Dell Engineered Systems for VMware EVO: RAIL Version 1.
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Contents 1 EVO:RAIL setup checklist.....................................................................................5 2 EVO:RAIL Appliance..............................................................................................7 Hardware................................................................................................................................................7 Workstation or laptop (for configuration and management)............................................................
8 Getting help.........................................................................................................36 Contacting Dell................................................................................................................................... 36 Documentation matrix........................................................................................................................
EVO:RAIL setup checklist 1 The following table provides the EVO:RAIL preinstallation checklist: Table 1. EVO:RAIL preinstallation checklist Hardware For more information, see Hardware.
Networking For more information, see Networking.
EVO:RAIL Appliance 2 VMware EVO:RAIL is the first hyper-converged infrastructure appliance powered 100 percent by VMware’s compute, networking, storage, and management software. EVO:RAIL Deployment, Configuration, and Management streamlines initial setup and ongoing operations, including updates with zero downtime and automatic scale-out. EVO:RAIL, is fully deployed in minutes, after the TOR switch is configured and appliance is racked, cabled, and turned on.
Figure 1.
The following figure displays the EVO:RAIL cabling in Dell rack with PowerEdge C6220 II, Dell ToR switches, and out-of-band (OOB) switch. Figure 2. EVO:RAIL configuration For more information, see Dell PowerEdge C6220 II Systems Hardware Owner’s Manual at dell.com/ poweredgemanuals. To understand the physical power and cooling facilities provided for the expected resiliency level of the appliance, see Appendix B Physical requirements.
Workstation or laptop (for configuration and management) EVO:RAIL requires a workstation or laptop with a web browser to configure and manage. It should be either plugged in to the TOR switch or able to logically reach the TOR switch. EVO:RAIL uses a browser to deploy, configure, and manage the network resources. It supports the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer 10 and later.
Log Bundles consists of diagnostic information about vCenter Server, ESXi, and EVO:RAIL. They are generated from the EVO:RAIL Management Configuration screen. A log bundle can be uploaded to technical support as part of a support request. Out-of-band management (optional) Remote- or lights-out management is available on each node through one 1 GbE IPMI port that can connect to a management network.
3 Networking Top-of-Rack (TOR) switch A 10 GbE TOR requires both IPv4 and IPv6 multicast support. The network can be configured flat or with VLANs. • IPv4 and IPv6 multicast must be enabled on all ports of the TOR switch. When using multiple TOR switches, ISL multicast traffic for IPv4 and IPv6 must be able to communicate between the switches. • To configure a management VLAN on your TOR switches, allow multicast traffic to passthrough.
For more information about VMware Network guidelines, go to https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/ products/evorail/vmware-evorail-network-user-guide.pdf NOTE: IGMP Snooping software examines internet group management protocol (IGMP) protocol messages within a VLAN to determine the interfaces that are connected to hosts or other devices accepted in receiving this traffic.
Network services • DNS server(s): An external DNS server is required for production use. (It is not required in a completely isolated environment). When you configure EVO:RAIL, specify the IP address of your corporate DNS servers. Also, provide the EVO:RAIL or vCenter Server, vCenter Log Insight, and ESXi host names and IP addresses in corporate DNS server tables. • NTP server(s): An external NTP server is not required, but it is recommended.
e.
Deployment, configuration and management 4 This section provides the information about the EVO:RAIL deployment, configuration and management. EVO:RAIL Deployment To deploy EVO:RAIL, complete the following steps: 1. Configure an EVO:RAIL network by using the information provided in this user’s guide. • To configure the TOR switch, use the network administrator instructions. The TOR switch must enable IPv4 and IPv6 multicast.
Figure 3.
Just Go! With Just Go!, EVO:RAIL automatically configures default IP addresses and host names that are specified in the EVO:RAIL default configuration table. Configure your TOR switch and click Just Go! . Create two passwords and the default configuration is displayed. Customize Me! When you customize EVO:RAIL, by default, all required configuration parameters are provided, except for ESXi and vCenter Server passwords. Customize Me! allows easily to change the default configuration settings. Figure 4.
Figure 5. Configure hostnames 3. 4. To customize EVO:RAIL, click Hostnames to define a naming scheme for your ESXi hosts. The host server name consists of an ESXi hostname prefix, a Separator, an Iterator, and a Top-level domain (TLD). The Preview option displays an example of the result of the first ESXi host. • Type the ESXi hostname prefix. • Select the Separator (“None” or a dash ”-“) and the Iterator (Alpha, Num X, or Num 0X) from the drop-down menu. • Type the Top-level domain name.
Figure 6. Configure networking 5. Optional: On the vCenter Server screen, you can change the IP address for EVO:RAIL Management and vCenter Server. Type the new IP address. The Netmask and Default gateway are automatically copied from the ESXi hosts form. • If you change the vCenter Server IP address, EVO:RAIL automatically reconfigure and provides new IP address, as described in task 10.
Figure 7. Configure administrative passwords and Active Directory (optional) 8. On the Globals screen, select in the Time Zone and Logging boxes, and provide any existing DNS, NTP, or Proxy servers on your network. If you have multiple servers, separate them with commas. EVO:RAIL configures each of these services, as when needed. For example, all ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server are configured with the specified NTP server when this options is filled out.
9. Click Validate. EVO:RAIL verifies the configuration data, and checks for conflicts. After validation is successful, click Build Appliance. 10. This step is only necessary if you change the IP address of vCenter Server! If you set a new IP address for vCenter Server or EVO:RAIL in step 5 before you proceed, you must manually change the IP address of your client workstation or laptop to a new address on the same subnet as the new management IP address. For example, if the new management IP address is 10.
Adding appliances to an EVO:RAIL cluster EVO:RAIL Management revolutionizes scale-out. Increasing compute, network, and storage resources is as easy as turning on a new appliance to join an existing EVO:RAIL cluster. Whenever EVO:RAIL detects a new appliance the following message and options are displayed on the management screen. Click Add EVO:RAIL Appliance. Figure 11.
Creating Virtual Machines Before you view any VMs, click Create VM to add one or more VMs to EVO:RAIL. EVO:RAIL streamlines virtual machine creation. Users create VMs with only a few clicks to select the guest operating system, VM size, network segment, and security options. EVO:RAIL simplifies VM sizing by offering single-click small, medium, and large configurations optimized for each guest OS with a singleclick security policy. Figure 13.
Figure 14. Selecting security options Monitoring VMs EVO:RAIL Management enables you to view all VMs in a grid. Use Filter By, and Sort By menus in the upper right corner to arrange the VMs. Use the Search option to find VMs by name. The vSphere WebClient logo is in the upper right corner of the page. Click logo to open vSphere WebClient in a separate browser tab. Log in with the username: root, and the password that you configured for vCenter Server. The screenshot here displays a list of VMs.
Figure 15. EVO:RAIL Management dashboard Monitoring Health EVO:RAIL Management simplifies live compute management with health monitors for CPU, memory, storage, and VM usage for entire EVO:RAIL clusters, individual appliances, and individual nodes. • Cluster information: Click Overall System. • Appliance information: Click an appliance - either on the menu bar of the window or in the list of EVO:RAIL Appliances below the Live Usage Statistics.
• About displays the build numbers for vCenter Server, ESXi, and EVO:RAIL software. • Log Collection allows you to generate a log bundle that combines diagnostic information for vCenter Server, ESXi, and EVO:RAIL. This bundle can be uploaded to technical support as part of a Support Request (SR). • In Licensing box, type the serial key and you can view VMware EVO:RAIL license. • Choose Your Language supports globalization for the EVO:RAIL user interface.
5 Appendix A: Network configuration table To customize an EVO:RAIL, complete the following table with appropriate information: Table 5.
NETWORK SERVICES VLAN ID IP ADDRESS VM NETWORK NAME NETMASK GATE WAY VLAN ID IP ADDRESS HOSTNAME or NAMINGSCHE ME NETMASK GATE WAY Active Directory NETWORK OUT-OF-BAND MANAGEMENT BMC node 1 BMC node 2 BMC node 3 BMC node 4 EVO:RAIL default configuration table Default values are used in Just Go! configuration, and are used to prepopulate fields in Customize Me! configuration.
Default configuration: Table 6. Just Go! Network Configuration table NETWORK SERVICES VLAN ID IP ADDRESS Client workstation or laptop for EVO:RAIL configuration and management (you must configure on your laptop) 192.168.10.21 0 vCenter Server (port 9443) EVO:RAIL (port 7443) ESXi starting IP address 0 HOSTNAME/ NAMING SCHEME 192.168.10.20 0 vcenter.local 192.168.10.1 host01.local 192.168.10.4 vSphere vMotion starting IP address 192.168.20.1 vSphere vMotion ending IP address 192.168.20.
NETWORK SERVICES VLAN ID IP ADDRESS BMC node 1 HOSTNAME/ NAMING SCHEME NETMASK GATEWAY By default DHCP provides the netmask address or configure manually By default DHCP provides the gateway address or configure manually 01 BMC node 2 0 BMC node 3 By default DHCP provides the IP address or configure manually BMC node 4 02 03 04 JSON configuration file format and valid values The configuration file used for Just Go!, default-config-static.
“maxIp”: “192.168.10.4” }], “netmask”: “255.255.255.0”, “gateway”: “192.168.10.254”, “vlanId”: null }, }, “vsan”: { “pools”: [{ “minIp”: “192.168.30.1”, “maxIp”: “192.168.30.4” }], “netmask”: “255.255.255.0”, “vlanId”: 30 }, “vm”: [{ “name”: “VM Network A”, “vlanId”: 110 }, { “name”: “VM Network B”, “vlanId”: 120 }], “vmotion”: { “pools”: [{ “minIp”: “192.168.20.1”, “maxIp”: “192.168.20.4” }], “netmask”: “255.255.255.0”, “vlanId”: 20 } “vcenter”: { “ip”: “192.168.10.
} } “proxyPassword”: “” 33
Appendix B: Physical requirements 6 For more information, see Dell PowerEdge C6220 II Systems Hardware Owner’s Manual at dell.com/ poweredgemanuals. For modifying BMC Interface IP address in the BIOS, refer to the Set BMC LAN configuration topic in the Server Menu section of Dell PowerEdge C6220 II Systems Hardware Owner’s Manual at dell.com/ poweredgemanuals.
Appendix C: EVO:RAIL Appliance Customization 7 Customization of the initial management VLAN ID for EVO:RAIL Changes are required for two different interfaces. The first interface is the ESXi “Management Network”, which must be updated on all ESXi hosts installed as part of an Appliance. The second interface is the VM Management (VM Network) on the first ESXi host where the vCenter Server and vCenter Log Insight VMs are deployed during initial configuration.
8 Getting help Contacting Dell Dell provides several online and telephone-based support and service options. If you do not have an active Internet connection, you can find contact information on your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell product catalog. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area. To contact Dell for sales, technical support, or customer-service issues: 1. Go to Dell.com/support. 2.
To... Refer to... Configure and log in to iDRAC, set up managed and management system, know the iDRAC features and troubleshoot using iDRAC Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller User's Guide at Dell.com/esmmanuals Know about the RACADM subcommands and supported RACADM interfaces RACADM Command Line Reference Guide for iDRAC and CMC at Dell.
