Reference Architecture

vStart 100 and 200 Reference Architecture
Dell Inc. 5
With a 24 drive chassis full of 600GB SAS drives, the PS6100X array delivers 14.4 Terabyte (TB) of iSCSI-
based storage built on fully-redundant, hot-swappable enterprise hardware. Scale out capacity and
performance is provided by adding additional arrays. Built-in software functionality includes automated
load balancing, snapshots and replication, multi-path I/O (MPIO), and consistency sets. SAN HQ is also
available for Multi-SAN historical performance monitoring.
Advanced data protection features such as Auto Replication and Auto-Snapshot Manager (ASM) also
come standard. ASM Microsoft Edition provides intelligent and consistent snapshots for the Windows
Server 2008 R2 SP1 hosts and the Hyper-V environment.
Multipath IO (MPIO) capabilities are enhanced by the EqualLogic HIT KIT. The HIT Kit configures MPIO
load balancing and redundant iSCSI initiator configurations for Windows Server-based hypervisor hosts.
For more information about the HIT Kit for Windows Servers, see Dell EqualLogic Host Software.
3.1.3 PowerEdge R620 Management Server
The Dell PowerEdge R620 uses Intel Xeon E5-2600 series processors and Intel chipset architecture in a
1U rack mount form factor. These servers support up to ten 2.5” drives and provide the option for an
LCD located in the front of the server for system health monitoring, alerting, and basic management
configuration. An AC power meter and ambient temperature thermometer are built into the server,
which can be monitored on this display without any software tools. The server features two CPU
sockets and 24 memory DIMM slots supporting 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32GB DIMMs.
Energy-efficient design features include power-supply units sized appropriately for system
requirements, innovative system-level design efficiency, policy-driven power and thermal
management, and highly efficient standards-based Energy Smart components. For more information,
see the PowerEdge R620 Technical Guide.
3.1.4 PowerConnect 7048 or 6248 for LAN and SAN Traffic
At the heart of the solutions network configuration are four Dell PowerConnect 7048 or 6248 switches.
These managed Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switches offer the enterprise-class level of performance
required for this configuration. The LAN switches use a stacked configuration that enables connection
redundancy and added bandwidth where required. Additionally, the 10Gb uplink enables design and
implementation flexibility needed by advanced users. LAN and SAN switches are physically and logically
separated per best practices to support security and network traffic segmentation. VLANs are
implemented to support solution management, security, and network traffic segmentation, and routing
is leveraged to provide flexible connectivity.