The New Dell Server on the vSAN Block: Dell vSAN Ready Node T350
Wed, 06 Apr 2022 16:34:05 -0000
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2021 has been a great year for hyperconverged (HCI) systems. VMware has continued its lead in the HCI marketplace. According to IDC VMware holds an excellent position to define the future of HCI and its relevance in new market opportunities such as 5G, retail, and Edge.
In a market where VMware, Nutanix, Huawei, Cisco, and HPE hold the top positions, HCI systems running VMware accounted for 41.5% of market share, which is more than the other four vendors combined. The revenue that is associated with VMware systems grew more than 17% year after year. More than 30,000 customers have now adopted vSAN. Figure 1 shows market share for HCI systems for Q3, 2021.
Figure 1: IDC Q3 2021 Worldwide Converged Tracker
To add to the VMware HCI momentum, Dell has released a new vSAN Ready Node that is based on Dell’s PowerEdge T350 tower server.
These affordable, 4.5U (fits under a desk counter), entry-level single socket servers are ideal for small and medium size businesses, remote offices, and Edge locations. Based on the Intel Xeon E-2300 processor, the T350 delivers 28%** faster processing and two times the memory capacity of the previous generation (T340).
Figure 2: Dell vSAN Ready Node T350
The Dell vSAN Ready Node T350 completes the Dell vSAN Ready Node portfolio. It is the 13th node type including the Identity Module. This unique feature allows for a smooth factory configuration experience, improved tracking capabilities for quality processes, seamless support through chassis identification, and enhanced system automation capabilities.
Figure 3: Dell EMC vSAN Ready Node portfolio
The T350 model presents the following key features that make it a great candidate for ROBO, retail, and Edge deployment situations:
- Enhanced thermal efficiency
- System layout architected for optimum thermal design
- Comprehensive thermal management: System fan speed autoregulation with temperature monitoring for processors, DIMMs, chipset, and hard drives
- Both open and closed loop thermal fan speed control
- Cooling redundancy
- Acoustics
- Delivers sound quality and smooth transient response in addition to sound power levels and sound pressure levels appropriate for its deployment environments
- Designed to adhere to category 1 and 2 acoustics standards(table-top office environments and floor standing units in office environments)
- Improved visibility and control for system management based in:
- Integrated telemetry streaming
- RESTful API with Redfish
- Designed with a cyber-resilient architecture, integrating security into the system’s life cycle
- Operate your workloads on a secured platform that is anchored by cryptographically trusted booting and silicon root of trust
- Maintain server firmware safety with digitally signed firmware packages
- Prevent unauthorized configuration or firmware change with system lockdown
- Small chassis footprint, 37% lower than its predecessor, optimal for space constrained sites
T350 model emphasizes the importance of providing a wide portfolio of form factors to host customers’ vSAN based workloads. In the VMware Compatibility Guide, vSAN configurations for the T350 include All-Flash and Hybrid (SAS cache and HDDs for capacity).
Using Open Manage Integration with VMware vCenter (OMIVV) and VMware’s life cycle management (vLCM) makes deploying, operating, and life cycle managing your vSAN workloads even easier.
To learn more about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, see the Dell Technologies Info Hub.
Author:
Iñigo Olcoz, Senior Principal Engineer, Dell CI & HCI Technical Marketing
Twitter: @VirtualOlcoz
References
Related Blog Posts
Simplifying Security Operations for Dell HCI Platforms with NSX
Thu, 08 Sep 2022 16:58:04 -0000
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Today, most technology companies in the IT space work to offer customers not only the best technology innovations but also those that help simplify their day-to-day lives.
One example of this is the new vCenter plug-in for NSX-T, introduced with vSphere 7.0 Update 3c and NSX-T 3.2. Through this new deployment method for NSX-T, management and operations users can now use NSX-T as a plug-in for vCenter, similar to how earlier versions of NSX were configured. Through wizard-assisted operations, security policies can easily be configured, deployed, and operated within vCenter.
Figure 1. The new vCenter plug-in for NSX-T simplifies security deployment and operations
For Dell HCI platforms such as VxRail, vSAN Ready Nodes, and PowerEdge servers hosting vSAN-based workloads, NSX becomes an optimal network and security engine.
Figure 2. Dell HCI platforms such as VxRail or vSAN Ready Nodes become the perfect targets for the new vCenter plug-in
The whole process is simple. It can be completed by following these steps:
- Install NSX-T Manager and provide a license key.
- Install the new method to configure and operate NSX security, the vCenter plugin for NSX.
- Configure the distributed firewall policies for the HCI cluster:
a. Define infrastructure services as needed (DNS, DHCP, custom…).
b. Create the environment to consume the defined infrastructure services. - Define how the elements in the environment can communicate with each other.
- Define communication strategies for applications in the environment.
- Review and verify the defined security policies before they are published and effective.
Figure 3. Defined NSX security rules can be reviewed before going live
If you want to learn more about how simple security operations can become with the new vCenter plug-in for NSX, take a look at this video.
Author: Inigo Olcoz
Twitter: VirtualOlcoz
References
- VxRail Info Hub
- vSAN Ready Nodes Info Hub
- HCI Security Simplified: Protecting Dell VxRail with VMware NSX Security
- Simplifying Security Deployment and Operations for Dell HCI Platforms
- Video: Simplifying HCI Security with the New vCenter Plug-in for NSX
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes with Dell ObjectScale to Run Your Modern Applications
Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:52:56 -0000
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In my previous blogs, the focus has been on highlighting the value that Dell vSAN Ready Nodes incorporate in a standardized market segment. These value additions include the variety of form factors available, the existence of 13 models with Identity modules, and the special benefits that the integration with Open Manage Enterprise provides.
But, what about the workloads? One key factor to decide for an infrastructure choice is the benefits and advantages it may have for the type of workloads the business requires. Today, the ability to run effectively and incorporate enterprise features such as protection or replication determine the choice of platform that customers make.
In a world where cloud native applications (CNA) are the natural choice for new deployments, it is relevant to describe how Dell vSAN Ready Nodes behave is such scenarios.
Speaking about paradigms, CNA is to application development like unstructured data is to storage. The relevance of object storage, and the growth that it experiments every year, is substantial.
Wouldn’t it be great to put all these together under the Dell vSAN Ready Node hood?
There is a great VMware platform to simplify your DevOps experience by adding Kubernetes to your infrastructure, making it ready to run modern applications and minimize operational complexity. VMware Tanzu provides a self-service, consistent Kubernetes experience for developers to maximize their productivity, and security and data protection policies and features, out-of-the-box.
vSphere with Tanzu supervisor cluster architecture
A cluster that is enabled for vSphere with Tanzu is called a Supervisor Cluster. It runs on top of an SDDC layer that consists of ESXi for compute, NSX-T Data Center or vSphere networking, and vSAN, like in a Dell vSAN Ready Node. vSAN shared storage is used for persistent volumes for vSphere Pods, VMs running inside the Supervisor Cluster, and pods in a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster.
Dell ObjectScale, based on the Dell ECS platform, delivers a new, software-defined, microservices-based architecture using Kubernetes to provide enterprise-class object storage for modern, cloud-native applications in VMware environments.
Dell ObjectScale deployment option for VMware environments (Dell vSAN Ready Nodes)
Dell ObjectScale integration with VMware vSphere with Tanzu and the vSAN Data Persistence platform enable supporting cloud-native applications on Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. It also enables a global management platform for the distributed storage infrastructure under a single namespace with universal content access.
The components for the solution are:
- VMware Cloud Foundation with Tanzu
- NSX-T
- vSAN (in this example, Dell PowerEdge R650 vSAN Ready Nodes)
- vSAN Data Persistence platform
The solution is built upon four Dell PowerEdge R650 vSAN Ready Nodes configured in a vSAN cluster. This includes three VMware NSX-T manager nodes and three edge nodes for redundancy and high-availability. VMware NSX-T manager nodes were installed on the same vSAN cluster to conserve resources in a lab environment. In a production environment, NSX-T manager nodes can also be installed on an external cluster to provide management and data-plane separation and availability.
This architecture integrates Dell ObjectScale with VMware vSphere with Tanzu through vSAN Data Persistence platform enabling customers to deploy software-defined object storage (stateful services). It also makes containers as easy to manage as VMs. IT departments can deploy cloud-native web and mobile applications, dev/test environments, and AI/ML and analytics platforms over the same infrastructure that host their legacy VMs.
There are different deployment options available:
- Fully sharing the vSAN Ready Nodes clusters between ObjectScale data services and the workloads to be run
- Creating separate clusters in the vSAN Ready Node farm for ObjectScale data service and the workloads to be run
If you want to learn more about how Dell vSAN Ready Nodes can be built to host cloud-native workloads, see the VMware white paper Dell ObjectScale on VMware vSphere with Tanzu.
References
- White paper: Dell ObjectScale on VMware vSphere with Tanzu
- Dell ObjectScale
- Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Info Hub
- Blog: Running Dell ObjectScale on VMware vSphere with Tanzu
Author: Inigo Olcoz, Twitter: @virtualOlcoz