Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter 1.6 Reference Architecture
Reference Architecture for an Active
System 800 with VMware vSphere
Dell Virtualization Solutions Engineering
Revision: A00
Release 1.0 for Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Blade Servers, Dell
Force10 Switches, and Dell EqualLogic iSCSI SAN with Dell Active System
Manager
Active System 800v with VMware vSphere: Reference Architecture
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.
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in typography or photography. Dell, the Dell logo, OpenManage, Force10, Kace, EqualLogic,
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Active System 800v with VMware vSphere: Reference Architecture
Revision
Description
A00
Initial Version
Revision History
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Contents
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 2
2 Audience .............................................................................................................. 2
3 Overview .............................................................................................................. 2
4 Design Principles .................................................................................................. 10
5 Reference Architecture .......................................................................................... 11
6 Dell Blade Network Architecture ............................................................................... 12
7 Converged Network Architecture .............................................................................. 13
8 Storage Architecture ............................................................................................. 20
9 Management Infrastructure ..................................................................................... 22
10 Scalability .......................................................................................................... 26
11 Delivery Model ..................................................................................................... 27
12 Reference ........................................................................................................... 30
Figures
Figure 1: Active System 800v Overview ............................................................................... 3
Figure 2: Active System 800v Network Topology (Logical View) ................................................ 11
Figure 3: I/O Connectivity for PowerEdge M620 Blade Server................................................... 12
Figure 4: Converged Network Logical Connectivity ............................................................... 15
Figure 5: Conceptual View of Converged Traffic Using DCB ..................................................... 16
Figure 6: vSwitch and NPAR Configuration for the hypervisor hosts ........................................... 19
Figure 7: Management Components .................................................................................. 23
Figure 8: Active System 800v Single Chassis: Rack Overview .................................................... 28
Figure 9: Active System 800v Two Chassis and Maximum Storage: Rack Overview .......................... 29
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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 (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 to be
racked, cabled, and delivered to your site to speed deployment. Dell Services will deploy and configure
the solution tailored for business needs, so that the solution is ready to be integrated into your
datacenter. Active System 800 is offered in configurations with either VMware® vSphere® (Active
System 800v) or Microsoft® Windows Server® 2012 with Hyper-V® role enabled (Active System 800m)
hypervisors. This paper defines the Reference Architecture for the VMware vSphere based Active
System 800v solution.
Active System 800v offers converged LAN & SAN fabric design to enable a converged infrastructure
solution. The end-to-end converged network architecture in Active System 800v is based upon Data
Center Bridging (DCB) technologies that enable convergence of all LAN and iSCSI SAN traffic into a
single fabric. The converged fabric design of Active System 800v reduces complexity and cost while
bringing greater flexibility to the infrastructure solution.
Active System 800v includes Dell PowerEdgeTM M1000e blade chassis with Dell PowerEdgeTM M I/O
Aggregator, Dell PowerEdgeTM M620 blades, Dell EqualLogic™ Storage, Dell Force10™ network switches,
and VMware vSphere 5.1. The solution also includes Dell PowerEdgeTM R620 servers as management
servers. Dell Active System Manager, VMware vCenter Server, EqualLogic Virtual Storage Manager for
VMware, and Dell OpenManage™ Essentials, are included with the solution.
One of the key components of Active System 800v is Dell Active System Manager. Active System
Manager simplifies complex and error-prone infrastructure lifecycle management activities like
discovery, inventory, deployment, configuration, and on-going monitoring and management through
automation and collapsing the management interfaces into a highly optimized guided workflow. By
simplifying and automating these activities through a wizard-driven graphical user interface, Dell
Active System manager enables IT to respond rapidly to business needs, maximize data center
efficiency, and strengthen quality of IT service delivery.
2 Audience
IT administrators and IT managers — who have purchased, or are planning to purchase an Active System
configuration — can use this document to understand the design elements, hardware and software
components, and the overall architecture of the solution.
3 Overview
This section provides a high-level product overview of VMware vSphere, Dell PowerEdge blade servers,
Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator, Dell Force10 S4810 switch, Dell Force10 S55 switch, and Dell
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EqualLogic Storage, as illustrated in Figure 1. Readers can skip the sections of products with which they
are familiar.
Figure 1: Active System 800v Overview
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Component
Details
Hypervisor Server
Up to 2x Dell PowerEdge M1000e chassis with up to 32x
Dell PowerEdge M620 Blade Servers and embedded
VMware vSphere 5.1
Converged Fabric Switch
2xDell Force10 S4810
2x Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator in each Dell
PowerEdge M1000e chassis
Storage
Up to 8x Dell EqualLogic PS6110 series arrays
Management Infrastructure
2x Dell PowerEdge R620 servers with embedded VMware
vSphere 5.1 hosting management VMs.
1x Dell Force10 S55 used as a 1Gb out-of-band
management switch
Management components
hosted in the management
infrastructure
Dell Active System Manager
VMware vCenter Server
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter
Dell OpenManage Essentials
Dell EqualLogic Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) for VMware
Dell EqualLogic SAN HeadQuarters (HQ)
VMware vCloud Connector
Dell Repository Manager
Table 1 below describes the key solution components and the roles served.
Table 1: Solution Components
3.1 VMware vSphere 5.1
VMware vSphere 5.1 includes the ESXi™ hypervisor as well as vCenter™ Server which is used to
configure and manage VMware hosts. Key capabilities for the ESXi Enterprise Plus license level include:
VMware vMotion™: VMware vMotion technology provides real-time migration of running virtual
machines (VM) from one host to another with no disruption or downtime.
VMware High Availability (HA): VMware HA provides high availability at the virtual machine
(VM) level. Upon host failure, VMware HA automatically re-starts VMs on other physical hosts
running ESXi. VMware vSphere 5.1 uses Fault Domain Manager (FDM) for High Availability.
VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and VMware Distributed Power Management
(DPM): VMware DRS technology enables vMotion to automatically achieve load balancing
according to resource requirements. When VMs in a DRS cluster need fewer resources, such as
during nights and weekends, DPM consolidates workloads onto fewer hosts and powers off the
rest to reduce power consumption.
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VMware vCenter Update Manager: VMware vCenter Update Manager automates patch
management, enforcing compliance to patch standards for VMware ESXi hosts.
VMware Storage vMotion™: VMware Storage vMotion enables real-time migration of running VM
disks from one storage array to another with no disruption or downtime. It minimizes service
disruptions due to planned storage downtime previously incurred for rebalancing or retiring
storage arrays.
Host Profiles: Host Profiles standardize and simplify the deployment and management of
VMware ESXi host configurations. They capture and store validated configuration information,
including host compliance, networking, storage, and security settings.
For more information on VMware vSphere, see www.vmware.com/products/vsphere.
3.2 Dell Active System Manager
Dell Active System Manager is the Active Infrastructure management software that is part of the Active
System 800v. Active System Manager addresses key factors that impact service levels, namely
infrastructure configuration errors, incorrect problem troubleshooting, and slow recovery from failures.
Active System Manager dramatically improves the accuracy of infrastructure configuration by reducing
manual touch points.
The key capabilities of Dell Active System Manager are:
Template-based provisioning: Workload specific infrastructure requirements are encapsulated
in the form of a template which can be repeatedly applied on-demand as needed. This brings
efficiency, accuracy, and consistency in the infrastructure configuration process.
Automated configuration: Active System Manager enables simplified discovery, inventory, and
configuration of modular infrastructure. This results in better visibility and resource allocation
through efficient pooling of available resources.
Infrastructure lifecycle management: Active System Manager provides the capability to
manage the entire lifecycle of infrastructure, from discovery and on-boarding through
provisioning, on-going management, and decommissioning.
Workload failover: Active System Manager provides immediate alerting in case of a hardware
fault, and enables rapid and easy migration of the workload to other infrastructure resources.
Multiple warnings and errors are aggregated into a single console.
Guided user workflows and multi-level views: Active System Manager presents a wizard-
driven graphical user interface with feature-guided, step-by-step work-flows. It provides a
graphical logical network topology view for better decision making through improved visibility.
For more information on Dell Active System Manager, see Dell Active System Manager.
3.3 Dell PowerEdge Blade Servers
Blade Modular Enclosure: The Dell PowerEdge M1000e is a high-density, energy-efficient 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
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local configuration), six hot-pluggable/redundant power supplies, and nine hot-pluggable N+1
redundant fan modules.
Blade Servers: The PowerEdge M620 blade server is the Dell 12th generation PowerEdge half height
blade server offering:
New high-efficiency Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 family processors for more advanced processing
performance, memory, and I/O bandwidth.
Greater memory density than any previous PowerEdge server. Each PowerEdge M620 can deploy
up to 24x 32GB DIMMs, or 768GB of RAM per blade – 12TB of RAM in a single M1000e chassis.
‗Agent Free‘ management with the new iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller allows customers to
deploy, update, maintain, and monitor their systems throughout the system lifecycle without a
software management agent, regardless of the operating system.
The PowerEdge Select Network Adapter (formerly NDC) on the PowerEdge M620 offers three
modular choices for embedded fabric capability. With 10Gb CNA offerings from Broadcom,
QLogic & Intel, our customers can choose the networking vendor and technology that‘s right for
them and their applications, and even change in the future as those needs evolve over time.
The Broadcom and QLogic offerings offer Switch Independent Partitioning technology,
developed in partnership with Dell, which allows for virtual partitioning of the 10Gb ports.
I/O Modules: The Dell blade chassis has three separate fabrics referred to as A, B, and C. Each fabric
can have two I/O modules, for a total of six I/O module slots in the chassis. The I/O modules are A1,
A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. Each I/O module can be an Ethernet physical switch, an Ethernet pass-through
module, FC switch, or FC pass-through module. InfiniBand™ switch modules are also supported. Each
half-height blade server has a dual-port network daughter card (NDC) and two optional dual-port
mezzanine I/O cards. The NDC connects to Fabric A. One mezzanine I/O card attaches to Fabric B, with
the remaining mezzanine I/O card attached to Fabric C.
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. Through the CMC, the enclosure supports FlexAddress Plus
technology, which enables the blade enclosure to lock the World Wide Names (WWN) of the FC
controllers and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of the Ethernet controllers to specific blade
slots. This enables seamless swapping or upgrading of blade servers without affecting the LAN or SAN
configuration.
Embedded Management with Dell’s Lifecycle Controller: The Lifecycle Controller is the engine for
advanced embedded management and is delivered as part of iDRAC Enterprise in 12th-generation Dell
PowerEdge blade servers. It includes 1GB of managed and persistent storage that embeds systems
management features directly on the server, thus eliminating the media-based delivery of system
management tools and utilities previously needed for systems management. Embedded management
includes:
Unified Server Configurator (USC) aims at local 1-to-1 deployment via a graphical user interface
(GUI) for operating system install, updates, configuration, and for performing diagnostics on
single, local servers. This eliminates the need for multiple option ROMs for hardware
configuration.
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Remote Services are standards-based interfaces that enable consoles to integrate, for example,
bare-metal provisioning and one-to-many OS deployments, for servers located remotely. Dell‘s
Lifecycle Controller takes advantage of the capabilities of both USC and Remote Services to
deliver significant advancement and simplification of server deployment.
Lifecycle Controller Serviceability aims at simplifying server re-provisioning and/or replacing
failed parts, and thus reduces maintenance downtime.
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.
3.4 Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator
The Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator (IOA) is a flexible 1/10GbE aggregation device that is automated
and pre-configured for easy deployment into converged iSCSI and FCoE networks. The key feature of
the PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator is that all VLANs are allowed as a default setting. This allows the topof-rack (ToR) managed switch to perform all VLAN management related tasks. The external ports of the
PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator are automatically all part of a single link aggregation group (LAG), and
thus there is no need for Spanning-tree. The PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator can use Data Center Bridging
(DCB) and Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX) to support converged network architecture.
The PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator provides connectivity to the CNA/Network adapters internally and
externally to upstream network devices. Internally the PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator 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 halfheight blade server ports, 1-16 are used and 17-32 are disabled. If quad port CAN/Network adapters or
quarter-height blade servers are used, then ports 17-32 will be enabled.
The PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator includes two integrated 40Gb Ethernet ports on the base module.
These ports can be 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 Dell
PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator 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, 4port 10G SFP+ FlexIO module, and the 2-port 40G QSFP+ FlexIO module.
The PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator modules can be managed through the PowerEdge M1000e Chassis
Management Controller (CMC) GUI. Also, the out-of-band management port on the PowerEdge M I/O
Aggregator is reached by connection through the CMC‘s management port. This one management port
on the CMC allows for management connections to all I/O modules within the PowerEdge M1000e
chassis.
For more information on Dell PowerEdge M I/O Aggregator, see
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-m-io-aggregator/pd
3.5 OpenManage Essentials
The Dell OpenManage™ Essentials (OME) 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, inventory, and monitoring—
for Dell servers, storage, and network systems. OME employs the embedded management of
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