Dell EMC VxRail E series Montage- und Wartungsanleitung

DELL EMC VxRAIL™ NETWORK GUIDE

Physical and Logical Network Considerations and Planning

ABSTRACT

This is a planning and consideration guide for VxRail Appliances. It can be used to

understand better the networking required for VxRail implementation. This

whitepaper does not replace the requirement for implementation services with

VxRail Appliances and should not be used in an attempt to implement the

required networking for VxRail Appliances.

December 2018

WHITE PAPER

2 | Network Planning Guide

Table of contents

Intended Use and Audience........................................................................................................................................................................ 4

Introduction to VxRail................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Planning Your Data Center Network for VxRail ................................................................................................................................ 5

VxRail Hardware and the Physical Network Infrastructure.....................................................................................................................5

VxRail Clusters, Appliances and Nodes ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

Network Switch....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Topology and Connections.................................................................................................................................................................................9

Out-of-Band Management (optional)......................................................................................................................................................... 10

VxRail Feature-Driven Decision Points ...............................................................................................................................................10

VMware Validated Design on VxRail .......................................................................................................................................................... 10

Dell-EMC SmartFabric Network Mode....................................................................................................................................................... 11

vSAN Stretched Cluster..................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

VxRail Hardware and Switch Selection Decision Points..............................................................................................................12

Planning the VxRail Implementation ...................................................................................................................................................13

Step 1: Decide on VxRail Single Point of Management............................................................................................................................. 14

Step 2: Plan the VxRail Logical Network ........................................................................................................................................................ 14

Step 3: Plan Network Settings for VxRail Management Components ............................................................................................... 17

Step 4: Identify unique hostnames for VxRail management components ...................................................................................... 19

Step 5: Identify external applications and settings for VxRail.............................................................................................................. 21

Step 6: Create DNS records for VxRail management components ..................................................................................................... 21

Step 7: Prepare Customer-Supplied vCenter Server................................................................................................................................. 22

Step 8. Reserve IP addresses for VxRail vMotion and vSAN networks............................................................................................. 23

Step 9. Decide on VxRail Logging Solution .................................................................................................................................................... 24

Step 10: Decide on Passwords for VxRail Management .......................................................................................................................... 24

Step 11: Prepare for Dell EMC SmartFabric services enablement...................................................................................................... 25

Setting up the upstream network for VxRail ....................................................................................................................................26

Setting up the network switch for VxRail connectivity................................................................................................................27

Step 1. Plan Switch Configuration ..................................................................................................................................................................... 27

Enable Multicast for VxRail Internal Management Network ........................................................................................................... 27

Enable Unicast or Multicast for VxRail vSAN Network....................................................................................................................... 27

Enable Uplinks to pass inbound and outbound VxRail network traffic ...................................................................................... 28

Enable Inter-switch Communication.......................................................................................................................................................... 28

Enable Inter-switch Links................................................................................................................................................................................ 28

Step 2. Plan Switch Port Configuration........................................................................................................................................................... 28

Determine switch port mode ......................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Do not enable Link Aggregation on VxRail Switch Ports................................................................................................................... 29

3 | Network Planning Guide

Limit Spanning Tree Protocol on VxRail Switch Ports ....................................................................................................................... 30

Step 3. Configure Ports and VLANs on Your Switch(es).......................................................................................................................... 30

Confirm Your Data Center Network......................................................................................................................................................32

Configuring a Workstation/Laptop for VxRail Initialization.....................................................................................................33

Perform Initialization to create VxRail cluster ................................................................................................................................34

After VxRail Initialization Network Considerations......................................................................................................................35

Support for NSX......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35

Using Unassigned VxRail Physical Ports ........................................................................................................................................................ 35

VxRail Network Configuration Table ...................................................................................................................................................36

VxRail Password Tables.............................................................................................................................................................................38

VxRail Setup Checklist ................................................................................................................................................................................39

Appendix A: NSX Support on VxRail.....................................................................................................................................................41

Appendix B: VxRail Open Ports Requirement ..................................................................................................................................44

Appendix C: Physical Network Switch Examples ...........................................................................................................................46

4 | Network Planning Guide

Intended Use and Audience

This guide discusses the essential network details for VxRail deployment planning purposes only. It also introduces best practices,

recommendations, and requirements for both physical and virtual network environments. The guide has been prepared for anyone

involved in planning, installing, and maintaining VxRail, including Dell EMC field engineers and customer system and network

administrators. This guide should not be used to perform the actual installation and set-up of VxRail. Please work with your Dell

EMC service representative to perform the actual installation.

Introduction to VxRail

Dell EMC VxRail™Appliances are a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution that consolidates compute, storage and network

into a single, highly available, unified system. With careful planning, VxRail Appliances can be rapidly deployed into an existing data

center environment, and the end product is immediately available to deploy applications and services.

VxRail is not a server. It is an appliance based on a collection of nodes and switches integrated as a cluster under a single point of

management. All physical compute, network and storage resources in the appliance are managed as a single shared pool, and

allocated to applications and services based on customer-defined business and operational requirements.

The compute nodes are based on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. The G Series consists of up to four nodes in a single chassis,

whereas all other models based on a single node. A 10Gb Ethernet switch (or a 1Gb Ethernet switch for certain models of VxRail) is

required. A workstation/laptop for the VxRail user interface is also required.

VxRail has a simple, scale-out architecture, leveraging VMware vSphere®and VMware vSAN™to provide server virtualization and

software-defined storage, with simplified deployment, upgrades, and maintenance through VxRail Manager.. Fundamental to the

VxRail clustered architecture is network connectivity. It is through the logical and physical networks that individual nodes act as a

single system providing scalability, resiliency and workload balance.

The VxRail software bundle is preloaded onto the compute nodes, and consists of the following components (specific software

versions not shown):

•VxRail Manager

•VMware vCenter Server™

•VMware vRealize Log Insight™

•VMware vSAN

•VMware vSphere

•Dell-EMC Secure Remote Support (SRS)/VE

Licenses are included for all components except VMware vSphere. The vSphere licenses can be purchased through Dell EMC,

VMware or your preferred VMware reseller partner.

The VxRail Appliances also includes licenses for software that can be downloaded, installed and configured:

•Dell EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (RP4VM) - 5 Full VM Licenses per single node VxRail appliance (15 for the G

Series appliance)

5 | Network Planning Guide

Planning Your Data Center Network for VxRail

The network considerations for VxRail are no different from those of any enterprise IT infrastructure: availability, performance,

and extensibility. VxRail Appliances are delivered to your data center ready for deployment. The nodes in the appliance can attach

to any compatible network infrastructure at 10 or 25GbE speeds with either RJ45 or SFP+ ports. Some models with single

processors can attach to compatible 1GbE network infrastructure. Most production VxRail network topologies use dual top-of-the-

rack (ToR) switches to eliminate the switch as a single point of failure. This document will guide you through the key phases and

decision points for a successful VxRail implementation. The key phases are:

Step 1. Select the VxRail hardware and physical network infrastructure that best aligns with your business and

operational objectives

Step 2. Plan and prepare for VxRail implementation in your data center before product delivery

Step 3. Set up the network switch infrastructure in your data center for VxRail before product delivery

Step 4. Prepare for physical installation and VxRail initialization into the final product

NOTE: Follow all of the guidance and decision point described in this document; otherwise, VxRail will not implement

properly, and it will not function correctly in the future. If you have separate teams for network and servers in your

data center, you will need to work together to design the network and configure the switch(es).

VxRail Hardware and the Physical Network Infrastructure

VxRail nodes connect to one or more network switches, with the final product forming a VxRail cluster. VxRail communicates with

the physical data center network through a virtual distributed switch deployed in the VxRail cluster. The virtual distributed switch

and physical network infrastructure integration provide connectivity for the virtual infrastructure, and to enable virtual network

traffic to pass through the physical switch infrastructure. In this relationship, the physical switch infrastructure serves as a

backplane, supporting network traffic between virtual machines in the cluster, and enabling virtual machine mobility and

resiliency. In addition, the physical network infrastructure enable I-O operations between the storage objects in the VxRail vSAN

datastore, and provides connectivity to applications and end users outside of the VxRail cluster

This section describes the physical components and selection criteria for a VxRail cluster:

•VxRail clusters, appliances and nodes

•Network switch

•Topology and connections

•Workstation/laptop

•Out-of-band management (optional)

VxRail Clusters, Appliances and Nodes

A VxRail appliance consists of a set of server nodes that are designed and engineered for VxRail. A VxRail physical node starts as a

standard Dell PowerEdge server. The Dell PowerEdge server next goes through a manufacturing process following VxRail product

engineering specifications to produce a VxRail node ready for customer shipment. A set of prepared VxRail nodes are prepared and

delivered to the customer site based on a purchase order. The set of VxRail nodes are delivered ready for data center installation

and connectivity into the data center network infrastructure. Once the data center installation and network connectivity is

complete, and the equipment is powered on, the VxRail management interface is used to perform the initialization process, which

forms the final product: a VxRail cluster.

A VxRail cluster starts with a minimum of 3 nodes and can scale to a maximum of 64 nodes. The selection of the VxRail nodes to

form a cluster is primarily driven by planned business use cases, and factors such as performance and capacity. Five series of

VxRail models are offered, each targeting specific objectives:

6 | Network Planning Guide

VxRail Series

Target Objective

E-Series

Entry Level

V-Series

Virtual Desktop Enablement

P-Series

High Performance

S-Series

Storage Dense

G-Series

Compute Dense and Space Optimized

(2U4N chassis)

Each VxRail model series offers choices for network connectivity. The following illustrations show some of the physical network

port options for the VxRail models.

Figure 1. Back view of VxRail E Series on Dell 14th Generation PowerEdge Servers

Figure 2. Back view of VxRail V, P and S Series on Dell 14th Generation PowerEdge Servers

Figure 3. Back view of VxRail G-Series node on Dell 14th Generation PowerEdge Servers

In addition to network connectivity, review the physical power, space and cooling requirements for your planned

infrastructure to ensure data center compatibility.

7 | Network Planning Guide

Network Switch

VxRail is broadly compatible with most customer networks and Ethernet switches, including Dell network switch products.

Switch requirements

•The switch(es) must support both IPv4 and IPv6 network protocols

•The switch(es) connected directly to VxRail nodes must support multicast on switch ports for all models of VxRail

oVxRail Releases prior to Release 4.5.0: both IPv4 and IPv6 multicast pass-through must be supported. Layer 3

multicast is not required.

oVxRail Releases starting with Release 4.5.0: IPv6 multicast pass-through and IPv4 unicast must be supported.

NOTE: IPv6 multicast only needs to be enabled on the switch ports connected to VxRail Appliances. The multicast traffic

required by VxRail is limited to those switch ports that service VxRail.

•Layer 3 support is not required on the switch(es) connected directly to VxRail nodes

VxRail Node Connectivity Options

The figures below show the appliance connectivity options supported on the Network Daughter Cards (NDCs) for each VxRail node

model, including the Dell 14th generation servers and Dell 13th generation servers, and the connectivity requirements for the

management port. In addition, the figures also the available options supported for each VxRail node model for network

connectivity not reserved for VxRail usage.

Figure 4. VxRail 14th Generation Node Connectivity Summary

•E, P, S and V Series (14th Generation Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers) Appliance Connectivity Options

o2x10GbE in either SFP+ or RJ-45 NIC ports

o4x10GbE in either SFP+ or RJ-45 NIC ports

8 | Network Planning Guide

o2x25GbE SFP28 ports

•E, P, and S Series (14th Generation Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers)

o1GbE connectivity is supported on single processor models only

•G Series (14th Generation Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers) Appliance Connectivity Options

o2x10GbE SFP+ ports

Figure 5. VxRail Pre-14th Generation Node Connectivity Summary

•E, P, S and V Series (13th Generation Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers)

o2x10GbE + 2x1GbE in either SFP+ or RJ-45 NIC ports

•E, P, and S Series (13th Generation Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers)

o1GbE connectivity is supported on single processor models only

oThe 2x10GbE ports will auto-negotiate to 1GbE when used with 1GbE networking.

VxRail Networking Rules and Restrictions

•The VxRail NICs on the Network Daughter Cards (NDCs) assigned to VxRail and selected for configuration during VxRail

initialization process are reserved exclusively for VxRail usage, and cannot be used for other purpose.

•VxRail initialization process will not touch any optional connectivity (PCIe NICs). Customers can use the ports for their own

purposes such as VM networks, iSCSI, or NFS, etc.

9 | Network Planning Guide

•VxRail nodes supporting 10GbE can be configured with either 2 ports supporting VxRail cluster network traffic, or all 4 ports

can be configured for the VxRail cluster network traffic.

•4 ports are required for each VxRail node when utilizing 1GbE networking on the supported single processor models.

•All-flash VxRail models must use either 10GbE or 25GbE NICs. 1GbE is not supported for all-flash.

•The network hardware configuration in a VxRail appliance must have same NDC across all VxRail nodes.

oVxRail nodes with RJ45 ports and SFP+ ports cannot be mixed in the same VxRail appliance

oThe port speed for each VxRail node (25GbE, 10GbE, 1GbE) must be the same in the VxRail appliance

oThese restrictions are not applicable to optional connectivity ( PCI-e NICs)

•One (1) additional port on the switch or one logical path on the VxRail external management VLAN is required for a

workstation/laptop to access the VxRail user interface for the cluster.

Topology and Connections

Various network topologies for switch(es) and VLANs are possible with VxRail Appliances. Complex production environments will

have multiple core switches and VLANs. A site diagram showing the proposed network components and connectivity is highly

recommended before cabling and powering on VxRail Appliances.

Be sure to follow your switch vendor’s best practices for performance and availability. For example, packet buffer banks may

provide a way to optimize your network with your wiring layout.

Decide if you plan to use one or two switches for VxRail. One switch is acceptable and is often seen in test/development. To support

high availability and failover in production environments, two or more switches are required. The VxRail appliance is an entire

software-defined data center dependent on the physical top-of-rack switch for network communications. A lack of network

redundancy places you at risk of losing availability to all of the virtual machines operating on the appliance.

The figure shows the recommended physical network setup using a management switch (for iDRAC) and two ToR switches. Other

network setups can be found in Appendix C

10 | Network Planning Guide

Figure 6. Network topology of a 4-node VxRail cluster connected to two 10GbE switches using

2x10Gb connections per node, and a separate switch for out-of-band management

For 13th generation PowerEdge servers in the E, P, S and V series VxRail Appliances utilizing 1GbE with two switches, the

switches must be interconnected.

Out-of-Band Management (optional)

If the VxRail Appliances are located at a data center that you cannot access easily, we recommend setting up an out-of-band

management switch to facilitate direct communication with each node.

To use out-of-band management, connect the internal Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) port to a separate switch to provide

physical network separation. Default values, capabilities, and recommendations for out-of-band management are provided with

server hardware information. The default credentials are:

Username: root Password: calvin

You will need to reserve an IP address for each iDRAC in your VxRail cluster (one per node).

VxRail Feature-Driven Decision Points

Certain applications, software stacks and product features supported on VxRail can have an impact the architecture, deployment

and operations of the cluster. If your plans for VxRail include any of the feature sets or software stacks listed in this section, make

note of the requirements each of these may have on your plans for VxRail

VMware Validated Design on VxRail

VMware Validated Design (VVD) on VxRail enables VMware’s vRealize and NSX capabilities to be deployed on VxRail. The

integrated solution involves a complete end-to-end validation of the hardware and software stack for interoperability and

scalability. VMware Validated Design on VxRail includes the following software stack:

•vRealize Automation

•vRealize Orchestrator

•vRealize Operations Manager

•vRealize Log Insight

•vRealize Business

•vRealize Network Insight

•NSX

•vSphere Enterprise Plus

•vSAN

If your plans include the deployment of VVD on VxRail, make note of the following requirements:

•A minimum of 8 VxRail nodes are required.

oA minimum of 4 VxRail nodes are for the Management pod,

oA minimum of 4 nodes are required for the Edge and Compute pod

•The nodes in the Management pod require a minimum of 192GB of RAM

•The nodes in the Management pod require a minimum of 2 sockets with a total of at least 8 CPU cores

•The VxRail nodes in both the Management pod and Edge and Compute pod must be configured with 2x10Gb Ethernet ports

Andere Handbücher für VxRail E series

Dieses Handbuch passt für folgende Modelle

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Andere Dell EMC Server Handbücher

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge XR2 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R240 Bedienungsanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge T640 Bedienungsanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerMax Series Gebrauchsanweisung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R7525 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge T640 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge 14G Series Bedienungsanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R6515 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 Bedienungsanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R7525 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R630 Bedienungsanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge T440 Kurzanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R620 Bedienungsanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R740 Kurzanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge C6420 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge XE2420 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R840 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Bedienungsanleitung

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd2 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC VxRAIL vCENTER Technisches Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge C4140 Handbuch

Dell EMC

Dell EMC PowerEdge C6525 Handbuch

Beliebte Server Handbücher anderer Marken

HP AlphaServer ES47 Bedienungsanleitung

Dell

Dell PowerEdge R410 Bedienungsanleitung

PowerNAS

PowerNAS CMA Bedienungsanleitung

Supero

Supero FatTwin F617R3-FT Bedienungsanleitung

Dell

Dell PowerEdge XE9640 Handbuch

Dell

Dell PS4100 Montageanleitung

EtroVISION

EtroVISION EV3151 Bedienungsanleitung

HP ProLiant Gen9 Bedienungsanleitung

Compaq

Compaq ProLiant 3000 Handbuch

Dell

Dell PowerEdge 3YPMN Bedienungsanleitung

iRobo

iRobo IPC2U Bedienungsanleitung

Nortel

Nortel 1000 Con?guration guide Bedienungsanleitung

Asus

Asus AP7500 Bedienungs- und Wartungshandbuch

Avid Technology

Avid Technology AirSpeed 5000 Bedienungsanleitung

HP Integrity rx2600 Installationsanleitung

Milestone

Milestone Husky IVO 350T Bedienungsanleitung

Planet

Planet NAS-7410 Bedienungsanleitung

Lenovo

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 V3 Bedienungsanleitung