Deployment Guide

6 ScaleIO/VxFlex OS IP Fabric Best Practice and Deployment Guide with OS10EE | version 1.0
1 Introduction to network virtualization and hyper-converged
infrastructure and networking
With the advent of network virtualization and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), the nature of network
traffic is undergoing a significant transformation. A dedicated Fibre Channel (FC) network with many of the
advanced storage features located on a dedicated storage array is no longer the norm. Storage and
application traffic both can reside on Ethernet networks with many advanced storage features executing in a
distributed fashion across a network.
Figure 1 shows a relatively simple, four-node/server HCI solution with examples of the expected network
traffic running internally and externally to the cluster.
HCI cluster with typical network traffic types
In the early days of software-defined storage and HCI, when most of the workloads were CPU-intensive or
memory-intensive, the network was often an afterthought. The increasing I/O and storage-intensive workloads
within software-defined storage/HCI solutions place stresses on the network that ultimately impact
performance on inappropriately designed networks. Gartner, in recognition of this trend, forecasts 10% of
hyper-converged solutions suffering from unavoidable, network-induced performance problems by 2018.
Gartner further predicts 25% of hyper-converged solutions being plugged into the wrong tier of the data center
network in that same timeframe.
As such, the overall network design plays a larger role in defining the performance of software-defined
storage/HCI-based solutions and the applications that run on them. The goal of this document is to identify
best practices and apply them on a deployment example for the software-defined storage/HCI solution with
Dell EMC VxFlex OS. This best practice guide not only mitigates network-induced performance problems, but
also sets the foundation for a network with inherent scalability. This provides a stable and predictable
foundation for the future growth of any software-defined storage/HCI solution.