FlexPod Express (aka ExpressPod)
For completeness of understanding or for those who have not yet heard about the joint "set-up" from the trendsetters in the IT world - background:
In the relatively recent 2010 of Cisco, NetApp & VMWare released a CVD and NVD-validated architecture called FlexPod . The solution includes NetApp FAS storage , Cisco UCS Server, Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect, Cisco Nexus 5548UP Converged Switch and VMWare hypervisor (and later Hyper-V). The solution has become quite popular due to the current trends of the “private cloud”, consolidation and virtualization of IT systems in general.
Despite global popularity, the FlexPod is still a rather rare solution within the framework of the USSR . Perhaps this is due to the relatively considerable threshold of “entry”, which not every enterprise is ready to “budget” in order to increase IT efficiency in the future, can be confused by the outwardly similar proposal from competitors, with 2100+ implementations in the world.
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In the recent past, to meet the needs of medium and small organizations, within the framework of the “Datacenter-In-A-Box” concept, Cisco and NetApp published a “compact” SMB variant of the FlexPod architecture - ExpressPod, which was then renamed FlexPod Express. The complex almost instantly established itself as a profitable, reliable and easily scalable platform for the effective solution of server resource consolidation tasks.
What is the beauty of the “set-up” in comparison with other offers of the market?
First, the solution is designed and tested jointly by Cisco and NetApp. As a result - balanced components and the absence of "bottlenecks". Moreover, companies that have implemented FlexpPod Express can expect easy low-cost scaling while maintaining unity in terms of managing the system and performing day-to-day backup, archiving, etc.
Secondly, FlexPod Express, like the FlexPod “big brother”, is supported jointly by Cisco, NetApp and VMWare. This refers to that when addressing any support of any of the “industry giants” listed above, the user will receive a full and comprehensive consultation on his decision, even if it was Cisco, and difficulties arose with NetApp or VMWare.
Further, more :) FlexPod Express (aka ExpressPod) is delivered by us to the end customer in the form of a preconfigured solution, ready to deploy business applications in a fully configured, fault-tolerant virtualized environment. When ordering, it is sufficient to specify the preferred hypervisor (vSphere or Hyper-V). This allows, at least 2-3 weeks to reduce the time required to run targeted business applications and get a fully predictable result, the quality of which gives the tooth not only the integrator company, but also reputable manufacturers in the world market.
The ideology of a single system management is also preserved - it means ex-Cloupia, which is now called Cisco UCS Manager. This is what allows ExpressPod to aesthetically integrate into the family of validated FlexPod architectures.
What hides under the common marketing name "FlexPod Express"? Like any other platform for building a “private cloud”, FlexPod Express can be logically divided into:
Computational part
Rack-Mount is introduced by Cisco UCS -2/4 Cisco UCS C220 M3 servers. In each of the servers, there are 2 powerful 8-core Intel E5-2650 processors, 64GB RAM +, an iSCSI- specific network card (with hardware TOE , which, in essence, “deploys” the IP packet with the SCSI team, issues the OS ready for receiving SCSI command, which can significantly reduce the load on the processors and response time).
Network part
In ExpressPod, this is 2 Cisco Nexus 3048, functioning as a single failover switch that allows you to aggregate ports into physically separate hardware into one vPC Trunk. Even since Nexus was originally designed specifically for servicing network storage, Latency packet switching within the system will be guaranteed less than 1ms (in fact, about 1 microsecond), which allows you to fully take advantage of vSphere functionality such as Fault Tolerance.
Data storage
For ExpressPod, this is NetApp FAS 2220/2240. Here, the user immediately gets bundled with a smart, fault-tolerant data storage for the hypervisor, and the possibilities of organizing CIFS ( SMB ) / NFS user data storage and of course all the advantages of NetApp — deduplication, thin-provisioning, instant clones that do not take up space, etc.
The basic configuration ExpressPod offers 2 options - Small and Medium. They differ in the number of servers (2 or 4) and the NetApp FAS storage model (2220 or 2240). In both configurations, Gigabit Ethernet is used as the data transmission medium, and more specifically, 4 * GbE trunks combined with LACP + vPC . In principle, this channel width will be sufficient for most even the most demanding users, but if necessary, 10GbE ports can be used at any time — all you need is to purchase Twinax-type 10GbE cables or SFP + modules and LC-LC optical patches + corresponding PCI-e cards for servers / storage .
In general, the ExpressPod configuration is very balanced and easily scalable. If necessary, add. space or performance of the disk subsystem will be enough to connect to the storage additional disk shelf. Add. Computing resources can be easily obtained by adding UCS C-Series servers, connecting them to free ports on Nexus (only 2x 3048 - 96 GbE ports and 8 - 10GbE).
All this allows us to provide the customer with a complete integrated solution for consolidation / centralized infrastructure management and, as a result, a significant reduction in operating costs within a “small” enterprise (up to 500 users).
If you are interested in the solution, it’s enough to call or contact by e-mail - the certified specialists of Inforada are always ready to help conduct pre-qualification of the offers available on the market and help, later, qualitatively implement the implementation to achieve maximum efficiency when using modern IT technologies in the business.
Published according to the materials of Inforada .
Comments on errors in the text and suggestions please send to the LAN .
In the relatively recent 2010 of Cisco, NetApp & VMWare released a CVD and NVD-validated architecture called FlexPod . The solution includes NetApp FAS storage , Cisco UCS Server, Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect, Cisco Nexus 5548UP Converged Switch and VMWare hypervisor (and later Hyper-V). The solution has become quite popular due to the current trends of the “private cloud”, consolidation and virtualization of IT systems in general.
Despite global popularity, the FlexPod is still a rather rare solution within the framework of the USSR . Perhaps this is due to the relatively considerable threshold of “entry”, which not every enterprise is ready to “budget” in order to increase IT efficiency in the future, can be confused by the outwardly similar proposal from competitors, with 2100+ implementations in the world.
')
In the recent past, to meet the needs of medium and small organizations, within the framework of the “Datacenter-In-A-Box” concept, Cisco and NetApp published a “compact” SMB variant of the FlexPod architecture - ExpressPod, which was then renamed FlexPod Express. The complex almost instantly established itself as a profitable, reliable and easily scalable platform for the effective solution of server resource consolidation tasks.
What is the beauty of the “set-up” in comparison with other offers of the market?
First, the solution is designed and tested jointly by Cisco and NetApp. As a result - balanced components and the absence of "bottlenecks". Moreover, companies that have implemented FlexpPod Express can expect easy low-cost scaling while maintaining unity in terms of managing the system and performing day-to-day backup, archiving, etc.
Secondly, FlexPod Express, like the FlexPod “big brother”, is supported jointly by Cisco, NetApp and VMWare. This refers to that when addressing any support of any of the “industry giants” listed above, the user will receive a full and comprehensive consultation on his decision, even if it was Cisco, and difficulties arose with NetApp or VMWare.
Further, more :) FlexPod Express (aka ExpressPod) is delivered by us to the end customer in the form of a preconfigured solution, ready to deploy business applications in a fully configured, fault-tolerant virtualized environment. When ordering, it is sufficient to specify the preferred hypervisor (vSphere or Hyper-V). This allows, at least 2-3 weeks to reduce the time required to run targeted business applications and get a fully predictable result, the quality of which gives the tooth not only the integrator company, but also reputable manufacturers in the world market.
The ideology of a single system management is also preserved - it means ex-Cloupia, which is now called Cisco UCS Manager. This is what allows ExpressPod to aesthetically integrate into the family of validated FlexPod architectures.
What hides under the common marketing name "FlexPod Express"? Like any other platform for building a “private cloud”, FlexPod Express can be logically divided into:
Computational part
Rack-Mount is introduced by Cisco UCS -2/4 Cisco UCS C220 M3 servers. In each of the servers, there are 2 powerful 8-core Intel E5-2650 processors, 64GB RAM +, an iSCSI- specific network card (with hardware TOE , which, in essence, “deploys” the IP packet with the SCSI team, issues the OS ready for receiving SCSI command, which can significantly reduce the load on the processors and response time).
Network part
In ExpressPod, this is 2 Cisco Nexus 3048, functioning as a single failover switch that allows you to aggregate ports into physically separate hardware into one vPC Trunk. Even since Nexus was originally designed specifically for servicing network storage, Latency packet switching within the system will be guaranteed less than 1ms (in fact, about 1 microsecond), which allows you to fully take advantage of vSphere functionality such as Fault Tolerance.
Data storage
For ExpressPod, this is NetApp FAS 2220/2240. Here, the user immediately gets bundled with a smart, fault-tolerant data storage for the hypervisor, and the possibilities of organizing CIFS ( SMB ) / NFS user data storage and of course all the advantages of NetApp — deduplication, thin-provisioning, instant clones that do not take up space, etc.
The basic configuration ExpressPod offers 2 options - Small and Medium. They differ in the number of servers (2 or 4) and the NetApp FAS storage model (2220 or 2240). In both configurations, Gigabit Ethernet is used as the data transmission medium, and more specifically, 4 * GbE trunks combined with LACP + vPC . In principle, this channel width will be sufficient for most even the most demanding users, but if necessary, 10GbE ports can be used at any time — all you need is to purchase Twinax-type 10GbE cables or SFP + modules and LC-LC optical patches + corresponding PCI-e cards for servers / storage .
In general, the ExpressPod configuration is very balanced and easily scalable. If necessary, add. space or performance of the disk subsystem will be enough to connect to the storage additional disk shelf. Add. Computing resources can be easily obtained by adding UCS C-Series servers, connecting them to free ports on Nexus (only 2x 3048 - 96 GbE ports and 8 - 10GbE).
All this allows us to provide the customer with a complete integrated solution for consolidation / centralized infrastructure management and, as a result, a significant reduction in operating costs within a “small” enterprise (up to 500 users).
If you are interested in the solution, it’s enough to call or contact by e-mail - the certified specialists of Inforada are always ready to help conduct pre-qualification of the offers available on the market and help, later, qualitatively implement the implementation to achieve maximum efficiency when using modern IT technologies in the business.
Published according to the materials of Inforada .
Comments on errors in the text and suggestions please send to the LAN .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/190708/
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