on-site configuration by a professional services technician.)
After the technician performs network health checks, the technician initiates the cluster build. Upon verification and validation of the APEX compute nodes, the technician installs the latest VxRail Manager and vCenter on each, to tie all nodes together into a robust, highly available cluster.
With APEX VxRail compute nodes, customers get a broad range of benefits from the only hardware platform that is co-engineered with VMware. VxRail is a highly-trusted platform with thousands of tested and validated firmware and hypervisor installations around the globe. Each node hosts an instance of the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with the latest security and update features. Built-in automations include hot node addition and removal, capacity expansions, and graceful cluster shutdown.
An APEX subscription also includes Dell’s Secure Connect Gateway appliance, which proactively monitors compute nodes and switches. If an anomaly is detected, the appliance gathers logs and issues a support ticket, reducing the time it takes to resolve problems if they arise.
VMware vCenter on VxRail, included with each APEX Private Cloud subscription, comes equipped with Dell integrations such as firmware, driver, and power alerts, and an intuitive physical view to help resolve any hardware issues simply and quickly. Dell is the customer’s single point of contact for help with our streamlined Pro Deploy Plus service and Pro Support Plus with Mission Critical Support - all included in the customer’s APEX Private Cloud subscription.
After the latest versions of VxRail Manager and vCenter are installed, the technician brings up the vCenter interface at an IP address, in accordance with the customer’s network requests. Even after the technician is gone and additional help is needed, customers can ask support to review and help guide updates twice a year at no additional cost.
While the underlying hardware is essential and a major differentiator when comparing Dell to the rest of the market, the spirit behind APEX is to provide the best possible outcome for the customer by removing the complexity when deploying a rack-scale solution. To achieve this goal, the APEX Console simplifies the planning process with a wide variety of subscription choices with preconfigured compute, memory, and GPU accelerators. This means that the customer can easily select the number and type of instances they need, or use the Cloud Sizer for assistance to match their workload needs to the available subscription options. The customer can use the APEX Console to contact support directly, manage console users, and assign roles and permissions to those with console access to facilitate the entire lifecycle of their subscription.
Licensing
After vCenter is up and running, the technician installs enterprise licenses for both vCenter and vSAN. APEX is flexible enough that the customer can also bring their own licenses for a potential discount on their subscription. If this is the case, during the planning phase and prior to the subscription order, VMware will review the licenses to eliminate any lapses during the APEX subscription term.
All APEX Private Cloud subscriptions include 60-day full-feature trial licenses for VMware Tanzu and NSX Advanced Load Balancer. After licenses are installed and all software stacks are running successfully, the Dell technician securely hands the usernames and passwords to the customer and requests that they change the passwords.
Additional Services
The technician is also available to configure additional services such as a stretched cluster within the rack, deduplication compression, and in-flight or at-rest encryption. The technician can also help stretch a cluster across racks and to configure fault domains. Although these additional services and costs need to be declared and agreed to during the planning phase, this is well within the capabilities of Dell professional services.
When all the customer requested services are up and running, the technician updates the EPS portal to conclude their tasks and to offer any notes and feedback on the process.
At this point the customer’s subscription is activated! Customers can now move into Day 2 operations and start using new resources for various business workloads.
Resources
Author: David O’Dell, Senior Principal Tech Marketing Engineer - APEX
[1] Deployment time is measured between order acceptance and activation. The 28-day deployment applies to single rack deployments of select APEX Cloud services pre-configured solutions and does not include customizations to the standard configuration.
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Impacting the World, One Happy Customer at a Time
Fri, 25 Aug 2023 21:45:55 -0000
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As I get back from a lovely week to relax and reset by the beach in Mauritius, I have had time to realize that sometimes the important thing to do is to find time to relax and rejuvenate. I have come back with a burst of energy ready to get back to doing what I love most – spending time helping customers build simple Infrastructure solutions.
As a core member of the Dell Technologies infrastructure solutions sales team, I have come to realize that our core job is to solve problems. All businesses today are out there solving customer problems and challenges, either by producing goods or delivering services. Most businesses today have a lot of behind-the-scenes challenges to overcome to be able to help their customers.
Technology plays a big part in everything we do today, and IT teams must be on top of their game all the time to ensure businesses can continue to focus on what’s important – Customers!
I have had the opportunity to work with a non-profit organization that is literally making the world a better place for everyone globally. The work they do is non-stop and it is not easy. Their work requires an immaculate IT setup that needs to be always online, secure, and able to scale for their bespoke applications. Their current setup has gone through some major changes in terms of their applications and tracking methodologies. They had been experiencing multiple information and data silos, complexity in infrastructure management, and data security issues. In helping them find a way to simplify their IT, we too played a part in making the world a better place.
We had a few conversations and agreed that we needed to build the entire infrastructure on one platform. In this case, VMware was the unanimous choice. The two biggest challenges were to eliminate silos and to simplify management. HCI was the best way to achieve both, and we chose VxRail HCI systems. This solution went on to deliver a consistent platform across the edge, core, and cloud. It has proven to be a solution that can that manage all of the compute, storage, and networking resources through a single pane of glass with vCenter -- all under a single support umbrella for all of the hardware and software deployed.
Lifecycle management with BIOS, firmware, and software updates and upgrades can be a painful and time-consuming process. But what if I told you we can automate these tasks with one-click upgrades, one node at a time without any downtime – how does that sound? When I asked, the CTO was happy, and the IT manager was happier. All those investments in our R&D labs with over 100 people working on resolving some of the most common challenges -- like upgrades for IT teams around the world -- now made sense.
What made the solution choice easier was the ability to remotely monitor it from anywhere in the world with Cloud IQ, and its ability to scale and grow, not just on premises but in the cloud, any cloud at any time.
Did we manage to resolve their IT challenges - Yes, with a simplified solution like VxRail that provides performance, management simplicity, automation of tasks, and the flexibility to grow and scale. The customer was delighted - knowing full well that they now have an infrastructure setup that helps them do all the work they do consistently, and to be able to expand their work to different Geo Regions as well.
At the end of it all did I enjoy my time off after helping build an infrastructure solution for an organization doing something so meaningful. While I was away, I did get a postcard from the IT manager who was able take his wonderful family out for a nice little vacation, knowing that he could easily manage anything he needed to from anywhere in the world.
On to helping our next customer get the same peace of mind so they can leave their mark on the world too.
Author: Manish Bajaj
Deploying VMware Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations on Dell VxRail: Now for the Multicloud
Wed, 17 May 2023 15:56:43 -0000
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VMware Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations (TKO) on Dell VxRail is a jointly validated Dell and VMware reference architecture solution designed to streamline Kubernetes use for the enterprise. The latest version has been extended to showcase multicloud application deployment and operations use cases. Read on for more details.
VMware Tanzu and Dell VxRail joint solutions
VMware TKO on Dell VxRail is yet another example of the strong partnership and joint development efforts that Dell and VMware continue to deliver on behalf of our joint customers so they can find success in their infrastructure modernization and digital transformation efforts. It is an addition to an existing portfolio of jointly developed and/or engineered products and reference architecture solutions that are built upon VxRail as the foundation to help customers accelerate and simplify their Kubernetes adoption.
Figure 1 highlights the joint VMware Tanzu and Dell VxRail offerings available today. Each is specifically designed to meet customers where they are in their journey to Kubernetes adoption.
Figure 1. Joint VMware Tanzu and Dell VxRail solutions
VMware TKO on VxRail
VMware Tanzu For Kubernetes Operations on Dell VxRail reference architecture updates
This latest release of the jointly developed reference architecture builds off the first release. To learn more about what TKO on VxRail is and our objective for jointly developing it, take a look at this blog post introducing its first iteration.
Okay… Now that you are all caught up, let’s dive into what is new in this latest version of the reference architecture.
Additional TKO multicloud components
Let’s dive a bit deeper and highlight what we see as the essential building blocks for your cloud infrastructure transformation that are included in the TKO edition of Tanzu.
First, you’re going to need a consistent Kubernetes runtime like Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) so you can manage and upgrade clusters consistently as you move to a multicloud Kubernetes environment.
Next, you’re going to need some way to manage your platform and having a management plane like Tanzu Mission Control (TMC) that provides centralized visibility and control over your platform will be critical to helping you roll this out to distributed teams.
Also, having platform-wide observability like Aria Operations for Applications (formerly known as Tanzu/Aria Observability) ensures that you can effectively monitor and troubleshoot issues faster. Having data protection capabilities allows you to protect your data both at rest and in transit, which is critical if your teams will be deploying applications that run across clusters and clouds. And with NSX Advanced Load Balancer, TKO can also help you implement global load balancing and advanced traffic routing that allows for automated service discovery and north-south traffic management.
TKO on VxRail, VMware and Dell’s joint solution for core IT and cloud platform teams, can help you get started with your IT modernization project and enable you to build a standardized platform that will support you as you grow and expand to more clouds.
In the initial release of the reference architecture with VxRail, Tanzu Mission Control (TMC) and Aria Operations for Applications were used, and a solid on-premises foundation was established for building our multicloud architecture onward. The following figure shows the TKO items included in the first iteration.
Figure 2. Base TKO components used in initial version of reference architecture
In this second phase, we extended the on-premises architecture to a true multicloud environment fit for a new generation of applications.
Added to the latest version of the reference architecture are VMware Cloud on AWS, an Amazon EKS service, Tanzu Service Mesh, and Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) functionality provided by NSX Advanced Load Balancer to build a global namespace for modern applications.
New TMC functionalities were also added that were not part of the first reference architecture, such as EKS LCM and continuous delivery capabilities. Besides the fact that AWS is still the most widely used public cloud provider, the reason AWS was used for this reference architecture is because the VMware SaaS products have the most features available for AWS cloud services. Other hyperscaler public cloud provider services are still in the VMware development pipeline. For example, today you can perform life cycle management of Amazon EKS clusters through Tanzu Mission Control. This life cycle management capability isn’t available yet with other cloud providers. The following figure highlights the high-level set of components used in this latest reference architecture update.
Figure 3. Additional components used in latest version of TKO on VxRail RA
New multicloud testing environment
To test this multicloud architecture, the Dell and VMware engineering teams needed a true multicloud environment. Figure 4 illustrates a snapshot of the multisite/multicloud lab infrastructure that our VMware and Dell engineering teams built to provide a “real-world” environment to test and showcase our solutions. We use this environment to work on projects with internal teams and external partners.
Figure 4. Dell/VMware Multicloud Innovation Lab Environments
The environment is made up of five data centers and private clouds across the US, all connected by VMware SD-WAN, delivering a private multicloud environment. An Equinix data center provides the fiber backbone to connect with most public cloud providers as well as VMware Cloud Services.
Extended TKO on VxRail multicloud architecture
Figure 5 shows the multicloud implementation of Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations on VxRail. Here you have K8s clusters on-premises and running on multiple cloud providers.
Figure 5. TKO on VxRail Reference Architecture Multicloud Architecture
Tanzu Mission Control (TMC), which is part of Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations, provides you with a management plane through which platform operators or DevOps team members can manage the entire K8s environment across clouds. Developers can have self-service access, authenticated by either cloud identity providers like Okta or Microsoft Active Directory or through corporate Active Directory federation. With TMC, you can assign consistent policies across your cross-cloud K8s clusters. DevOps teams can use the TMC Terraform provider to manage the clusters as infrastructure-as-code.
Through TMC support for K8s open-source project technologies such as Velero, teams can back up clusters either to Azure blob, Amazon S3, or on-prem S3 storage solutions such as Dell ECS, Dell ObjectScale, or another object storage of their choice.
When you enable data protection for a cluster, Tanzu Mission Control installs Velero with Restic (an open-source backup tool), configured to use the opt-out approach. With this approach, Velero backs up all pod volumes using Restic.
TMC integration with Aria Operations for Applications (formerly Tanzu/Aria Observability) delivers fine-grained insights and analytics about the microservices applications running across the multicloud environments.
TMC also has integration with Tanzu Service Mesh (TSM), so you can add your clusters to TSM. When the TKO on VxRail multicloud reference architecture is implemented, users would connect to their multicloud microservices applications through a single URL provided by NSX Advanced Load Balancer (formerly AVI Load Balancer) in conjunction with TSM. TSM provides advanced, end-to-end connectivity, security, and insights for modern applications—across application end users, microservices, APIs, and data—enabling compliance with service level objectives (SLOs) and data protection and privacy regulations.
TKO on VxRail business outcomes
Dell and VMware know what business outcomes matter to enterprises, and together we help customers map those outcomes to transformations.
Figure 6 highlights the business outcomes that customers are asking for and that we are delivering through the Tanzu portfolio on VxRail today. They also set the stage to inform our joint development teams about future capabilities we look forward to delivering.
Figure 6. TKO on VxRail and business outcomes alignment
Learn more at Dell Technologies World 2023
Want to dive deeper into VMware Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations on Dell VxRail? Visit our interactive Dell Technologies and VMware booths at Dell Technologies World to talk with any of our experts. You can also attend our session Simplify & Streamline via VMware Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations on VxRail.
Also, feel free to check out the VMware Blog on this topic, written by Ather Jamil from VMware. It includes some cool demos showing TKO on VxRail in action!
Author: Jason Marques (Dell Technologies)
Twitter: @vWhipperSnapper
Contributor: Ather Jamil (VMware)
Resources
- VxRail page on DellTechnologies.com
- VxRail InfoHub
- VxRail videos
- Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations VMware page
- TKO on VxRail Reference Architecture