As vSphere evolves in functionality in terms of lifecycle management, even internally at Dell, I see confusion sometimes regarding the value of VxRail.
I started to hear about this since late 2018, when vSphere Update Manager (VUM) with vSphere 6.7 U1 started to also update drivers/firmware for the storage controllers for selected vendors, and now with vSphere 7.0 and the new vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) even the name makes things more confusing.
To understand the differences we first need to look at vLCM and what it can do.
vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM)
vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) is the next generation solution for vSphere lifecycle operations.
The foundation of vLCM is the declarative cluster lifecycle management. The vLCM desired state of an ESXi host represents the target ESXi version, and firmwares & drivers version for the host, as opposed to the versions that it currently runs. Once vLCM and cluster image management is enabled for a cluster, a desired state is set up. All the ESXi hosts in the cluster adhere to the desired state, and when a host drifts from the desired state, the host is remediated to be in compliance to the desired state.
To enable a cluster with a declarative image, the following prerequisites must be met:
- All hosts in the cluster must be running ESXi 7.0 or higher.
- All hosts in the cluster must be from the same vendor, ideally same make and model.
- Hosts may not be stateless.
- NSX is not supported in first release.
In comparison with VUM, that uses a baseline per host, vLCM applies the same image per cluster.
A cluster image consists of the following components:
- ESXi version: A base ESXi image supporting vSphere ESXi 7.0 or later.
- Vendor Addon: Package provided by the supported host vendor that potentially includes hardware providers, vendor firmware and drivers.
- Firmware & Drivers: Customers can include additional firmware and drivers that are not included in the vendor add-on; for example, when using an async driver for a hardware accelerator or NIC.
In the initial vSphere 7 release, Dell OpenManage and HP IlO Amplifier are supported as Vendor Add-ons.
VxRail Advantage
vLCM provides new levels of upgrade automation to help accelerate upgrades, enabling customers to submit firmware upgrades to vLCM, that are then automatically pushed out to Ready Nodes. This results in valuable time-saving for sure, but the user still needs to validate and test the component compatibility and determine optimal sequencing to ensure they can get to a next good state. For every patch and upgrade, administrators are still responsible for navigating the best way to reach the next state
VxRail provides a faster, more reliable, and operationally efficient means to upgrade, update and patch your VMware infrastructure. Simply choose the validated state you want the infrastructure to be in, and VxRail will automatically take you to your destination.
VxRail engineering, through its Continuously Validated State, does a complete verification of the entire stack, for each and every component level firmware and software, for an upgrade to deliver the best experience.
With VxRail you are not forced to move to vSphere 7.0 to have advanced lifecycle management, as it has been providing it since vSphere 6.0. With VxRail you can seamlessly add next-generation, VxRail nodes to a cluster and retire old nodes while non-disruptively running workloads.
VxRail can also easily manage heterogeneous mixed-node clusters, while vLCM requires the cluster to have nodes of the same kind.
VxRail is more than lifecycle management. VxRail comes with VxRail Manager, natively integrated with and accessed via vCenter, that provides overall management for all VxRail operations to deploy, manage, upgrade, patch, and add nodes to a cluster.
VxRail Analytics Consulting Engine (ACE) provides AI driven operations insights to deliver detailed health checks, predictive analytics, and further simplifies the upgrade process by pre-staging all required components for individual cluster upgrades making management at scale easier than ever.
A broad set of publicly available RESTful APIs are provided to customers to deliver greater cloud and IT automation extensibility.
Ecosystem connectors tightly integrate with infrastructure components including vSAN, physical server components, and networking, enabling automation and orchestration services across the entire stack. For example, VxRail integration with SmartFabric Services automates network fabric configuration and management for VxRail clusters.
Customers also have access to Dell EMC Secure Remote Support (SRS) for all included HW and SW within VxRail, throughout the entire lifecycle of the infrastructure.
In summary, VxRail is the only jointly engineered HCI system with VMware, for VMware HCI environments, designed to enhance the VMware native experience. No other VMware HCI deployment option can deliver the value and differentiated customer experience that VxRail does…