Reference Architectures

Overview

The Business Ready Configuration Solution Guide for Dell PowerEdge™ blade servers, Dell EqualLogic™ storage area network (SAN) and VMware^® Infrastructure™ provides a detailed reference architecture for deploying and using VMware vSphere™ 4 on Dell blades and Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage environments. Based on extensive engineering work in architectural design and certification, these proven architectures can be quickly and confidently deployed into production environments, thereby helping customers to eliminate much of the costly and time-consuming trial and error that can accompany complex infrastructure design and implementation.

The solution is optimally configured to run virtualized workloads and is designed to provide scalability, manageability and redundancy with no single point of failure. The guide details the network architectures, storage configurations and best practices necessary for deploying and configuring the solution. The solution will help customers achieve the full benefits of VMware vSphere 4, Dell PowerEdge blade servers and Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays.

The intended audience for this white paper is IT administrators, IT managers and channel partners who are planning to deploy VMware virtualization using Dell blade servers and Dell EqualLogic SAN. It can be used to plan, scope and procure the required components to set up a virtualization infrastructure. This white paper provides reference architecture and best practices for deploying and configuring Dell’s 11th generation blade server — M610, Dell EqualLogic PS6000 Series arrays and VMware vSphere 4.