VxRail system management

VxRail Manager is a single virtual machine that runs on the VxRail Appliance. After the initial deployment of the VxRail cluster, VxRail Manager is fully integrated through the VxRail Manager plugin for vCenter. In Figure 1.20, we can see that the VxRail Manager plugin for vCenter can deliver VxRail cluster management from the vSphere HTML5 client, and it can mainly provide four functions: deployment, update, monitoring, and maintenance. VxRail's deployment function can deliver over 200 automated tasks, such as node discovery, node configuration, VxRail cluster building, and so on:

Figure 1.20 – VxRail Manager plugin for vCenter

The VxRail update function can deliver online and offline bundle updates for hardware and software components; this includes VxRail Manager updates, hypervisor updates, VCSA updates, firmware updates, BIOS updates, other hardware component updates, and so on. All update components are delivered as a single software package that has already been tested and validated by Dell EMC.

The VxRail Manager for vCenter plugin can monitor system health with deep hardware intelligence and a user-friendly GUI. It also supports integration with the management packs for VMware vRealize Operations Manager. A VxRail management pack is a free software management pack with VMware vRealize Operations Manager that delivers system monitoring and troubleshooting for the VxRail cluster.

Important note

The VxRail management pack does not bundle software on the VxRail system; it is an optional feature on the VxRail system.

When the system administrator performs maintenance operations on the VxRail system, such as hardware replacement, hardware upgrade, system scale-out, software package upgrade, and so on, they can execute these operation tasks via the VxRail Manager plugin for vCenter and can deliver it in VMware vCenter Server; this can minimize the VxRail cluster's service interruption during maintenance windows.