PowerFlex implementation in a VMware ESXi-based system
In the VMware environment, the MDM, and SDS components are installed on a dedicated SVM, and the SDC is installed directly on the VMware ESXi host.
Minimum requirements
These are the minimum system requirements for a
PowerFlex implementation in a VMware ESXi-based system:
Three VMware ESXi servers with 240 GB of free capacity per server
10 Gbps network
Table 1. Minimum system requirementsThe following table describes the minimum system requirements for a
PowerFlex implementation in a VMware ESXi-based system.
Configuration type
Supported VMware ESXi versions
Supported PowerFlex offering
VMware hyperconverged nodes with SDC
NOTE:Compute nodes may also consume storage from VMware Hyperconverged nodes.
ESXi 8.0
Dell Technologies recommends implementing the latest update.
PowerFlex appliance
PowerFlex rack
VMware compute nodes with SDC connecting to a
PowerFlex storage-only system
ESXi 8.0
Dell Technologies recommends implementing the latest update.
PowerFlex appliance
PowerFlex rack
PowerFlex software
PowerFlexcustom node
VxFlex Ready Node
VMware compute nodes with NVMe over TCP connecting to a
PowerFlex storage-only system
ESXi 8.0
Dell Technologies recommends implementing the latest update.
The
PowerFlex hyperconverged configuration consists of a dedicated storage virtual machine (SVM) and these software components:
Storage virtual machine (SVM): A Linux-based virtual machine dedicated to
PowerFlex and is used to host the different PowerFlex software components described here.
Meta data manager (MDM): Configures and monitors the
PowerFlex system. The MDM is configured in a redundant cluster mode. The MDM is installed on the SVM. The MDM can be configured as a three-node cluster (primary MDM, secondary MDM, and
tiebreaker MDM) or as a five-node cluster (primary MDM, two secondary MDMs, and two
tiebreaker MDMs) to provide greater resiliency.
Storage data server (SDS): Manages the capacity of a single server and acts as a backend for data access. The SDS is installed on all servers contributing storage devices to the
PowerFlex system. These devices are accessed using SDS. The SDS is installed on the SVM.
Storage data replicator (SDR): Handles volumes replication activities between
PowerFlex systems through journal management. The SDR is located alongside the SDS.
Storage data client (SDC): A lightweight device driver that presents
PowerFlex volumes as block devices to the application on the server which the SDC is installed. The SDC creates a logical adapter, which is an VMware ESXi kernel construct. The adapter informs VMware ESXi about the arrival and disappearance of SCSI devices. These LUNs can be formatted with VMFS and then exposed using the VMware ESXi host to the virtual machine or can be used as RDM devices.
NOTE:NVMe target (SDT) is not supported in VMware hyperconverged configuration.
This implementation is shown in the figure. The SDC is installed within the VMware ESXi kernel similar to any other VIB.
The LUNs in this example can be formatted with VMFS, and then exposed using the VMware ESXi host to the virtual machine, or the LUNs (volumes) that are NVMe target based can be used as RDM devices. When the LUNs are used as RDM devices, the VMFS layer is omitted.
Supported features
The following VMware features are supported by
PowerFlex:
vMotion
Storage vMotion
Fault tolerance
DRS
Storage DRS
VAAI (except full copy primitive)
Device management
Devices can be managed with VMDirectPath I/O.
Pre-deployment considerations
You should take these considerations into account before deploying the system:
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