Mr.

HungChen
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 0932.989090

1 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Course
Module 1: Introduction to VxRail Installation and
Implementation
- VxRail Appliance Architecture
- Network Requirements
- VxRail Appliance Pre-Engagement Questionnaire
- PEQ Pre-deployment Validation
- Validate Customer Network Best practice: vMotion, vSAN, VMs, Mgmt
- Site Validate and Install Hardware

Module 2: Configuration and Troubleshooting

- Configure vSAN
- vSphere and vSAN licensing
- VxRail Software Upgrade
- Troubleshooting Overview
- Log Collection
- Factory Reset Procedures

2 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Module 1

Introduction to VxRail
Installation and Implementation

3 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Module 1

VxRail HCI System

4 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Appliance Architecture

- VxRail models are available in various form factor: A

chassis may contain 1 to 4 nodes depending on the
model
- VxRail node consist of storage and computer
components
- Standard VxRail configurations consist of 3 to 64
nodes
- VxRail 4.7.x supports 2-Nodes VxRail cluster (E
Series and Fixed Configuration)

5 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Model

https://www.emc.com/collateral/data-sheet/h16763-vxrail-14g-spec-sheet.pdf

6 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 PowerEdge Boot Optimized Storage Solution

- VxRail E Series, S Series, P Series, V Series nodes have BOSS

- BOSS – hardware RAID 1 solution for OS drive (ESXi Installation)
- Keeps OS drives and data drives on separate controllers

7 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail G560G/F Nodes

G560G/F enclosure/chassis have 1 to 4

nodes
Each node has a compute blade and a drive
pack resident on the chassis
- The compute blade has CPUs, DIMMs and
NICs
- The drive pack for each node is on the
chassis. Each node has one cache SSD and
up to five HDDs/SSDs

8 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Network Switches for VxRail Appliance

Top-of-rack (ToR) network switches are a

critical component to the VxRail Appliance
- There is no network switch support matrix
- Refer to the Dell EMC VxRail Network
Planning Guide for switch requirements
- IP6 multicast is required for the VxRail
Management VLAN
- Network switch configuration must be
validated as an initial setup before walking
through the deployment
- Option: Customer supplies the required
switches or Customer purchases Dell
switches along with the VxRail Appliance

9 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Software Component

Abc

10 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VMware vCenter Options

- VxRail supports Embedded vCenter instance

running on the appliance or existing customer
vCenter instance
- If selected, embedded vCenter is deployed
during VxRail initial configuration
- External vCenter option requires extra steps and
qualification of customer environment

11 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail DataProtection Options

12 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail System Management

VxRail HCI System Software is designed to deploy,

update, monitor, and maintain the VxRail Appliance.
Following are the features of VxRail HCI System
Software:
- Delivers automation, life-cycle management, and
serviceability
- Deploy appliances with over 200 tasks.
- Monitor system health
- Access community resources such as user forum,
knowledge base and chat with support

13 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Module 1

Network Requirements

14 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Network Connectivity Options

15 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Network Requirements

- Each VxRail node requires IP addresses for ESXi host, vSAN, vMotion, and iDRAC
- All IP addresses must be static – No DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
- Ensure Forward and Reverse DNS Entries for following VxRail components:
+ VxRail Manager
+ All VxRail nodes (ESXi Management IP)
+ Platform Service Controller (PSC)
+ VMware vRealize Log Insight
+ vCenter Server and Secure Remote Services Gateway (ESRS)
- Ensure that there are no IP conflicts in the customer network

16 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 ToR Switch Requirements

- IPv6 multicast must be enabled on Management network

+ VxRail management traffic is split into public and private networks
+ Both VLANs must be properly set per customer requirements before VxRail first run
- Do not enable LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) on vxrail switch ports
- If spanning-tree is enabled on the switch, ensure that physical switch ports connect to VxRail nodes
are configured with a setting such as “Portfast”, or set as an edge port.
- VxRail iDRAC (Dell) management port requires 1G RJ45 connection

17 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Network Traffic Configuration

18 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 DellEMC Switches with SmartFabric Services

VxRail First Run Wizard can automate switches

configuration on supported DellEMC Switches with
SmartFabric Services
- Ensure that the DellEMC switches are running the
supported OS10 with SmartFabric Services
- DellEMC OMNI (Open Manager Network Interface)
plug-in allows users to perform admin operations from
vCenter that automate tasks on the switches

19 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Appliance Reference Links

Demo Center: Demo Center (dell.com)

VxRail Network Planning Guide: Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide H15300.31 (delltechnologies.com)
VxRail Networking Solutions: Guides | Dell Technologies Info Hub
SolVe Online: SolVe (dell.com)
NVT Tool for VxRail:
https://dl.dell.com/downloads/XX11D_Network-Validation-Tool-for-VxRail-(NVT-VxRail).zip
VxRail Networking Switch Configuration: Dell EMC SmartFabric OS10 Switch Configuration Guide for
VxRail 4.7
DellEMC Open Manage Network Interface (OMNI): OpenManage
Network Integration User Guide Release 3.2 | Dell US
SmartFabric Proof of Concept Guide: Dell EMC Networking –SmartFabric
Proof of Concept Guide | Dell US

20 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Module 1

High-level VxRail
Installation and Implement
Process

21 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Installation and Implement Timleline

22 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Preparation Phase

VxRail Appliance Pre-Engagement Questionnaire (PEQ)

- Link to download PEQ in DellEMC Solve Online
- PEQ is an Excel workbook with Visual Basic (VB) macros
- Used to guide project workflow and generate Java

23 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Validate Customer Network Environment

Manually
- Overvierw of Customner Network Validation
- Confirm no IP Address Conflicts: use ping cmd
- Confirm DNS Settings: use nslookup cmd
- Confirm Source Servers Connectivity: use ping cmd, if any ping test time out, the issue mest be
resolved before continuing. You can verify NTP: w32tm /stripchart /computer:<NTP Server IP Address>
- Confirm VxRail Node Port Status: use show interface status
- Confirm VLAN Configured for VxRail Network: use show vlan – interface mode: access or trunk (tagged
or untagged)
- Confirm IPv6 Multicast for Management VLAN:
- IPv4 Unicast for vSAN VLAN
- STP must be enabled: mode PortFast
- Confirm no LACP on VxRail Node Port: show port-channel sumary

24 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Validate Customer Network Environment

Use NVT:
- Windows-based tool that is used to validate the network environment that the VxRail Appliance is
connected to
- NVT should be run from a workstation on the management network
- The Appliance and NVT JSON files share many common values, but switch details and credential
details are the primary distinction
- NVT can be downloaded from PS Apps Central
- NVT documentation is included – User Guide, Switch Output Collection Guide
- Default log is located at C:\logs
- For technical assistance, click Contact Us and send an email to TS Tools Support. Option, select the
Diagnostic Data to collect the required files for troubleshooting

25 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Configuration Checks by NVT

Network Services Validation:

- DNS, NTP, default gateway
- Reserved IP address
- DNS forward and reverse lookup
ToR Switch Validation:
- Check VLAN configuration
- STP mode and Bridge Priority
- NVT Switch Grab utility or switch output file
Upstream Switch Validation:

26 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Hardware Installation

Install Hardware

27 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Node Sequence in Rack

28 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Cabling

- Verify that all required cabling components are

available, including customer provided cabling
- Connect all power cabling (node and rack power
cables/connections)
- Connect VxRail node network ports to the ToR
switch
- Connect cabling for management host access
(ensure appropriate network settings on management
host NIC)
- Validate that all cabling connections to and from the
appliance are operational

29 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Node Ports

G Series: G560/F E, P, V, S Series:

30 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Power On the VxRail Appliance

- Power up on node at the time – the sequence is Notice:

not important Do not power on the VxRail Appliance until the
- Verify that fans are operational and no amber fault following tasks have been completed:
lights are visible - Properly installed the appliance in a rack/cabinet
- Configure iDRAC - Conntected the VxRail NIC ports to one or more ToR
switches
- Verified with the customer that the ToR switch and
supporting network are configured according to the
VxRail Network Planning Guide, PEQ, and SolVe –
generated procedure
- Connected a management host to the ToR switch

31 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Configuring iDRAC

32 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Replacing the Default Management VLAN

User esxi command to change the Default Management VLAN

33 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Settings Management VLAN

34 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Module 2

VxRail Appliance Configuration

35 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Module 2

VSAN Configuration

36 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Introdure to VMware vSAN

vSAN Supported vSphere Feature:

- High Availability (HA)
- vMotion
- Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

37 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Data Services

- Deduplication/Compression on All-Flash system

- Erasure coding on All-Flash system
- vSAN software checksum
- Storage Policy Based Management
- Data-at-rest encryption

38 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Datastore

- vSAN is a distributed, clustered object storage

solution that is presented to vSphere as a datastore
- vSAN mounts the volumes (disk groups) from all
hosts in a cluster and presents them as a single
shared datastore
- Only member of the cluster can access the vSAN
datastore
- All VxRail nodes contribute storage to the vSAN
datastore

39 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Objects

- vSAN manages data in the form of flexible data

containers called objects
- Interns that make up a virtual machine are stored as
vSAN objects
- There are five different types of virtual machine
objects: VM home, VM swap, Snapshots, Memory and
VMDK
- Virtual machine objects are split into multiple
components:
+ Based on performance and availability
requirements
+ Defined in VM Storage Policy

40 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Components and Distributed RAID

vSAN components:
- Components making up an object distributed across
multiple hosts in cluster
- Helps to tolerate simultaneous failures and meet
performance requirements
vSAN uses a distributed RAID architecture to
distribute data across the cluster
Components are distributed with the use of:
- Stripping (RAID – 0)
- Mirroring (RAID – 1)
- Erasure Coding (RAID 5/6)
The number of components that are created is based
on the storage policy that is applied to that object

41 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Erasure Coding

Stripes data in equal size units

Parity block calculated for each set of data blocks
Can be set at VMDK level
Only available for All-Flash system

42 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Storage Policy – Setting for Fault Tolerance

43 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail vSAN Initial Configuration

44 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Built-in vSAN Storage Policy

VXRAIL-SYSTEM-STORAGE-PROFILE
- For the VxRail System VMs
- Number of failures to tolerate (FTT) = 1
- Object space reservation (%) = 100%
- Do not delete

VXRAIL-STORAGE-PROFILE
- Number of failures to tolerate (FTT) = 1
- This policy is available for use by any VMs deployed
on the VxRail cluster

Other vSAN storage policys can be created and used

as necessary

45 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Configuring vSAN Policy Rules

Select Policies and Profiles > VM Storage Policies > Create VM Storage Policy
To configure vSAN-based Storage Policy rules, select the Enable rules for “vSAN”
storage on the Policy structure tab of the Wizard

46 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Availability Rules

In the vSAN segment of the wizard, the Availability

tab is selected by default, which defines settings for:
- Site Disaster Tolerance: Provides options for
Stretched Cluster configurations
- Failures to Tolerate – Failure Tolerate Method

47 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Advanced Policy Rules

The Advanced Policy Rules tab in the vSAN menu

offer more storage policy rule options. Important
settings here include:
- Number of disk stripes per object: Default value = 1,
Maximum value = 12
- Object space reservation: Default value = Thin
provisioning, Maximum value = Thick provisioning

48 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Post Installation VxRail Validation

Validation VxRail Appliance health and configuration

after installation for:
- VxRail Manager Plug-in
- VMware vCenter Server
- vSAN Cluster

49 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Validate VxRail Appliance After Install

50 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Manager Plug-in for vCenter

VxRail Plug-in is installed automatically on:

- VxRail Appliances that are deployed at 4.7.x or higher
- VxRail Appliances upgraded to 4.7.x or higher
All VxRail Manager functionality is accessed from the vSphere Client
- Direct access to the VxRail Manager UI is not available
- VxRail Manager URL is automatically redirected to the vSphere Client

51 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Validating vCenter Health

52 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Validating vSAN Health

53 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Events in vSphere Client

All VxRail events displayed in the vSphere Client, start with “vxr ……”
All VxRail event codes are documented in the VxRail Appliance Event Code Reference.

54 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 DellEMC Secure Remote Service - ESRS
Dell EMC Secure Remote Service – ESRS
- Tool for two-way connectivity between Dell EMC and Customer’s Dell EMC products: Call home to
Dell EMC and Connect in from Dell EMC
- Provides Auditing Capabilities: VxRail Appliance can periodically send health data to support
- Provide Remote Access Control – Policy Manager: Support can connect into the VxRail Appliance
to correct problems, often before they become serious
- VxRail deployments – supported ESRS configurations: Internal ESRS on VxRail Appliance and
Connect VxRail to existing ESRS

55 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Configure VxRail Support Account and Secure
Remote Services

56 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Configure Dell EMC Support Account

57 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSphere and vSAN Licensing

VMware vSphere License Options

58 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSphere and vSAN Licensing

Flexible vSAN License

59 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Software Upgrade

Software upgrade is initiated from:

- VxRail Manager UI for VxRail version older than
4.7.100
- VxRail Manager vCenter Plug-in for VxRail
v4.7.100 or higher
Support Methods
- Local Upgrade
- Internet Upgrade

60 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Software Upgrade Procedure

- Download the VxRail upgrade package from

DellEMC Support site
- Ensure that the VxRail Appliance is in a healthy
state
- Confirm the currently running version of VxRail
- Take a snapshot of all the VxRail service VMs
- Use the VxRail Manager vCenter Plug-in to the
initiate the System Upgrade
- After the upgrade complete, ensure that the
VxRail Appliance is in healthy state and remove
snapshots of the VxRail service VMs

61 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Troubleshooting

- Addressing Deployment Problems

- Troubleshooting iDRAC
- Troubleshooting Networking
- Troubleshooting vSAN
- Troubleshooting ESRS

62 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Troubleshooting
VxRail has several tools available for installation troubleshooting:
- iDRAC monitoring to look for any hardware-related issues on the VxRail nodes.
- Post installation health checks to gather more information if there is an installation failure.
Example: Validation step error relating to NTP Server Connectivity

63 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Troubleshooting

Issue: VxRail Appliance installation Solution

1. VxRail Installation Wizard stops Some VxRail installation issues simply

responding require a retry to resolve. The retry button
resumes the installation at the failed task.
Retry or fix the fault and then retry
2. Installation Wizard fails If using JSON file, verify that the file has all
required values and is not corrupt. If using
the VxRail Installation Wizard, validate the
networking address and domain, and retry
3. Unable to run Installation Wizard Software is corrupt, and the VxRail
Appliance must be returned to original build
state with reset script or RASR

64 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Troubleshooting using iDRAC

65 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Troubleshooting Network
Issue: User is unable to communicate with other nodes in the cluster

Network breaks between groups of node: ping address to check connectivity

Problem with communicating across multiple network switches: check switches configure, the
multicast group must be configured to traverse all switches connected to all hosts in the same
cluster; if there are two switches in the VxRail Configuration, they must pass multicast packets for
the Management (IPv6) VLANs across the ISL links

66 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 Troubleshooting vSAN

67 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vSAN Health Checks

68 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Network Connectivity

For new installations, nodes should be racked

in alphanumerical order as this will drive ESXi
host numbering. In v7.0.010 exclusively, the
logical view of a VxRail Cluster is based off the
node Service Tag Number rather than the
PSNT. Dell’s best practice and recommendation
is to rack the nodes in ascending order, starting
from the bottom of the rack. An alternative
option is to rack the nodes descending from the
top of the rack instead. It is not recommended
to rack the nodes descending from the bottom
of the rack, in the middle of the rack, or mixed.

69 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 VxRail Hardware Installation

70 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vCenter Options
Pros
•The vCenter Server (VCSA) deployment is done
automatically.
•When installing software package upgrade for the
VxRail Manager, both VCSA and PSC includes
the processing of package upgrade.
•VMware Log Insight is deployed automatically
•The vCenter license is bundled on VxRail
Appliance.
Cons
•The vCenter Server can only manage the VxRail
cluster on which it is deployed.
•It cannot manage the other ESXi hosts or
additional VxRail clusters.
•The vCenter topology only supported a single
VCSA with external PSC.
•Enhanced linked mode is not supported.
•vSAN Encryption is not supported.
•The Single Sign-On (SSO) domain must be
vsphere.local.

71 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vCenter Options
Pros
•The vCenter Server (VCSA) deployment is done
automatically.
•When installing software package upgrade for the
VxRail Manager, both VCSA and PSC includes
the processing of package upgrade.
•VMware Log Insight is deployed automatically
•The vCenter license is bundled on VxRail
Appliance.
Cons
•The vCenter Server can only manage the VxRail
cluster on which it is deployed.
•It cannot manage the other ESXi hosts or
additional VxRail clusters.
•The vCenter topology only supported a single
VCSA with external PSC.
•Enhanced linked mode is not supported.
•vSAN Encryption is not supported.
•The Single Sign-On (SSO) domain must be
vsphere.local.

72 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.

 vCenter Options
Pros
•Supplied vCenter Server can manage the VxRail clusters and any other
ESXi hosts.
•Enhanced linked mode, custom SSO domain name, and vSAN
Encryption are supported.
•VMware vSAN Stretched clusters are supported.
•All vCenter topologies are supported.
•VMware vCenter Server Appliance HA is supported
•Life cycle management is still handled for everything but vCenter Server
and vRealize Log Insight.
Cons
•The customer needs to provide the license for Supplied vCenter Server.
•Both vCenter Server and the PSC cannot live on any VxRail Appliance
cluster.
•All updates to vCenter Server and the PSC to versions compatible with
VxRail are the responsibility of the customer and will not be handled by
VxRail Manager.
•Log Insight must be deployed manually by the customer.
•Only one public IP address can be used for the vCenter HA network.
•We cannot modify the host name and IP address for vCenter and the
PSC after VxRail deployment.

73 © Copyright 2018 Dell Inc.