Dell VxRail Architecture Overview

VMware vCenter Server

The VMware vCenter Server manages the VMware vSphere environment, VMware ESXi server virtualization, and VMware vSAN. VMware vCenter Server provides advanced capabilities such as VMware vSphere vMotion, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), and VMware High Availability (HA).

VxRail is deployed and managed as a VMware vSphere cluster. Each cluster deployment requires a VMware vCenter Server to serve as the overall management platform. VxRail offers the following management options for the VMware vCenter Server:

• VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server: Can be deployed on the cluster or you can deploy the cluster on an existing VMware vCenter Server instance in your data center. You can also deploy a cluster using a VxRail-managed vCenter Server that resides on another VxRail cluster.
• Customer-managed VMware vCenter Server: Resides in the customer data center outside of the VxRail cluster to be deployed.

On VxRail Day 1 deployment, from the Global Settings window in VxRail Manager, you can select the VxRail-managed or customer-managed VMware vCenter Server.

VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server

Selecting the VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server during cluster deployment deploys a new VMware vCenter Server Appliance to the primary data store of the new cluster. The primary datastore is either VMware vSAN or a supported Dell storage array if the cluster is deployed using dynamic nodes. VxRail Manager for the new cluster controls the initial configuration and life cycle management for the VMware vCenter Server Appliance. Some VxRail systems are supplied with a VMware vCenter Server license key that may be used if the VMware vCenter Server Appliance was deployed to VMware vSAN and only managed VxRail up to VxRail 8.x. A customer-provided license is also supported. The VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server can manage multiple VxRail clusters when selected using the Customer-managed option during deployment of the additional clusters.

The VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server and VxRail Manager are deployed on the VxRail vCenter Server Network that is configured during the initial build process. The VMware vCenter Server network must be able to reach required external management personnel and data center services. For more information, see the VxRail Network Planning Guide.

Customer-managed VMware vCenter Server

A VxRail cluster may join a compatible customer-managed VMware vCenter Server that is hosted outside of the VxRail cluster. In addition to the centralized management advantage of a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server, you can also migrate the VMs between nodes and clusters for optimal workload balance and simplified VxRail upgrades and expansion. For certain use cases, you can convert a VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server to a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server. You cannot convert a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server to a VxRail-managed VMware vCenter Server.

With the customer-managed VMware vCenter Server, only the VxRail Manager is deployed on the VxRail external management network on the VxRail cluster. This external management network must be able to reach not only the required end-users and data center services, but also the customer-managed VMware vCenter Server. For more information, see the VxRail Network Planning Guide.