Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide

Configure a jump host or laptop for VxRail initialization

Use a desktop with an operating system such as Windows to reach the VxRail external management network for initialization. The desktop must include a supported web browser that can access the VxRail management interface.

Use a laptop to plug into an open Ethernet port on one of the ToR switches or a jump host (jump server description) in your data center. Your data center should be able to reach the VxRail external management network.

If you plug a laptop into an open Ethernet port on a switch, and you choose a VLAN other than the default native VLAN for the VxRail external management network, configure the port to enable connectivity to the VxRail management interface. When the VxRail initialization process is complete, the switch port or jump host is no longer required to manage VxRail.

Do not try to plug your laptop directly into a VxRail server node to connect to the VxRail management interface for initialization. Plug your laptop into your network switch and logically configure it to reach the necessary networks.

To access the VxRail management interface to perform initialization, you must use either the temporary, preconfigured VxRail initial IP address: 192.168.10.200/24, or have Dell services apply the permanent IP address to VxRail Manager. This temporary IP address changes during VxRail initialization to your permanent address, and assigned to VxRail Manager during cluster formation.

Your laptop must be able to reach both the temporary VxRail initial IP address and the permanent VxRail Manager IP address (Row 15 from Appendix A: VxRail Network Configuration Table). VxRail initialization reminds you to reconfigure your laptop network settings to access the new IP address. Give your laptop or your jump server two IP addresses on the same network port for a smoother experience. Depending on your laptop, this can be implemented in several ways (such as dual-homing or multihoming). Otherwise, change the IP address on your laptop when instructed to and then return to VxRail Manager to go to the initialization process. If you cannot reach the initial VxRail IP address, Dell Support can configure a custom IP address, subnet mask, and gateway on VxRail Manager before initialization.

The IP address settings on the jump host or laptop should be in the same subnet range as the temporary IP address and permanent IP address that is planned for VxRail Manager. The following table provides an example of how to set the IP addresses on the Ethernet port.