Dell 6420 User Manual
Dell EMC XC6420 XC Series Appliance and XC
Core System
Solutions Guide
Regulatory Model: E43S Series
Regulatory Type: E43S001
Notes, cautions, and warnings
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.
WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.
© 2018 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks
may be trademarks of their respective owners.
2018 - 10
Rev. A02
Contents
1 About Dell EMC XC6420 XC Series Appliance and XC Core System solution................................................. 4
2 Documentation references.............................................................................................................................5
3 License management..................................................................................................................................... 6
Setting up Nutanix Customer Portal................................................................................................................................6
Managing the license................................................................................................................................................... 7
4 Deploying an appliance.................................................................................................................................. 8
Before you begin................................................................................................................................................................ 8
Setting up your appliance for rst use............................................................................................................................ 9
Deploying XC Series Appliance and XC Core System............................................................................................. 9
Default cluster credentials................................................................................................................................................11
5 Downloading and installing software applications......................................................................................... 13
Downloading OpenManage Essentials........................................................................................................................... 13
Installing Dell OpenManage Essentials on a separate management server...............................................................13
Dell Nautilus.......................................................................................................................................................................14
6 Monitoring XC Series Appliances and XC Core Systems...............................................................................15
Monitoring the appliance by using iDRAC..................................................................................................................... 15
Monitoring the appliance by using Dell OpenManage Essentials................................................................................15
Monitoring an appliance by using Nutanix Web Console.............................................................................................16
Monitoring an appliance by using Nutanix Prism..........................................................................................................16
7 Updating rmware........................................................................................................................................17
Updating drive rmware with Dell Nautilus................................................................................................................... 17
8 Replacing hardware......................................................................................................................................19
Replacing components with no cluster data................................................................................................................. 19
Replacing failed front hard drive and SSD components that contain cluster data..................................................20
9 Recovering an appliance...............................................................................................................................21
10 Getting help............................................................................................................................................... 22
Contacting Dell EMC.......................................................................................................................................................22
Dell EMC SupportAssist..................................................................................................................................................22
Locating Service Tag....................................................................................................................................................... 22
Quick Resource Locator for XC6420 systems............................................................................................................. 23
A Bare metal recovery.....................................................................................................................................24
Creating a RASR USB disk for Hyper-V........................................................................................................................ 24
Creating a RASR USB disk for ESXi and AHV..............................................................................................................24
Contents
3
1
About Dell EMC XC6420 XC Series Appliance and
XC Core System solution
NOTE: The information in this document applies to both Dell EMC XC6420 Series Appliances, and Dell EMC XC Core System
oering. Sections or information that apply to only one of the oerings (XC Series or XC Core) will be called out explicitly.
The Dell EMC XC6420 XC Series Appliance and XC Core System solution includes the Dell EMC appliance and software from Nutanix
(used as a virtual appliance), which simplies virtualization by converging computer, storage, and network into a single appliance that is
deployed in a clustered environment. The following illustration shows the Dell EMC XC6420 XC Series Appliance and XC Core System:
NOTE: For more information about deploying the Dell EMC XC6420 XC Series Appliance and XC Core System, see the manuals
available at Dell.com/XCSeriesmanuals.
Figure 1. Back view of XC6420 Series sled
4 About Dell EMC XC6420 XC Series Appliance and XC Core System solution
Documentation references
Table 1 provides the reference document link on the Dell support site for Nutanix solution software documentation, Dell EMC
documentation, and supported hardware, rmware, and software.
Table 1. Documentation references
Information Link
Nutanix solution software documentation
Dell EMC documentation
Supported hardware, rmware, and software
See the Dell EMC XC6420 Series Hyper-Converged Appliances
Support Matrix available at Dell.com/XCSeriesmanuals
2
Documentation references 5
3
License management
NOTE: This chapter does not apply to XC Core appliances.
The Nutanix virtual computing platform consists of various features that enable you to administer your environment according to your
current and future requirements.
Licensed features on the XC Series appliances can be upgraded to an enhanced feature set, which is updated for a longer term, or
reassigned to nodes or clusters as permitted by the licensing terms provided in the Dell EMC Nutanix EULA.
There are two types of licenses. They are:
• Starter license
• Pro and Ultimate license
Starter license:
Each Nutanix node and block is delivered with a default Starter license, which is issued for a six-year term that begins on the shipping date
for your appliance order. You are not required to register this license on the Nutanix Customer Portal account that was assigned to you
when you purchased your nodes.
Pro and Ultimate licenses
The Pro and Ultimate license types require you to download a license le from the Nutanix Customer Support Portal and install it on your
cluster. When you upgrade to a Pro or Ultimate license, or add nodes or clusters to your environment with these licensed features, you
must generate the license le, download it, and then install it.
NOTE
: The most current information about your license is available at the Nutanix Customer Support Portal. You can view
information about license types, expiration dates, and any free license inventory (that is, unassigned available licenses).
Setting up Nutanix Customer Portal
If you are new to Nutanix Support, create a personal prole on the Nutanix Customer Portal. Creating a personal prole enables you to
manage your licenses.
About this task
: The Nutanix Customer Portal is also required to access some of the advanced Nutanix documentation.
NOTE
Perform the following steps to set up your Nutanix Customer Portal:
Steps
1 Go to http://portal.nutanix.com, click +Create account, type the required information, and then click Register.
An email would be sent to your registered email address. Click the verication link to activate your account. The Welcome screen is
displayed.
2 Select Support Portal, type the Serial Number or Service Tag of your appliance, and then click Activate.
: To nd the Service Tag of your appliance, see the Locating Service Tag section in this
NOTE
document.
The Customer Portal account is now created and allows you to manage your licenses.
6 License management
Managing the license
About this task
Perform the following steps to manage your licenses:
Steps
1 In Nutanix Documentation portal, open the Web Console Guide, and then see the License Management section.
For more information about accessing Web Console Guide, see the Documentation Matrix section in the Dell EMC XC6420 Series
Hyper-Converged Appliances Support Matrix available at Dell.com/XCSeriesmanuals.
2 Perform the relevant licensing tasks for your appliance.
License management 7
4
Deploying an appliance
Before you begin
Before you deploy XC Series Appliance and XC Core System, ensure that you read through this document and familiarize yourself with the
process and required materials.
WARNING: Before you set up and operate your appliance, review the safety instructions that shipped with your storage
enclosure.
WARNING: The weight of your appliance with all the physical disk drives installed (full weight) is 41.46 Kg (91.40 lb).
WARNING: Your appliance must be installed by Dell EMC certied service technicians.
CAUTION: Before installing your appliance in the rack, ensure that the weight of the appliance does not exceed the weight limit
of the rack. For more information, see the Rack Installation instructions that is shipped with your appliance.
CAUTION: It is important that you complete all the tasks in this guide before doing other congurations.
NOTE: For weight stability, always load the rack by using bottom-up approach.
NOTE: This solution is deployed by Dell EMC Services.
Ensure that the following items are available:
• Power cables
• Network cables—optical and/or copper (Intel SFP+ or Category 6 Ethernet)
• Rail kit
• Nutanix documentation
• Dell EMC Documentation
: For more information about the Dell EMC documentation and Nutanix documentation, see the Documentation matrix
NOTE
section in
NOTE: The Boot Optimized Server Storage (BOSS) card shipped with XC Series Appliance and XC Core System is the appliance
boot device. This PCIe card supports up to two M.2 SATA SSDs congured in RAID1 for high availability. Write intensive activities
and processes leveraged by XC Series Appliance and XC Core System, are intended to take place on the SSDs and HDDs and not
the BOSS boot device. Any applications defaulting write activity to the BOSS boot drive should be redirected accordingly.
The following are some of the examples of write intensive applications not to be run on the boot device:
• Appliance Center Agents
– System Center Conguration Manager (CCMExec.exe)
– System Center Operations Manager (MonitoringHost.exe)
• Write‐intensive Agents
• Databases
• Disk management utilities (third-party disk defragmentation or partitioning tools)
• More roles outside of the appliance’s intended use (web server, domain controller, RDS, and so on.).
• Client‐based Antivirus (Hyper-V only)
• Virtual machines: Ensure that the virtual machines run only on Solid State Drives (SSDs) and Hard Disk Drives (HDDs).
Dell EMC XC6420 Series Hyper-Converged Appliances Support Matrix
available at Dell.com/XCSeriesmanuals.
8 Deploying an appliance
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