The expanding bounds of virtualization have made software definition the most inescapable trend of the IT industry today. Software-defined storage led to software-defined networking, and now VMware has gone as far as to brand its latest offering the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC).

As IT organizations move to implement the software-defined paradigm, they need infrastructure that is designed specifically for that model. Dell’s PowerEdge FX platform is exactly that. Its modular, flexible design, that includes both server and storage components, is a perfect fit for software-defined environments.  It can be combined with virtualization offerings (like VMware) to deliver on the advantages of software definition. Advantages like:

Greater agility In a software-defined infrastructure FX adds even more flexibility. Not only can you re-configure, deploy and repurpose more easily at the software level, but FX lets you scale more easily at the hardware level – both servers and storage – in a rapid, yet incremental way.

Easier operation Software defined environments offer advanced, infrastructure-wide management and automation features for easier, policy-driven configuration, monitoring and maintenance.  FX systems complement that with equally comprehensive element and chassis level management that can plug in to industry standard management packages like vCenter and MS System Center – so organizations can continue to use the interface they are used to -making the transition to the software defined environment more seamless.

Better business sense Software defined environments enable consolidation (and elimination) of outdated, proprietary legacy systems, reducing both footprint and simplifying management (lowering TCO). FX platforms provide some of the industry’s highest levels of resource density – which is the key to the virtualization that allows this highly efficient consolidation.

VMware itself is thrilled with the combination of VSAN and FX; an architect in the VMware CTO office calls it “one of my favorite converged server platforms for Virtual SAN” in this recent blog post (be sure to watch the video included in the post).

It all sounds great in theory – but what does it look like in practice?

Dell has produced a detailed study of an FX platform configured as an all-in-one software defined database solution using:

• VMware Virtual SAN 6 and SQL Server 2014
• in an FX2 chassis with 4 FC430 servers and 2 FDD332 storage blocks
• leveraging the FX architecture’s flash storage capabilities in VSAN to the maximum

The results were impressive. It outperformed a competitor’s system that used a traditional SAN configuration by more than 3 times.

How? With the combination of innovative software definition and innovative hardware performance.  Let’s break apart the solution to illustrate exactly why it works.

Each of the 4 FC430 servers in the VSAN cluster were assigned access to 8 drives in the 16 drive FD332s (dual PERC option allows split access) – although only 4 drives were used in the test (leaving room for future capacity or more VSAN disk groups).

One VSAN disk group was built for each FC430 server with one 400GB mixed use (read/write) SSD as the caching element and three 800GB read-intensive SSDs as the storage capacity drives. The read/write cache element is critical to performance optimization of VSAN. Note that while the caching element must be SSDs, many VSAN environments use less expensive rotational drives as the capacity element of the disk group to minimize cost while still deriving performance advantages from the cache.

This configuration allows the FX2 platform to outperform the competitive system by:

• Bringing storage closer to compute
• Leveraging low latency IO modules for faster in-chassis east west traffic
• Using optional high performance SATA SSDs

Another great benefit of VSAN and FX is that when want to scale the VSAN environment, the IO modules allow you to daisy chain up to 6 FX2 chassis –creating a 24-node VMware cluster of FC430 servers with up to 192 storage devices (in the FD332 storage blocks). Using the VSAN configuration from this study that would be over 134 terabytes of (shared) high capacity storage! And you can also save significant cost because the number of Top of Rack switches necessary can be minimized through both the consolidated chassis management of the Chassis Management Controller (CMC) and the cabling aggregation of the IO modules.

The world of IT continues to change at a head-spinning pace. You need to meet these changes with infrastructure that allows you to respond to tomorrow’s needs without disrupting today’s business operations. The virtual storage that the FX platform so easily enables not only provides high performance, shared access to data, but in the larger view can be part of a future-ready infrastructure that allows your IT operation to transition smoothly into the era of the software defined data center. Learn more about how the FX platform can help you modernize your data center while saving space, power and money in this third-party produced whitepaper.