Dell VxRail Architecture Overview

VxRail dynamic node clusters

VxRail dynamic node clusters are compute-only VxRail nodes that come with VMware ESXi, but do not include a VMware vSAN license. Dynamic nodes use external storage as the primary storage to host VxRail Manager. You can use a VxRail cluster VMware vSAN data store using VMware HCI mesh or a supported Dell storage array. You can access the external storage array over Ethernet or Fiber channel (FC).

Dynamic nodes run VxRail HCI software so that VxRail clusters and dynamic node clusters have the same consistent LCM experience. Dynamic nodes depend on external storage resources to support VM workloads. Dynamic nodes require a minimum of two nodes with the same model number. Several storage protocols are supported.

BOSS drives used to store and boot the VMware ESXi operating system on dynamic nodes. Dynamic nodes require a supported and compatible external storage resource to be deployed as a cluster. The external storage resource must have sufficient storage capacity, performance, and availability characteristics to meet use case requirements. The standard cluster relies on VMware vSAN for primary storage that can also use external storage resources in the data center as secondary storage.

Like standard clusters using VMware vSAN as primary storage, the dynamic node cluster is suitable for most use cases and can support most VM workloads. Physical resources such as compute, memory, and networking are common between a standard cluster and a dynamic node. The features that are built into the external storage infrastructure and external storage platform determine the options for addressing requirements such as capacity and availability.