EMC World 2016: VxRack SDDC Nodes = Rack-Scale VMware made easy.

VxRack System 1000 is a family of Engineered System variations. They share rack-scale system design parameters, and a common spine-leaf network. If you need a VxRack System 1000 primer (really important before you consider the 3 different Node types) – read this blog post here.

Now that you’re back, primed on the system-level design and multiple Node types that are supported – let’s dive in on the newest VxRack Node type to go GA.

I don’t want to bury the lead in the context. Here’s the headline on the news:

VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes joins VxRail as the “no brainer” choices for customers that are 100% focused on the vSphere universe, and don’t need heterogeneity - it is the Engineered System, Rack-Scale (includes networking) “bigger” sibling to VxRail Appliances.  

What does a VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes look like?

 

Some more details:

1. VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes are for customers at datacenter scale who are uniquely focused on vSphere, and like VxRail, want a stack intimately co-engineered with VMware. If you are all about VMware, and need something at Rack-Scale, and fit in the boundaries (noted below) – go no further!
2. There will be NO Rack-Scale System that will be as integrated, and as synchronous with VMware’s roadmap as VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes.
3. SDDC Nodes leverage VSAN as the SDS layer – so the behavior of VSAN defines the storage layer.
4. SDDC Nodes leverage NSX as the SDN layer.
5. SDDC Nodes via the embedded SDDC Manager automate the full lifecycle (install, patch, version, update/remediate) of vSphere, VSAN, NSX, vRealize Operations, and Log Insight.
6. Scaling:
   1. Whereas FLEX Nodes can start with as few as 4 nodes and scale to 1000 in a VxRack System – when using SDDC Nodes, the minimum is 8, and the maximum is 192, with a maximum of 24 in a single VxRack cabinet.
   2. This shouldn’t be thought of as “good or bad”, rather highlights how we engineer the SYSTEM around the use case. In a vSphere-only deployment, there are some reasons to not create very small node counts, and the largest VSAN domain is a vSphere cluster domain.  BTW – the SDDC Nodes via the SDDC software can partition the infrastructure into Workload Domains – which is a great way to sub-stratify into pools for common use cases (inclusive of lifecycle management) – more here: http://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2015/12/15/evo-sddc-workload-domains
   3. That said – if you have a need for a storage pool that spans vSphere clusters (some customers really need this), or for blended node types (storage dense/compute dense/2-tier or hyper-converged) – you are better served with a FLEX Node deployment with vSphere (not as integrated to be sure, but more flexible).

VxRack System 1000 with FLEX and SDDC Nodes tend to cover similar use cases – there are important differences, so I don’t want to minimize.   The biggest single difference is rooted in customer point of view towards VMware cetnricity or infrastructure that is horizontal and support VMware with other use cases.

Neutrino Nodes – details here – target a very different space, but VxRack FLEX and SDDC nodes often are considered similar use cases, so here a handy comparison chart – but remember the core question is “VMware integrated like nothing else?” or “heterogenous use case?”

What about things on TOP of VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes - beyond the obvious? The obvious being you can run anything that can run on vSphere 6.2 – in other words, a huge, huge swath of workloads.

• It supports VMware Integrated OpenStack (which BTW – got some great updates last week – VMware team, you need to update the product page with the 2.5 updates :-)
• It supports vRealize 7.x (but FYI – this falls outside the SDDC Manager lifecycle management for now)
• It supports vSphere Integrated Containers (for customers who want to run P3 apps on top of their vSphere stack). If you want to know more about this – read this post, and check out this demo.
• That’s far from an exhaustive list – but wanted to get people’s creative juices going.

Now, two important things that currently cannot be layered on top of VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes are:

• Enterprise Hybrid Cloud (EHC) – which can currently only be deployed on Vblock, VxBlock and VxRack System 1000 FLEX.
• Native Hybrid Cloud (NHC) – which can currently only be deployed on VxRack System 1000 with FLEX and Neutrino Nodes.

Remember that EHC and NHC are more than the composition of the stacks – they are engineered, sustained, supported full stack. For EHC, this is inclusive of rich workflows that bind backup, DR, encryption and other policies. Think of EHC as “the Enterprise ITaaS turnkey offer – with a red bow around it”. For NHC, this is inclusive of PCF and all the CI/CD tooling and reporting around PCCF<-> infrastructure intersection. Think of NHC as the “the Cloud Native Developers platform – with a bow around it”.

VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes could be used for those use case, but would be better suited for customers who want to build and maintain those upper layers of the stack themselves (customers who chose to “consume” at the VxRack System level, and “build” at the IaaS/PaaS layer).

We are working with VMware on the SDDC Node roadmap, and of course, we aim in the future to have VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes as one of the foundations for EHC, as well as broader hardware configurations. One example of where we are working would be to “ingest” VxRail Appliances as those customers want to expand to Rack-Scale, deeper integration with VxRack Manager (OnRack-based).

VxRack System 1000 with SDDC Nodes – quotable now, shipping at the end of the month. HAVE FUN!

What do you think, and where would YOU use SDDC Nodes, and where would you choose FLEX Nodes?

Comments

[Jason Jensen]

This looks nice! How can the maximum number of nodes be 192 in a vxRack System with SDDC nodes?

[Brad Elliott]

Great post and update! This really helped clarify things for me - especially around the node types. Thanks!!

[Tom Twyman]

Chad - FYI, VMware Integrated Openstack isn't actually available, yet. VMware made some announcements at EMC World, but it is due to be released before the end of Q2, I believe... Not sure on exact dates, of course.

[Chad Sakac]

@Jason - thanks for asking! The current 192 node count limit as of the date of the post is a function of the switch design and the SDDC Manager rack count maximum. Expect this to increase!

@Brad - I'm glad!

@Tom - hmmm - let me check, I'm not sure about that, but you may be right...

[roy]

Hi,

please let me know, in our environment we have a plan to go SDDC phase by phase . in this case is there any convenient way to purchase VXrack without NSX licences.