Dell VxRail Architecture Overview

VMware vCenter Server

To consume external storage, the cluster requires two or more nodes. Only a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server is supported for VxRail 7.0.400 and earlier versions. With VxRail 7.0.410 and later versions, you can deploy VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server for FC-connected storage arrays. Beginning with VxRail 8.0.210 and later versions, VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server supports IP-based protocols such as NVMeTCP and iSCSI. A VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server is included in VxRail life cycle management (LCM). Verify that you provide a VMware vCenter Server license for a dynamic node cluster.

If the VMware vCenter Server evaluation license expires, the following occurs:

• No LCM functionality.
• Manage host is disconnected from the VMware vCenter Server inventory.​
• The VMware ESXi hosts and VM continue to run.
• Some operations stop working.

The VMware vCenter Server instance can be deployed on the cluster either as part of VxRail initial bring up or it can be a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server instance. If the VMware vCenter Server is deployed on the cluster as part of VxRail initial bring-up, assign a customer-managed license after the cluster is built. Upgrades of the VMware vCenter Server instance are supported as part of VxRail LCM.

For a VxRail vSAN HCI mesh configuration earlier than VxRail 8.0.100, all the clusters that are participating in the storage resource must reside in the same VMware vCenter Server instance. Place the clusters under the same data center instance inside the VMware vCenter Server. Beginning with VxRail 8.0.100, VxRail vSAN HCI mesh configurations that are built on VMware vSAN OSA can mount a remote VxRail vSAN datastore that are on another VMware vCenter Server instance.