Dell VxRail features
The VxRail system can deliver different features; it includes automatic deployment, flexible scale-up and scale-out, Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM), LCM, a single management dashboard, CDP, and a single-vendor, end-to-end ongoing support service. In day-one deployment, you can select the cluster type and then deploy the VxRail cluster and configure the SDS automatically. Compared to the traditional server storage architecture, it can minimize the deployment and configuration time. In Figure 1.11, you can see how you can select the type of the VxRail cluster in Dell EMC VxRail Deployment Wizard.
Figure 1.11 – Specifying the type of the VxRail cluster in Dell EMC VxRail Deployment Wizard
You can perform all operation tasks via VMware vCenter Server with the VxRail Manager plugin after the VxRail deployment is completed. In the VxRail Manager plugin, you can see all functions, such as Updates, Certificate, Market, and Add VxRail Hosts.
Figure 1.12 – VxRail System information
Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) is a core feature in the VxRail cluster; the system administrator can define the availability, storage rules, and advanced policy rules. In the Availability tab, you can choose No data redundancy, 1 failure - RAID-1 (Mirroring), and 1 failure - RAID-5 (Erasure Coding). You can refer to Chapter 4, Design of vSAN Storage Policies, for more details.
Figure 1.13 – Defining the storage rules of the virtual machine storage policy
VxRail’s architecture supports flexible scale-up and scale-out. The compute and storage resources can be increased and rebalanced when adding a new node to the existing VxRail cluster (Figure 1.14). You can refer to Chapter 5, Design of Cluster Expansion, for more details:
Figure 1.14 – The Add VxRail Hosts dashboard
When a system has been live for a few years, operating system and system patch upgrades are required. In a traditional server storage environment, the system administrator may spend a lot of time on the preparation and compatibility verification before the system upgrade.
LCM is one of the key features of VxRail Appliance; VxRail’s one-click upgrade feature can easily handle LCM. The system administrator can easily upgrade the VxRail system with a single image that is prevalidated with Dell EMC and VMware. They can perform a one-click upgrade in vCenter Server with the VxRail Manager plugin (Figure 1.15). The single image includes VxRail Manager, VCSA, Dell PTAgent, VxRail Manager VIB, and VMware ESXi:
Figure 1.15 – The VxRail software update dashboard
Dell EMC RP4VM can provide data protection of the virtual machine with its point-in-time snapshots in a local VxRail cluster or across VxRail clusters between two different data centers. You can refer to Chapter 9, Design of RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines on VxRail, for more details.
VxRail’s support service can deliver single-vendor support from Dell’s support team. When the customer issues a request to Dell’s support team, they can handle and resolve the Dell and VMware technical problems. This support service works with Support Connect Gateway (SCG); it includes three types of service support-level agreements, Basic, ProSupport, and ProSupport Plus. You can refer to Figure 1.16 for details:
Note
SRS is replaced with SCG in VxRail 7.0.350 and above; it can deliver a single connectivity technology for Dell EMC products, such as server, data storage, and hyper-converged solutions. It can proactively monitor system health and create a case automatically over a secure connection.
Figure 1.16 – A comparison of Dell support services; this information is copyright of Dell Technologies (https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/cs-cz/services/support/briefs-summaries/prosupport_enterprise_suite_brochure.pdf)
The customer can choose from the different types of support services to support their VxRail system based on their requirements.