System information

A Principled Technologies test report 2
Dell PowerEdge VRTX and M-series compute nodes configuration study
WHY UPGRADE TO THE DELL POWEREDGE VRTX?
The drawbacks of a legacy hardware solution are many. Configuring this solution
is time-consuming and may cause prolonged downtime during the setup phase. The
aging hardware components may fail when you try to power them, you will likely have
to reinstall operating systems from scratch, and compatibility issues often arise. If the
legacy hardware lacks built-in redundancy or high-availability features, a failed
component can cause unexpected downtime. Last but not least, a group of mismatched
components can look cluttered and could create cable management and logistical
problems, and takes up more space than a streamlined solution.
In addition to configuration drawbacks, repurposing older hardware can also
mean having just enough hardware resources to meet current performance demands,
with no planning room for future growth. When your resource needs increase—through
the steady growth of your business or when workloads peak—you will have to upgrade
again. Deploying repurposed gear also forces you to rely on outdated hardware. While it
is possible for a piecemeal solution to provide functions similar to those of newer server
solutions, such as the Dell PowerEdge VRTX shared infrastructure, it may not provide
comparable performance. The administrator who elects to compile a good-enough
solution may have to accept reduced performance and frequent hardware service issues
which may not be covered by warranties.
Finally, a solution consisting of disparate hardware components can be more
difficult to manage remotely. For many businesses and remote offices that lack on-site
IT administrators, this means that a hardware failure can require the IT admin to travel
to the site to troubleshoot. This travel time extends downtime, costing your business
money in lost productivity.
The streamlined Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution can eliminate the drawbacks of
repurposing older gear. You get the performance of Dell PowerEdge 12th generation M-
series server nodes, shared networking, and shared storage in a space-efficient package
that is easy to configure and manage. To demonstrate the simplicity and speed of
implementing this solution, we had a Dell PowerEdge VRTX shipped to our lab. Upon
receipt, we determined the time, steps, and number of separate management tools
necessary to configure the Dell PowerEdge VRTX into a four-node VMware vSphere
cluster. We also set up a similar infrastructure using four different legacy tower servers,
a network switch, and an external SAN. Figure 1 summarizes the differences between
the two solutions.
Dell PowerEdge VRTX solution
Legacy hardware solution
Time to set up
52 minutes 36 seconds
4 hours 5 minutes 8 seconds
Number of steps
386
536
Number of management interfaces
1
6
Figure 1: Overview of the differences between the two solutions.