feature section:
the Efficient Enterprise
Computing Pods:
Large-Scale Building
Blocks for Intelligent,
Automated Data
Center Deployments
Using advanced virtualization and software tools
together with latest-generation server, storage, and
network infrastructure, IT organizations can build largescale computing pods designed to aggregate server,
storage, and network nodes into a simple, cooperating
set of computing resources. This approach enhances
enterprise efficiency by streamlining operations
while facilitating fast, flexible response to increasingly
complex service-level requirements.
I
Related Categories:
By Timothy Sherbak
Chris Auger
T infrastructures tend to become ever more
advances possible. The required software elements
complex as administrators support growth with
are also available today, including mature operating
incremental hardware expansion, which in turn
systems, hypervisors, and management solutions.
calls for increased real estate, power, cooling, and
Another key requirement of an automated data
maintenance. Faced with shrinking budgets, many
center is policy-based automation utilizing real-time
organizations end up dedicating a majority of their
intelligence. Feedback loops are needed to help rec-
IT spending to simply maintaining data center
ognize problems and optimize the core features of
resources—placing serious constraints on their abil-
each layer of the infrastructure. Multipathing built into
ity to advance new initiatives.
some of today’s server and storage infrastructures is
Blade servers
To reverse the tide of complexity caused by
one example: if server and storage communication
Dell EqualLogic storage
piecemeal resource expansion, IT executives are
fails on one network path, the infrastructure has the
looking for ways to make strategic capital invest-
intelligence to try different paths. Other examples
ments geared to reduce overall operating expenses.
include automatic load balancing of workloads across
In particular, transitioning to a virtualized environ-
multiple physical servers and storage devices, and
ment can advance the efficiency of the overall IT
migration of workloads to help save energy by mini-
infrastructure by enabling self-managing data center
mizing the number of actively running servers.
Dell PowerEdge blade servers
Storage
Virtualization
Visit DELL.COM/PowerSolutions
for the complete category index.
resources to scale quickly and flexibly to meet specific organizational needs.
Many platforms are now optimized for virtualization.
To advance data center flexibility, intelligence, and
automation, IT managers must be able to integrate vir-
Creating building blocks for an
intelligent, automated data center
tualization across multiple layers of the infrastructure
Many of the elements required to build a highly scal-
resource pools. A key requirement is that specific work-
able, automated data center are now available.
loads not be bound to a specific physical resource.
to create virtualized server, storage, and network
Strategic integration and coordination of key hardware
Keeping workloads independent of specific
elements such as standards-based servers, storage,
hardware devices allows the flexibility and adapt-
switches, and processors are making these data center
ability needed to migrate workloads, reallocate
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, June 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
DELL.COM/PowerSolutions
37
feature section:
the Efficient Enterprise
resources, and expand resources on the
fly. These capabilities help simplify pro-
To clients, wide area network (WAN),
Internet, remote access
active management scenarios to support
real-world business processes. For
example, IT managers may dynamically
Core network layer
To clients, WAN,
Internet, remote access
Core network layer
reallocate data center resources when
end-of-month and financial reports are
Network distribution layer
Virtualized asset pools
due, or quickly make resources available
for a new project that has to be up and
Servers
Virtualized server pool
running in 30 days.
Such flexibility and adaptability allows
organizations to build as they grow rather
App
OS
than over-provision infrastructure up
front based on anticipated needs. An
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
Virtualized network pool
App
OS
App
OS
Virtualized storage pool
intelligent, self-managing data center that
integrates virtualization across multiple
SAN
layers of the infrastructure is also designed
to avoid prolonged service outages
because of infrastructure failures, or disruptive system upgrades and manual performance tuning in response to unforeseen
performance and growth needs.
Thinking about IT
infrastructure in new ways
Classic enterprise data center
architectural design
• Consolidated, resilient, energy-efficient
physical infrastructure
• Simplified deployment, provisioning, and
management
• Optimized server, storage, and network
utilization
Computing pod optimized design
Figure 1. Comparing a traditional data center architecture with a computing pod that consolidates server, storage,
and network resources
With many elements of the intelligent,
Designing a computing pod
architecture
addresses of ports within the infrastruc-
executives are starting to think about the
IT infrastructure in innovative ways. They
To design a computing pod architecture,
automatically inherit the attributes of
are using existing data center components
IT organizations can take advantage of
the prior components. This feature
to build architectures around the concept
advanced virtualization and software tools
enables administrators to modify or
of a computing pod. The pod can be
together with the latest generation of
change physical network infrastructure
defined as a self-contained building block
server, storage, and network infrastruc-
without an impact on the production
having the following attributes:
ture. Dell recommends that each pod
environment.
automated data center now available, IT
■■
■■
ture. Newly swapped-in components can
include the Dell™ PowerEdge™ M1000e
Organizations using PowerEdge M1000e
An optimized power and cooling foot-
modular blade enclosure with PowerEdge
enclosures can also optimize pod design
print to facilitate scalability
blade servers, SAN arrays, hypervisor,
using the Dell M1000e Rack and Cable
Integrated compute, storage, and net-
management module, and switches with
Advisor and Dell Virtualization Advisor
work nodes of significant size and pro-
stacking capability.
online tools, available at DELL.COM/
RackAdvisor and DELL.COM/Virtualization.
cessing power
Simplified data center deployment and
Dell PowerEdge enclosures
The M1000e Rack Advisor guides admin-
management to help reduce opera-
and blade servers
istrators through the configuration pro-
tional costs
The Dell PowerEdge M1000e enclosure
cess, including the use of power distribution
enables administrators to slide in blade
units and enclosure stacking, while the
IT managers traditionally think of serv-
servers and switches to expand or upgrade
Virtualization Advisor provides information
ers, storage area network (SAN) arrays,
infrastructure as needed. Expansion is
to help size blade and storage infrastruc-
and switches as core building blocks. Now
simple and internal to the chassis, allowing
ture according to the aggregate workloads
they can consolidate these elements into
nondisruptive growth. An important ele-
to be hosted. PowerEdge M610 and
a single large-scale building block that
ment of the PowerEdge M1000e enclosure
PowerEdge M710 blade servers are
becomes the basic unit of data center
is the Dell FlexAddress feature, which
designed to reduce space and power
deployment (see Figure 1).
effectively virtualizes the physical
requirements, which in turn can contribute
■■
38
DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | June 2009
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, June 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
to reduced total cost of ownership and
by adding bandwidth and I/O ports in a
Stacking and virtual blade switching
environmental impact.1
seamless way. Cisco switches that include
also enable the computing pod model by
virtual blade switch (VBS) technology,
creating a self-contained network distribu-
Virtualized server and storage platforms
such as the Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch
tion layer.3 With its single virtual switch,
Virtualized server platforms are essential to
3100 series switches, enable IT administra-
the blade enclosure becomes the basic
the computing pod model, enabling admin-
tors to interconnect multiple switches so
computing pod infrastructure unit. The
istrators to create a flexible pool of server
that they interact and behave as a single
network distribution layer resides entirely
resources that can be allocated dynami-
logical switch, managed together as a vir-
within the enclosure, helping avoid the
cally. If one physical server fails, virtual
tualized pool of network resources.
need for traffic among the server and
machines can automatically fail over to a
different physical system to help ensure
tion, virtualization allows the consolidation
Dell Business-Ready
Configurations:
Building blocks for growth
of multiple servers onto a reduced number
As data centers continue to grow in complexity, many traditional approaches to incremental expansion
of physical platforms, enabling the comput-
may not be able to keep up with rapid changes in business conditions. IT organizations can enhance
ing pod to provide significant processing
business response by taking advantage of advanced software tools and infrastructure such as the
power without sprawling hardware.
following:
continuous availability. IT administrators
can also quickly and easily start up virtual
machines at a disaster recovery site. In addi-
Virtualizing storage extends the benefits
of high availability, scalability, and optimiza-
■■
tion of resources. Internet SCSI (iSCSI)–
■■
based virtualized storage arrays such as Dell
EqualLogic™ PS6000 series virtualized iSCSI
SANs are recommended because they use
tains built-in intelligence—such as auto-
Dell PowerEdge M610 and PowerEdge M710 blade servers with the Intel® Xeon® processor
5500 series
■■
Dell EqualLogic PS6000 series virtualized Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage area network (SAN)
■■
Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3100 series
■■
VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenServer virtualization platforms
■■
Dell Management Console
the same Ethernet technology as other pod
elements.2 The EqualLogic SAN also con-
Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular blade enclosure
matic load balancing, simplified storage
provisioning, thin provisioning, replication,
By capitalizing on large-scale building blocks that help simplify and automate IT operations, the
and multipathing—that is designed to
computing pod model helps enterprises create innovative, self-contained data centers that can scale
integrate with pod environments utilizing
quickly, flexibly, and cost-effectively.
hypervisor technologies.
Dell Business-Ready Configurations provide a detailed reference architecture for deploying and
IT organizations have a variety of choices
implementing a computing pod architecture using Dell blade server and iSCSI storage environments.
for mature virtualization software, including
Based on extensive engineering work in architectural design and certification, the architecture is
the VMware® vSphere™, Microsoft® Hyper-V™,
and Citrix® XenServer™ platforms.
Network stacking and virtual blade
switching
designed for rapid deployment into production environments, helping to eliminate much of the costly
and time-consuming trial and error often encountered during complex infrastructure design and implementation. The solution is optimally configured to run virtualized workloads and is designed to provide
redundancy without single points of failure, as well as scalability and manageability. It includes the
Enhanced scalability and simplified man-
network architectures, storage configurations, and best practices necessary for deploying and con-
agement are key objectives of computing
figuring the solution.*
pod design. Server stacking and virtual
blade switching help deliver these capabilities. Stacking allows IT managers to
*For more information, see “Business-Ready Configurations for Dell PowerEdge Blade Servers, Dell EqualLogic Storage, and VMware
Infrastructure,” by Dell Virtualization Solutions Engineering, May 2009; and “Networking Best Practices for VMware Infrastructure 3 on
Dell PowerEdge Blade Servers,” by Dell Virtualization Solutions Engineering, April 2009, both available at DELL.COM/Virtualization.
incrementally grow network infrastructure
For more information on PowerEdge M610 and PowerEdge M710 blade servers, see “Data Center Workhorses: New Dell PowerEdge Rack and Blade Servers,” by Edward Yee, Indrani Paul, Robert Tung, Truc Nguyen, and Chad
Fenner, in Dell Power Solutions, June 2009, DELL.COM/Downloads/Global/Power/ps2q09-20090246-Nguyen.pdf.
For more information on Dell EqualLogic PS6000 series arrays, see “Boosting SAN Performance with Dell EqualLogic PS6000S Solid-State Drive Arrays,” by Dylan Locsin, Ujjwal Rajbhandari, and Wendy Chen, in Dell Power Solutions,
June 2009, DELL.COM/ Downloads/Global/Power/ps2q09-20090236-Locsin.pdf.
3
Large enterprise data centers, which can potentially house thousands of physical servers, may use a three-tier network architecture. The servers may be connected together through an “access layer” network of switches, which
connect to the distribution layer network (which, in turn, connects to the core network layer). In this case, the same conceptual argument for a pod architecture applies. In the pod architecture, server communication and data
transfers between servers across the access layer network are consolidated on the pod’s backplane-based network infrastructure, isolating it from other parts of the network.
1
2
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, June 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
DELL.COM/PowerSolutions
39
feature section:
the Efficient Enterprise
Core network layer
Virtualized asset pools
Virtualized asset pools
Virtualized asset pools
Virtualized asset pools
Virtualized
server pool
Virtualized
server pool
Virtualized
server pool
Virtualized
server pool
Virtualized
network pool
Virtualized
network pool
Virtualized
network pool
Virtualized
network pool
Virtualized
storage pool
Virtualized
storage pool
Virtualized
storage pool
Virtualized
storage pool
Figure 2. Scaling enterprise data center architectures with multiple computing pods
storage nodes to go out onto the data
infrastructure can be integrated directly
members need not spend time managing
center core network layer. Servers,
into the blade enclosure’s Ethernet switch
individual servers, which helps reduce IT
switches, and the management module are
infrastructure, either as a virtual LAN or
support costs substantially.
contained within the blade server enclo-
as an independent network. With Dell
Organizations can maintain a single
sure environment (see the “Dell Business-
EqualLogic PS Series arrays, storage
logical entity—the pod—instead of per-
Ready Configurations: Building blocks for
nodes are “stacked” as well—that is, mul-
forming time-consuming, one-to-one
growth” sidebar in this article).
tiple cooperating arrays are integrated as
server management, storage management,
a logical pool of storage to help optimize
and network management. Managing the
Enhancing data center
capabilities with
computing pods
I/O and storage utilization. In this way,
complete computing pod environment as
administrators can use each pod to
a unit not only helps optimize servers and
aggregate dozens or even hundreds of
switches, but also helps simplify backup
Computing pods are designed to offer IT
server and storage workloads in a mini-
and patch management. IT staff can be
organizations significantly enhanced data
mum amount of space.
efficiently trained to manage the standard
center capabilities, including efficient
Data protection procedures may also
pod and its components, using logically
aggregation and networking, increased
be consolidated and centralized within
consolidated tools and procedures rather
space savings, unified maintenance and
the computing pod. Administrators begin
than multiple disparate systems.
training, and simplified infrastructure
by designating one or two blade servers
Computing pods also help simplify
design and deployment.
per pod as media servers for backup and
infrastructure design and deployment.
Redundant, high-bandwidth connectiv-
recovery with direct connectivity to tape
Designing a data center using the com-
ity internal to blade enclosures within the
and/or disk resources dedicated to back-
puting pod as a basic building block
pod helps speed communication and
ups. Data backup traffic is limited to the
helps
reduce congestion on the core data center
pod’s computing, storage, and network
Organizations using pods are able to
network layer. For example, suppose an
infrastructure without affecting external
reduce the time and cost requirements
administrator needs to place a blade server
data center resources.
of data center planning, deployment,
simplify
the
design
target.
into standby mode and move the virtual-
Another blade server within each pod
ized servers to a different blade server in
can be designated as a configuration server
the same stack. None of that traffic actually
for pod management. Using the Dell
leaves the backplane or affects the core
Management Console, hypervisor man-
data center network layer. Even large
agement tools, and other management
Deploying computing pods
for flexible, scalable
data centers
workloads can move among blade servers
applications, this designation enables
The building block approach to comput-
without disrupting productivity.
administrators to manage the production
ing pods enables outstanding flexibility
Likewise, access to storage is isolated
servers in the pod as a unit, from configura-
and scalability. Blade server, storage,
from the data center’s core network
tion and reimaging to patch management
and network nodes within the pod are
infrastructure. The iSCSI SAN networking
and antivirus updates. As a result, IT staff
designed to be easily scalable, and the
4
4
and implementation.
For more information on the Dell Management Console, see “Systems Management Simplified,” by Pascal Nicolas, Jeanne Feldkamp, and Tom Kolnowski, in Dell Power Solutions, March 2009, DELL.COM/Downloads/Global/Power/
ps1q09-20090191-CoverStory.pdf.
40
DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | June 2009
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, June 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
pod itself becomes a building block for
maximize energy efficiency, and enable
Dell Large Enterprise Business Unit, and
scaling out the data center.
rapid scalability.
has over 20 years of experience in computer systems and storage networking
Organizations of different sizes have
technologies. He has a B.S. in Systems and
midsize organizations can start with a
Integrating infrastructure
elements into efficient,
automated data centers
single pod as a convenient, all-inclusive
The computing pod is an exciting model
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
computing infrastructure in a single rack
for IT infrastructure that helps signifi-
Sloan School of Management.
enclosure and add nodes to the pod or
cantly advance enterprise efficiency.
additional pods as requirements grow.
By elevating data center intelligence
Chris Auger is manager of enterprise
In large enterprise environments, IT
through advanced virtualization and soft-
technology in the Dell Public Business
managers may deploy numerous pods
ware tools in combination with latest-
Unit, leading a team of enterprise tech-
to help meet comprehensive data center
generation server, storage, and network
nologists helping government, education,
infrastructure requirements, assigning
infrastructure, organizations can create
and health care organizations architect
different pods for different usage sce-
highly scalable, flexible, and self-managing
world-class data center solutions. He has
narios. For example, pods may be des-
data centers. By consolidating data
a B.S. in Mathematics from the University
ignated for production, development,
center functionality into a basic unit that
of Texas at Austin.
and Web presence—all sharing a common
also serves as a building block for large-
environment (see Figure 2).
scale data center deployments, comput-
distinct opportunities to benefit from
the computing pod model. For example,
The computing pod model also facili-
ing pods help reduce IT infrastructure
tates virtual desktop infrastructures by
complexity, simplify management, and
allowing IT administrators to easily add
increase cost-efficiency.
a pod to virtualize and aggregate desk-
Moreover, computing pods are
tops. End users can remotely access the
designed to provide a comprehensive,
computing pod server infrastructure and
integrated management infrastructure
run their personal computer environ-
that can be customized to specific orga-
ments there.
nizational requirements. They help
In addition, a growing number of
reduce and consolidate network traffic
organizations are utilizing computing
by isolating it to the specific resources
clouds to deliver flexible access to com-
requiring that traffic. And the large-scale
pute and storage resources. The cloud
building blocks provide for a flexible
computing approach enables organiza-
computing infrastructure that can
tions to leverage the scalability and
quickly and easily adapt to evolving
manageability of pods to build large
needs and requirements.
data center infrastructures with a pool of
flexible resources. The pod design helps
Timothy Sherbak is senior manager of
minimize acquisition and operating costs,
virtualization solutions marketing in the
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, June 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Information Science from Syracuse
University
and
an
M.S.
from
the
QUICK LINKs
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41