IT modernization with Dell PowerEdge R760 servers based on 4th generation Intel Xeon processors.
Transitioning to new server technology requires organizations to carefully consider the costs and benefits when investing in new infrastructure, including hardware, software, and operating environments. Imagine the productivity gains of a data center using this new or upgraded hardware and software. Along with significant productivity gains, organizations will benefit from the latest security tools, systems management capabilities, faster processing speeds, reduced downtime, and faster results. In addition, the updated infrastructure will increase scalability, allowing for future growth without major disruptions, as well as increase the cluster's performance per watt.
All of these points to how updating your hardware, software, and operating environment can improve the overall performance of your data center. However, reconciling all three elements simultaneously is not an easy task, as past decisions can hinder progress.
Dell, Intel and VMware offer an updated ReadyNode infrastructure solution called vSAN 8.0 with Express Storage Architecture (ESA). This release provides increased productivity and efficiency to meet customers' growing business needs. Customers using the Dell PowerEdge R760 server can take advantage of vSAN 8.0, but must choose between an existing vSAN Original Storage Architecture (OSA) Ready Node or upgrade to the new ESA ReadyNode architecture. vSAN ESA ReadyNodes are x86 servers pre-configured, tested and certified by Dell and VMware. Each vSAN ESA ReadyNode is optimally configured for vSAN ESA or OSA with the required amount of CPU, memory, network I/O devices and NVMe storage devices. In total, Dell offers more than 250 configurations capable of satisfying any customer requirement, so the question arises: which one to choose and how to perform the migration?
Intel engineers, supported by Dell engineers, tested several vSAN offerings to get a full picture of the performance and characteristics of the usage scenarios. Tests were conducted in Intel and Dell performance labs between November 2022 and March 2023 using NVMe drives from Solidigm. The ultimate goal was to identify the performance improvements of vSAN 8.0 ESA over the previous vSAN 7.0U3 OSA architecture across multiple generations of different hardware offerings. As a result of the tests, the performance has increased by more than 6 times and the latency is 4.9 times lower when using the latest generation Dell servers and 4th generation Intel Xeon processors with higher PCIe bandwidth and advanced networking capabilities.
Because the vSAN 8 ESA storage platform has more specific hardware requirements than OSA, most customers will migrate to ESA on a per-cluster basis with a new vSAN installation running on vSAN ReadyNodes certified for use with ESA. The transition of OSA to ESA is a one-time migration that occurs for each cluster. Each step requires careful consideration of factors such as hardware replacement, data migration, performance improvements, and available capacity in other clusters.
After all, IT teams' primary responsibilities are to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), reduce downtime, and improve performance and scalability through infrastructure optimization. As technology continues to evolve, engineers at Dell, Intel and VMware are focused on optimizing new solutions to deliver greater value to customers. Introducing new technologies into older environments can compromise, and sometimes even negate, this value.
The combination of Dell PowerEdge servers with 4th generation Intel® Xeon® processors and the latest VMware/vSAN ReadyNodes hypervisor can significantly improve performance, reduce latency and provide more timely business intelligence. Because storage devices represent a significant portion of the total cost of ownership, reconfiguring existing hardware to optimize the capabilities of vSAN8.0 ESA requires a significant capital investment. However, servers will still not be able to provide maximum performance due to the performance degradation of legacy NVMe and servers. In addition, this approach significantly increases the burden on existing IT staff.
The Server Solutions company sells Dell PowerEdge R760 and Dell PowerEdge R760xs servers throughout Ukraine, among our customers are small, medium and large businesses. If you or your company needs advice and the purchase of high-quality server equipment, then you should contact us.