Automated, scalable VMware Cloud Foundation deployment with HPE Synergy

ComputeExperts · ‎10-28-2019

Are you considering deploying VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and want an automated deployment experience? Are you interested in VCF configured with enterprise-grade external storage? Do you want to optimally deploy infrastructure and simplify infrastructure manageability? HPE has a solution for deploying VCF on HPE Synergy with vSAN and with HPE 3PAR Storage as ancillary storage.

Enterprises need a hybrid IT model which supports bimodal IT. It should run both traditional and cloud native applications. Enterprises are embracing a journey to digital transformation and software-defined data center (SDDC). Enterprises are increasingly adopting new cloud technologies based on software-defined model to run hybrid cloud. VMware Cloud Foundation enables Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) to deploy Virtual Infrastructure (VI) workloads

Keep these challenges in mind when deploying infrastructure and applications in a mission critical environment involving VMware VCF platform:

Overprovisioned infrastructure and provisioning time—To meet long term needs, often the current infrastructure is overprovisioned, thus adding to both CapEx and OpEx costs.
Infrastructure management complexity—Management of infrastructure components frequently requires multiple tools which adds complexity.
Security—Enterprise IT shops must provide protection against threats and ensure compliance.

HPE Reference Architecture for VMware Cloud Foundation on HPE Synergy addresses these challenges and provides solutions around infrastructure provisioning, manageability, scalability, and security.

HPE Synergy Composable Infrastructure enables optimized infrastructure deployment and simplifies manageability. HPE OneView connector for VCF offers seamless manageability in conjunction with VMware SDDC. In addition, customers aiming to run mission-critical workloads can now configure HPE 3PAR Storage as ancillary storage for VCF Workload domain.

Key solution highlights

The fluid resource pools and software-defined intelligence of HPE Synergy allow administrators to rapidly compose any configuration required, reducing deployment time from days down to hours. This provides faster time-to-value.
Unique integrated composability for HPE Synergy with VMware SDDC manager using HPE OneView connector for VCF provides a single console to dynamically compose software-defined, physical infrastructure.
Upgrade the HPE Synergy Firmware in automated way using VMware vRealize Orchestrator workflow.
Efficiently monitor VCF environment using HPE OneView for VMware vRealize operation’s custom dashboards.
Applications delivery through vRealize Automation Blueprints which include security tied in with NSX including micro-segmentation to provide dynamic isolation between different tiers of the application and edge services such as load balancing of the web tier.
Ability to efficiently scale storage and compute independently, to deploy SDDC environments. Grow-as-you-go flexibility supports both traditional virtual machines and cloud-native applications.
Automation of Arista end of row switch operations, by adding uplinks trunk group ports for bringing up VCF deployment with Ansible Playbooks.

The solution deploys two HPE Synergy 12000 frames each equipped with four (4) HPE Synergy 480 Gen10 servers, and an HPE Synergy D3940 Module. Each HPE Synergy 12000 frame uses HPE VC SE 40Gb F8 Module as a fabric module to provide uplink to the data center network. The VCF workload domain is used to host an application which is Virtual Machine based Using HPE D3940 direct attached storage module. VMware vSAN provides software based distributed storage for the entire solution. HPE 3PAR Storage can be deployed as external storage for VCF workload domain.

The reference architecture shows how to deploy VCF at scale using HPE’s solution processes and automation. The solution is also tested with three HPE Synergy 12000 frames.

In conclusion, the HPE Reference Architecture for VMware Cloud Foundation on HPE Synergy addresses key requirements of infrastructure provisioning, manageability, scalability, and security.

You can refer to the additional Reference Architectures here: www.hpe.com/info/ra.

You can also engage HPE Pointnext for getting access to Day 0, Day 1 and Day 2 automation related services.

Please contact your HPE representative for additional details.

Meet Server Experts blogger Mandar Chitale, HPE Solution Engineering Team. Mandar has two decades of experience in the IT industry. Currently, he is a Program Manager with the HPE Solution Engineering Team which is focused on creating Solution Reference Architectures for enterprise use cases based on the traditional and emerging digital technology scape.