Dell EMCVxRack™ System SDDCArchitecture Overview

Document revision 1.1

April 2017

Revision History

Date Document revision Description of changes

April 2017 1.1 Added information for 192 node configurations.

December 2016 1.0 Initial release

Revision History | 2

Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4

System features.......................................................................................................................................... 5

System architecture and components......................................................................................................6

Compute ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

Network......................................................................................................................................................10Network topology .................................................................................................................................10

Storage ......................................................................................................................................................11

Virtualization............................................................................................................................................. 12Virtualization components ................................................................................................................... 12

Base configurations and scaling.............................................................................................................14

VxRack System management software.................................................................................................. 15

Sample configurations............................................................................................................................. 16Sample VxRack System SDDC with 8 Nodes......................................................................................16Sample VxRack System SDDC with 96 Nodes....................................................................................17

Additional references............................................................................................................................... 21Network components............................................................................................................................21Storage components ........................................................................................................................... 21Virtualization components.................................................................................................................... 21

3 | Contents

IntroductionThis document describes the high-level design of the VxRack System SDDC. This document alsodescribes the hardware and software components that Dell EMC includes in each VxRack SDDC system.

The target audience for this document includes sales engineers, field consultants, advanced servicesspecialists, and customers who want to deploy a virtualized infrastructure using VxRack SDDC.

Refer to the Glossary for terms, definitions, and acronyms.

Introduction | 4

System featuresVxRack System SDDC is a modular hyper-converged platform that allows extreme scalability andflexibility for next generation cloud workloads and tier 2 applications.

VxRack SDDC is designed for deployments involving large numbers of VMs and users. It provides thefollowing features:

• Low provisioning complexity with simple-to-use functionality

• Flexible and variable configuration options

• Horizontal scaling by adding, moving and removing nodes on-the-fly to extend direct attachedstorage (DAS) capacity exponentially

• Step-sized building blocks for future Dell EMC data center environments

• Pre-configured, pre-loaded, pre-tested, and fully optimized IT stack, delivered as a fullyassembled and supported system

• Enhanced network and security capabilities with VMware NSX network virtualization

5 | System features

System architecture and componentsVxRack System SDDC architecture includes compute, network, storage, virtualization, and managementcomponents.

VxRack SDDC contains the following components:

Resource Components

Compute VxRack 1 RU Node Compute enclosures

Network • Cisco Nexus 9372PX-E Top of Rack (ToR) Switches

• Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Inter-rack Switch

• VxRack Management switch

Storage VxRack Infrastructure Software that consists of VMware vSAN software-defined storage.

Virtualization VMware Cloud Foundation components.

Management VMware Cloud Foundation management components.

The Dell EMC Release Certification Matrix (RCM) provides a list of the certified versions of componentsfor VxRack SDDC .

System architecture and components | 6

The following illustration provides a high-level overview of the physical components of a single rackconfiguration of the VxRack SDDC architecture:

7 | System architecture and components

The following illustration provides a high-level overview of the physical components of a multiple rackconfiguration of the VxRack SDDC architecture:

System architecture and components | 8

ComputeVxRack SDDC enclosures are high-density, two socket, 1 RU rack-mount enclosures that are built forproduction-level applications.

For a single 42 RU cabinet, the minimum server configuration is eight and the maximum is 24.

The maximum scale-out configuration is eight cabinets, each with 24 servers, for a maximum of 192nodes.

VxRack SDDC offers two storage configurations:

• Hybrid

• All Flash

Hybrid and All Flash storage cannot be mixed in the same VxRack System.

9 | Compute

NetworkThe Cisco Nexus switches in the network layer provide 10 GbE or 40 GbE IP connectivity between theVxRack System and the external network.

VxRack SDDC includes Cisco Nexus 9372PX-E Top of Rack (ToR) switches, as well as the optionalCisco Nexus 9332PQ inter-rack switches.

Network topologyLAN switching uses the Cisco Nexus 9372PX-E Switch for Top of Rack (ToR) and the Cisco Nexus9332PQ Switch for inter-rack switching.

Each 42 RU rack configuration uses a pair of ToR switches and a single management switch.

One expansion rack requires a pair of Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Switches for inter-rack switching. These areadded to the second rack to allow connectivity between racks and inter-rack east - west traffic. Eachexpansion rack requires two Cisco Nexus 9372PX-E ToR switches that connect to the Cisco Nexus9332PQ Switches in the first rack.

The compute layer connects to the Ethernet component of the network layer. The southboundinterconnects connect to the Cisco Nexus switches in the Ethernet network through 10 GbE portchannels.

All racks will be part of the same VxRack SDDC domain, up to the supported maximum scale-outconfiguration of 192 nodes, or eight 42 RU racks.

Network | 10

StorageVxRack System SDDC uses the VMware Virtual SAN software-defined storage technology.

Virtual SAN allows you to create a VSAN from the local datastores on clustered ESXi instances. Theresulting VSAN becomes a shared-datastore for the VMware ESXi instances contributing storage, thatleverages local disk storage on servers.

In VxRack SDDC, each virtual rack domain contains one or more clusters. The VMware SDDC Managercreates a single VSAN volume spanning all the hosts within each cluster. This means that each clustermust have a minimum of three hosts.

11 | Storage

VirtualizationVxRack System SDDC virtualization is provided by VMware Cloud Foundation components.

VMware vSphere is the virtualization platform that provides the foundation for the private cloud. The coreVMware vSphere components are the VMware vSphere ESXi and VMware vCenter Server formanagement. VMware vSphere 6.0 includes a pair of Platform Service Controller Linux appliances toprovide the Single Sign-on (SSO) service.

The hypervisors are deployed in a cluster configuration. The cluster allows dynamic allocation ofresources, such as CPU, memory, and storage. The cluster also provides workload mobility and flexibilitywith the use of VMware vMotion and Storage vMotion technology.

Virtualization componentsA virtual rack is a set of physical racks combined into and managed as a single logical entity. A virtualrack domain is a resource group with specific availability and performance attributes.

The following table describes how the VMware Cloud Foundation components work within the VxRackSystem SDDC:

Component Description

VMware ESXi VxRack SDDC uses VMware ESXi as a foundation for creating its SDDCarchitecture by using the hypervisor to run VMs in workload clusters aswell as the management domain clusters.

VMware vCenter Server VMware vCenter Server provides a single point of management of aVMware virtualized environment with one or more VMware ESXiinstances.

The management domain cluster on each physical rack includes aVMware vCenter Server Appliance deployed as two VMs, one for thePlatform Services Controller division and one for the vCenter division. Allother virtual rack domains include the vCenter division (deployed from avCenter Server Appliance), logically connected to the managementdomain cluster's Platform Services Controller VM.

VMware Cloud Foundation Manager The VMware Cloud Foundation Manager provisions, manages, andmonitors the logical and physical resources of VxRack SDDC.

Use the VMware Cloud Foundation Manager for VxRack SDDCconfiguration, operations, and management functions.

Hardware Management Service (HMS) Performs auto discovery of hardware, inventorying, monitoring forhardware failures and low level patches.

VMware Virtual SAN VMware Virtual SAN allows you to create a virtual SAN from the localdatastores on clustered VMware ESXi instances. The resulting VirtualSAN becomes a shared-datastore for the VMware ESXi instancescontributing storage.

In VxRack SDDC, each virtual rack domain contains one or moreclusters. The VMware Cloud Foundation Manager creates a single VirtualSAN volume spanning all the hosts within each cluster. This means thateach cluster must have a minimum of three hosts.

Virtualization | 12

Component Description

NSX for VMware vSphere NSX for VMware vSphere provides virtualized networking components(including virtual routers, virtual firewalls, microsegmentation) that can beconfigured by an administrator to implement software defined networking.

Each virtual rack domain has an NSX Manager VM per vCenter ServerVM with NSX virtual switches installed in the hypervisors. VMware CloudFoundation Manager uses NSX APIs to configure a VXLAN with the IPparameters specified for the virtual rack domain, and the HMS toconfigure the ToR ports associated with the servers.

Data center administrators can also use the vSphere Web Client toperform additional NSX configuration required by the specific VMsdeployed within the virtual rack domain.

vRealize Operations vRealize Operations provides an integrated insight into performance,capacity and configuration, and health of the virtualized environment.These insights help administrators maintain compliance and efficientlydetect and resolve any issues that may arise in the datacenter.

VxRack SDDC configures vRealize Operations so that administrators canmonitor operations of both the physical and virtual components through asingle interface.

vRealize Log Insight Allows administrators to monitor physical and virtual infrastructure toavoid failures and performance issues.

Each physical rack contains a management domain cluster with aninstance of the vRealize Log Insight virtual appliance. When deployingVxRack SDDC in a multi rack setup, the boot process federates thevRealize Log Insight virtual appliances together for redundancy andscalability.

This process also configures vRealize Log Insight to receive and processlog events for every device in the rack including servers, switches, andPDUs.

vRealize Automation Advanced(optional)

Accelerates deployment and management of applications and computeservices.

Horizon View Enterprise (optional) Enables secure access to all desktops, applications and online servicesfrom any device, with added features such as closed-loop managementand automation.

13 | Virtualization

Base configurations and scalingVxRack System SDDC has a base configuration that is a minimum set of compute and storagecomponents, as well as fixed network resources. These components are integrated within one or more28-inch 42 RU racks.

Within the base configuration, the following hardware aspects can be customized:

Hardware Minimum set

Compute Eight 1 RU 1 Node enclosures.

Network Two Cisco Nexus 9372 PX-E Switches.

Storage No minimum. Storage is based solely on the associated enclosure.

Management VMware Cloud Foundation Manager

VxRack SDDC is a scale-out solution that allows you to add up to 96 nodes with various CPU, memory,and drive options.

VMware VSAN provides software defined storage (SDS), which allows scaling from a base configurationto a large-scale deployment.

Together, the components offer balanced CPU, I/O bandwidth, and storage capacity relative to thecompute and storage arrays in the VxRack system. All components have N+N or N+1 redundancy.

These resources can be scaled up as necessary to meet increasingly stringent requirements. Themaximum supported configuration differs based on core components. To scale up storage and computeresources, add nodes to the environment. Optionally, add expansion racks with additional resources.

Base configurations and scaling | 14

VxRack System management softwareSystem management for VxRack System SDDC is provided by VMware Cloud Foundation managementcomponents.

The VMware Cloud Foundation Manager serves as the single interface for managing the VxRack SDDC.From this console, an administrator can provision resources and monitor changes to the physical andlogical infrastructure. VMware Cloud Foundation also provides Lifecycle Management (LCM) and otheroperational activities.

VMware Cloud Foundation Manager provides automation for the following operations:

• Initial system startup

• Server and switch configuration

• Discovery of new devices

• Resource provisioning

• Reporting and notifications

• LCM for some hardware and software components.

15 | VxRack System management software

Sample configurations

Sample VxRack System SDDC with 8 NodesThese are provided for sample purposes only. For specifications for a specific VxRack SDDC design,consult your vArchitect.

Sample configurations | 16

Sample VxRack System SDDC with 96 NodesCabinet elevations vary based on the specific configuration requirements. These are provided for samplepurposes only. For specifications for a specific VxRack SDDC design, consult your vArchitect.

Cabinet 1

17 | Sample configurations

Cabinet 2

Sample configurations | 18

Cabinet 3

19 | Sample configurations

Cabinet 4

Sample configurations | 20

Additional referencesReferences to related documentation for virtualization, compute, network and storage components areprovided.

Network componentsThe following table provides references for the network components:

Product Link to documentation

Cisco Nexus 9372PX-E Switch http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-9372px-e-switch/model.html

Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Switch http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-9332pq-switch/model.html

Storage componentsThe following table provides a description of the storage components:

Product Description Link to documentation

VMware VirtualSAN

Virtual SAN provides for virtual storage created fromthe local datastores on ESXi instances.

https://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san

Virtualization ComponentsThe following table provides a description of the virtualization components:

Product Description Link to documentation

VMware CloudFoundation

Software suite of virutualization components fromVMware that is included with VxRack SystemSDDC

https://www.vmware.com/products/cloud-foundation.html

21 | Additional references

The information in this publication is provided "as is." Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind withrespect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitnessfor a particular purpose.

Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

Copyright © 2016 - 2017 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks aretrademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be the property of their respective owners. Publishedin the USA in April 2017.

Dell EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject tochange without notice.

Copyright | 22