Dell Technologies and VMware are happy to announce the availability of VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.0 on VxRail 7.0.202. This new release provides several security-related enhancements, including FIPS 140-2 support, password auto-rotation support, SDDC Manager secure API authentication, data protection enhancements, and more. VxRail-specific enhancements include support for the more powerful, 3rd Gen AMD EYPC™ CPUs and NVIDIA A100 GPUs (check this blog for more information about the corresponding VxRail release), and more flexible network configuration options with the support for multiple System Virtual Distributed Switches (vDS).

Let’s quickly discuss the comprehensive list of the new enhancements and features:

VCF and VxRail Software BOM Updates

These include the updated version of vSphere, vSAN, NSX-T, and VxRail Manager. Please refer to the VCF on VxRail Release Notes for comprehensive, up-to-date information about the release and supported software versions.

VCF on VxRail Networking Enhancements

Day 2 AVN deployment using SDDC Manager workflows

The configuration of an NSX-T Edge cluster and AVN networks are now a post-deployment process that is automated through SDDC Manager. This approach simplifies and accelerates the VCF on VxRail Bring-up and provides more flexibility for the network configuration after the initial deployment of the platform.

Figure 1: Cloud Foundation Initial Deployment – Day 2 NSX-T Edge and AVN

Shrink and expand operations of NSX-T Edge Clusters using SDDC Manager workflows

NSX-T Edge Clusters can now be expanded and shrunk using in-built-in automation from within SDDC Manager. This allows VCF operators to scale the right level of resources on-demand without having to size for demand up-front, which results in more flexibility and better use of infrastructure resources in the platform.

VxRail Multiple System VDS support

Two System Virtual Distributed Switch (vDS) configuration support was introduced in VxRail 7.0.13x. VCF 4.3 on VxRail 7.0.202 now supports a VxRail deployed with two system vDS, offering more flexibility and choice for the network configuration of the platform. This is relevant for customers with strict requirements for separating the network traffic (for instance, some customers might be willing to use a dedicated network fabric and vDS for vSAN). See the Figure 2 below for a sample diagram of the new network topology supported:

Figure 2: Multiple System VDS Configuration Example

VCF on VxRail Data Protection Enhancements

Expanded SDDC Manager backup and restore capabilities for improved VCF platform recovery

This new release introduces new abilities to define a periodic backup schedule, retention policies of backups, and disable or enable these schedules in the SDDC Manager UI, resulting in simplified backup and recovery of the platform (see the screenshot below in Figure 3).

Figure 3: Backup Schedule

VCF on VxRail Security Enhancements

SDDC Manager certificate management operations – expanded support for using SAN attributes

The built-in automated workflow for generating certificate signing requests (CSRs) within SDDC Manager has been further enhanced to include the option to input a Subject Alternate Name (SAN) when generating a certificate signing request. This improves security and prevents vulnerability scanners from flagging invalid certificates.

SDDC Manager Password Management auto-rotation support

Many customers need to rotate and update passwords regularly across their infrastructure, and this can be a tedious task if not automated. VCF 4.3 provides automation to update individual supported platform component passwords or rotate all supported platform component passwords (including integrated VxRail Manager passwords) in a single workflow. This feature enhances the security and improves the productivity of the platform admins.

FIPS 140-2 Support for SDDC Manager, vCenter, and Cloud Builder

This new support increases the number of VCF on VxRail components that are FIPS 140-2 compliant in addition to VxRail Manager, which is already compliant with this security standard. It improves platform security and regulatory compliance with FIPS 140-2.

Improved VCF API security

Token based Auth API access is now enabled within VCF 4.3 for secure authentication to SDDC Manager by default. Access to private APIs that use Basic Auth has been restricted. This change improves platform security when interacting with the VCF API. 

VxRail Hardware Platform Enhancements

VCF 4.3 on VxRail 7.0.202 brings new hardware features including support for AMD 3rd Generation EPYC CPU Platform Support and Nvidia A100 GPUs.

These new hardware options provide better performance and more configuration choices. Check this blog for more information about the corresponding VxRail release.

VCF on VxRail Multi-Site Architecture Enhancements

NSX-T Federation guidance - upgrade and password management Day 2 operations 

New manual guidance for password and certificate management and backup & restore of Global Managers.

As you can see, most of the new enhancements in this release are focused on improving platform security and providing more flexibility of the network configurations. Dell Technologies and VMware continue to deliver the optimized, turnkey platform experience for customers adopting the hybrid cloud operating model. If you’d like to learn more, please check the additional resources linked below.

Additional Resources

VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail Release Notes

VxRail page on DellTechnologies.com

VxRail Videos

VCF on VxRail Interactive Demos   

Author Information 

Author: Karol Boguniewicz, Senior Principal Engineering Technologist, VxRail Technical Marketing 

Twitter: @cl0udguide 

A recently created reference architecture, running Microsoft SQL Server Big Data Clusters (BDC) on Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) on Dell EMC VxRail, demonstrates a fast and simple way to get started with big data workloads running on Kubernetes. It also shows how the containerized workloads ran using VxRail. 

SQL BDC on TKG on VxRail enables simplified servicing for cloud native workloads, and is designed to scale with business needs. Administrators can implement the policies for namespaces and manage access and quota allocation for application-focused management. All of this helps build a developer ready infrastructure with enterprise-grade Kubernetes with advanced governance, reliability, and security. 

This reference architecture also validated SQL BDC with Spark SQL TPC-DS benchmark optimized parameters. The test results showed that Tanzu Kubernetes Grid on VxRail provides linear scalability (for complex TPC-DS-like decision support workloads that use different query types) with predictable query response time and high throughput.

In the business value section for using SQL BDC and TKG on VxRail, based on the five measurements below. It's covered in more detail within the reference architecture. 

• Simplified installation of Kubernetes 
• Automated multi-cluster operations 
• Integrated platform services
• Open source alignment
• Production Ready

Cross-functional teams from Dell EMC VxRail, VMware, and Microsoft have reviewed the reference architecture for content and supportability. This can provide comfort for those wanting to run on Tanzu. Some notes from Microsoft Release notes from Cumulative Update 12 (CU12) of BDC):

SQL Server Big Data Clusters is supported as a workload. Microsoft provides support for the software components on the containers installed and configured by SQL Server Big Data Clusters only. Kubernetes itself, and other containers that may influence SQL Server Big Data Clusters behavior, are not supported by the (Microsoft) support team. For Kubernetes support please contact your certified Kubernetes distribution provider.

Note: This reference architecture provides general design and deployment guidelines of running Microsoft SQL Server Big Data Clusters on VMware Tanzu™ Kubernetes Grid™ on Dell EMC VxRail. The reference architecture also applies to any compatible hardware platforms running VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid on vSAN™.

To wrap up, VxRail provides SQL BDC on Tanzu as a scalable and secure platform to deliver key business outcomes. This reference architecture highlights one of the first known support solutions built on Tanzu Kubernetes Grid to manage Kubernetes. The paper covers the spectrum on the build, testing, and expected performance on VxRail.

Resources:

• Running Microsoft SQL Server Big Data Clusters on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
• SQL Server Big Data Clusters platform release notes - SQL Server Big Data Clusters | Microsoft Docs  It's reformulated release notes, now simpler and focused on tested configurations and documenting known issues. 
• SQL Server Big Data Clusters CU12 release notes - SQL Server Big Data Clusters | Microsoft Docs  For every release starting with CU12, we will provide a dedicated article containing many details about what's new, fixes, and most importantly, an extensive list of what's under the hood.
• SQL Server Big Data Clusters cumulative updates history - SQL Server Big Data Clusters | Microsoft Docs  In this article, we will keep track of all previous update details.

Author: Vic Dery – Linkedin