Dell VxRail management
VxRail Manager is a core management virtual machine that is fully integrated with VMware vCenter Server via the VxRail Manager plugin for vCenter, as shown in Figure 1.17. The system administrator can perform all deployment and configuration activities from the vCenter HTML client:
Figure 1.17 – VxRail Manager plugin for vCenter
VxRail automates more than 200 configuration tasks and workflows, including initializing, configuring, building, and finishing. The following is a summary of each core configuration task:
- Initializing:
- Deploy and configure vCenter Server.
- Configure the Domain Name System (DNS) on vCenter Server.
- Set up the management network on ESXi hosts.
- Configure the time on ESXi hosts.
- Configure the Syslog on ESXi hosts.
- Configure the hostname on vCenter Server.
- Create a user for VxRail management.
- Configuring:
- Register ESXi hosts with vCenter Server.
- Create the storage policies on vCenter Server.
- Set up the hostnames on ESXi hosts.
- Rename the vCenter Server network on ESXi hosts.
- Set up Network Interface Card (NIC) bonding on ESXi hosts.
- Set up vSAN, vMotion, and virtual machine networks on ESXi hosts.
- Set up NIC teaming on ESXi hosts.
- Set up DNS on ESXi hosts.
- Restart the loudmouth service on ESXi hosts.
- Set up the clustering for ESXi hosts.
- Building:
- Restart the loudmouth service.
- Accept the vCenter Server End User License Agreement (EULA).
- Create the vCenter Server database.
- Create the configuration in vCenter Server.
- Configure the root account on ESXi hosts.
- Initialize vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO).
- Start vCenter Server.
- Finishing:
- Rename the database.
- Configure the root account on ESXi hosts.
- Copy files to the vSAN datastore.
Compared to traditional infrastructure architecture, the preceding configuration tasks are executed manually. Now VxRail installation is an automated deployment.
VxRail LCM can deliver internet and local software updates. The LCM upgrade will provide an estimated time to complete the upgrade, warnings and recommended actions, and some components that will be updated (Figure 1.18):
Figure 1.18 – VxRail LCM update dashboard
When the VxRail administrator executes the maintenance tasks on the VxRail system, for example, scale-out, hardware placement, or software package upgrades, they can perform these tasks via the VxRail Manager plugin for vCenter.
