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vStart 50 VMware vSphere Solution Overview
Dell Inc. 9
3.2.3 PowerEdge R420 for management server
The Dell PowerEdge R420 uses Intel® Xeon® E5 2400 series processors and Intel chipset architecture in
a 1U rack mount form factor. The PowerEdge R420 supports up to eight 2.5” drives. The internal RAID
controllers supported are PERC H310/H710/H710P. The server features two sockets and 12 memory
DIMM slots supporting 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32GB DIMMs, up to a total of 192 GB of memory. This is sufficient to
meet the demands of the management operating system and its software components. For more
information on PowerEdge R420 management server, see the Dell PowerEdge R420 Technical Guide.
3.2.4 PowerConnect 7024 or 6224 for LAN and SAN Traffic
At the heart of the solutions network configuration are four Dell PowerConnect 7024 or 6224 switches.
These managed Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switches offer the enterprise-class level of performance
required for this configuration. The LAN switches use a stacked configuration that enables connection
redundancy and added bandwidth where required. Additionally, the 10Gb uplink enables design and
implementation flexibility needed by advanced users. LAN and SAN switches are physically and
logically separated per best practices to support security and network traffic segmentation. VLANs are
implemented to support solution management, security, and network traffic segmentation, and routing
is leveraged to provide flexible connectivity.
3.2.5 Dell Hardware and Storage Management integrated into vCenter
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter is included in the solution. This enables customers to:
 Get deep-level detail from Dell servers for inventory, monitoring and alerting — all from within
vCenter
 Apply BIOS and Firmware updates to Dell servers from within vCenter
 Automatically perform Dell-recommended vCenter actions based on Dell hardware alerts
 Access Dell hardware warranty information online
 Rapidly deploy new bare metal hosts using Profile features
EqualLogic HIT/VE Plug-in for vCenter is also included in the solution. HIT/VE enables customers to:
 Create and manage Smart Copies and Smart Clones of VI objects
 Schedule creation of Smart Copies and Smart Clones
 Provision new datastores and expand existing datastores
 Create and deploy Virtual Desktops (This is outside the scope of this solution, and requires
additional software.)
For more information on Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter see the Dell Management Plug-in
web page. For more information about the Dell EqualLogic HIT/VE Plug-in for VMware vCenter see
http://www.dellstorage.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=1616&terms=HIT%2fVE.