Dell Active System Manager Reference Architecture

Dell Global Solutions Engineering

Revision: A00

Reference Architecture for Active

System 800 with Microsoft Hyper-V

Release 1.0 for Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Blade Servers,
Dell Force10 Switches, Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN, Microsoft
Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V role and Dell Active System
Manager

Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

This document is for informational purposes only and may contain typographical errors and
technical inaccuracies. The content is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any
kind.

© 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions
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March 2013 | Rev A00

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Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

Revision

Description

Date

A00

Initial Version

March 2013

Revision History

Dell Inc. iii

Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1

2 Audience............................................................................................................... 1

3 Solution Overview ................................................................................................... 2

4 Design Principles ..................................................................................................... 6

5 Prerequisites and Datacenter Planning .......................................................................... 7

6 Architecture .......................................................................................................... 8

6.1 Dell Blade Network Architecture ......................................................................... 10

6.2 Server / Blade Network Connectivity .................................................................... 10

6.3 Server / Blade Storage Connectivity ..................................................................... 14

6.4 Server / Blade HA and Redundancy ...................................................................... 14

6.5 Storage Architecture ....................................................................................... 15

7 Management Infrastructure ...................................................................................... 18

7.1 Active System Manager ..................................................................................... 20

7.2 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Built-In tools .......................................................... 20

7.3 Dell OpenManage Essentials ............................................................................... 22

7.4 Dell EqualLogic SAN HQ .................................................................................... 23

7.5 Out-of-band Management: CMC and iDRAC ............................................................. 24

7.6 System Center 2012 SP1 ................................................................................... 24

7.7 Dell System Center 2012 Integration .................................................................... 25

7.8 Out-Of-Band Management Connectivity ................................................................. 25

8 Scalability ........................................................................................................... 26

9 Delivery Model ...................................................................................................... 26

10 References ....................................................................................................... 29

10.1 Dell PowerEdge Server Documentation and Hardware/Software Updates ........................ 29

10.2 Dell Force10 Switch Documentation and Firmware Updates ........................................ 29

10.3 Dell EqualLogic: ............................................................................................. 29

10.4 Dell Virtualization Documentation ....................................................................... 29

10.5 Microsoft® Hyper-V Documentation ..................................................................... 30

10.6 Microsoft® Management Software ....................................................................... 30

Figures

Figure 1: Overview of Dell Blade Servers, Dell Force10 network switches, Dell EqualLogic PS6110 Series

Storage, and Software .............................................................................................. 2

Figure 2: Converged Network Topology (Logical View) with optional 2nd Chassis ............................ 9

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Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

Figure 3: I/O Connectivity for M620 Blade Server ................................................................. 10

Figure 4: Converged Fabric Overview ................................................................................ 11

Figure 5: Converged Network configuration for Compute Dell PowerEdge M620 Blade Servers........... 12

Figure 6: Converged Network Configuration for Management of Dell PowerEdge R620 Servers .......... 13

Figure 7: Active System SAN Connectivity Overview .............................................................. 16

Figure 8: Management Architecture ................................................................................. 19

Figure 9: Manage Active System 800m with Server Manager .................................................... 21

Figure 10: Resources Measuring in PowerShell 3.0 ................................................................ 22

Figure 11: OME Dashboard ............................................................................................. 23

Figure 12: Connectivity of OOB management components. ..................................................... 26

Figure 13: Dell Active System 800m Rack and Component Overview .......................................... 27

Figure 14: Dell Active System 800m Maximum 2 Rack Component Overview ................................. 28

Tables

Table 1: Solution Components .......................................................................................... 3

Table 2: Traffic Description ........................................................................................... 13

Table 3: Sample VLAN and subnet configuration .................................................................. 14

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Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

1 Introduction

Dell™ Active Infrastructure is a family of converged infrastructure solutions that combine servers,
storage, networking, and infrastructure management into an integrated and optimized system that
provides general purpose virtualized resource pools. Active Infrastructure leverages Dell innovations
including unified management with Active System Manager, converged LAN/SAN fabrics, and modular
server architecture for the ultimate converged infrastructure solution. Active Infrastructure helps IT
rapidly respond to dynamic business demands, maximize data center efficiency, and strengthen IT
service quality.

The Active System 800 solution, a member of Dell Active Infrastructure family, is a converged
infrastructure solution that has been designed and validated by Dell Engineering. It is available racked,
cabled, and delivered to your site to speed deployment. Dell Services deploys and configures the
system tailored for business needs and ready for integration into your datacenter. Active System 800 is
Dell’s first Active Infrastructure System to include Dell PowerEdge™ M620 Blades, ISCSI / 10GbE unified
fabric switching, Dell EqualLogic™ PS6110 Series 10GbE iSCSI storage, and Dell Active System Manager
to build private cloud solutions that address key needs of the mid to large data center. The backbone
of this solution is driven by features associated with a unified fabric consisting of both LAN and SAN
traffic on a consolidated network architecture via Data Center Bridging (DCB). The solution is offered
in configurations with either VMware® vSphere™ or Microsoft® Windows Server® 2012 with Hyper-V® role
enabled Hypervisors. The VMware vSphere solution is the Active System 800v and the Microsoft Hyper-V
solution is the Active System 800m. This document defines the reference architecture for Active
System 800m.

The Active System configurations vary in the number of Dell PowerEdge M620 blade servers and Dell
EqualLogic PS6110 Series storage arrays to meet virtualization resource needs.

2 Audience

This document provides an overview of the Active System 800 solution. Readers, including CTOs and IT
managers, can use this document to understand the overview and scope of the solution. IT
administrators and managers can use this document to understand the solution architecture.

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Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

Management Cluster – Dell PowerEdge R620

· CPU: 2x Intel® Xeon 2.2GHz 95W 8C

· Memory: 128 GB (16x8GB) 1333 MHz RDIMMs

· NDC: BCM 5720 (4x 1GbE RJ-45)

· NIC: BCM 57810 PCI-e (2x 10GbE SFP+)

· iDRAC: iDRAC7 Enterprise

Dell Force10 S55 44x 1GbE + 4x SFP Ports

· 10/100/1000MbE Out of Band (OOB) Mgmt Traffic

Dell Force10 S4810 48x 10GbE + 4x 40GbE Ports

· 2x S4810 High-density 48 port 10GbE switches for
converged LAN and SAN traffic

· 80GbE ISL between the switches

Dell EqualLogic PS6110 Series iSCSI Storage

· 10GbE Controllers with up to 8 Arrays

· Default Solution

1x PS6100X per 4x hosts

with (24) 2.5" 900GB 10k

Management Components

· Dell Active System Manager – Hardware
provisioning and management

· Dell EqualLogic SAN-HQ – SAN monitoring

· Dell OpenManage Essentials – Hardware

monitoring

· Optional System Center Virtual Machine Manager
– Hypervisor and VM management

Microsoft Windows Server 2012

· Failover Clustering (High Availability and Live
Migration)

· Hyper-V Role Enabled

· Hyper-V and Cluster Management tools

Compute Cluster - Dell PowerEdge Blade Servers

· Energy efficient Dell PowerEdge M1000e enclosure

· Up to 32 Dell PowerEdge M620 blade servers

· CPU: 2x Intel® Xeon® 2.2GHz 95W 8C

· Memory: 128 GB (16x8GB) 1333 MHz RDIMMs

· NDC: BCM 57810-k (2x10GbE 10GBASE-KR)

· PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator

· IDRAC7 Enterprise

3 Solution Overview

This section provides a high-level product overview of the major components of the Active System 800
as illustrated in Figure 1. Readers can skip the sections of products with which they are familiar.

Figure 1: Overview of Dell Blade Servers, Dell Force10 network switches, Dell EqualLogic PS6110 Series

Storage, and Software

Table 1 below describes the key solution components and the roles served.

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Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

Component

Description

Role

Compute Cluster

PowerEdge M620 blade servers
running Windows Server 2012
Datacenter Edition with Hyper­V role enabled

Host highly-available virtual
machines (VMs)

Management Cluster

PowerEdge R620 servers running
Windows Server® 2012
Datacenter Edition with Hyper-V
role enabled.

Host management VMs: Dell
Active system Manager, optional
System Center Virtual Machine
Manager (VMM) 2012 SP1,
EqualLogic SAN HQ and Dell
OpenManage Essentials

Storage

Dell EqualLogic PS6110 Series

controllers with 24 bay 2.5‖ SAS
enclosures or 12 Bay 3.5‖ SAS

enclosures

Provide shared storage for the
Hyper-V clusters

Converged Network Switches

Two Force10 S4810 and Dell
PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator
modules for the blade chassis

Support VM, Live Migration,
Management, iSCSI and Cluster
traffic

OOB management Switch

One Force10 S55

Provide Management OOB
management connectivity

Table 1: Solution Components

Microsoft Windows Server 2012: Microsoft® Windows Server® 2012 is Microsoft’s flagship server

operating system which provides the Hyper-V® virtualization platform. Hyper-V provides a
virtualization platform that can consolidate Windows® and Linux workloads enabling IT managers the
ability to more fully utilize their available hardware resources. The following Windows Server 2012
features are available in this solution.

Dell Active System Manager: Active System Manager sits at the center of Active System, and simplifies
infrastructure configuration, collapses management tools, and drives automation and consistency.
Through capabilities such as template-based provisioning, automated configuration, and infrastructure
lifecycle management, Active System Manager enables IT to respond rapidly to business needs,
maximize data center efficiency, and strengthen quality of IT service delivery.

The software enables a cloud like environment, and supports pre-built provisioning templates and
custom orchestrated workflows for a wide range of physical or virtual environments. Use and features
of the Dell Active System Manager will be described in more detail in subsequent sections of this
document. Additional detail can also be found on the Dell website at: Dell Active System Manager.

Note: Active System Manager offers limited functionality on Microsoft Hyper-V platforms with Active
System Manager version 7.0. The capabilities and benefits outlined above will be available on the
Microsoft Hyper-V platforms with the Active System Manager version 7.1 scheduled for release in mid

2013.

Dell OpenManage Essentials: The Dell OpenManage™ Essentials Console provides a single, easy-to-use,
one-to-many interface through which to manage resources in multivendor operating system and
hypervisor environments. It automates basic repetitive hardware management tasks — like discovery,

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Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

monitoring and updates — for Dell servers, storage, and network systems. OME employs the embedded
management of Dell PowerEdge™ servers — Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with
Lifecycle Controller — to enable agent-free remote management and monitoring of server hardware
components like storage, networking, processors, and memory. For more information on Dell Enterprise
Management and OpenManage Essentials, see http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/data-center-

system-management.

Dell EqualLogic SAN Headquarters (SAN HQ): SAN HQ provides in-depth reporting and analysis tools.
With the information you get from SAN HQ, you can better customize, protect, and optimize your
storage. Dell EqualLogic SAN HQ provides consolidated performance and robust event monitoring across
multiple Dell EqualLogic groups. If action is required, the Dell EqualLogic Group Manager can be
launched directly from SAN HQ giving you the ability to quickly adjust storage systems to meet business
needs. For more information about Dell EqualLogic storage and SAN HQ, see

http://www.dell.com/us/enterprise/p/equallogic-products.

Optional Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Pack 1: System Center 2012 is Microsoft’s systems
management platform which helps to monitor, manage, deploy, backup, and more. System Center 2012
Service Pack 1 (SP1) introduces support for Windows Server 2012, enabling you to take advantage of
Windows Server 2012’s new features in a managed environment. This solution utilizes either a customer
provided or a trial version of System Center 2012 SP1 and focuses on Virtual Machine Manager 2012.
Further information on all Microsoft System Center components can be found at

www.microsoft.com/systemcenter.

System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM): VMM is Microsoft’s centralized virtualization
manager. It provides the fundamental services for creating and managing virtual machines, optimizing
resources, and rapid deployment of virtualized infrastructure.

VMM 2012 Service Pack 1 supports the new features included in Windows Server 2012: network
virtualization, VHDX support, SMB 3.0 file share, and the enhancements on storage management, host
provisioning, and Live Migration.

Dell PowerEdge Blade Modular Enclosure: The Dell PowerEdge M1000e is a high-density, energy­efficient blade chassis that supports up to sixteen half-height blade servers, or eight full-height blade
servers, and six I/O modules. A high-speed passive mid-plane connects the server modules to the I/O
modules, management, and power in the rear of the chassis. The enclosure includes a flip-out LCD
screen (for local configuration), six hot-pluggable/redundant power supplies, and nine hot-pluggable
N+1 redundant fan modules.

Blade Servers: The Dell PowerEdge M1000e Blade Server Chassis supports the Dell PowerEdge M620
blade servers based on Intel® Xeon® E5 series processors. Dell’s embedded management houses the
tools and enablement pieces for management directly on the server, allowing administrators to
perform a complete set of provisioning functions from a single, intuitive interface.

I/O Modules: The enclosure provides three redundant fabrics using six I/O modules. The modules can
be populated with Ethernet switches, Dell Power Edge M I/O Aggregator, Fibre Channel (FC), and
pass-through modules.

Chassis Management: The Dell PowerEdge M1000e has integrated management through a redundant
Chassis Management Controller (CMC) module for enclosure management and integrated keyboard,
video, and mouse (iKVM) modules.

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Embedded Management with Dell’s Lifecycle Controller: The Lifecycle Controller is the engine for
advanced embedded management and is delivered as part of iDRAC7 Enterprise in Dell PowerEdge 12th
generation blade servers. For more information on Dell Lifecycle Controllers and blade servers, see

http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/dcsm-embedded-management and Dell.com/blades.

Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator (I/OA): The Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator is a flexible 1/10GbE

aggregation device that is automated and preconfigured for easy ―plug and play‖ deployment into

converged iSCSI and FCoE networks. The key feature of the PowerEdge M I/OA is that all VLANs are
allowed as a default setting. This allows the top-of-rack (ToR) managed switch to perform all VLAN
management related tasks. The external ports of the M I/OA are automatically all part of a single link
aggregation group (LAG), and thus there is no need for Spanning-Tree.

The M I/OA provides connectivity to the CNA/Network adapters internally and externally to upstream
network devices. Internally the M I/OA provides thirty-two (32) connections. The connections are 10
Gigabit Ethernet connections for basic Ethernet traffic, iSCSI storage traffic, or FCoE storage traffic. In
a typical PowerEdge M1000e configuration with 16 half-height blade server ports, 1-16 are used and 17­32 are disabled. If quad port CNA/Network adapters or quarter-height blade servers are used, then
ports 17-32 are enabled.

The M I/OA includes two integrated 40Gb Ethernet ports on the base module. These ports are used in a
default configuration with a 4 X 10Gb breakout cable to provide four 10Gb links for network traffic.
Alternatively these ports can be used as 40Gb links for stacking. The M I/OA also supports three
different types of add-in expansion modules, which are called FlexIO Expansion modules. The modules
available are: 4-port 10Gbase-T FlexIO module, 4-port 10G SFP+ FlexIO module, and the 2-port 40G
QSFP+ FlexIO module. For more information on Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator, see

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-m-io-aggregator/pd.

Dell Force10 S4810 Switches: The Dell Force10 S-Series S4810 is an ultra-low-latency 10/40 GbE top­of-rack (ToR) switch. Leveraging a non-blocking, cut-through switching architecture, the Force10 S4810
switch delivers line-rate L2 and L3 forwarding capacity with ultra-low latency to maximize network
performance. The compact Force10 S4810 switch design provides 48 dual-speed 1/10 GbE (SFP+) ports
as well as four 40 GbE QSFP+ uplinks to conserve valuable rack space and simplify the migration to
40 Gbps in the data center core. Dell Force10 S4810 switch incorporates multiple architectural features
that optimize data center network flexibility, efficiency, and availability, including Force10’s stacking
technology, reversible front-to-back or back-to-front airflow for hot/cold aisle environments, and
redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and fans. For more information on Dell Force10 switches, see

Dell.com/force10.

Dell Force10 S55 Switches: Force10 S-Series S55 1/10 GbE Top-of-Rack switch leverages a non­blocking architecture that delivers line-rate, low-latency L2 and L3 switching to eliminate network
bottlenecks. The Force10 S55 switch design provides 48 GbE access ports with up to four modular
10GbE uplinks in 1-RU to conserve valuable rack space. The Force10 S55 switch incorporates multiple
architectural features including reversible front-to-back or back-to-front airflow for hot/cold aisle
environments and redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and fans. For more information on Dell
Force10 switches, see Dell.com/force10.

Dell EqualLogic PS6110 Series Storage: EqualLogic PS6110X 10GbE arrays include Dual 10GbE
controllers, high-performance 2.5‖ SAS HDDs Cache-to-flash memory de-staging and up to 21.6TB of
capacity in a 2U chassis.

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Reference Architecture for Active System 800m with Hyper-V:

Management features include:

· Group Manager, which integrates all management into one console for both file and block-storage

protocols

· Dell EqualLogic Host Software that extends the functionality of the array-based software to enable

cooperation with the host

· Host Integration Tools for Microsoft®, VMware® and Linux® products as well as Dell EqualLogic SAN

Headquarters (SAN HQ) management software

Contact your Dell sales representative for more information on Dell EqualLogic PS6110 Series storage
configurations and sizing guidelines. http://www.dell.com/us/enterprise/p/equallogic-ps6110-

series?~ck=anav

Dell PowerEdge R620 Management Server: The management server uses Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 series
processors in a 1U rack mount form factor. The server features two CPU sockets and 24 memory DIMM
slots supporting 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32GB DIMMs. For more information, see the Dell PowerEdge R620 guides

at Dell.com/PowerEdge.

4 Design Principles

The following principles are central to the design and architecture of Active System 800m Solution.

1. Converged Network: The infrastructure is designed to achieve end-to-end LAN and SAN

convergence.

2. Redundancy to minimize single point of failure: The system is designed to mitigate failure

points. NIC teaming and Multipath I/O (MPIO) are used to provide failover across the redundant
network interfaces. iSCSI storage redundancy is achieved with multiple ports and storage
controllers. For network traffic, NIC ports are teamed in such a way to distribute traffic across
separate ports. The solution also includes redundant power supplies connected to separate
Power Distribution Units (PDUs). The solution is further optimized to reduce components such
as NICs, cables, and IO Modules, then utilizes hypervisor-based high-availability to provide
virtual machine failover. Out-of-Band (OOB) Management is not architected with this level of
redundancy since mission critical workloads will continue to operate in the event of an OOB
management failure.

3. Management: Integrated management using Active System Manager, Dell OpenManage

Essentials, EqualLogic SAN HQ, and optional Microsoft System Center VMM 2012 SP1.

4. Flexible configurations: Dell Active System 800m is pre-configured to suit most customer

needs for a virtualized infrastructure. Each blade server is configured with sufficient CPU,
memory, and network adapters. Where desired, the solution also supports processor, memory,
and storage options. Additional options, such as wide or deep racks are also available.

5. Racked, Cabled, and Ready to be deployed: This Dell Active System is available to be racked,

cabled, and delivered to the customer site ready for deployment. Components are configured
and racked to optimize airflow and thermals. Based on customer needs, different rack sizes
and configurations are available to support various datacenter requirements.

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