Dell EMC VxRack System FLEX Architecture Overview

1 dell EMCVxRack System FLEXA rchitecture OverviewDocument revision 2018 Revision historyDateDocument revisionDescription of changesAugust Manager and VxFlex OSJune support for expansion of poweredge R640 andPowerEdge R740xd servers into systems with PowerEdgeR630 and poweredge R730xd serversApril support for new versions of ScaleIO, Red HatEnterprise Linux (RHEL), VMware vSphere, and support forthe new poweredge R640 and poweredge R740xd serversFebruary Updated Compute node terminology Updated Network topology Updated logical network diagram Added support for ScaleIO Editorial updates Updated Cisco Nexus 9332PQ network topology content Added Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX SwitchJune Inserted additional illustrations in the Network topologysection Updated physical network illustration General content updates throughout publicationMarch elevations and physical and logical networkdiagramsDecember Updated compute components Updated sample configuration elevation diagramsOctober Updated VxRack System product name Updated to support ScaleIO Updated management software information Removed System infrastructure topicJuly Updates to Overview graphics in the System architectureand components section Revised Virtual networks section Revised Base configurations and scaling section Revised elevation drawings in the

2 Sample configurationssectionJanuary releaseRevision history | Architecture and with dell EMC poweredge 14th generation 10 Network topology for 14th generation with dell EMC poweredge 13th generation 16 Network topology for dell 13th generation vSphere 22 VMware vCenter 24 Base configurations and scaling ..24 System System flex management System flex with eight 1 RU Compute 30 Virtualization 303 | ContentsIntroductionThis document describes the high-level design of the VxRack System flex . This document alsodescribes the hardware and software components that dell EMC includes in each VxRack target audience for this document includes sales engineers, field consultants, advanced servicesspecialists, and customers who want to deploy a virtualized infrastructure using VxRack to VxFlex Manager in this document apply only if you have a licensed version of VxFlexManager. For more information, contact dell EMC EMC ScaleIO is now referred to as dell EMC VxFlex OS.

3 References in the documentation andsoftware will be updated over to the Glossary for a description of terms specific to Converged | 4 System Architecture and componentsVxRack System flex contains compute, network, storage, virtualization, and management following table shows the components of VxRack flex :ResourceComponentsCompute VxRack flex compute only nodes VxRack flex storage only nodes VxRack flex hyper-converged nodesVxFlex Manager supports only VxRack flex Cisco Nexus 3172TQ Management Switch Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch Access Switch Cisco Nexus 3132Q-X or Cisco Nexus 3164Q Access Switches Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Aggregation SwitchStorageVxFlex OS software-defined storageVirtualization VMware vSphere ESXi VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere Web Client VMware Single Sign-On (SSO) ServiceManagementVxFlex Manager softwareVision Intelligent Operations softwareThe following illustration provides a high-level Overview of the physical connectivity of VxRack flex components with Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switches and poweredge R640 and poweredge R740xd5 | System Architecture and componentsservers.

4 The VxRack flex Controller nodes support only 10 GB connectivity. The VxRack flex nodessupport either 10 GB or 25 GB following illustration provides a high-level Overview of the physical connectivity of VxRack flex components with Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switches and poweredge R630 and poweredge R730xdservers: System Architecture and components | 67 | System Architecture and componentsThe following illustration shows the logical network components for the VxRack flex with PowerEdgeR640 and R740xd servers with VMware vSphere :This illustration shows a single rack only. Systems with additional racks contain multipleaggregation and access switches. The dell R640 and R740 poweredge servers and VMwarevSphere can use either 10 Gb or 25 Gb following illustration shows the logical network components for the VxRack flex with PowerEdgeR630 and R730 servers with VMware vSphere : System Architecture and components | 8 ComputeVxRack System flex enclosures are two socket, 1 or 2 RU rack mount enclosures built for production-level flex can be deployed in numerous System sizes.

5 The minimum can be as small as fourenclosures, while six is recommended to optimize VxFlex OS performance. Add VxRack flex enclosures in any increment of four enclosures, as required, up to hundreds of nodes in a single VxFlexOS | System Architecture and componentsNetwork with dell EMC poweredge 14th generation serversThe Cisco Nexus switches provide 10 GbE and 25 GbE IP connectivity between the VxRack flex nodesand VxRack flex Controller nodes and 40 GbE uplink ports to the external network or aggregation Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX switch provides four separate 10 GbE or 25 GbE connections betweenthe flex nodes and the flex Controller nodes using 1:1 connections between the NIC and the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX switch also provides four separate 25 GbE connections to the flex nodes using a 1:1 connection between the NIC and flex includes Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX access switches, as well as the optional Cisco Nexus9332PQ aggregation switches.

6 VxRack flex includes a Cisco 3172TQ switch used for out of topology for 14th generation serversThe default access/aggregation network design contains a pair of connected Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EXSwitches for the access number of supported nodes depends on how the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch is configured, asfollows: Connecting to a Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation switch with a single uplink Connecting to a Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation switch with dual uplinksSystem Architecture and components | 10 The following illustration and table show the network design of the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch:The number of supported nodes depends on how the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch is configured, asfollows: Connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation switch with single uplink Connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation switch with dual uplinksThe number of supported nodes depends on the configuration of the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch,as follows: Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Access Switch not connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregationswitch Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Access Switch connecting to 9332PQ aggregation switch with singleuplink11 | System Architecture and components Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Access Switch connecting to 9332PQ aggregation switch with dualuplinksThe following illustration and table show the network design of the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch.

7 Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Access Switch not connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Aggregation Switch6 - 40/100 GbE ports2 x 40 GbE ports UL to customer2 x 40 GbE ports vPC peer48 - 10/25 GbE ports6 x 10 GbE port VxRack Controller node42 x 10 GbE ports DL to server21 flex Node serversSystem Architecture and components | 12 Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Access Switch not connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Aggregation Switch6:1 oversubscriptionCisco Nexus 93180YC-EX access Switch connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Aggregation Switch withSingle Uplink6 x40/100 GbE ports2 x 40 GbE ports UL to aggregation switch pair2 x 40 GbE ports vPC peer48 x10/25 GbE ports6 x 10 GbE ports for VxRack Controller42 x 10 GbE ports to DL to nodes21 VxRack flex node servers6:1 oversubscriptionMaximum of 14 pairs of Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX SwitchesCisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Access Switch connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Aggregation Switch with DualUplinks6 x40/100 GbE ports4 x 40 GbE ports UL to customer2 x 40 GbE ports vPC peer48 x10/25 GbE ports6 x 10 GbE ports for VxRack Controller42 x 10 GbE ports to DL to nodes21 VxRack flex node servers6:1 oversubscriptionMaximum of 7 pairs of Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switches13 | System Architecture and componentsThe following illustration shows an aggregation/access network design of the Cisco Nexus 9332PQ andCisco Nexus 93180YC-EX switches that are ready to scale to multiple racks:The following table provides details about the Cisco Nexus 9332PQ single rack aggregation networkdesign:Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation network capacityAggregation layerAggregation switchSystem Architecture and components | 14 Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation network capacity32 x 40 GbE ports.

8 4 x 40 GbE ports UL to customer2 x 40 GbE ports vPC peer connectivity2 x 40 GbE ports (customer UL, data protection, and so on)4-8 x 40 GbE ports for future expansion20 x 40 GbE DL ports (Cisco Nexus 3132Q-X)16 x 40 GbE DL ports (Cisco Nexus 3164Q)5:1 oversubscription (Cisco Nexus 3132Q-X)4:1 oversubscription (Cisco Nexus 3164Q)The compute layer connects to the Ethernet component of the network layer. The southboundinterconnects connect to the Cisco Nexus switches in the Ethernet network through 10 GbE port channelsfor the flex Controller and 25 GbE for VxRack flex storage layer consists of VxFlex OS software-defined storage using the direct attached storage(DAS) of each VxRack System Controller servers connect to the access switches to communicate with the in-band components ofthe infrastructure. The flex Controller server connection to the access switch uses: 10 GbE SFP+ for R630 poweredge servers (uses breakout cables) 25 GbE SFP28 for R640 poweredge serversThe flex Controller also has one link to the Cisco Nexus 3172TQ management switch to communicatewith the out-of-band Nexus 9332PQ aggregation network pair capacity connected by Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch(Single link)32 x 40 GbE ports:2 x 40 GbE ports vPC peer2 x 40 GbE ports uplink to customer28 x 40 GbE ports to flex Controller14 cabinets of 24 servers - 3 Controllers = 333 VxFlex OS Nodes14:1 oversubscriptionCisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation network pair capacity connected by Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch(Dual link)32 x 40 GbE ports:2 x 40 GbE ports vPC peer2 x 40 GbE ports uplink to customer28 x 40 GbE ports to flex Controller7 cabinets of 24 servers - 3 Controllers = 165 VxFlex OS Nodes7.

9 1 oversubscription15 | System Architecture and componentsNetwork with dell EMC poweredge 13th generation serversThe Cisco Nexus switches provides four 10 GbE connectivity using breakout cables to connect totheVxRack flex nodes and VxRack flex Controller nodes. VxRack flex includes Cisco Nexus93180YC-EX, Cisco Nexus 3132Q-X, or Cisco Nexus 3164Q access switches, as well as the CiscoNexus 9332PQ aggregation switches. VxRack flex includes a Cisco 3172TQ switch used for out-of-band default access/aggregation network design contains a pair of connected Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EXSwitches, Cisco Nexus 3132Q-X switches, or Cisco Nexus 3164Q switches for the access layer. TheCisco Nexus 3132Q-X Switch supports a maximum of 44 nodes. When density exceeds 44 nodes, up tofive switch pairs can be bundled and attached to a pair of Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation switches,supporting up to 220 nodes (total node count includes flex Controller nodes).The Cisco Nexus 3164Q switch supports a maximum of 100 nodes.

10 When density exceeds 100 nodes,up to two switch pairs can be bundled and attached to a pair of Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregationswitches, supporting up to 200 nodes (total node count includes flex Controller nodes).Network topology for 13th generation serversThe number of nodes supported by the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX switch depends on how the switch isconfigured, as follows: Connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation switch with single uplink Connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregation switch with dual uplinks Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Access Switch not connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ aggregationswitchCisco Nexus 93180YC-EX architectureThe following illustration shows the network design of the Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX Switch:It is recommended that your VxRack flex network configuration includes a pair of CiscoNexus 9332PQ aggregation switches. This prevents any outages in the event of expanding thesystem to one or more Architecture and components | 16 Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX access switch connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Aggregation Switch withSingle Uplink (10 GbE VxRack flex nodes)6 x40/100 GbE ports2 x 40 GbE ports UL to aggregation switch pair2 x 40 GbE ports vPC peer48 x10/25 GbE ports6 x 10 GbE ports for VxRack Controller17 | System Architecture and componentsCisco Nexus 93180YC-EX access switch connecting to Cisco Nexus 9332PQ Aggregation Switch withSingle Uplink (10 GbE VxRack flex nodes)42 x 10 GbE ports to DL to nodes21 VxRack flex node servers6.