VxRail recently released a new version of our software, 4.7.510, which brings key feature functionality and product offerings

At a high level, this release further solidifies VxRail’s synchronous release commitment with vSphere of 30 days or less. VxRail and the 4.7.510 release integrates and aligns with VMware by including the vSphere 6.7U3 patch release.  More importantly, vSphere 6.7U3 provides the underlying support for Intel Optane persistent memory (or PMem), also offered in this release.

Intel Optane persistent memory is non-volatile storage medium with RAM-like performance characteristics. Intel Optane PMem in a hyperconverged VxRail environment accelerates IT transformation with faster analytics (think in-memory DBMS), and cloud services.

Intel Optane PMem (in App Direct mode) provides added memory options for the E560/F/N and P570/F and is supported on version 4.7.410. Additionally, PMem will be supported on the P580N beginning with version 4.7.510 on July 14.

This technology is ideal for many use cases including in-memory databases and block storage devices, and it’s flexible and scalable allowing you to start small with a single PMem module (card) and scale as needed. Other use cases include real-time analytics and transaction processing, journaling, massive parallel query functions, checkpoint acceleration, recovery time reduction, paging reduction and overall application performance improvements.

New functionality enables customers to schedule and run "on demand” health checks in advance, and in lieu of the LCM upgrade. Not only does this give customers the flexibility to pro-actively troubleshoot issues, but it ensures that clusters are in a ready state for the next upgrade or patch. This is extremely valuable for customers that have stringent upgrade schedules, as they can rest assured that clusters will seamlessly upgrade within a specified window. Of course, running health checks on a regular basis provides sanity in knowing that your clusters are always ready for unscheduled patches and security updates.

Finally, the VxRail 4.7.510 release introduces optimized security functionality with two-factor authentication (or 2FA) with SecurID for VxRail. 2FA allows users to login to VxRail via the vCenter plugin when the vCenter is configured for RSA 2FA. Prior to this version, the user would be required to enter username and password. The RSA authentication manager automatically verifies multiple prerequisites and system components to identify and authenticate users. This new functionality saves time by alleviating the username/password entry process for VxRail access. Two-factor authentication methods are often required by government agencies or large enterprises. VxRail has already incorporated enhanced security offerings including security hardening, VxRail ACLs and RBAC, KMIP compliant key management, secure logging, and DARE, and now with the release of 4.7.510, the inclusion of 2FA further distinguishes VxRail as a market leader.

Please check out these resources for more VxRail 4.7.510 information:

VxRail Spec sheet

VxRail Technical FAQ

VxRail 4.7.510 release notes

By:  KJ Bedard - VxRail Technical Marketing Engineer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kj-bedard-50b25315/

Twitter: @KJbedard

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:

VMWare EMEA Announcements 

VxRail Spec Sheet

VxRail Network Planning Guide

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