Vblock Reference Architecture, Deployment Guide and Provisioning Guide published…

VCE work continues along furiously….

We have just published more detailed documents outlining how to:

1. Deploy a full Vblock (for delivery) as an integrated whole (Deployment Guide)
2. Simplify Rapid Provsioning across the entire stack whether you are a service provider or an enterprise customer (Rapid Provisioning Guide)
3. Detailed configuration specification, how it is tested, etc. (Reference Architecture Guide)
4. Updated Bill of Materials (for quoting and packaging)

The Reference Architecture is available publicly here.

All the documentation is available on www.vceportal.com

I’ve attached a screenshot of the www.vceportal.com which is available to anyone behind the VMware, Cisco and EMC firewalls.   Vblock Partners & SIs – we are working to open this up to you.  In the meantime, please work with your VMware, Cisco, EMC partnter support teams to get the documents on your behalf.  Not only do they have access to the portal, but they have Cisco and EMC email addresses configured to act as a clearinghouse.  

Note there is a LOT on here beyond these docs, and you can see the opportunity registration link.

What’s coming up next?

More on integrated management…

At VMware Partner Exchange next week, I will also be showing EMC Ionix UIM v2.0 prototype info.   UIM changes the Vblock from a “collection of pre-tested parts” into an “integrated element for hosting VMs” and allows many Vblocks to be managed as one, and one to be managed as a multitenant environment.  

UIM v2.0 adds more end-to-end service catalog functions, and the subsequent revision is targeted to tightly couple to the emerging “out of a box” IaaS end-user self-provisioning portals (i.e. make the infrastructure fluid and auto-tune as end).   Rich Brambley isn’t smoking something when he imagines something here…

We are working on Vblock 0…

There’s been overwhelming demand for Vblocks of every size, including smaller than the smallest current variant.   Vblock Type 0 is an all-ethernet (NFS/iSCSI), extremely cost-centric configuration – but targeted to maintain all the core Vblock value propositions:

• integrated management
• aligned elements to scale properly across storage/network/storage.
• can be scaled in units while being managed as a single entity
• not “joint support” (escalation agreement/process), but “integrated support” (single support group)

There are specifics that need working out, but we are working it furiously.

Here’s a shot from the lab of the current prototype undergoing work.   This will also be at VMware Partner Exchange next week – so come and check it out!

The other thing that is important is this idea of “joint roadmap” – the Vblock roadmap extends out to 2012 at this point, adding more and more on our Journey to the Private Cloud with each passing quarter.  Very cool stuff!

Comments

[Rick Parker]

Good to see others working on this, I started out with a 1 rack design 3 years ago that included redundant firewalls, load balancers, network and fiber switches, a CX300 SAN and dual R900
servers and a tape library all in 1 rack. Not a server / storage
block but a full datacenter block. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/012908-bedouin.html

The latest design I have running is 3 racks to support 200-300 virtual machines. The idea is the same, a standardized documented datacenter design that can be rapidly installed and configured to support RAID at the datacenter level, a redundant array of inexpensive datacenters.

[Rick Parker]

This is the Private Cloud Management software I have started using, its rough around the edges but has a lot of promise. Same basic
functionality as Amazon cloud. Admin interface to create a defintion of 1 or more servers and a Client interface to view list of defintions and create VMs. I hava list of 40 or so enhancments and feature requests

http://www.platform.com/private-cloud-computing/private-cloud-platform-isf

[Rick Parker]

Suggestion to add

Dblock - A datacenter block includes all components to create a
datacenter. Routers, Firewalls, Switches, etc.

[ThatFridgeGuy]

Chad,
Any estimate as to when we will see a Vblock 0 reference architecture? I have a UCS getting installed next week and just ordered a NS-480 to replace my CX4-120 so I am interested in both the Vblock 0 & 1 architectures.
Thanks,
Rod