Supermicro Systems Solution for Red Hat Hyperconverged
Infrastructure for Virtualization (RHHI-V)
New Compact, Simplified, Cost-Effective Compute/Storage Systems to Extend Red Hat-based IT
Infrastructure

Executive Summary
Supermicro systems combined with Red Hat® Hyperconverged
Infrastructure for Virtualization (RHHI-V) offers a simple, low-cost,and proven Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) building blocks
to run applications and data storage for edge and branch offices.
These systems are designed to easily extend an existing data
center with a Red Hat environment into the edge. Windows andLinux Server applications and virtual desktops are supported.
Benefits of Supermicro systems running RHHI-V include:o Time saving due to its simplicity and a modular scalingo Lower cost as all the HCI features and support are included in
one priceo Built from Supermicro’s 27-years of proven industry systemdesign coupled with Red Hat’s comprehensive HCI software
stack
Organizations in industries like energy, retail, banking,telecommunications, and the public sector increasingly rely on
critical applications that must be deployed with limited space,budgetary constraints, and a scarcity of skilled IT staff. They must
extend the reach of these applications from the data center coreto the edge of the network. Supermicro system solutions running
RHHI-V are designed for these environments.
In today’s ever-changing digital landscape, organizations are searching to manage and deploy
applications faster while reducing the total cost of ownership. As your IT grows, traditional
infrastructures require added hardware, software, and resources with application growth. For
organizations to remain relevant, IT teams need to remain efficient, effective and, responsive. HCI
technology allows for simplicity and ease of deployment while lowering the total cost of ownership. Withfewer systems to manage, hyperconverged infrastructures reduce deployment time, design time, andintegration complexity. Supermicro and Red Hat have collaborated to create HCI for virtualization© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 20201

solutions designed to augment your IT infrastructure by merging compute, storage and, networking intoa single easy-to-manage solution.
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure Virtualization and Supermicro Green IT servers provide a fully
integrated HCI solution that can reduce deployment times from days to hours. This removes thecomplexity of having to manage traditional IT environments that encompass servers, storage, andnetworking switches while providing the automation of hardware and software to quickly deploy a fully
operational system. Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure Virtualization provides an open-source
platform for deploying virtualized applications with the power of Supermicro’s industry-leading highperformance, high-efficiency, green computing server technology that provides advanced server
solutions for the datacenter.

SUPERMICROTABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to Red Hat HCI Infrastructure for Virtualization
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Value of Supermicro Solutions for Red Hat HCI Infrascture for
Virtualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Red Hat HCI Infrasctructure Architect Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Supermicro Solutions and Reference Architectures for Red Hat
RHHI-V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Supermicro is a global leader in high performance, green
computing server technology and innovation. We provide our
global customers with application-optimized servers andworkstations customized with blade, storage, and GPU
solutions. Our products offer proven reliability, superior design,and one of the industry’s broadest array of productconfigurations, to fit all computational need.

Introduction to Supermicro BigTwin: Industry’s Hightest
Performing Twin Multi-Node System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The 5th Generation Twin Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Suggested Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Introduction to Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Virtualization
Features
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) incorporates thelatest Red Hat Virtualization technology along with Red Hat
Gluster® Storage and Red Hat Ansibl® Automation. Red Hat
Hyperconverged Infrastructure Virtualization is a collective
group of proven technologies that provides a single support
stack for virtual computes and virtual storage. Users canconfigure and deploy the components on the same Supermicrogreen technology server for a reduced IT physical footprint.
This is achieved through Red Hat’s virtualization open software
platform that virtualizes Linux and Microsoft Windows
workloads leveraging Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® along withkernel-based virtual machine (KVM) technology that virtualizes
resources, system processes and, customer applications. Red
Hat Gluster Storage is a software-defined and distributed scale-out file system that allows for rapid provisioning ofstorage based on the user’s consumption requirements. Red Hat Ansible® Automation is an enterprise automation
platform that provides IT admins, with control and insight, managing policy enforcement and governance.

© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 20202

Features

Description

Choice of Supermicro
Systems

Supermicro offers systems with different form fit and function for different
applications. Each server supports one or two Intel Scalable Xeon processors andup to 2+TB of system memory.
• Ultra 2U offers high capacity storage, with each node supporting NVMe
storage up to 384TB• BigTwin offers a very compact system that can host a 12-node RHHI-V
cluster in 6 rack-unit• Other systems are supported as wellResource Saving / Green
Computing

Supermicro Resource Saving Systems that address the Global Environmental
Impact of IT Infrastructure and provide improved TCO for Servers and All-Flash
NVMe storage solutions.
Benefits include:••••

Disaggregated Server Architecture with savings up to 45% to 60% in
Hardware Refresh Costs
Free Air Cooling with up to 30% PUE Improvement
Pooled Resources with Dynamic Allocation and Configuration of Critical
Datacenter Resources with up to 60% Savings in HVAC costs
Rack Scale Design with Open Industry Standard Rack Scale Management

Simplified Plug & Play
Scaling

Systems can start with 3 server nodes. As more performance and storage areneeded, 3 server nodes can be added, up to a maximum of 12 server nodes.

Virtualization – Virtual
Machine support

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualizes
resources, system processes, and customer applications. VMs running server
workloads and virtual desktops are supported, including Windows and Linuxvirtual machines.

Replicated Storage

Red Hat Gluster Storage is a scalable, distributed file system that aggregatesdisk storage resources from multiple servers into a single global namespace. It isscalable to several PB, handles thousands of clients, POSIX compatible,
accessible via NFS and SMB/CIFS. Resiliency features include replication, quotas,
geo-replication, snapshots, and bitrot detection.

Virtual Data Optimization(VDO) module
Deduplication andCompression

Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) is a device mapper module that adds data
reduction capabilities to the Linux block storage stack. VDO uses inline
compression and data deduplication techniques to transparently shrink data as itis being written to storage media.

Ansible Automation

Ansible Automation utilizes hundreds of modules that automate IT environments
and processes. It enables quick deployment of IT services, applications, andenvironments while automating routine activities. What traditionally took hours
can now be accomplished in minutes. The automation performs system tasks,
such as data replication to another system at a remote location.

Secure Virtualization orsVirt and SecurityEnhanced Linus or SELinux

Secure Virtualization or sVirt and Security-Enhanced Linus or SELinux ensures
security protection against hackers and viruses affecting the underlying systeminfrastructure. Supermicro supports TPMv2 to provide a hardware-based security
infrastructure.

vGPU support

Nvidia vGPU support is an optional feature that accelerates graphics-intensive
VDI workloads.

© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 20203

Value of Supermicro Solutions for Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Virtualization

Value

Features

Details

Simple configurations and
setup

After the simple installation of Red Hat OS and SSH
security setup, RHHI-V takes 30 minutes to install.

Simple scaling

User choice of 4 configurations: 3, 6, 9, or up to 12
nodes. The main choices for each server node is thenumber of cores in CPUs, amount of memory, andamount of storage.

Save Time

Automation such as
replication

Red Hat Ansible Automation performs system tasks,
such as data replication to another system at a remotelocation.

Graphical management

Web based GUI interface.

Cost effective systems

Supermicro systems including BigTwin, Ultra are costeffective systems that support hundreds of TB per
server.

Single supported softwarestack

The purchase of the software subscription includes
support. vGPU hardware sold separately.

All RHHI-V software features
are included

A single integrated environment, with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux, LVM volume manager, Red Hat
Virtualization, Red Hat Gluster Storage, and Red Hat
Ansible Automation scripts to manage the environment.

Save Money

Choice of optimized systems
for customer specificenvironments

Choice of systems to optimize racking, power,
acquisition costs (Ultra 2U, BigTwin, other options).

Reduced storage cost andnetwork replication cost

Built-in deduplication and compression in the storage
system. Deduplication significantly reduces the amountreplicated data and time delivered to remote systems.

Proven system design andquality

Supermicro has over 27-years of systems design
experience, delivering over 10 generations of Intelsystems, in a variety of form factors.

Worry-Free

Proven virtual environment
to run Windows and Linuxvirtual machines

Red Hat Virtualization includes support for Windows
and Linux virtual machines.

Redundant data and reliable
file system

Red Hat Gluster Storage keeps copies of all data in 3
servers. Red Hat LLVM volume manager has 20 years
of proven reliability.

Proven deduplication andcompression

RHHI-V deduplication and compression are based on
the reliable Virtual Data Optimization (VDO) module.

Remote replication support

All data can be replicated to remote sites for disasterrecovery.

Integration with Red Hat
infrastructure

RHHI-V is Red Hat integrates very well with any
existing Red Hat infrastructure.

vGPU graphic acceleration

Nvidia vGPU supports accelerated virtual desktop© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 2020

4

Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure can be deployed to complement your existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux
infrastructure while seamlessly integrating with other Red Hat and Red Hat Partner products. RHHI-V management
is built using Red Hat Ansible Automation scripts and playbooks. Red Hat Ansible automation is the foundation of theautomation for your data center across organizations with integrated tools that allow for enterprise-wide automation.
Ansible is an automation tool that configures and deploys software in your IT environment allowing you to orchestrateadvanced tasks for continuous deployments or zero downtime while performing rolling updates. Ansible’s goal is to
add simplicity and ease of use while focusing on security reliability whether managing and deploying small
environments or large enterprise deployments.
Data reduction is another valuable feature that allows IT organizations the capability of reducing data redundancy
on large numbers of virtual machines. The integrated solution is part of the Virtual Data Optimization (VDO) module
for the Linux device mappers provided within Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The incorporated Virtual Data Optimization
module for Linux device-mapper provides inline, real-time and, block-level deduplication and compression at the 4KB
level in conjunction with the management of the VDO data reduction. Deduplication reduces storage consumption
through elimination of multiple copies of duplicate blocks. VDO takes the action of detecting duplicate blocks andrecording them as a reference to the original block. After deduplication completion, multiple logical block addresses
can then be mapped to the same physical block address that is defined as a shared block. When a shared block gets
overwritten a new physical block is allocated for storing the new block data to ensure that other logical block
addresses that are mapped to the shared physical block are not modified.
VDO also incorporates in, addition, to block-level deduplication inline block-level compression using the HIOPS
Compression ™ technology. The optimal solution is deduplication when running in virtual machine environments andbackup applications where compression is more suited to structured and unstructured file formats that do not haveblock-level redundancy as with log files and databases. Compression works on blocks that have not been identified
as duplicates. When unique data is discovered for the first time, it’s in a compressed format. Any subsequent copiesof data that have already been stored are deduplicated without any additional compression step. The compression
feature is based on a parallelized packaging algorithm that enables it to handle multiple compression operations at
once. After storing the blocks and responding to the requestor a best-fit packing algorithm finds multiple blocks whencompressed fitting them into a single physical block. If it is determined that a particular physical block is unlikely tohold any additional compressed blocks, it gets written to storage where the uncompressed blocks are freed andreused.
Red Hat’s vGPU support offers companies requiring complete graphics a way of delivering strong graphicalperformance in a virtualized environment. Through the support of vGPU’s, the solution allows for increased visualclarity, improved solution performance while decreasing lag times to deliver virtualized graphics at remote site
locations. The vGPU feature makes it possible to divide a physical GPU device into multiple virtual devices known as
mediated devices. The mediated devices can then be assigned to multiple virtual machines (VMs) as virtual GPU’s.
The outcome is the VM’s end up sharing the performance of a single physical GPU.
Open Network Virtualization or OVN is a software-defined networking feature which is an open-source virtual
switching project that separates a physical network topology from the logical network. OVN improves scalability andperformance while facilitating live migration of the virtual networking components without any hypervisor
intervention. Virtual networking abstraction for OVS, implemented using L2 and L3 overlays that can also manage
connectivity to physical networks. Support for flexible ACL’s and native support for distributed L3 routing using OVS
flows, with support for both IPv4 and IPv6. Additional support is available for ARP and IPv6 Neighbor Discovery
suppression for known IP-MAC bindings and NAT and load balancing using OVS connection tracking. Native fully
distributed support for DHCP also includes and works with OVS datapaths such as default Linux kernel datapath,
DPDK or Hyper-V and includes software-based L2 gateways and TOR based L2 gateways that implement
hardware_vtep schema. And lastly, OVN enables support for networking on both VM’s and containers running insideof the VM’s without the second layer of overlay networking.
Security is one of the top IT concerns in the modern data center where RedHat has implemented Secure Virtualizationor sVirt and Security-Enhanced Linux or SELinux to aid in the protection of the hypervisor against unknown threatstargeted at the host or virtual machines. An added feature is the support of network encryption.
Central virtual resources management is a central management tool for compute, network, and storage through a
web-based Red Hat Virtualization Manager encompassing a RESTful API that extends to management and© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 20205

orchestration.

Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure Architecture Overview
Open Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) combines compute, storage, networking, and computer
management in one complete solution. With Red Hat Virtualization and Red Hat Gluster Storage RHHI deploys acrossthree physical nodes to create a discrete cluster or pod. Remote Branch Offices (ROBO’s) is a great use case for
deployment with Supermicro servers. Essentially ROBO features remote office data synchronization to the central
data center without having to rely fully upon to function.
The Single Cluster Architecture is highlighted.

Operating system support for Red Hat Hyperconverged
Infrastructure (RHHI) is supported only with the Red Hat
Virtualization host. Red Hat Hyperconverged infrastructure(RHHI) requires a minimum of 3 physical nodes while scaling to
6,9 or 12 nodes as supported solutions. For each physicalmachine, you must have at least 2 physical NICs per physicalnode. This is required for the separation of data andmanagement traffic. Guidelines for deployments are as follows:• Solutions: 12 cores, 64GB of RAM with 48TB of storage• Medium Solutions: 12 cores, 128GB of RAM w64TB of storage• Large Solutions: 16 cores, 256GB of RAM with 80TB of storage

To assist you with the sizing of a deployment you can refer to the Red Hat sizing chart that is located at
the following URL: https://rhhisize.com/
Virtual Machines can have at most 4 virtual CPUs and 2TB virtual disk space.
Networking – Each node requires 3x1 Gigabit Ethernet ports. For high availability, both ports must split across two
network switches with separate power supplies for fault tolerance. Front end networking management that is used
by Red Hat Virtualized and virtual machines should be running at minimum Gigabit Ethernet speeds. All IP addresses
assigned to the front-end network must be on the same subnet as each other. All IP addresses on this network must‘not’ be on the same subnet as the back-end storage and migration network.
Back-end network for the storage and migration traffic between storage peers; the recommendation is
to have a 10Gps network with Red Hat Gluster Storage requiring a maximum latency of 5 milliseconds
between peers.
For IPMI fencing, a separate network is required. For DHCP network configurations for the Host Engine virtual
machine you must have a DHCP configured before the configuration of the Red Hat Hyperconverged solution. To
allow geo-replication to store copies of data for disaster recovery purposes, a reliable time source is required.

© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

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Storage - If it’s top performance you're looking for in relation to disk technology then therecommendation is to use SSD’s in place of Hard Disk Drives. RAID configurations are dependent upon
the chosen technology.
●●●●

SAS/SATA 7K disks are supported with RAID 6
SAS 10K and 15K disks are supported with RAID 5 and RAID 6 configurations
RAID cards must use flash backed write cache
For JBOD configurations you’ll want to contact a sales representative

Logical volumes that comprise the engine gluster volume must be thick provisioned. This protects the
Hosted Engine from out of space conditions, disruptive volume configuration changes, I/O overhead,and migration activity. The logical volumes that comprise the vmstore and optional data gluster volumes
must be thin provisioned. This allows for greater flexibility in underlying volume configuration. If yourthin provisioned volumes are on Hard Drive Disks (HDD’s), you’ll want to configure a smaller, faster
Disk (SSD) as a lvmcache.
Red Hat Gluster Storage Volumes in a RHHI-V configuration are expected to have 3 to 4 in a solution.
●●●●

1 engine volume for the Hosted Engine
1 vmstore volume for virtual machine boot disk images
1 optional data volume for other virtual machine disk images
1 shared_storage volume for geo-replication metadata

Also, a Red Hat Hyperconverged infrastructure deployment can contain at most one geo-replicatedvolume.
Volume Types - Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) supports only replicated or arbitrated
replicated volume types. The arbitrated replicated volume type carries the following additional
limitations.
●●●

Arbitrated replicated volumes are supported on the first 3 nodes only
Arbitrated replicated volumes must use replica 3 arbiter 1 configuration
Arbiter bricks do not store file data; they only storage file names, structure, and metadatao For a three way-way arbitrated replicated volume requires about 75% of the storage
space that a three-way replicated volume would require to achieve the same level ofconsistency.
o The arbiter brick stores only metadata, a three-way arbitrated replicated volume only
provides the availability of a two-way replicated volume

Support Limitations – One arbitrated replicated volume is supported as part of the initial deployment of
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI). Expanding an arbitrated replicated volume is notsupported. Adding additional arbitrated replicated volumes is not supported. And further, only arbitrated
replicated volumes are currently supported only in the following configuration, replica 3, arbiter 1.
Disaster Recovery – Red Hat strongly recommends configuring a disaster recovery solution tosynchronize data from one Red Hat Gluster Storage cluster to another. By synchronizing the local data
volume from your discrete Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) cluster to a central data
center on a regularly helps ensure you can restore your cluster to a working state after an outage.

© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 20207

Supermicro Solutions and Reference Architectures for Red Hat RHHI-V© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 20208

Supermicro BigTwin: The Industry’s Highest Performing Twin Multi-Node System
First and only 2U Multi-Node Systems supporting 205-watt dual-Xeon Processors, 24 DIMMs per node, and 24 All-Flash NVMe●

No-compromise 5th Generation Twin architecture delivers the highest performance and efficiency in a 2U 4-node
platform●

The first and only multi-node system that supports the widest TDP range of CPUs (up to 205-watts), fully exploits
all memory channels with 24 DIMMs per node and 24 All-Flash NVMe drives●

30% better thermal capacity in a compact 2U form factor enables configurations with the highest performing
processor, memory, storage and I/O leveraging the Titanium level 96% efficient PowerStick power supplies(2200W/2600W)●

100% more I/O capacity and added flexibility with more than 10 networking options including 1GbE, 10G, 25G,
100G, IB and industry leading SIOM modular interconnect●

Each node can support current and next generation dual Intel Xeon processors with up to 6TB of memory, 24
drives of All-Flash NVMe, Hybrid NVMe/SATA/SAS, SSD and HDD, plus 2 m.2 NVMe/SATA per node

THE 5TH GENERATION TWIN ARCHITECTURE
The Supermicro® BigTwin™ is a breakthrough modular multi-node server system that eliminates traditional modular
vs. rack computing design trade-offs. BigTwin is the 5th generation in the patented Supermicro Twin Family with amultitude of innovations and engineering breakthroughs. The no-compromise architecture delivers the efficiency ofmulti-node density optimized systems with the full features and power of traditional 1U and 2U rack mount systems.

Figure 1. Rear View of 2U BigTwin Server System Showing 4 Hot-swap DP Nodes and 2 Redundant Power Supplies© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 2020

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A No-Compromise Design
The key benefit of BigTwin is its no-compromise design. Historically multi-node systems traded off features andcapacity for higher density. They were deployed for workloads that did not require the highest performance or thehighest memory density on a single node. The new 2U BigTwin design is a breakthrough multi-node system that
supports the highest performing CPUs, full 24 DIMMs of memory and up to 24 all-flash NVMe SSD drives.

Node A

Node B

Node C

Node D24x 2.5” Hot-Swap Drive Bays Supporting NVMe/SAS/SATA drives (6 driver per node)
Figure 2. Front View of 2U BigTwin Server System (All-Flash NVMe Model)

ALL-FLASH NVME AND 24 DIMMS PER NODESIOM Modules

Networking
Features

AOC-MH25G-m2S2T

Dual-port 25
Gigabit Ethernet
SFP28 andDual-port 10
Gigabit Ethernet
RJ45

AOC-MHIBF-m2Q2G

Dual-port FDR
InfiniBand QSFP+andDual-port Gigabit
Ethernet RJ45

AOC-MTG-i4S

Quad-port 10
Gigabit Ethernet
SFP+

AOC-MGP-i4

Quad-port Gigabit
Ethernet RJ45

Supermicro has been a leader in introducing NVMe
support and advanced NVMe features in our productportfolio and BigTwin continues that tradition. BigTwin
supports 24 hot-swappable 2.5” U.2 NVMe drives, ormixed configurations with SAS3 and SATA3 drives(varies by different BigTwin models).
Supermicro’s, BigTwin utilizes a shared design andcommon components; most multi-node systems are
one-off designs that limit the rest of the product family
in regards to providing sub-optimal server, sparing,and training. Having a building block design allows theuser to optimize a specifically intended workload.
The 24 DIMMs can deliver better performance andresponsiveness for database and cloud infrastructure
workloads, as well as providing the flexibility tocustomers looking to invest in lower capacity DIMMs forthe lowered cost of ownership.

© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 2020

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Applications
A hyper-converged solution of 3 nodes plus a hot spare can be hosted by just one BigTwin
server. Each node can support dual Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4/v3 processors with up to 3TB ofmemory, 2 NVMe SSD drives for caching, and 4 SAS drives for datastore.
The Supermicro BigTwin is a breakthrough modular multi-node server system, an ultra-dense
an energy-efficient powerhouse that provides industry-leading performance-per-watt, perdollar, and per-square-foot.

1GB/S TO 100GB/S
Supermicro Super I/O Module (SIOM), common across both Rack and Modular platforms,delivers up to 50% I/O cost savings and freedom to select networking options from 1Gb/s
to 100Gb/s. The SIOM enables a tighter system integration and leaves a total of two PCI-E
3.0 x16 LP slots for storage or networking add-on-cards on each node.

Supermicro Ultra SuperServer Delivers Unrivaled Performance for Enterprise
Workloads
Ultra SuperServer is designed to deliver unrivaled performance, flexibility, scalability, and serviceability for demanding workloads●

Supports Dual Intel Xeon Scalable processors with up to 205W TDP●

1U and 2U Rack-mountable with up to 32 DIMM slots with 4TB DDR4 memory, Intel Optane DC persistentmemory●Up to 24 U.2 NVMe drives, with 2.5” and 3.5” SAS3, SATA, and M.2 options●

Up to 8 PCI-E slots with flexible onboard 1/10/25G Ethernet options●

Compact form factor enables configuration with leveraging 1600W /1000W / 750W Redundant Titanium (96%)
and Platinum Level Power Efficiencies●

Management tools with Open Industry standard IPMI, Redfish API’s, Rack Scale Management coupled with World
Wide Global Services Support© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 202011

Ultra-Servers for the Highest Performance and Flexibility for Enterprise
Applications
Supermicro Ultra SuperServers are designed to deliver the highest performance, flexibility, and serviceability to
demanding IT environments and to power mission-critical Enterprise workloads, including support for the 2 ndgeneration Intel Xeon Scalable process and a new class of big, affordable memory – Intel Optane DC Persistent
Memory. The Intel UltraPath Interconnect (UPI) and Crossbar technologies provide direct communication between
two CPUs in a dual-socket server to catapult performance and dramatically reduce latency.
Available in 1U and 2U form factors, Ultra SuperServers support up to 6TB DDR4-2933MHz memory in a 24 DIMM
configuration with SATA3 and optional SAS3 and NVMe support for increased storage bandwidth that includes avariety of Ultra Riser options, including built-in 1G, 10GBASE-T, 10G SFP+ and 25G Ethernet options with support
for add-on SAS3 HW/SW RAID controllers and additional PCI-E 3.0 slots. The perfect range for diverse workloads
and applications and can be easily reconfigured for multiple Enterprise and Data Center applications in Virtualization,
Big Data, Analytics, and Cloud Computing.

Industry Applications for Supermicro and Red Hat RHHI-V HCI Solutions
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) Solutions
As businesses adjust to changing economic and physical environments they continue to search for optimized growth
and ways to increase productivity while lowering cost. Medium to small companies are looking to improve Remote
Office / Branch Office (ROBOs) as one of their top priorities. Through IT optimization ROBO’s have the capacity to
improve employee productivity, customer retention while improving the total cost of ownership.
Red Hat HCI ROBO solutions offer the power of Supermicro Servers while enhancing the capabilities of enterpriseclass deployments while offering increased performance, data protection, data efficiencies and a robust unified
management tools to simplify the complexity of management. Red Hat RHH-V HCI allows for the deduplication ofdata while offering compression will optimize data throughout the product life cycle on a global basis. All Supermicro
server CPUs are reserved for the production of VM’s rather than separate infrastructure applications. ROBO offers
improved HCI data protection while eliminating the requirement for backup and recovery technology required withtraditional converged infrastructures. Red Hat HCI can be managed globally and independently regardless of thelocation where you have access to managing all ROBO’s.

© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

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Red Hat RHHI-V provides a lower cost of ownership through optimized ROBO environments through lower prices andfewer nodes for full availability. HCI management is simplified through ROBO IT with the integration of IT products
below the hypervisor and by combining a globally unified management system across all remote sites. Red Hat ROBO
solutions offer better application performance, faster access with greater data protection while offering enhanced
WAN effectiveness and efficiency, and global management across ROBO environments.

HCI Hardware Choices Matter for Critical HCI Solutions
We often put heavy emphasis on the software in the software-defined HCI infrastructure while never fully evaluating
the hardware and the features that differentiate it from the pack. The goal of having a high performing poweroriented HCI solution is to have the software and hardware working as a most optimal HCI package. Supermicroprovides a Red Hat HCI turn-key solution, integrated appliance in a rack-based solution that’s tested and optimized
for the Balanced, Capacity, Capacity Performance and Density Performance workloads. By offering a turnkey solution
for your line of business that is pre-configured and tested, the predictability provides enhanced value.

Suggested Applications
Supermicro servers combined with RHHI-V offer many
possibilities to run IT systems better. The best environment
to deploy RHHI-V based solutions are as follows:● < up to 1000 users● < 1PB storage● Want data redundancy and resiliency● Possibly need data replication to multiple sites or
to main data center● Windows or Linux applications, for servers and for
desktop● Customers have working experience with Red Hat
infrastructure or willing to switch to Red Hat
based infrastructure

Smaller IT needs

Server Workloads

Virtual Desktop Workloads

Windows or Linux server
applications:Windows or Linux desktop applications:● Email● File & Print● Windows or Linux databases,
analytics● Web applications
Remote Office /Edge (Retail,Banking,
Telecommunications,Windows or Linux server
applications:● Email● File & Print● Windows 10 desktop● Linux desktop● CAD / CAM / Simulation● Media editing● Recommend 1 core / 2 thread per virtual
desktop● For Windows 10 desktop and graphics
intensive applications, recommend using
GPU with vGPU support. GPU could be
NVIDIA T4, RTX6000, RTX8000, or V100
● NVMe storage is recommended if highend graphics applications are used.

© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 202013

Public Sector,
Energy)● Industry specific custom
applications● NVMe storage is recommended
if high end graphics applications
are deployed● Size the number of cores
needed to run server
applications● Size memory accordingly

Considerations:
1. Rack space available to house the servers:
For a total less than 6U, use BigTwins
2. Size the number processor cores that needs to run all the applications. Divide this total number cores into
the number of servers, divided by 2 (to account for 2 processors in each server), to select the processor
needed. Also, note the CPU speed needed.
3. Size memory needed by the applications.
4. Size storage
5. Select the network speed needed: 10GbE, 25GbE, or 100GbE.

Summary
Supermicro systems combined with Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Virtualization (RHHI-V) offers a
simple, low-cost, and proven hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) with the right building blocks to run applications
and data storage for edge and branch offices. The systems can easily scale from a small, medium to large
configuration all dependent upon your application and workload requirements.

Resources
For more information, please contact your Supermicro representative.
Supermicro Systems with RHHI-V:

https://www.supermicro.com/solutions/Solution-Brief_RedHat_Open_Hyperconverged.pdf
Supermicro Servers:
https://www.supermicro.com
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Virtualization:
https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/storage/hyperconverged-infrastructure© 2020 Copyright Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved

October 202014