Solution brief

Scale Your Infrastructureand Simplify Operations

Boost efficiency with VMware vSAN 7 Update 2 on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.
Technology is advancing faster than ever before. As businesses try to keep up,
and new apps and workloads put greater demand on today’s infrastructures,it has become clear that evolving to a modern, more agile and efficient
infrastructure can help you address what’s to come.
Many organizations have already discovered the value of software-definedstorage and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). The demand for efficient,scalable storage and compute continues to grow. And VMware® vSAN™
remains the undisputed leader in the hyperconverged space with nearly 40%of the share.1 Likewise, Dell EMC is the leader in servers and HCI.1, 2
Running your solution on proven Dell EMC PowerEdge servers or Dell EMC
vSAN Ready Nodes, both validated and certified for VMware, will put you in aposition to move forward with greater success.

Storage that’s efficient, easy to scale and simple
to manage
vSAN, VMware’s software-defined storage solution, is built from the groundup for vSphere® virtual machines (VMs). It abstracts and aggregates locallyattached disks in a vSphere cluster to create a storage solution that can beprovisioned and managed from vCenter® and the vSphere Web Client.
vSAN is hypervisor-converged, meaning storage and compute for VMs aredelivered from your Dell EMC PowerEdge server. vSAN integrates with theentire VMware stack and includes features like vMotion®, High Availability (HA)
and Distributed Resource Scheduler™ (DRS). VM storage provisioning andday-to-day management of storage SLAs are all be controlled throughVM-level policies that can be set and modified on-the-fly. Close integration
between VMware and Dell Technologies optimizes your vSAN solution onPowerEdge, enabling you to take advantage of vSAN’s enterprise-classfeatures, scale and performance.

1IDC, WW Quarterly Converged Systems
Tracker, 4Q2020, Vendor Revenue,
March 18, 2021.

2

IDC, WW Quarterly x86 Server Tracker,
4Q2020 Unit Shipments, March 2021.

© 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.

vSAN 7 Update 2 — What’s new?

Scalability

Security

Simplicity

VMware is continually making improvements to vSAN. In this latest release,those improvements take scalability, security and simplicity to the next level.
Feature highlights include:• HCI Mesh enhancements: Use your existing infrastructure much more
efficiently by disaggregating compute and storage resources and enabling
connection between HCI and non-HCI clusters.
• Stretched cluster enhancements: Increase scale from 15 nodes to 20
nodes, and bring DRS awareness to stretched clusters.
• vSAN File Services: File Services can now be used for stretchedcluster deployments.
• Native KMS support in vSAN: Built-in Key Management Server (KMS) withvSphere Native Key Provider makes it easier to improve the security postureof traditional VMs.
• FIPS 140-2 validation for data-in-transit: Meet strict government
requirements and regulations more easily.
• vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) enhancements: Make updates tovSphere with Tanzu™ with NSX-T networking.
• Monitoring and troubleshooting enhancements: More tools are available
to analyze your environment, rapidly identifying root causes andremediating issues.
• ESXi™ suspend to memory: Experience less downtime by eliminating theneed to migrate VMs prior to maintenance mode.
• Data durability: Data durability is extended to include unplanned failures.

Integration that benefits youvLCM with the Dell Technologies plug‑in, OpenManage Integration for VMware
vCenter (OMIVV), saves administrators valuable time. For example, you can checkhardware compatibility on a single node with 87% less hands‑on time and 85%
fewer steps.3

New use cases enabled
by HCI Mesh

• Deploy a vSAN cluster thatis dedicated to serve as astorage-only cluster and not
host any local workloads.
• Remotely utilize vSAN storage
capacity for your blade servers
as an alternative to external
storage solutions.
• With storage tiering acrossdifferent cluster types, HCI Meshallows administrators to use
the right storage exactly whereit’s needed.

3

Discover new capabilities, uses for vSAN.

vSAN 7 U2 improvements support a number of different vSAN use cases,
whether you’re using them for core storage, stretched clusters, modern
apps or remote/branch office (ROBO) deployments.
HCI Mesh impacts core storage by allowing you to scale precisely based on
application needs. Preserve capital and operating expenses with more efficientuse. vSAN 7 U2 also enables higher performance and reliability for missioncritical workloads with tools that enable faster troubleshooting and remediation.
Availability enhancements, such as enhanced data durability for unplanned
failures, API integration for file backup, and proactive HA support also increase
the reliability of vSAN.
Stretched clusters benefit from vSAN 7 U2 enhancements because HA is
extended to files. You’ll also see more consistent performance in failback
scenarios. Larger customers will appreciate that vSAN now supports up to20/20/1 configurations for stretched clusters (20 nodes primary / 20 nodes
secondary / 1 witness).

 rincipled Technologies report commissioned
Pby Dell Technologies, “New VMware vSphere
7.0 features reduced the time and complexityof routine update and hardware compliancetasks,” August 2020.

2 | Scale Your Infrastructure and Simplify Operations© 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.

Modern apps get a boost in terms of improved performance for cloud-native
workloads, more protection and simplified lifecycle management. NVMe support
for vSAN Direct Configuration lets you run stateful apps with high-performancerequirements on VMware HCI. And vLCM integration with vSphere with Tanzu
radically simplifies lifecycle management for vSphere with Tanzu.
ROBO environments also benefit with better security, lower costs and workload
support. vSAN supports the vSphere native KMS, extending encryption todata-in-transit. You’ll also gain support for more workloads as vSAN File
Services are enabled for stretched and 2-node clusters.

Build agility for today and tomorrow.
Advancements across the board are testing the true agility and flexibility ofyour underlying infrastructure. Being able to switch gears and adapt to anysituation — even if that means finding innovative ways to do more with what you
already have — will determine your level of success moving forward. RunningVMware vSAN on Dell EMC PowerEdge technology — including servers inrack, tower and modular form factors and Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes — isthe first step toward creating a modern, evolving data center that can effectively
accommodate change.

Why Dell Technologies and VMware?
For over 20 years, VMware and Dell Technologies have simplified thetechnology experience for our joint customers. We innovate, refine, and evolve
technology in ways that help you meet your needs at any given moment. Oursolutions are pre‑tested and certified to work better together. And we add value
beyond the technology with easy, unified support. Over 1,800 VMware‑certified
Dell Technologies support professionals are on hand to help you. Virtually all
calls are handled by Dell Technologies without escalation to VMware.4 So you
only make one phone call to address all of your hardware and software needs.

4Based on internal Dell EMC services data.

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Copyright © 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. VMware and the VMware®
taglines, logos and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of VMware in the U.S. and other countries. Other trademarks may be the property of theirrespective owners. Published in the USA 04/21 Solution brief: PE‑VSAN7U2‑SB‑102
Dell Technologies believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.