SAP HANA is one of those demanding workloads that has been steadfastly contained within the clean walls of the core data center. However, this time last year VxRail began to chip away at these walls and brought you SAP HANA certified configurations based on the VxRail all-flash P570F workhorse and powerful quad socket all-NVMe P580N. This year, we are once again in the giving mood and are bringing SAP HANA to the edge. Let us explain.

Dell Technologies defines the edge as “The edge exists wherever the digital world & physical world intersect. It’s where data is securely collected, generated and processed to create new value.” This is a very broad definition that extends the edge from the data center to oil rigs, to mobile response centers for natural disasters. It is a broad claim not only to provide compute and storage in such harsh locations, but also to provide enough of it that meets the strict and demanding needs of SAP HANA, all while not consuming a lot of physical space. After all -- it is the edge where space is at a premium.

Shrinking the amount of rack space needed was the easier of the two challenges, and our 1U E for Everything (or should that be E for Everywhere?) was a perfect fit. The all-flash E560F and all-NVMe E560N, both of which can be enhanced with Intel Optane Persistent Memory, can be thought of as the shorter sibling of our 2U P570F, packing a powerful punch with equivalent processor and memory configurations.

While the E Series fits the bill for space constrained environments, it still needs data center like conditions. This is not the case for the durable D560F, the tough little champion that joined the VxRail family in June of this year, and which is now the only SAP HANA certified ruggedized platform in the industry. Weighing in at a lightweight 28 lbs. and a short depth of 20 inches, this little fighter will run all day at 45°C with eight hour sprints of up to 55°C, all while enduring shock, vibration, dust, humidity, and EMI, as this little box is MIL-STD 810G and DNV-GL Maritime certified. In other words, if your holiday plans involve a trip to hot sand beaches, a ship cruise through a hurricane, or an alpine climb, and you’re bringing SAP HANA with you (we promise we won’t ask why), then the durable D560F is for you.

The best presents sometimes come in small packages. So, we won’t belabor this blog with anything more than to announce that these two little gems, the E560 and the D560, are now SAP HANA certified.

Author: David Glynn, Sr. Principal Engineer, VxRail Tech Marketing

References:

360° View: VxRail D Series: The Toughest VxRail Yet 

Video: HCI Computing at the Edge

Solution brief: Taking HCI to the Edge: Rugged Efficiency for Federal Teams

White paper: ESG Technical Validation: Dell EMC VxRail and Intel Optane Persistent Memory -- Enabling High Performance and Greater VM Density for HCI Workloads

Press release: Dell Technologies Brings IT Infrastructure and Cloud Capabilities to Edge Environments

SAP Certification link: Certified and Supported SAP HANA® Hardware Directory 

Well-managed companies are always looking for new ways to increase efficiency and reduce costs while maintaining excellence in the quality of their products and services. Hence, IT departments and service providers look at the cloud and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) as the enablers for automation, driving efficiency, consistency, and cost-savings.

This blog will help you get started with VxRail API by grouping in one place the most useful VxRail API resources available from various public sources. This list of resources will be updated every few months with new material, so consider bookmarking it for your reference as a useful map to help you navigate this topic.

Before jumping into the list, I think it's essential to answer some of the most obvious questions:

What is VxRail API?

VxRail API is a feature of VxRail HCI System Software that exposes management functions with a RESTful application programming interface. It’s designed for ease of use by VxRail customers and ecosystem partners who would like to better integrate third party products with VxRail systems. VxRail API is:

• Simple to use – Thanks to Swagger and PowerShell integration, you can consume the API very easily using a supported web browser or from a familiar command-line interface for Windows and VMware vSphere admins.
• Powerful – VxRail offers dozens of API calls for essential operations such as automated lifecycle management (LCM), and its capabilities are growing with every new release.
• Extensible – This API is designed to complement REST APIs from VMware (such as vSphere Automation API, PowerCLI, VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail API), offering a familiar look and feel and vast capabilities.

 Why is it relevant?

VxRail API enables you to leverage the full power of automation and orchestration services across your data center. This extensibility enables you to build and operate infrastructure with cloud-like scale and agility. It also streamlines the integration of the infrastructure into your IT environment and processes. Instead of manually managing your environment through the graphical user interface, repeatable operations can be triggered and executed programmatically by software.

More and more customers are embracing DevOps and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) models as they need reliable and repeatable processes to configure the underlying infrastructure resources required for applications. IaC leverages APIs to store configurations in code, making operations repeatable and greatly reducing errors.

 How can I start? Where can I find more information?

To help you navigate through all the resources available, I've grouped them by their level of technical difficulty, starting with 101 (the simplest, explaining the basics, use cases, and value proposition), through 201, up to 301 (the most in-depth technical level).

 101 level

• Solution Brief: Dell EMC VxRail API – Solution Brief – this is a very concise (three page) brochure that briefly explains on a high-level what VxRail API is, the typical use cases, and where you can find additional resources for a quick start. I would highly recommend starting your exploration from this resource.
   
• Infographic: Dell EMC VxRail HCI System Software RESTful API – one of the infographics that brings together quick facts about VxRail HCI System Software differentiation, this specific one explains the value of VxRail API.
  
  
• Blog Post: Take VxRail automation to the next level by leveraging APIs – this is my first blog post focused on VxRail API. It touches on some of the challenges related to managing a farm of VxRail clusters and how VxRail API can fit as a solution. It also covers the enhancements introduced in VxRail HCI System Software 4.7.300, such as Swagger and PowerShell integration.
   
• Blog Post: Protecting VxRail from Power Disturbances – my second API-related blog post, where I explain an exciting use case by Eaton, our ecosystem partner, and the first UPS vendor who integrated their power management solution with VxRail using VxRail API.
   
• Demo: VxRail API – Overview – this is our first VxRail API demo published on the official Dell EMC YouTube channel. It was recorded using VxRail HCI System Software 4.7.300, explains VxRail API basics, API enhancements introduced in this version, and how you can explore the API using Swagger UI.
   
• Demo: VxRail API – PowerShell Package – a continuation of the API overview demo referenced above, focused on PowerShell integration. It was recorded using VxRail HCI System Software 4.7.300.

201 level

• Interactive Demo: VxRail 7.0 – this updated VxRail 7.0 Interactive Demo contains a dedicated section “VxRail 7.0 API” focused on the API. It includes three modules:
  
  
  1. Getting Started – explains how you can interact with Swagger-based documentation and the Developer Center available from vCenter with a couple of practical examples, such as getting information about the VxRail cluster, collecting inventory, exporting a log bundle, and creating a VM from a template. 
  2. Day 1 – Bring Up – explains the API-driven deployment of the VxRail cluster using PowerShell. Note that when using the Day 1 API for the VxRail cluster deployment, Professional Services are still required at this time to provide the best customer experience. 
  3. Day 2 – Operations and Extensibility – discusses some of the "day 2" operations and extensibility with API cookbook examples, the VxRail PowerShell Modules package, VMware PowerCLI, and Ansible.

 The VxRail 7.0 Interactive Demo is a very recent asset prepared by our team for the Dell Technologies World 2020 virtual conference. I would highly recommend it. It was recorded with VxRail HCI System Software version 7.0.010, which introduced Day 1 API for VxRail cluster deployment.

• Manual: Dell EMC VxRail RESTful API Cookbook – this is a handy resource for anyone who would like to jumpstart their VxRail API journey by using code samples documented and tested by our Engineering team for three automation frameworks: CURL for shell/CLI available for various operating systems, PowerShell, and Ansible. Dell Technologies Support portal access is required.
• vBrownBag session: vSphere and VxRail REST API: Get Started in an Easy Way – this is a recent vBrownBag community session that took place at a VMworld 2020 TechTalks Live event - no slides, no “marketing fluff”, but an extensive demo showing the following: 
  1. how you can begin your API journey by leveraging interactive, web-based API documentation
  2. how you can use these APIs from different frameworks (such as scripting with PowerShell in Windows environments) and configuration management tools (such as Ansible on Linux)
  3. how you can consume these APIs virtually from ANY application in ANY programming language.

This very recent asset was prepared at the VMworld 2020 virtual conference, and recorded with VxRail HCI System Software version 7.0.0. 

301 level

• Manual: Dell EMC VxRail Appliance – API User Guide – this is an official reference manual for VxRail API. It provides a detailed description of each available API function, support information for specific VxRail HCI System Software versions, request parameters and possible response codes, successful call response data models, and example values returned. Dell Technologies Support portal access is required.
   
• PowerShell Package: VxRail API PowerShell Modules – a package with VxRail.API PowerShell Modules which allow simplified access to the VxRail API, using dedicated PowerShell commands and built-in help. This version supports VxRail HCI System Software 7.0.010 or higher. Dell Technologies Support portal access is required.
  
  
• API Reference: vSphere Automation API – an official vSphere REST API Reference that provides API documentation, request/response samples, and usage descriptions of the vSphere services.
  
  
• API Reference: VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail API Reference Guide – an official VCF on VxRail REST API Reference that provides API documentation, request/response samples, and usage descriptions of the VCF on VxRail services.
  
  
• Blog Post: Deployment of Workload Domains on VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 on Dell EMC VxRail using Public API – this is a blog post from VMware explaining how you can deploy a workload domain on VCF on VxRail using the API with the CURL shell command.

I hope you’ve found this list useful. If that’s the case, don’t forget to bookmark this blog post for your reference. I’m going to update it over time to include the latest collateral.

Enjoy your Infrastructure as Code journey with VxRail API! 

Author: Karol Boguniewicz, Senior Principal Engineer, VxRail Technical Marketing 

Twitter: @cl0udguide