Technical White Paper Composing Dell EMC PowerEdge modular infrastructure using VMware Cloud Foundation Accelerate your cloud deployment with integrated composability Abstract This whitepaper provides an overview of the integration of VMware Cloud Foundation and Dell EMC PowerEdge MX7000 server with instructions on how to compose compute and storage resources in PowerEdge MX7000 to accelerate your cloud deployment.
Revisions Revisions Date Description December 2019 Initial release Acknowledgements This paper was produced by the following: Author: Peter Giulietti and Shiva Katta Support: VMware Cloud Foundation development team and Dell Open Manage development team Other: Ramya D R and Vasanth D, IDD team The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc.
Table of contents Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................................2 Table of contents .................................................................................................
Table of contents 6.2.4 Storage – HDD .................................................................................................................................................19 6.2.5 Network Interfaces ............................................................................................................................................19 6.3 Identifying composable resources ....................................................................................................................
Executive summary Executive summary Business IT departments are challenged to deploy cloud infrastructure in an increasingly complex environment. New hardware and software provide greater capabilities, but with greater complexity. Multiple management interfaces are required to configure and deploy your compute, storage and software to provide a singular solution.
Introduction 1 Introduction This document provides instructions on how to compose Dell EMC PowerEdge MX 7000 components for additional workload domains. This guide is a follow on to the Dell EMC VMware Cloud Foundation for PowerEdge Deployment Guides. The deployment of a VMware Cloud Foundation Management Domain is same as the previous guides except that the firmware and software versions have been updated to the latest versions.
Overview 2 Overview The ability to compose the PowerEdge MX7000 modular platform provides a mechanism to create additional workload domains using the resources required for a workload. VMware in conjunction with Dell EMC have integrated the compute and storage composability of Dell EMC modular infrastructure into VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager. With VMware Cloud Foundation version 3.9.
Deployment requirements 3 Deployment requirements Verify that the requirements are met before proceeding with the deployment process. 3.1 Connectivity The SDDC Manager must be able to communicate with the PowerEdge MX9002m management modules of all PowerEdge MX7000 chassis used to create the workload domain. The workload domain generally uses a different vSAN and vMotion network, which is different from the management domain.
Deployment requirements 3.3 Networking requirements Ensure that the network communication is established between the SDDC Controller of the management domain and the PowerEdge MX9002m management modules on the target PowerEdge MX7000 chassis. The vSAN, vMotion, and VXLAN networks that can be shared with the management domain or segregated based on the need of the intended workload domain.
Validated components 4 Validated components 4.
Validated components 4.3 Firmware and Drivers This solution is validated using the following product firmware and driver versions. The validated firmware and drivers are certified from VMware for compatibility with VMware Cloud Foundation. To confirm, verify the compatibility in the VMware Compatibility Guide. For more information on how to use, see Using the VMware Compatibility Guide.
Hardware overview 5 Hardware overview This section provides information about the following hardware components that are part of the composable infrastructure. This section does not cover MX IOMs (IO modules) because this solution is not specific to any network.
Hardware overview 5.3 Dell EMC PowerEdge MX740c compute sled Dell EMC PowerEdge MX740c is a two-socket, full-height, single-width compute sled that offers high performance and scalability. It is ideal for dense virtualization environments and serves as a foundation for collaborative workloads. The PowerEdge MX7000 chassis supports up to eight PowerEdge MX740c sleds (if no other sleds are used, such as PowerEdge MX5016s storage sleds) • • • • • • 5.
Hardware overview The PowerEdge MX5000s switches are deployed as redundant pairs to offer multiple SAS paths to the individual SAS disk drives. The PowerEdge MX7000 chassis supports redundant PowerEdge MX5000s in Fabric C.
Composability workflow 6 Composability workflow Following is the workflow to compose the compute and storage resources within a PowerEdge MX7000 chassis: 1. Connect to the composability layer of the PowerEdge MX7000 chassis group. See Connecting Composability Layer. 2. View the available resources in zones. See View Available Resources. 3. Identify and select the composable resources. See Identifying composable resources. 4. Compose the resources. See Compose Resources. 5. Commission the servers.
Composability workflow and storage resources from the entire group to the SDDC Manager. After the information is gathered, the SDDC Manager displays the resources. The information about these resources will then be displayed in SDDC Manager. 6.1.1 Connection with chassis groups PowerEdge MX7000 chassis are logically combined into chassis groups. Each chassis group comprises a lead chassis and member chassis.
Composability workflow 1. 2. 3. 4. 6.1.3 Log in to the OME Modular web interface of PowerEdge MX7000. From the main menu, select Application Settings and select Security. From the Security menu, select the Certificates tab. Click Generate a Certificate Signing Request and upload the signed certificate when it is available. Connecting composability layer To connect to PowerEdge MX7000, do the following: 1. Log in to the SDDC Manager web interface. 2.
Composability workflow Composablity transaltion layer 5. Click Connect to initiate the connection to the translation layer. After establishing the connection, SDDC Manager immediately begins the inventory of your MX7000 group. 6.2 Viewing Available Resources Once SDDC Manger has inventoried the chassis or chassis group, a summary of each discovered resource is displayed in the Available Resource section. Each compute sled is referred to as a Resource Zone.
Composability workflow 6.2.1 Resource Zone To view the detailed information about the resources available in each Resource Zone, click the arrow next to the zone name. The available Compute Systems, Storage-SSD, Storage-HDD, and Network Interfaces are displayed. Note that the available Network Interface section is not shown in the following figure. Resource zone 6.2.2 Compute Systems The Compute Systems pane displays the following information: • • • 6.2.
Composability workflow 6.3 Identifying composable resources Composing resources in a single chassis is a relatively simple process. Composing resources in an eight chassis multi-chassis group is a complex process. Eight chassis can contain up to a total of 64 compute or storage resources. The maximum number of chassis in a multi-chassis group is 20 that can contain up to 160 compute or storage resources. Consider that all compute sleds may or may not be configured similarly.
Composability workflow • • • • Identify servers that fit the intended workload. Select a server from the list that was identified. Assign storage from the PowerEdge MX5016s storage sleds as required. Compose the server(s). Using the information provided in the Resource selection section, use the available filters to identify servers that meet the requirements of the intended workflow. If multiple similar servers available, then they can be composed as a group.
Composability workflow Ensure the following prerequisites are met before you commission the servers: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Host for vSAN workload domain must be vSAN compliant and certified as per the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide. BIOS, HBA, SSD, and HDD must be compatible as mentioned in the VMware Compatibility Guide. Host has a standard switch with two NIC ports with a minimum 10 Gbps speed. Host has the drivers and firmware versions specified in the VMware Compatibility Guide.
Composability workflow Host Addition and Validation After commissioning the required servers to meet the requirements of your workflow, follow the normal process to deploy a Workload Domain. The Composable Infrastructure creates and configures the resources to be commissioned, and then deployed as a Workload Domain. 6.6 Decompose resources When compute resources are no longer required, they can be returned to the list of Available Resources through the Decompose workflow.
Composability workflow 3. Click DECOMPOSE again to decompose the selected servers. After decomposing the servers, the servers will be listed in the Available Resources table. One of the reasons to decompose compute resources is to return any storage resources back to the MX5016s storage blades. Another reason to decompose compute resources is that only Available Resources can be sorted using the filters available in the Available Resources table.
