Dell S3048-ON VxFlex Network Deployment Guide using EMC Networking 25GbE switc - Page 9

3 VxFlex networking overview The primary purpose of this guide is to provide a step-by-step example for configuring the network for VxFlex using OS10EE. Chapter 4 provides instructions for configuring Dell EMC Networking S5248F-ON 25GbE switches, running OS10EE. Two S5248F-ON switches are used as ToR/leaf switches to connect Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Nodes (based on R740xd servers) for VxFlex installation and upstream connectivity. In VxFlex, internode communication, which is used for managing data locations, rebuilding, rebalancing, and for application access to stored data, can be done on one IP network or spread across separate IP networks. Regardless of the model used, VxFlex supports VLANs. Management may be done on a separate network with access to the other VxFlex components, or on the same network. Each VxFlex node in this guide has four 25GbE ports that are provided by two Mellanox Connect X-4 LX PCIe cards. Two of the available four ports are used to carry all traffic types (front end and back end) in this deployment and Quality of Service (QoS) is used to ensure that traffic requiring low-latency is prioritized (see Section 7.2). Since VxFlex may provide compute resources, the remaining free ports could be leveraged for compute workloads, depending on requirements. Note: For configuring previous generation switches using version OS9 firmware, see VxFlex Network Deployment Guide using Dell EMC Networking 25GbE switches and OS9. Table 1 provides a breakdown and where to find each example. DNOS Configuration examples Dell EMC ToR Switch OS10EE S5248F-ON (25GbE) OS9 S5048F-ON (25GbE) VxFlex nodes R740xd (VxFlex Ready Nodes) R730xd (servers) Example This document OS9 deployment guide 3.1 Network topologies This section provides an overview of the production network, management network, and physical connections used in the deployment example in this guide. 3.1.1 Production network A non-blocking network design allows the use of all switch ports concurrently. Such a design is needed to accommodate various traffic patterns in a VxFlex deployment and optimize the additional traffic generated in the HCI environment. Figure 5 shows the example topology using Dell EMC VxFlex Ready Nodes and OS10EE switch firmware running on Dell EMC Networking S5248F-ON leaf switches. The VxFlex components, MDM, SDS, and SDC, reside on the hosts while ESXi is managed through vCenter in the management environment. A typical leaf-spine topology is shown to demonstrate access to the existing infrastructure found in a typical data center. This configuration demonstrates a single rack deployment. Larger scale deployments may require separate storage data and VM production networks. Configuring the leaf-spine or existing production network is beyond the scope of this guide. 9 VxFlex Network Deployment Guide using Dell EMC Networking 25GbE switches and OS10EE