Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide

Data center services

The following requirements and options apply for data center services:

• DNS is required to deploy the VxRail cluster and for ongoing operations. You can use internal DNS service internal to VxRail, or use a DNS service in your data center.
• VxRail cluster requires synchronization of the clock settings on the various VxRail components to ensure proper operations. Use a reliable global timing service for VxRail such as NTP.
• Syslog service is supported, but not required, with VxRail.
• VxRail depends on VMware vCenter Server for cluster management and operations. Use the embedded VMware vCenter Server instance that is included with VxRail or a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server instance in your data center.

Routing services

VxRail cluster operations depend on the networks that run on both the virtual network inside the cluster and on the adjoining physical network switches. Some networks for VxRail management and for end-user access must be passed to the upstream network. Other VxRail networks can stay isolated on the adjoining network switches.

Reserve VLAN IDs in your data center network to be assigned to support the VxRail networks, especially for production workloads. All reserved VLANs must be configured on the adjoining physical switches that are connected to the VxRail nodes. The VLANs cannot be configured as private VLANs.

Certain VxRail management components must be able to connect to data center services, such as DNS and NTP. Routing services must be configured to enable connectivity to these services for these management components. Configure networks such as those required for end-user access to support routing end-users and external applications to the VMs running on the VxRail cluster.

If L3 routing services are not configured on the adjacent physical switches, configure the VLANs that need to pass upstream on adjoining network switch uplinks. Configure services on the ports on the upstream network devices so they can pass through upstream to L2 or L3 networks. If L3 services are enabled on the adjacent physical switches, configure the VLANs that need to pass upstream to terminate at this layer. Configure routing services for these networks to pass upstream.