IBM Storage

Data Sheet

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI

datasheet
Turbocharge your OpenShift
Highlights infrastructure for AI and hybrid cloud
• Faster path to application In a recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
modernization behalf of IBM in March 2021, 71% of companies said they
• Increase business agility needed a consistent way to deploy cloud-native applications
with access to global data across on-premises infrastructure and public clouds. As this
desire for consistency of applications grow, many customers
• Accelerate business growth
are turning to the flexibility and capabilities of containers and
with parallel data access
and scalable data
Kubernetes. In a recent IDC survey
(https://www.redhat.com/rhdc/managed-files/st-idc-infrastr
• Simplify the management
ucture-modernization-challenges-analyst-material-
of an OpenShift solution
f28911-202106-en_1.pdf) , 41% of companies have
deployed containers and 24% cited they will be adding
production deployments in the next 12 months. In the same
survey, 80% of those using containers are already using them
in production.

As these containerized workloads grow, customers need

applications and data to adjust and shift in response to
dynamic market demands so their organization can become
more competitive. Developers and IT staff need diverse and
easy to use tools & data services to build and deploy
applications anywhere, at any pace, with data that scales
dynamically, achieves peak performance, and adheres to
security requirements. The business goal is to drive agility
throughout the organization and become more flexible for
constantly changing market dynamics.

Red Hat OpenShift is a clear leader for container native and

cloud native applications and IBM has created a solution to
make OpenShift even more powerful.
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

IBM Spectrum Fusion

IBM Spectrum® Fusion a container-native comprehensive global data platform for OpenShift.
This innovative solution is built with the essential elements necessary for mission critical
containers and the hybrid cloud. Our solution includes data services that are critical for global
enterprise applications and a data driven Red Hat OpenShift environment.

HCI (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure) is a popular implementation of infrastructure which

combines servers, storage and network into composable software defined building blocks.
Instead of traditional separation of compute, network and storage resource, HCI offers a
simplified and unified management constructure for all the resources (compute, network and
storage) as well as a hyper-converged software layer for the storage platform and storage
resources. Simplification of the management and the data layer are key attributes of the modern
HCI.
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI

IBM Spectrum® Fusion HCI is a fast and easy way to deploy IBM Spectrum Fusion with an
optimized hardware configuration. This solution is built with a storage platform that includes
the essential elements necessary for mission critical containers and the hybrid cloud with
storage services built for enterprise applications and Red Hat OpenShift. Our fully
containerized software provides the necessary components for a true hybrid cloud data
experience.

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI comes pre-built from factory ready to run your containerized
workloads with resources that can be optimized for multiple data centric and AI applications.
Our solution is ready to tackle the most demanding modern workloads with our innovative
hardware and software solution.

Delivers faster path to application modernization with an integrated hardware and software
platform designed to help customers deploy Red Hat OpenShift faster

Increase business agility with access to global data resources on the edge, in the data center or
in the cloud

Accelerate business growth with parallel data access, AI optimized resources, and scalable data
that can span from edge to core to cloud

Simplify the management of an OpenShift HCI solution with hyperconverged data and a single
dashboard to manage local OpenShift resources and remote data resources

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI is all about the software

IBM Storage
Data Sheet

The software

Spectrum Fusion HCI includes a dashboard that we can easily view and manage both the
hardware and software resources for our OpenShift cluster. We can view CPU, memory, storage
and network resources and utilization rates as well as important status events. Administrators
can also manage local services such as software upgrades and storage services such as
backup/restore from the main menu. Other services such as cloud management using IBM
Cloud Satellite and OpenShift advanced cluster management (ACM) can also be accessed with
one click from the dashboard. You can also see other resources such as server nodes, disks and
switches as well as resource utilization rates and important event status.

Integrated management

The advantages of an integrated hardware and software offering come from the ways that these
two parts of the offering work together. The management software was developed with the
knowledge of what components can be included in the offering, and so the software was written
to optimally configure the components and take advantage of their strengths.

But configuring the system on Day 1 is just the beginning of the what the integrated
management software does. The software also monitors the system to make sure all
components continue to function properly and will use the Call Home feature to alert IBM
support of any hardware failure or serious error that it detects. And when the time comes to
apply firmware updates to the system, it is the integrated management software that is used to
orchestrate the updates.

Global data mesh

IBM Storage
Data Sheet

A global data mesh

IBM Spectrum Fusion is built on a market-leading technology that provides global access to
data transparently to a container application. The application sees the data as another local file
structure. The data can be physically located in another data source, thousands of miles away.
This global data access includes S3 object data from the cloud or on-premises, Network File
System (NFS) data from Dell/EMC, Netapp, or other vendors and any IBM Spectrum Scale
compatible storage system.

Cost, access, agility

Lower cost, simplify data access and provide agility

There are four important ways that customers can provide a better hybrid cloud and AI data
infrastructure. #1 Lower data cost with optimized archiving #2 Simplify remote access or data
migration with transparent global access #3 Faster application recovery with no data movement
as with data that can be remotely accessed #4 Optimized data ingest and data collaboration.

Data resiliency
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

Data resiliency

IBM Spectrum Fusion has built in application aware backup and recovery. By leveraging the
industry proven IBM Spectrum Protect Plus containerized software that is built into Spectrum
Fusion ITOps can have a consistent way to not only backup Red Hat OpenShift container
environments but also leverage the same interface to backup VMWare or RedHat OpenShift VM
environment. This is the power of IBM Spectrum Fusion software with a “fused” storage
services and storage platform solution.

Hardware configuration

Spectrum Fusion HCI is sold as a combined hardware and software offering. Clients do not have
to spend time specifying and procuring hardware that can be used to efficiently support the
software stack. Instead, the Spectrum Fusion development team has done the work for them by
choosing the servers, switches and rack enclosure that are well suited for the for running the
Spectrum Fusion HCI software stack.

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI has been designed to eliminate single points of failure, and it does
this by including redundant hardware for each of its critical components. Redundancy not only
protects against the failure of a component, it also makes it possible to update component
firmware without downtime by taking components offline one at a time to be updated and
restarted.
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

Hardware summary

Server redundancy

As already mentioned, the failure of any two S&C servers can be tolerated without losing any
data. In addition, the GPU servers and the AFM servers are only sold in pairs so that should one
of the servers fail, there will be another server available so that the GPU or AFM services
continue to be available.

Server types

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI has three different server types available, each with a different
purpose. Refer to Table 1: Server Configuration Details below for more information about the
components used in each server type.

Storage and compute servers

The storage and compute (S&C) servers are the basic building blocks of IBM Spectrum Fusion
HCI. Each system has a minimum of six S&C servers that are combined together to create a
Spectrum Scale ECE storage cluster. Each of the S&C servers has a minimum of two storage
drives that can be increased up to a maximum of ten storage drives on each server.
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

Useable storage summary

Storage disks

The Spectrum Fusion storage cluster is configured using the 4+2P protection type. In this
configuration, the failure of any two storage and compute (S&C) servers can be tolerated
without losing any data.

The OS boot drives used in all the Spectrum Fusion HCI servers are all configured in redundant
pairs using RAID 1 hardware storage controllers.

Base configuration

The Base configuration includes

42U rack

Two Ethernet ToR switches (100GbE)

Two Ethernet management switches

Six 1U x86 storage/compute nodes

IBM Storage
Data Sheet

Base configuration

It is possible to expand IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI beyond the minimum six S&C servers.
Servers can be added to a maximum of 20. (Unless the GPU option is selected, in which case
there can be a maximum of 18 S&C servers.) Each of the S&C servers added to Spectrum Fusion
HCI is also added to the storage cluster, increasing the total storage capacity.

High speed data network

Data network
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI has two physical networks defined within it: a high-speed network for
use by the storage cluster and applications, and a management network that is used for
controlling the servers and monitoring the health of the servers.

The high-speed network is built around a pair of 32-port, 100Gb Ethernet switches. The
switches are configured together using MLAG to create a redundant pair. All of the S&C servers
and the GPU servers have a 2-port, 100Gb Ethernet adapter. One port on the adapter is
connected to the first high-speed switch and the second port is connected to the second high-
speed switch. This 100GbE connections are reserved for use by the Spectrum Scale ECE
storage cluster.

All of the S&C servers and the GPU servers also have a 2-port, 25Gb Ethernet adapter. Using
breakout cables that split the 100GbE ports on the switch into four 25GbE ports, one port on the
server’s 25 GbE network adapter is connected to the first high-speed switch and the second
port is connected to the second high-speed switch.

The AFM servers do not have a 2-port, 100 GbE network adapter. Instead, these servers have
two of the 2-port 25GbE network adapters. Again, using breakout cables, each of the adapters
has one port connected to the first high-speed switch and the other port connected to the other
high-speed switch.

The 25GbE network connected are intended for use by the Red Hat OpenShift cluster and the
applications that are deployed within that cluster.

Management network

Management network
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

The management network is built around a pair of 48-port, 1Gb Ethernet switches. The IMM
port of every Spectrum Fusion HCI server is connected to the first of the management switches
using CAT5e cables with RJ45 connectors. The alternate IMM port, on either the LOM or an OCP
adapter, is configured for all Spectrum Fusion HCI servers and it is connected to the second
management switch. These connections are also made using CAT5e cables with RJ45
connectors. This is all done so that there is redundancy to support management functions even
if one of the management switches fails or one of the cables becomes disconnected.

Summary of components

Hardware Summary
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

Why IBM? For more information

Speed Development and ease operations For more information about IBM Spectrum
Fusion or our fully integrated IBM Spectrum
•Preconfigured infrastructure to develop Fusion HCI appliance solution, please visit
cloud native applications faster (DevOps) our solutions page, or contact your IBM
representative or IBM Business Partner. If
•All in one solution to simplify management you don’t yet have an IBM representative or
with scalability for future growth (ITOps) business partner, you can fill out this form to
schedule a consult with our storage experts.

Hybrid Cloud Integration

•Improve collaboration of applications

connecting hybrid cloud data

•Create application and data agility with

integration
of data center to public cloud resources

Lower cost of infrastructure

•Connect data silos to avoid duplication of

data which lowers overall storage costs

•Merge compute and storage resources to

lower overall costs

Modernize AI workloads

•Support GPU accelerated applications with

NVIDIA A100 GPU Nodes

•Integrate IBM Cloud Pak's to infuse AI

across organization
IBM Storage
Data Sheet

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