Deliver the performance your business needs with the help of Dell™ 3-2-1 Reference Configurations, an easy to deploy, manage and upgrade architecture built on PowerEdge™ servers, Force10™ switches and EqualLogic™ storage. Discover how you can leverage the scalability of Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations and build up additional components for your growing business based on performance test results conducted by Principled Technologies.

Dell 3-2-1 Reference Configurations has a range of virtualized infrastructure solutions that can support 500 to 1,500 users per virtual machine. Configured using PowerEdge R720 application servers, Dell Force10™ S4810P 10G switches and EqualLogic™ PS6110V storage, the architecture features:

  • PowerEdge R620 management server — enables management of entire solution from a single access point
  • Microsoft® System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager and Operations Center — provide a simplified management experience from a virtual environment
  • Dell Server PRO Management Pack, Hyper-V™ in Microsoft® Windows Server® 2012 and Failover Cluster management tools — enable easy monitoring of Dell systems and virtual machine health
  • Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) 7 on Dell PowerEdge R620 and R720 servers — increases remote management and troubleshooting capabilities, monitors hardware status, and views the hardware console through a Web browser

Test results conducted in Principled Technologies’ labs showed that the Dell Reference Configurations provide a solid platform upon which to build a virtualization infrastructure. These robust configurations supported up to 500 users per virtual machine (VM) for the 3-2-1 configuration, 1,000 users for the 4-2-1 configuration and 1,500 users for the 4-2-2 configuration. The following VMs were used in the tests conducted:

  • Two database application VMs running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012
  • One mail server VM running Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010 SP2
  • One collaboration application VM running Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010 SP1

Follow the steps in the reference guide and easily upgrade to a 4-2-1 configuration in less than two hours, or upgrade further from a 4-2-1 to a 4-2-2 configuration in less than 30 minutes.