EMC VCE VxRail 60 User manual

www.vce.com
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5
Product Guide
Document revision 1.0
June 2016

Revision history
Date Document revision Description of changes
June 2016 1.0 Initial release of VxRail Manager
v3.5.
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Revision history
2© 2016 VCE Company, LLC.
All Rights Reserved.

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5
Support...................................................................................................................................................5
Registering for online support..........................................................................................................5
Where to go for support resources.................................................................................................. 6
Accessing VCE documentation.................................................................................................................7
Architecture overview................................................................................................................................ 8
Overview of the VxRail Series................................................................................................................8
The VxRail Appliance............................................................................................................................. 8
Storage and virtualization.......................................................................................................................9
VxRail Appliance models......................................................................................................................10
Features............................................................................................................................................... 11
VxRail Appliance cluster expansion..................................................................................................... 12
Physical planning..................................................................................................................................... 13
Appliance power and cooling information.............................................................................................13
Appliance dimensions and weight........................................................................................................ 13
Operating and storage environment.....................................................................................................14
Appliance components and controls.................................................................................................... 14
Locating your physical VxRail Appliance serial number.......................................................................17
Network planning......................................................................................................................................19
Pre-installation Site Checklist...............................................................................................................19
10GbE switch networking.....................................................................................................................19
Network requirements.......................................................................................................................... 19
VxRail Appliance Network Configuration Table....................................................................................20
Licensing Administration.........................................................................................................................23
Licensing overview............................................................................................................................... 23
Locating your partner activation code (PAC)........................................................................................23
Logging into the activation portal..........................................................................................................24
Activating a VLP license.......................................................................................................................24
Assigning a license to your VxRail Appliance...................................................................................... 25
Administration...........................................................................................................................................27
Viewing the VxRail Manager dashboard.............................................................................................. 27
Support resources................................................................................................................................ 29
Viewing EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS) information..........................................................30
Using Support eServices............................................................................................................... 30
Using the support knowledge base................................................................................................31
Viewing system events.........................................................................................................................32
Contents VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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Monitoring logical system health.......................................................................................................... 33
Viewing physical system health............................................................................................................35
Viewing and locating hardware events.......................................................................................... 35
Viewing physical disk status.......................................................................................................... 36
Viewing physical node status.........................................................................................................38
Viewing power supply status..........................................................................................................40
Viewing VxRail Appliance system configuration and applications........................................................41
Configuration General tab..............................................................................................................41
Config Features tab....................................................................................................................... 49
Using the VxRail Market................................................................................................................ 51
External storage........................................................................................................................................54
NFS and VMFS over iSCSI datastores................................................................................................ 54
Setting up external NFS storage for a VxRail Appliance......................................................................54
Setting up external VMFS over iSCSI storage for a VxRail Appliance.................................................55
Set up the iSCSI network portgroup.............................................................................................. 56
Create a VMkernel adapter on the hosts in the cluster..................................................................57
Set up an active software iSCSI adapter....................................................................................... 57
Assign volumes on iSCSI storage..................................................................................................58
Mount a new VMFS datastore over iSCSI..................................................................................... 58
Replacing hardware..................................................................................................................................60
Handling replaceable units................................................................................................................... 60
Avoiding electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage............................................................................60
Emergency procedures (without an ESD kit)................................................................................. 61
Hardware acclimation times...........................................................................................................61
Unpacking a part............................................................................................................................62
Replacing HDD and SSD drives...........................................................................................................62
Preparing to replace drives in VxRail Manager..............................................................................63
Removing the bezel....................................................................................................................... 65
Removing a disk drive tray from the appliance.............................................................................. 66
Installing a disk drive tray into the appliance................................................................................. 67
Installing the bezel......................................................................................................................... 68
Finishing up....................................................................................................................................69
Replacing power supply units (PSUs).................................................................................................. 69
Detecting a failed PSU...................................................................................................................70
Identify a faulted power supply unit................................................................................................70
Replacing a faulted power supply unit........................................................................................... 73
Out-of-band management........................................................................................................................ 76
Before you begin.................................................................................................................................. 76
About the VxRail Appliance BMC interface and RMM port.................................................................. 76
Finding the RMM DHCP address......................................................................................................... 77
Using the BMC Web console to launch the remote console................................................................ 78
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Contents
4© 2016 VCE Company, LLC.
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Introduction
This document describes the VxRail™ Appliance, how it works, and how to perform administrative tasks.
The target audience for this document includes customers, field personnel, and partners who want to
deploy a VxRail™ Appliance. This document is designed for people familiar with:
•EMC and VCE systems and software
•VMware virtualization products
•Data center appliances and infrastructure
The VCE Glossary provides terms, definitions, and acronyms that are related to VCE Systems.
To suggest documentation changes and provide feedback on this book, send an email to
[email protected]. Include the name of the topic to which your feedback applies.
Support
Create an Online Support account to get access to support and product resources for your VxRail
Appliance.
If you already have an account, register your VxRail Appliance to access the available resources.
For convenience, you can link your Online Support account with the VxRail Manager and access support
resources without having to log in separately.
Registering for online support
Create an Online Support account to access support resources.
About this task
After you register, you can:
•Register your system
•Obtain product license files and software updates
•Download VxRail Series product documentation
•Download the SolVe Desktop Procedure Generator
•Browse the VxRail Series community and support information
•Link your support account for access to resources from within VxRail Manager
Introduction VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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Procedure
1Point your Web browser to emc.com/vxrailsupport (or support.emc.com).
2Click Register here.
3Fill in the required information. Support will send you a confirmation email, typically within 48
hours.
Where to go for support resources
Access support resources for your VxRail Appliance by doing any of the following:
•Click the VxRail Manager Support tab.
•Point your Web browser to emc.com/vxrailsupport (or support.emc.com).
Additional VxRail Series information is available through the SolVe desktop tool.
•Point your Web browser to https://solve.emc.com.
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Introduction
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Accessing VCE documentation
Select the documentation resource that applies to your role.
Role Resource
Customer support.vce.com
A valid username and password are required. Click VCE Download Center to access the
technical documentation.
Cisco, EMC, VMware
employee, or VCE
Partner
partner.vce.com
A valid username and password are required.
VCE employee sales.vce.com/saleslibrary
or
vblockproductdocs.ent.vce.com
Accessing VCE documentation VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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Architecture overview
Overview of the VxRail Series
The VCE VxRail Series delivers virtualization, compute, and storage in a scalable, easy to manage,
hyper-converged infrastructure appliance.
Your VxRail Appliance is built on Intel Xeon processor-based x86 hardware with the VxRail™ Manager
software bundle, and support for other value-added software from VCE, EMC, and VMware.
The VxRail Manager software bundle includes the following:
•VxRail™ Manager for deployment, configuration, and management
•VMware vSphere®, including ESXi
•VMware vCenter Server™
•VMware Virtual SAN™ for storage
•VMware vRealize Log Insight™
The VxRail Appliance
The VCE VxRail Appliance includes the appliance hardware, VxRail Manager, EMC Secure Remote
Services (ESRS), and access to qualified EMC software products.
Appliance hardware
The VxRail Appliance consists of four nodes in a 2U rackmount chassis. Each node has its own compute
and storage resources.
The following VxRail Appliance models are available:
VxRail Appliance modelsTable 1:
VxRail Appliance with Hybrid Nodes VxRail Appliance with All-flash Nodes
•VxRail 60
•VxRail 120
•VxRail 160
•VxRail 200
•VxRail 120F
•VxRail 160F
•VxRail 200F
•VxRail 240F
•VxRail 280F
A 10GbE switch and a workstation/laptop for the user interface are also required. (The VxRail 60
Appliance can be used with a 1GbE switch.)
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Architecture overview
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VxRail Manager
VxRail Manager provides a software stack for software-defined data center (SDDC) building blocks
including compute, network, storage, and management. VxRail Manager streamlines deployment,
configuration, and management for easier initial setup and ongoing operations.
VxRail Manager also provides integration for EMC services and support to help you get the most out of
your VxRail Appliance.
With VxRail Manager you can:
•Monitor system health with deep hardware intelligence and graphical representation
•View appliance software versions and updates
•Access EMC Online Support and eServices
•Access community resources such as the user forum and knowledgebase
•Use the VxRail™ Market to access qualified EMC software products
Storage and virtualization
The VxRail Series integrates VMware Virtual SAN and virtualization to provide a complete
hyperconverged infrastructure.
Storage
VMware Virtual SAN is integrated in your VxRail Appliance to provide Software-Defined Storage (SDS).
Virtual SAN is not a VSA, but is embedded in the ESXi hypervisor kernel’s I/O data path. As a result,
Virtual SAN can deliver the higher performance with minimum CPU and memory overhead.
Virtual SAN pools the VxRail Appliance's internal SSDs and HDDs on the ESXi hosts to present a single
datastore for all hosts in the cluster. Virtual SAN uses a highly available, distributed, object-based
architecture. Virtual SAN mirrors and distributes the individual virtual disk (VMDK) across the datastore.
Virtualization
The VxRail Series lets virtualization infrastructure administrators manage storage on a per-VM basis. This
VM-centric approach allows for storage policies to be defined at VM-level granularity for provisioning and
load balancing. Virtual SAN is fully integrated with vSphere, which simplifies setting up the availability,
capacity, and performance policies.
For scale-out, VxRail Manager uses VMware Loudmouth auto-discovery capabilities, based on the RFC-
recognized "Zero Network Configuration" protocol, to automatically discover and configure appliances on
your network. Loudmouth runs on each ESXi host and in theVxRail Manager virtual machine. Loudmouth
allows VxRail Manager to discover all the nodes and automate the configuration. Loudmouth requires
IPv6 multicast. The IPv6 multicast communication is strictly limited to the management VLAN that the
nodes use for communication.
Architecture overview VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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VxRail Appliance models
The following table lists the available VxRail Appliance models.
Model Compute Memory Network interface
VxRail 60 (hybrid nodes) 1 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2603 v3
6 cores per node
64 GB RAM RJ45
Q-1GbE
VxRail 120 (hybrid nodes) 2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2620 v3
12 cores per node
128 GB RAM
192 GB RAM
256 GB RAM
RJ45
SFP+
VxRail 160 (hybrid nodes) 2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2630 v3
16 cores per node
256 GB RAM
512 GB RAM
RJ45
SFP+
VxRail 200 (hybrid nodes) 2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2660 v3
20 cores per node
256 GB RAM
512 GB RAM
RJ45
SFP+
VxRail 120F (all-flash
nodes)
2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2620 v3
12 cores per node
256 GB RAM RJ45
SFP+
VxRail 160F (all-flash
nodes)
2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2630 v3
16 cores per node
256 GB RAM
512 GB RAM
RJ45
SFP+
VxRail 200F (all-flash
nodes)
2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2660 v3
20 cores per node
256 GB RAM
512 GB RAM
RJ45
SFP+
VxRail 240F (all-flash
nodes)
2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2680 v3
24 cores per node
256 GB RAM
512 GB RAM
SFP+
VxRail 280F (all-flash
nodes)
2 × Intel Xeon Processor
E5-2683 v3
28 cores per node
256 GB RAM
512 GB RAM
SFP+
Note: For storage capacity information, and for the most up to date product offerings, visit VCE.com.
Hybrid nodes use both hard-disk drive (HDD) storage and solid-state drive (SSD) storage. All-flash nodes
use SSD storage only.
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Architecture overview
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Features
The VxRail Series offers advanced features including automatic deployment, automatic scale out, fault
tolerance, and diagnostic logging.
Automatic deployment
The VxRail Manager fully automates the installation and configuration of all nodes in an appliance after
you input the basic IP address information.
Automatic scale-out
The VxRail Series provides automated scale-out functionality by detecting a new VxRail Appliance on the
network. When a new VxRail Appliance is powered on you can add it to your existing cluster or create a
new cluster, replicating the configuration, and expanding the datastore in a cluster.
Node failure tolerance
The VxRail Series supports from 0 to 3 node failures, as defined by the VSAN FTT policy. The following
table lists the minimum number of nodes in a cluster required to support a given number of node failures.
Number of node failures to
tolerate
Number of replicas Minimum number of VxRail
Appliance nodes required
0 1 1
1 2 3
2 3 5
3 4 7
The VxRail Series implements the standard Virtual SAN policy of one failure by default:
•An entire node can fail and the system will continue to function.
•Disk failure cannot affect more than one node. One SSD can fail or as many as three HDDs on
the same node can fail.
•One network port on any node can fail without affecting the node.
Network failover is through the virtual switch configuration in ESXi. This is automatically
configured by VxRail Manager during initial setup.
Logging and log bundles
The VxRail Series provides logging and log bundles through VxRail Manager.
Architecture overview VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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VxRail Appliance cluster expansion
Your VxRail Appliance cluster can be scaled in single node increments from a minimum of four nodes up
to a maximum of 32 nodes. The VxRail Manager automated installation and scale-out features make it
easy to expand your cluster as your business demands grow.
Each VxRail Appliance holds up to four nodes. If the number of nodes in a cluster is not a multiple of four,
you will have a partially populated appliance chassis in the cluster. You can use the empty slots in the
chassis for future expansion.
You can mix different VxRail Appliance models in the same cluster. You must adhere to the following
guidelines when deploying a mixed cluster:
•All appliances in the cluster must be running VxRail Manager version 3.5 or higher.
•First-generation appliances (sold under the VSPEX BLUE name) can be in the same cluster with
VxRail Appliances, as long as they are running VxRail Manager version 3.5 or higher.
•Appliances using 1GbE networking (VxRail 60 Appliances) cannot be used in clusters with
10GbE networking.
•6G hybrid nodes cannot be used in clusters with 12G all-flash nodes.
Note: VxRail Appliance cluster scalability is supported to a maximum of eight appliances or 32 nodes.
However, scalability to 16 appliances or 64 nodes per cluster may be allowed. You must submit a
request for product qualification (RPQ) to EMC for clusters over 32 nodes.
Work with your VCE, EMC, or partner representative when planning your cluster expansion.
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Architecture overview
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Physical planning
Appliance power and cooling information
Table 1 contains specifications for the appliance power consumption and dissipation. Calculations based
on this table are intended to provide maximum power and heat dissipation. EMC provides a power and
weight calculator at http://powercalculator.EMC.com. Use this calculator to refine the power and heat
values in the table below to more-closely match the specific appliance hardware configuration. Ensure
that the appliance installation site meets the requirements for your configuration.
Appliance power consumption and dissipationTable 2:
Specification VxRail 120 VxRail 160 VxRail 200
Power supplies 2 × 1600 W high efficiency
redundant PSUs
2 × 1600 W high efficiency
redundant PSUs
2 × 1600 W high efficiency
redundant PSUs
AC line voltage 220V AC, 50/60Hz 220V AC, 50/60Hz 220V AC, 50/60Hz
Power consumption
(operating maximum)
13347 KVA 1337 KVA 1486 KVA
Heat dissipation 4561.844 BTU/hr 4561.844 BTU/hr 5070.232 BTU/hr
Maximum inrush current 55 A per power supply unit
up to one-quarter of AC
cycle
55 A per power supply unit
up to one-quarter of AC
cycle
55 A per power supply unit
up to one-quarter of AC
cycle
Appliance dimensions and weight
Appliance dimensions and weightTable 3:
Dimension Appliance Appliance with rails
Form factor 2U chassis 2U chassis
Height 3.44 in (8.74 cm) 2.0 U (with or without bezel)
Depth 31.1 in (79 cm) 32.1 in (81.53 cm)
Width 17.48 in (43.4 cm) without cabinet latch
brackets
18.99 in (48.23 cm) with cabinet latch
brackets
Maximum weight 91.31 lb (41.42 kg) 102.34 lb (46.42 kg)
Physical planning VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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Operating and storage environment
The site must have air conditioning of the correct size and placement to maintain the specified
temperature and relative humidity range listed in Table 3.
Operating and storage environmentTable 4:
Specification Description
Operating temperature 5°C to 35°C (41°F to 95°F)
Non-operating temperature -40°C to 70°C (-40°F to 158°F)
Operating relative humidity 50% to 85% RH
Non-operating relative humidity 20% to 90% RH
Storage time (unpowered)
Recommendation
Do not exceed 6 consecutive months of unpowered storage.
Appliance components and controls
The appliance has four server nodes that are accessible at the rear of the appliance. Server node 1
defines the default node type for the system.
1. Node 1
2. Node 2
3. Node 3
4. Node 4
Figure 1: Location of server nodes
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Physical planning
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Each of the four server nodes has a front control panel and designated disk drive group.
1. Node 1 disk drive group
2. Node 2 disk drive group
3. Node 3 disk drive group
4. Node 4 disk drive group
5. Node 1 front control panel
6. Node 2 front control panel
7. Node 3 front control panel
8. Node 4 front control panel
9. Product serial number tag (PSNT)
Figure 2: Node control and disk drive groups
Physical planning VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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Control panels for nodes 1 and 2 are on the left side and control panels for nodes 3 and 4 are on the right
side. A fault with the associated node will cause the Power button with Status LED on the control panel
to blink amber and blue.
Figure 3: Node control panel controls and indicators
Control panel controls and indicators descriptionTable 5:
No. Name Color Status Description
1 Power button with
Status LED
Blue On System power on
Off System power off
Amber Blinking DC off and fault
Amber and
Blue
Blinking DC on and fault
2 ID button with LED Blue Blinking Identification activated
Off No identification
Each node is equipped with a power button and three LED indicators, which are visible at the rear of the
server. A fault with a node will cause the Power LED to blink blue, and the Node Status LED to blink
amber on its front control panel.
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Physical planning
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Pressing the ID button on the front control panels will cause the ID LED on the respective node to blink.
Figure 4: Node controls and indicators
Node controls and indicators descriptionTable 6:
No. Name Color Status Description
1 Power LED Blue On System power on
Off Power off
Blue Blinking Reports system health fault
2 Node Status LED Off Normal - system healthy
Amber Blinking Reports system health fault
3 Power button Press and hold more than four seconds to turn
off node
4 ID LED Blue Blinking Identification activated (from front control panel)
Off No identification
Locating your physical VxRail Appliance serial number
Follow these steps to locate your VxRail Appliance serial number.
About this task
1. Product serial number tag (PSNT)
Figure 5: VxRail Appliance product serial number tag (PSNT) location
Physical planning VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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Procedure
1At the front of your VxRail Appliance locate drives 2 and 3 on the left side of the chassis.
2Pull out the blue-tabbed tag located above drives 2 and 3.
3Locate the appliance serial number label on the pull-out tag.
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Physical planning
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Network planning
Before your VxRail Appliance is installed, your 10GbE switch must be properly configured. (The VxRail 60
Appliance can be used with a 1GbE switch.) Work with your VCE, EMC, or partner representative to
prepare your switch and network before installation.
This chapter discusses the switch and network parameters you must consider to make sure that you
properly setup up your switch, configure VLANs, reserve IP addresses, and so on.
Pre-installation Site Checklist
Before your appliance is installed, work with your VCE, EMC, or partner representative to complete the
VxRail Appliance Pre-installation Site Checklist.
The VxRail Appliance Pre-installation Site Checklist is a site survey that help you gather the key
information needed to successfully install your appliance.
10GbE switch networking
Your VxRail Appliance relies on your 10GbE switch for all of the networking between nodes in the cluster,
and between the cluster and the rest of your infrastructure. It is crucial that your 10GbE switch be
configured properly for the VxRail Appliance to work.
Work with your VCE, EMC, or partner representative to ensure your switch is properly set up to work with
your VxRail Appliance according to the instructions provided by your switch manufacturer.
Note: The VxRail 60 Appliance can be used with a 1GbE switch. All other VxRail Appliance models
require a 10GbE switch.
Network requirements
Your VCE, EMC, or partner representative will work closely with you to ensure you have the following
network resources available before installing the VxRail Appliance.
10GbE switches
You must have one or more 10GbE switches:
•Two or more 10GbE switches are recommended for failover, and for installations with more than
four appliances.
•Two switch ports are required for each node. A fully-populated appliance requires eight switch
ports.
Note: The VxRail 60 Appliance can be used with a 1GbE switch. All other VxRail Appliance models
require one or more 10GbE switches.
Network planning VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide
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Cabling
If you have RJ45 NIC ports on your appliance you need:
•Two CAT6 or higher cables per node (these cables are included with RJ45-equipped appliances).
A fully-populated appliance requires eight cables.
If you have SFP+ NIC ports on your appliance you need:
•Two compatible Twinax Direct-Attach-Copper (DAC) cables per node (these cables are not
included; you must supply your own), or
•Two compatible fiber cables with appropriate transceivers per node (these cables and
transceivers are not included; you must supply your own).
•A fully-populated appliance requires eight cables.
Servers
You must have a DNS server for network address resolution and ESRS support.
VxRail Appliance Network Configuration Table
Use the Network Configuration Table when planning and configuring your 10GbE switch for use with your
VxRail Appliance.
This table lists the network parameters that are configured during VxRail Appliance setup. Use the table
before setup to plan your configuration. Work with your VCE, EMC, or partner representative to use the
table during setup to keep track of your entries.
Network Configuration TableTable 7:
Element Category Description Example Customer
value
VxRail
Appliance
Management VLAN ID
(optionally modify)
Set a management VLAN on ESXi
before you configure VxRail
Appliance, otherwise management
traffic will be untagged on the
switch's Native VLAN
Native VLAN
VxRail Appliance Initial IP
Address (optionally modify)
If you cannot reach the default
VxRail Appliance initial IP address
(192.168.10.200/24), set an alternate
IP address
192.168.10.2
00
System Global settings Time zone
NTP server(s)
DNS server(s)
Active Directory (optional) Domain
VCE VxRail™ Appliance 3.5 Product Guide Network planning
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