Reference Architecture

Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:
Dell Inc. 18
6.5.1.8 iSCSI Encryption and Authentication
Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is available for use on the EqualLogic PS6110
Series Storage Center. This feature allows hosts to authenticate to the EqualLogic PS6110 iSCSI target
prior to the target being available for use on the system.
6.5.1.9 Jumbo Frames
In the Dell Active System configuration, Jumbo Frames are enabled for all devices of the iSCSI SAN
fabric. This includes the server network interface ports, the network switch interfaces, and the
EqualLogic PS6110 Series interfaces.
6.5.1.10 Thin Provisioning
Particularly in virtualization environments, thin provisioning is a common practice. This allows for
efficient use of the available storage capacity. The volume and corresponding CSV may grow as
needed, typically in an automated fashion to ensure availability of the volume. However, as storage
becomes over-provisioned in this scenario, very careful management and capacity planning is critical.
EqualLogic PS6110 Series offers Thin Provisioning and eliminates pre-allocated but unused capacity.
7 Management Infrastructure
Within the Active System 800m solution, two Dell PowerEdge R620 servers and one Dell Force10 S55
1/10GbE Ethernet switch are used for the management infrastructure. The Force10 S55 switch is used
for out-of-band management connectivity for Dell CMC, Dell iDRAC, and the management ports on Dell
EqualLogic arrays. The management cluster infrastructure imitates the compute cluster in using
converged network infrastructure and configuration. The PowerEdge R620 servers are connected to the
Force10 S4810 switches using Broadcom 57810 Dual Port 10Gb network adapters. The management
servers are connected to the EqualLogic storage through the two Force10 S4810 switches.
Note that the EqualLogic storage is shared between the management cluster and the compute cluster.
The EqualLogic storage must be sized so that sufficient capacity and bandwidth are allocated for both
the management VMs and compute VMs.
The PowerEdge R620 servers run Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V role enabled and are a part of the
unique management cluster.
The following management components are included in the Active System 800m:
· Dell Active System Manager
· Dell OpenManage Essentials (OME)
· Dell EqualLogic SAN HeadQuarters (SAN HQ)
· Optional: System Center 2012 SP1 Virtual Machine Manager
These components are installed in virtual machines in the management infrastructure as illustrated in
Figure 8 below.