What’s new in VxRail 4.7

What vSAN Version is in the VxRail Software ?

• VxRail 4.7 is based on vSAN 6.7 U1
• VxRail 4.5 is built with vSAN 6.6 U1
• VxRail 3.5 and 4.0 are built with vSAN 6.2
• VxRail 3.0 is built with vSAN 6.1

Feature	VxRail 3.0	VxRail 3.5	VxRail 4.0	VxRail 4.5	VxRail 4.7
Deduplication and compression	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
RAID 5 and RAID 6 erasure coding	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
Deploying thin swap objects	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
Software checksum	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
New on-disk format (3.0)	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
IOPS limits	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
IPv6 (full network support) 1	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗
Space reporting	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
Health service	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Performance service	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
Write-through in-memory cache	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
Stretch cluster	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
All-Flash configuration	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
Fault domains	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
3-node configuration	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓
2-node configuration	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗2
Handling of problematic disk	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
SMP-FT	✗	✗	✗	✗	✓

Note:

1. IPv6 multicast is required for the ToR Switch and VxRail management communication. IPv6 addresses are not supported.
2. Coming in 4.7.100 release. Announced at VMworld Barcelona 2018.

Unicast support	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Data-at-rest Encryption	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Enhanced stretched cluster with local fault protection	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Resynchronization throttling	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Management of vSAN using ESXi Host Client	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Rebalancing enhancements	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Repair enhancements	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Degraded disks handling	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Maintenance Mode enhancements	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
Health service enhancements	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓

File-based VxRail backup & restore

• Protect against accidental deletion of virtual appliance or corruption of VxRail Manager internal contents.
• Manual or scheduled (daily, weekly, monthly) backups supported.

1. Recommended to manually backup after any VxRail Manager initiated change event.
2. Retention Settings: Minimum 7, Maximum 24.

• All inclusive, no additional software or hardware needed.
• Files are backed up inside the vSAN datastore or can be moved to external location.

Note: This functionality is currently delivered using CLI, and is not in the VxRail Manager UI.

VxRail events in VxRail Manager and vCenter

The same events from VxRail Manager appear in vCenter dashboard.

Network configuration – 2 x 25GbE with VxRail 4.7.xxx

Remark: Network teaming policy and NIOC setting: 2x25GbE

Network configuration – 2 x 10GbE with VxRail 4.7.xxx

Remark: Network teaming policy and NIOC setting: Uplink 3 & 4 can be used for additional VM traffic.

Network configuration – 4 x 10GbE with VxRail 4.7.xxx

Remark: Network teaming policy and NIOC setting: Using all 4 10GbE uplinks.

Categories: Dell EMC vSAN

Victor Wu

Chief Architect, Blogger, Author at Dell EMC Knowledge Sharing & Packt