Vblock™ System 100 Technology Overview

VBLOCK™ SYSTEM 100 TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

Version 1.0 February 2013

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” VCE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Contents

Introduction ...... 4 Business Case ...... 4 Solution ...... 4 Scope ...... 5 Audience...... 5 Feedback ...... 5 Technology overview ...... 6 Hardware ...... 7 Software ...... 7 Compute ...... 8 Network ...... 8 Storage ...... 8 Virtualization ...... 10 Management ...... 11 Building-block platform ...... 11 Specifications ...... 11 Physical ...... 11 Power ...... 12 Use cases ...... 13 Manufacturing ...... 13 SharePoint for distributed locations ...... 13 Advanced features ...... 14 Systems management ...... 14 Security ...... 15 Data protection ...... 15 VCE™ Support ...... 16 Summary ...... 17 Vblock™ Qualified Partners ...... 17 Next Steps ...... 17

Introduction

Business Case

Converged infrastructure represents a cultural shift in information technology (IT). Gone are the days when the CIO focused on sourcing, deploying, managing, and supporting a data center with individual components from a variety of vendors. Also gone are the countless hours devoted to stack integration, application testing and validation, software and firmware updates, and workload and capacity balancing. These developments increasingly allow IT departments to quickly and easily deploy business-critical applications as a strategic partner in the business.

As the strategic and financial benefits of converged infrastructure become clear in larger enterprises, mid-market companies and enterprises with distributed locations are now looking for similar performance in a converged infrastructure solution that provides business value and predictable performance in a right-sized footprint, without sacrificing the repeatability, standardization, and simplified management of larger enterprise solutions. In the past, smaller converged infrastructure deployments for midsized data centers and distributed locations were difficult and expensive to set up and maintain. To be successful, a midsized converged infrastructure IT solution must support applications and provide features typically found in larger converged infrastructure deployments, in a footprint well-suited to smaller enterprises. Such a solution must:

. Deliver core IT services like Microsoft Exchange for messaging, Microsoft SharePoint for collaboration, VMware Virtual Desktop Integration (VDI), and core IT services such as file, print, and domain services . Offer standardized systems that address a broad range of distributed and stand-alone deployments with predictable performance and high availability . Provide improvements in capital and operating expenditures, with faster time-to-value . Arrive pre-engineered, pre-validated, and pretested with simplified systems management, security, and data protection

Solution

VCE's Vblock Systems family, the only suite of converged infrastructure systems based on a single architecture, includes best-in-class components and is codified with best-practice-based repeatable processes.

Vblock Systems are characterized by:

. Streamlined configuration and ordering for single-source accountability of industry-leading technologies . VCE Vision™ Intelligent Operations, which enables and simplifies converged operations by dynamically informing existing data center management tools about Vblock Systems, providing a single-object perspective on Vblock Systems and facilitating standardization . Built-in high availability for industry-best system uptime and reliability . Simplified support with single accountability for fastest time-to-resolution

The Vblock™ System 100 brings the power and benefits of the Vblock Systems family into a value- focused solution for midsized data centers and enterprise distributed locations. Leveraging the Vblock System 100, companies can, for the first time, address their capacity and workload requirements while still enjoying the repeatability, standardization, and business results synonymous with the Vblock Systems family.

Right-sized to fit within a typical footprint, the Vblock System 100 is the same architecture as larger, modular Vblock Systems in a value-focused solution pre-engineered for faster deployment. The system is specifically built to:

. Deliver core IT services for remote and distributed locations in such specialized industries as health care, multinational, and advanced manufacturing verticals . Offer core IT services and application support for file, print, and domain services; VDI, communications, and collaboration . Run local instances of typical business application in remote locations or within midsized data centers with business segregation requirements such as eDiscovery, eArchive, and more

Scope

This paper provides a high-level overview of the Vblock System 100, with specific discussion of systems management, security, data replication, and VCE Support.

Audience

This paper addresses business decision makers in technical, financial, operational, line-of-business, and strategic positions considering virtualized IT infrastructures in midsized and distributed location environments.

Feedback

To suggest documentation changes and provide feedback on this paper, send email to docfeedback@vce.com. Include the name of this paper, the name of the topic to which your comment applies, and your feedback.

Technology overview

The Vblock System 100 offers predefined, fixed packages that address a broad range of distributed and stand-alone business cases. The purpose-built system can fit within a small footprint, and can be made fully operational in a matter of days.

Vblock System 100 provides predictable metrics around business applications to address the unique customer requirements of the midsized data center and enterprise remote locations with the right components. Vblock 100 provides:

. Compute resources with up to eight servers . Input/output operations per second (IOPS) from 720 to 6K,optimized for intensive I/O workloads . Drives recovering more usable storage of up to 16 TB . VDI support for 50–200 users . Messaging support up to 10,000 mailboxes . Collaboration work spaces for up to 400 SharePoint users

The Vblock System 100 is available in two models: Vblock 100 model BX and Vblock 100 model DX. Both models provide built-in expansion capability to meet customer scalability needs and are self- contained in a single cabinet for ease of deployment. There is no multi-cabinet configuration.

The major difference between the Vblock 100 BX and Vblock 100 DX is not with processing power but with the amount of memory for each of the Cisco UCS C220 M3 Servers: the Vblock 100 BX has 48 GB of memory for each server and the Vblock 100 DX has 96 GB for each server.

Due to the number of servers the Vblock 100 DX requires, it has a greater number of switch ports from the IP switches, which are used for both storage connectivity and customer network aggregation layer connectivity.

Hardware

The Vblock 100 BX and Vblock 100 DX come with the following hardware:

Layer Vblock 100 BX Vblock 100 DX Cabinet 24RU 42RU

Compute UCS C220 M3 Rack Servers (2x 2.50 GHz UCS C220 M3 Rack Servers (2x 2.50 GHz E5-2640 processor, 64 GB memory) E5-2640 processor, 96 GB memory)

Network Catalyst 3750 (24 ports) Catalyst 3750 (48 ports)

Storage . VNXe 3150 Dual (iSCSI and NFS) . VNXe 3300 Dual (iSCSI and NFS) . DPE–SAS (4 TB usable; 2 x 600 GB SAS . DPE–SAS (6 TB usable; 2 x 600 GB SAS 4+1 RAID 5 pack + 1 x 600 GB hot spare 6+1 RAID 5 pack + 1 x 600 GB hot spare) + 1x 2 TB hot spare) . DAE–SAS (6 TB usable; 2 x 600 GB SAS . DAE–SAS (4 TB usable; 2 x 600 GB SAS 6+1 RAID 5 pack + 1 x 600 GB hot spare) 4+1 RAID 5 pack + 1 x 600 GB hot spare . DAE–NL-SAS (14 TB usable; 2 x 2 TB + 1 x 2 TB hot spare) NL-SAS 4+2 RAID 6 pack + 1 x 2 TB hot . DAE–NL-SAS (14TB usable; 2 x 2 TB NL- spare) SAS 4+2 RAID6 pack)

Software

Both Vblock System 100 models come pre-configured with the following software:

Layer Software Version Network Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switch 1

Storage VNXe OS 2.1.1.14913

VNXe Unisphere v1.6.1

VNXe Connection Utility v1.6.1

VSI plug-in 5.0

Virtualization VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus 5.x 5.x

vCenter Standard 5.x

VMware Update Manager 5.x

SQL database Windows Server 2008 R2

Management VCE Logical AMP

Compute

The Cisco UCS C220 M3 Rack Server is a high-density, two-socket, one–rack unit rack-mount server designed for performance and density over a wide range of business workloads. The enterprise-class C220 Server is an exceptional building block and entry point for UCS. The Vblock 100 BX is available in two configurations, with three C220 Servers. The Vblock 100 DX is available in six configurations, with three to eight C220 Servers. Each C220 contains two processors and six cores per processor, for a total of twelve cores. The Vblock 100 BX has 64 GB memory per server, and the Vblock 100 DX has 96 GB memory per server.

Virtualized deployments require VMware ESXi server installation on the Vblock System 100. A Vblock 100 DX can support up to a maximum of 50% bare-metal installation and must have minimum three servers configured as VMware ESXi hosts.

Network

Cisco Catalyst 3750 v2 Series Switches are next-generation energy-efficient Layer 3 Fast Ethernet stackable switches. The Catalyst 3750 consumes less power than its predecessors and is an ideal access layer for enterprise distributed offices and midsized data center environments. It helps increase productivity and protects your network investment by providing a unified network for data, voice, and video.

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches provide policy-based network connectivity within the vSphere environment to allow consistent network provisioning from the virtual machine layer to the data center. Developed in close collaboration with VMware, the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series is compatible with VMware vSphere, vCenter, ESX and ESXi, and many other vSphere features. You can use the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series to manage your virtual machine connectivity with confidence in the integrity of the server virtualization infrastructure.

Storage

The EMC VNXe Series Unified Storage Systems provides an affordable iSCSI-based unified storage platform ideal for midsized data centers and distributed offices:

. Virtual provisioning simplifies and accelerates processes and delivers just-in-time capacity allocation and improved utilization. . File deduplication conserves storage resources by allowing multiple files to share the same data. . Compression uses variable, bit-level intra-object deduplication to improve storage efficiency.

The Vblock System 100 is available in performance and general purpose configurations. Performance configurations rely exclusively on SAS drives; general purpose configurations combine SAS and NL- SAS, which increases capacity and reduces cost.

C220 Servers Usable storage (TB)

SAS NL-SAS Total

Vblock 100 BX

3 server performance 4 14 24

3 server general 4 14 18

Vblock 100 DX

3 server performance 6 0 6

3 server general 6 14 20

6 server performance 12 0 12

6 server general 12 14 26

8 server performance 30 0 30

8 server general 24 28 52

The Vblock 100 BX uses VNXe 3150, and the Vblock 100 DX uses VNXe 3300, with the following specifications:

Item VNXe 3150 VNXe 3300 Vblock 100 BX Vblock 100 DX

Max. drives 100 150

I/O slots 2

Storage processors 2

Memory 8 GB / storage processor 12 GB / storage processor

Base software . Unisphere . Unisphere . File deduplication and compression . File deduplication and compression . Thin provisioning . Thin provisioning . Snapshot . Local protection suite Drive types . SAS . NL-SAS Protocols . NFS . iSCSI

Drives are configured in RAID 5 or RAID 6 protection schemes. RAID 5 offers the best mix of performance, protection, and economy. RAID 6 offers increased protection and read performance comparable to RAID 5.

RAID protection level Number of drives per RAID pack RAID 5 Vblock 100 BX: 5 (4+1) Vblock 100 DX: 7 (6+1) RAID 6 6 (4 drives + 2 parity)

Virtualization

VMware vSphere virtualization simplifies your IT footprint and maximizes utilization of the Vblock System infrastructure. With it, you can allow multiple virtual machines to share the computing, networking, and storage resources of a single physical machine. vSphere provides application availability with built-in business continuity features, policy-based service-level management, and integrated network security and firewall protection.

The core components of VMware vSphere are the ESXi Hypervisor and vCenter Server. Hypervisors are deployed in cluster configurations: up to three nodes in the Vblock 100 BX and up to eight nodes in the Vblock 100 DX. These clusters allow dynamic allocation of CPU, memory, and storage resources; as well as workload mobility using VMware vMotion and VMware Storage vMotion

The Vblock System 100 includes a dedicated VMware vCenter instance, which allows you to clone virtual machines, create templates, and configure the vSphere Distributed Resources Scheduler and VMware vSphere HA clusters. Distributed Resource Scheduler continuously monitors utilization across vSphere Servers and intelligently allocates available resources among virtual machines, which aligns resources with needs, balances computing capacity, and reduces power consumption.

VCE supports the following VMware vCenter Server features:

. VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) . VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) . VMware vMotion and VMware Storage vMotion . Resource pools . Storage DRS (capacity only) . Storage Driven Profiles (user-defined only) . VMware syslog service . VMware coredump collector . VMware vCenter Web Services

Management

The Advanced Management Pod (AMP), a key differentiator in the converged infrastructure space, hosts all of the software used to manage the virtual infrastructure. The Vblock System 100 uses a cost-effective Logical AMP (L-AMP), which resides in virtual machines on the Vblock System 100 and hosts native element managers for all Vblock System 100 components. The L-AMP includes:

. Cisco Integrated Management Console for each Cisco UCS C220 Server, for direct server management . EMC Unisphere for flexible, integrated VNXe storage array management at both the file and block level . Vblock Monitor for managing Vblock System components and sharing their performance metrics with your network management system . VMware vSphere Client on an element manager virtual machine, providing a single access point for all management interfaces and the Vblock Monitor OS

Building-block platform

Vblock Systems are pre-defined in fixed configurations that are right-sized to meet a range of capacity, workload, and space requirements, abstracting away the complexity of countless options while tailoring a solution to your needs. All Vblock Systems are designed and built using best-of-breed equipment from Cisco, EMC, and VMware:

. Cisco C220 Servers . Cisco 3750 Network Switches . EMC VNXe Storage . VMware vSphere

Specifications

Physical

Dimension Vblock 100 BX Vblock 100 DX

Rack size 24RU 42RU

Weight (pounds) 915 1,271

Height (inches) 49 80

Width (inches) 24 24

Depth (inches) 42 42

Power (watts) 4,570 6,790

Power

Power configurations are available for customers inside and outside of North America. Power outlet units (POU) allow remote power management through a standard web browser, using a permanent IP address for each POU.

Item North America Outside of North Japan America

Plug NEMA L6-30P IEC 60309, splashproof JIS C8303 L6-30P

Power spec. Single-phase 30A 208V Single-phase 32A 230V Single-phase 30A 208V

POUs per cabinet 2 2 2

Use cases

Use cases for the Vblock System 100 include:

. Customers who have deployed and are standardizing on the Vblock System 300 and Vblock System 700 in their data centers and want to simplify and streamline their distributed deployments . Organizations extending standard line-of-business applications from the enterprise data center such as Exchange for messaging, VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, collaboration using Microsoft SharePoint or Cisco’s Unified Communications, as well as small-database support and web/file share and print servers

Manufacturing

Situation

This major player in the manufacture of chemicals required rapid deployment of a standardized system to deliver core IT services to its manufacturing plants after its acquisition of a global specialty chemicals company. The company needed to get their infrastructure in place as fast as possible to set up VDI solutions for its employees and clients.

Solution

The company purchased 26 Vblock System 100 units consisting of a variety of Vblock 100 BX units to meet the specific site requirements. At least one site received multiple Vblock 100 DX units because of the large number of employees at that site.

Business benefits . Provided VDI solutions for distributed locations worldwide . Rapid deployment of multiple units globally in a short time frame . Consistent application performance

SharePoint for distributed locations

The Vblock Solution for Microsoft SharePoint in Remote and Branch Offices (go to www.vce.com) describes and validates the virtualization and unified management technologies for easily installing, configuring, and managing a distributed SharePoint deployment on a Vblock 100 DX. This solution achieved sustained high performance and availability across the 500-, 2000-, and 5000-user bands, with browse, search, and modify operations all significantly faster than Microsoft’s acceptable user response times. This solution also shared VCE design considerations for cost-effective sizing and scaling. With this validated solution, customers are able to optimize their IT infrastructure and quickly deploy valuable SharePoint resources in a high-performing and secure environment.

Advanced features

Systems management

VCE Vision™ Intelligent Operations enables and simplifies converged operations. The software acts as a mediation layer between Vblock Systems and existing data center management tools, dynamically informing those tools about Vblock Systems. It delivers intelligent discovery to provide a single-object perspective on Vblock systems. Comprehensive awareness of the industry-leading components that comprise Vblock Systems promotes infrastructure standardization through automated validation and system assurance. And integration capabilities make it possible to provide this level of intelligence to any toolset. The software has native integration with key management products from VMware, and supports API-enabled integration into other standard industry tools.

VCE Vision™ software has six new software capabilities for Vblock systems:

. Discovery: Ensuring management tools constantly reflect the most current state of Vblock stems . Identification: Enabling the converged system view . Validation: Providing system assurance. . Health monitoring: Expediting diagnosis and remediation . Logging: Promoting rapid troubleshooting . Open API: Simplifying integration

The software is delivered pre-installed on all new Vblock Systems, and includes:

. The VCE Vision™ System Library that runs on all Vblock Systems to implement core functionality including the discovery, compliance, and object models . A plug-in for vCenter and an adapter for vCenter Operations Manager that enable native integration with these two key components of the VMware management toolset . A software development kit, which includes the API documentation, sample code, Java bindings and a simulator, as well as an online developer community to help foster innovation

Security

Enterprises large and small are moving quickly to take advantage of the financial and operational efficiency of virtualized, cloud infrastructures. The adoption of cloud technologies has created a new, dynamic security landscape that IT organizations must now manage while integrating existing risk management policies. Vblock Systems support compliance with common industry and government standards, before and after installation. VCE follows industry best practices to maximize out-of-the- box security while minimizing operational impact by applying hardening standards in the following areas:

. ESXi host hardening - Configuring remote syslog - Configuring NTP time synchronization - Enabling the ESXi firewall . Securing virtual machines - SQL database server - vCenter Server - vCenter Update Manager . Securing the virtual network

Data protection

Today, many organizations have geographically dispersed sites that locally create, process, and store data. Loss of data at any site could result in economic loss for the organization and must be continually protected to ensure the organization functions smoothly. Protecting the organization’s data assets for business continuity, governance, compliance, and security is fast becoming a high priority.

In the past, organizations have struggled to manage tape backups for data protection. Tape backups are slow, failure-prone, vulnerable to loss, and require offsite storage to be safe from natural disasters, security breaches, or sabotage. Further, with the rise in data demands, tape backups are increasingly time-consuming and expensive, and incremental backup strategies to address these problems make restoration difficult and time-consuming. Customers consolidating their IT infrastructure need a data protection strategy that is quick, affordable, and easily managed from central and local sites.

Data protection is a critical element of the comprehensive effort for developing the Vblock Systems. VCE’s preferred data protection methodologies leverage proven, industry-leading components from EMC and VMware that are integrated into a seamless solution from VCE. The VCE data protection strategy encompasses three main tenants:

. Simplified data protection in a virtualized environment . Complete end-to-end data protection covering all aspects from the Vblock Systems infrastructure to customer workloads . Flexible, state-of-the-art data protection for new deployments, along with preserving legacy data protection system investments

Data protection on Vblock Systems is pre-architected, easy to deploy, and easy to manage. Deduplication allows you to perform full backups in a fraction of the time required by traditional backup solutions, facilitating remote backups over your existing network within tight backup windows with headroom for future growth. Tight integration with vCenter and backup agents for applications like Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint provide backup and restore options that optimize servers and ensure faster application-consistent recovery.

VCE™ Support

VCE Support complements the strategy of deploying a converged infrastructure solution with a support experience that dramatically simplifies the support process while proactively identifying and resolving issues. VCE Support ensures the coordination of technical support resources spanning all aspects of Vblock Systems, including the proper functioning and integration of components from Cisco, EMC, and VMware.

The VCE Support portfolio provides customers with flexibility in choosing the level of support that best aligns with their business objectives. The entry point for Vblock Systems includes VCE™ Core Support. Customers have the option of upgrading to VCE™ Plus Support or VCE™ Premier Support for an additional fee:

VCE Core Support . 24x7 support through VCEConnect . VNXe Unisphere self-service capabilities . Dial-home support provided by EMC and Cisco . 24x7x4 on-site parts replacement . Web access to customer installable software and firmware updates

VCE Plus Support . Designated Customer Advocate . Monthly service request review, analysis, and trending . Semiannual health check report, remote change support, operations review, entitlement review, and contract gap analysis . Annual code currency planning and implementation

VCE Premier Support . Dedicated, high-touch Customer Advocate . Strategic support relationship . Weekly service request review, analysis, and trending . Semiannual health check report, and code currency planning and implementation . Quarterly remote change support, operations and entitlement reviews, and contract gap analysis

Summary

Vblock System 100 brings enterprise performance and high availability to midsize data centers and distributed locations with systems suitable for supplying core IT services and business-critical applications with existing staff and skillsets. Vblock Systems streamline configuration, ordering, and support with a single point of contact for each. Vblock Systems are built on a consistent platform across the product line with superior compute and network components from Cisco, storage components from EMC, and virtualization software from VMware, making integration with larger Vblock Systems convenient and easy for distributed locations. Vblock Systems offers companies the ability to offer enterprise IT services at any scale.

Vblock™ Qualified Partners

Vblock Systems are primarily available from Vblock Qualified Partners, who:

. Reduce delivery time from months to days with pre-engineered, tested, and validated solutions that reduce implementation costs and risks . Offer customers outstanding expertise, adaptability, and industry best practices in developing, deploying, implementing, and supporting converged Infrastructure solutions . Deliver strategic, customized solutions faster by applying their intimate understanding of their customer’s business and IT requirements to leverage the power of the Vblock Systems for maximum performance and ROI

Next Steps

To learn more about this and other solutions, contact a VCE representative or visit www.vce.com.

ABOUT VCE VCE, formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that dramatically reduce the cost of IT while improving time to market for our customers. VCE, through the Vblock Systems, delivers the industry's only fully integrated and fully virtualized cloud infrastructure system. VCE solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure. For more information, go to http://www.vce.com.

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