Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide

In this type of cluster with a local VMware vSAN data store, operational flexibility addresses scalability and high availability requirements. This cluster initialization process performs all the work to pool the node resources for ease of consumption. This cluster type is not dependent on external resources for storage, so all resources can be administered under a single point of management. More compute and storage resources can be expanded to the cluster through automated node and disk drive addition. External storage resources can be configured on the cluster as secondary storage capacity.

This cluster type may be cost-prohibitive for smaller business requirements. Light workloads, such as those in a remote office, may be a better fit for a two-node cluster or a satellite node. If the cluster is in a single site and offers support for continuous operations from a failure of components within the cluster. Zero-downtime protection from a failure of a single data center or site is not supported. A stretched VxRail cluster is a better solution for high availability requirements.

Expansion of a cluster through node addition may lead to stranded assets. Excess compute and storage resources cannot be shared outside of the cluster. For workloads that require a precise balance of compute and storage resources, a dynamic cluster may be a better fit.