IBM pureflex system and vmware vcloud enterprise suite reference architecture

IBM PureFlex System and VMware
vCloud Enterprise Suite

Reference architecture

April 2013
John Cooper, IBM Systems ISV Enablement

© Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013

Table of contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................1
Business problem and business value .....................................................................................1
Business problem .................................................................................................................................... 1
Business value......................................................................................................................................... 1

Requirements ..............................................................................................................................2
Use cases ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Requirements........................................................................................................................................... 3

Architectural overview................................................................................................................5
Component model.......................................................................................................................9
vCloud Suite component diagram............................................................................................................ 9
vCloud Suite component description ....................................................................................................... 9
Cloud Application Deployment Toolkit ................................................................................................... 10

Operational model.....................................................................................................................11
VMware vCloud Suite / IBM PureFlex lab deployment diagram............................................................ 11

Deployment considerations .....................................................................................................12
Systems management ........................................................................................................................... 13
VMware integration features: .......................................................................................... 13
Server .................................................................................................................................................... 14
Networking ............................................................................................................................................. 15
Storage .................................................................................................................................................. 18
Storage layout for vCloud Management Cluster ............................................................. 20
Storage planning considerations ..................................................................................... 21
vCloud Suite sizing considerations ........................................................................................................ 21

Appendix 1: Bill of material .....................................................................................................24
Appendix 2: Resources ............................................................................................................25
Trademarks and special notices..............................................................................................27

IBM PureFlex System and VMware vCloud Enterprise Suite

Introduction
This document describes the reference architecture for deployment of the VMware vCloud Enterprise
Suite on the IBM® PureFlex™ System hardware. The IBM and VMware teams worked together on the
architectural vision and joint engineering effort to create this reference architecture.
The target audience of this document is IT architects or technical managers supporting deployment of
virtual cloud solutions.

Business problem and business value
The following section provides a summary of the business problem(s) that this reference architecture is
intended to help address, as well additional value that this solution can provide for cloud deployment.

Business problem
Cloud infrastructures are now commonly used to rapidly build and deploy compute, storage, and
networking resources to support mission-critical operations. Cloud environments provide an operational
flexibility and decrease total cost of ownership (TCO) for investment made in hardware and software by
simplifying administration, increasing resource utilization and availability for the services they provide.
To increase the ease of virtual data center deployment, it is important not only to provide server, storage,
and networking hardware and software tools, but to provide a standardized solution that can offer
optimization opportunities for every aspect of virtual cloud deployment, including the functional software,
cloud management tools, hardware (server, storage, and networking), speed to infrastructure readiness,
and provisioning of cloud services and application deployments on demand.

Business value
This reference architecture is the result of collaborative work between IBM and VMware and is intended to
deliver value for partners and customers considering deployment of a cloud infrastructure.
The value of this reference architecture is in providing a footprint for accelerating deployment of cloud
environments. This solution design achieves this objective by:






Introducing the VMware vCloud Suite, a software suite that contains the components
needed to provide and manage cloud services. The vCloud Suite can provide core
services such as self-provisioning of virtual resources and can easily be expanded to
include advanced cloud services, such as workload deployment and automation.
Introducing the IBM PureFlex System hardware platform, which provides a robust,
scalable, and completely integrated computing, storage, and networking facility, with a
standard physical footprint contained in a single 14U chassis.
Providing a platform foundation for a Cloud Application Deployment Toolkit that enables
deployment of traditional non software as a service (SaaS) independent software vendor
(ISV) workloads in the production cloud, providing customers with SaaS-like experience
(that is, quick access to a deployed application), while enabling service providers to
automate and speed up time to deployment for mission-critical applications.


The combination of these software and hardware components and automation provide a distinct
advantage for cloud deployment, making easier work of component ordering, simpler setup, configuration,
ongoing management, and support.

Requirements
The following section documents several potential use cases for new cloud deployment, as well as specific
requirements that are typical for cloud enablement projects. The component and deployment models
demonstrated in this document apply universally to these use cases.

Use cases

Figure 1: Use case model


Requirements
Table 1 provides an overview of the intended behavior of the system.
Functional requirement name

Functional requirement

Requirement supported by

Backup / Recovery

Solution support for integrated
backup

Backup tools (that is, IBM
Tivoli® Storage Manager) not in
scope for this reference
architecture

Physical footprint

Compact solution

PureFlex System integrated
chassis

Ease of installation

Reduced complexity for solution
deployment

Good product installation
documentation and services

Ease of management /
operations

Simple management

Readily available training and
education, and user
documentation

Supportability

Available vendor support

Appropriate warranty and
support agreements to support
the solution

Scalability

Solution components scale for
growth

Scalable PureFlex System
hardware – in a single chassis
or using multiple chassis as
needed

Flexibility

Solution supports variable
deployment methodologies

Hardware and software
components can be modified or
customized to meet a variety of
unique customer requirements

Security

Solution provide means to
secure customer data

Security is integrated in the
PureFlex System hardware, and
extended into the VMware
vCloud Suite software stack


Redundancy

Solution components are
redundant

Hardware architecture ensures
no single point of failure
(SPOF), VMware vSphere
software configuration ensures
high availability / clustered
configuration and distributed
resource scheduling

High availability

Solution support for dual or
multi-site tenancy

PureFlex System plus vCloud
Suite solution can extend to
multiple sites using SRM but is
not covered in this reference
architecture.

Automation

Reduce complexity

Cloud Application Deployment
Toolkit referenced in this
reference architecture. VMware
vCloud Automation Center is not
covered in this reference
architecture.

Table 1: Functional requirements for a vCloud Suite solution


Architectural overview
This reference architecture includes VMware components supporting a software-defined data center
(cloud environment) running on the IBM PureFlex System hardware. Some understanding of the individual
components that consist of the VMware vCloud Suite is an important prerequisite to undertaking a cloud
deployment.
The VMware vCloud Suite is a suite of software products designed to enable cloud deployment. This
reference architecture focuses on the vCloud Suite Enterprise offerings, highlighted in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The VMware vCloud Suite

The vCloud Suite reference architecture implementation consists of the vCloud Suite Enterprise software
components installed into a vCloud Suite Management cluster, hosted as virtual machines inside a
standard VMware vSphere environment. These components can support all aspects of configuration,
security, administration, and reporting needed to support the cloud environment.
The vCloud Suite components collectively manage access to a pool of virtualized resources available to
vSphere. These resources can be used by consumers of cloud resources. The sizing of the resource pool
depends on many factors which are discussed at length in a collection of documentation and sizing
resources from VMware called vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT). This toolkit is available at:
www.vmware.com/cloud-computing/cloud-architecture/vcat-toolkit.html
This reference architecture does not provide sizing guidance for vCloud Suite deployment, but provides a
general approach for successful vCloud Suite deployment using IBM Flex System™ hardware.

Figure 3 provides a summary view of the VMware vCloud Suite and its interaction with the VMware
vSphere hypervisor.

Figure 3: The VMware vCloud Suite overview

Figure 4 provides a logical view of both the vCloud Suite management cluster and the pool of vCloud Suite
consumer resources. This reference architecture focuses primarily on the management cluster component
installation, as appropriate sizing and allocation of consumer requires work that is detailed extensively in
the vCloud Architecture Toolkit, (in the “Appendix 2: Resources” section of this document).


Figure 4: Distinguishing the management cluster from consumer resources

Having discussed the structure of the VMware vCloud Suite of software products and their role in cloud
deployment, the following sections address the hardware used in this reference architecture.
The IBM PureFlex System platform has been used to meet the hardware requirements in support of this
reference architecture. All the components required to support vCloud Suite (including computing,
networking, storage, and management interfaces) can reside in a single 14U chassis. If needed, this
platform can be easily expanded to multiple IBM PureFlex System chassis, allowing scalability in a
common infrastructure platform. This approach ensures a highly standardized deployment of cloud
services. Figure 5 provides an overview of the IBM PureFlex system platform. Key differentiators resulting
from the IBM PureFlex System chassis and Flex System component designs in the context of cloud
services include:


Application density, providing support for more workloads than with a traditional server,
storage, or networking footprint



Faster installation time for supporting cloud infrastructure



Increased performance resulting from integration of physical architecture, management
interfaces, and optimization functions in every component that serves the cloud.


You can find additional details about the IBM PureFlex System platform at:
ibm.com/ibm/puresystems/us/en/pf_pureflex.html

Figure 5: IBM PureFlex System hardware platform overview


Component model
This component model diagram is intended to provide a logical component level view of the vCloud Suite
software stack in this reference architecture.

vCloud Suite component diagram

Figure 6: vCloud component model

vCloud Suite component description
Figure 7 provides detail on the function of specific elements that comprise the vCloud Suite of cloudenablement products.


Figure 7: Description of the vCloud Suite components

Cloud Application Deployment Toolkit
IBM PureFlex System hardware and VMware vCloud Suite have been tested with the Cloud Application
Deployment Toolkit created by VMware. This toolkit enables deployment of traditional non-SaaS ISV
workloads in the production cloud, providing customers with SaaS-like experience (that is, quick access to
a deployed application), while enabling service providers to automate and speed up time to deployment for
mission-critical applications.
Using this toolkit on the IBM PureFlex System hardware, a service provider can offer non-SaaS multitiered enterprise ISV applications as managed services to its customers. Upon customer request, these
applications can be deployed automatically in a production-ready environment and can be tailored for a
customer.


Operational model
The following sections provide additional detail on the lab configuration used to support this reference
architecture.

VMware vCloud Suite / IBM PureFlex lab deployment diagram
Figure 8 contains information about the reference architecture in the lab environment. This environment is
the basis of an initial deployment of vCloud Suite on IBM PureFlex System hardware.

Figure 8: Reference architecture lab environment

Figure 9 provides a view of the active vCloud Suite components on the IBM PureFlex System hardware,
as seen from the lab vCenter server. The VMware environment shown here represents the reference
architecture management cluster.

Figure 9: The VMware vCloud Suite on the IBM PureFlex System platform


Table 2 and Table 3 provide additional detail for the hardware and software components deployed for this
reference architecture.
Hardware component

Detail / Firmware levels

Two IBM Flex System x240 Compute Nodes

Each node with two Intel® Xeon® processor E52670 2.60 GHz, 8 core processor, 256GB of
memory, 10GbE integrated two-port Ethernet
(LoM), optional FC3052 8GB FC adapters

IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node

22 drives, 2.10 TB usable storage (sixteen 146 GB
15K rpm SAS, six 200 GB SSD)
Firmware 6.4.1.2 (build 75.0.1211201000)

Two EN4093 10GbE Scalable Ethernet switches

Firmware 7.5.1.0 (0702-7.5.1.0)

Two FC5022 16Gb SAN Scalable switches

Firmware 7.0.0

Table 2: Reference architecture hardware components / firmware

Software Component

Release level

VMware ESXi (vSphere environment)

5.1

VMware Director

5.1

VMware vShield

5.1.2

VMware vCloud Connector

5.1

VMware vCloud Automation Center

5.1

VMware Operations Manager

5.6

Table 3: vCloud Suite component versions used in the reference architecture

Deployment considerations
This section provides a breakdown of deployment details intended to help ensure that the resulting cloud
solution meets or exceeds the stated requirements. This section describes the features of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware or IBM Flex System Manager™ (FSM) capabilities that can be used by the
solution, or VMware configuration best practices, which are intended to provide implementers with
guidance during initial deployment.


Systems management
IBM Flex System Manager is designed to optimize the physical and virtual resources of the IBM Flex
System infrastructure while simplifying and automating repetitive tasks. It provides easy system setup
procedures with wizards and built-in expertise, and consolidated monitoring for all of your resources,
including: compute, storage, networking, virtualization, and energy. IBM Flex System Manager provides
core management functionality along with automation. It is an ideal solution that allows you to reduce
administrative expense and focus efforts on business innovation.
A single user interface controls the following features:


Intelligent automation



Resource pooling



Improved resource utilization



Complete management integration



Simplified setup

The IBM Flex System Manager accelerates cloud deployment by providing the ability to provision compute
node, networking, and storage resources to the VMware ESX software layer and supporting vCloud Suite
components. These capabilities decrease deployment time significantly.

VMware integration features:


Deploying hardware patterns from the FSM to new compute nodes, ensuring that a boilerplate of
hardware adapter interfaces are logically assigned to the compute resources, as suitable for a
new vCloud Suite compute node.



Installing IBM customized ESXi 5.1 images to the new compute nodes from inside the FSM
interface



Providing VMware environment visibility / ESX resource inventory and topology views from within
the FSM interface, including the ability to deploy new virtual machine images



Providing extensibility from the native vCenter server to the IBM PureFlex System hardware, using
the specialized IBM Systems Director Upward Integration Module (UIM). Capabilities of the UIM
include monitoring power and thermals of the IBM PureFlex System components, view and update
firmware / software levels for various components in the chassis, and modify settings for predictive
failure alerts in the chassis. A view of the UIM tab from the lab environment is shown in the
following figure.


Figure 10: The IBM UIM inside vCenter

You can find more details about IBM Flex System Manager at:
ibm.com/systems/flex/systems-management/

Server
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Nodes, similar to the one detailed in Figure 11 were used in this
reference architecture. The specific reference architecture node configurations are further detailed in
Table 4.

Figure 11: IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node

vCloud RA compute node detail
Node
name

Internal
disk

Processors / Cores

isvngp2bt7

Two
300 GB

Two E5-2670,
2.6Ghz processors,

Memory

Sixteen DDR3
DIMMs, 16 GB

Fibre Channel

One FC3052 dualport 8 GB adapter


Ethernet

Two 10 GbE
LoM ports

SAS

isvngp2bt8

16 total cores

each, 256 GB
total

Two
300 GB
SAS

Two E5-2670,
2.6Ghz processors,
16 total cores

Sixteen DDR3
DIMMs, 16 GB
each, 256 GB
total

One FC3052 dualport 8 GB adapter

Two 10GbE
LoM ports

Table 4: Hardware detail for the reference architecture compute nodes

These compute resources are customizable, and multiple compute nodes can be added into a single IBM
PureFlex System chassis (or multiple chassis), expanding to support any size vCloud Suite environment.
More details about the IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node and available configuration options can be
retrieved from: ibm.com/systems/flex/compute-node/x86/bto/x240/index.html

Networking
Networking components inside the IBM PureFlex System chassis include dual IBM Flex System Fabric
EN4093 10GbE Scalable switches (shown in the following figure) connected to the compute nodes using
two 10GbE local area network (LAN) on motherboard (LoM) ports. The 10GbE ports are recommended for
vCloud Suite deployments.

Figure 12:IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093 10GbE scalable Ethernet switch

The EN4093 10GbE Ethernet switch in the IBM PureFlex System chassis offers unparalleled flexibility to
grow networking capacity for vCloud Enterprise Suite deployments, providing linear scaling of network
bandwidth as new compute nodes are added to the chassis.
Figure 13 shows the location of the networking devices in the Flex System chassis. Redundant EN4093
10GbE Scalable switches reside in I/O module bays 1 and 2. The I/O module bays 3 and 4 are used for
SAN switches (referenced in the “Storage” section of this document).


Figure 13: I/O module numeration in the PureFlex System chassis

Figure 14 shows network cabling between the I/O ports in the Flex System x240 Compute Nodes and the
networking devices residing in the I/O module bays.

Figure 14: Flex System x240 Compute Node cabling to I/O modules

Key features of the IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093 10GbE switches include:


Scalability up to 64 10Gb Ethernet connections per switch (42 internal and 22 external ports)



Optional 40 Gb Ethernet ports for uplink bandwidth and performance



The base switch configuration including 14 10GbE connections, scalable with Feature on Demand
(FoD) licenses



Fixed-speed external 10 Gb Ethernet ports to leverage 10 Gb core infrastructure



Support for virtualization features including virtual fabric and IBM VMready®



Non-blocking architecture with wire-speed forwarding of traffic and aggregated throughput of
1.28 Tbps, with less than 1 microsecond latency.

Recent testing demonstrates a sample bandwidth scaling as additional IBM Flex System x240 Compute
Nodes are added to the chassis. Netperf results are provided in Figure 15  .

Figure 15: Netperf results for EN4093 and IBM Flex System x240 Compute Nodes

For additional details on the IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093 10Gb Scalable switch, view the documents
located at: ibm.com/systems/flex/networking/ethernet/en4093_10gb_vf/



Netperf is a benchmark that can be used to measure the performance of many different
types of networking. It provides tests for unidirectional and bidirectional throughput and
end-to-end latency. For more information, refer to http://www.netperf.org/netperf/
This Netperf example is intended for demonstrative purposes using four 10GbE ports for the
compute nodes. The vCloud testing has been conducted using two-port 10gbE LoM.

Network deployment best practices for this solution include:


Ensuring that physical ports on all the hosts in the cluster are associated using the vCenter
interface to a single vSphere switch to ensure redundancy.



Creating separate, highly available port groups to support separation of management, VMware
vMotion, and IP storage networks, if required. The IBM PureFlex System platform positions
Ethernet switch hardware inside the chassis, providing inherent network performance
improvement for activities that use network bandwidth (such as VMware vMotion) from traditional
top-of-rack network switching.



Adjusting the MTU size from default of 1500 to 1524 on physical and virtual switches in the
configuration to accommodate additional header information used by vCloud Director Network
Isolation links.



Increasing maximum number of vNetwork distributed switch ports from 128 to 4086, allowing
vCloud Director to create port groups, as needed, as part of virtual data center (vDC) provisioning.



Using VMware NetQueue to enable Intel Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq) support for the
GbE ports.



Improving network performance by using the TCP offload engine (TOE) capabilities of x240
network adapters, by enabling stateless offload of the following tunables, including:
o

Checksum offload

o

TCP segmentation offload (TSO)

o

Jumbo frames (JF)

o

Large receive offload (LRO)

Storage
This reference architecture uses the native IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node (as shown in Figure 16)
to meet the storage requirements for the vCloud Suite management cluster deployment.

Figure 16: IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node

This storage platform is modular, and designed to be installed and managed as an integrated part of the
IBM PureFlex System chassis. As an extension of the IBM Storwize V7000 family of products, the storage
node brings valuable functions, such as thin-provisioned volumes, mirrored volumes, real-time
compressed volumes, SDD tiering (IBM Easy Tier®), IBM FlashCopy®, and remote copy features
including Metro Mirror (synchronous) and Global Mirror (asynchronous). This storage node also has the
ability to virtualize other heterogeneous SAN-attached storage devices, extending the life of existing

storage investment, while providing a single storage management interface. The rich set of capabilities
native to this disk system make it ideal for cloud infrastructure in single sites or extending into multiple
sites for high availability or disaster recovery deployments.
For additional detail on the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node, visit:
ibm.com/systems/flex/storage/v7000/index.html
For storage configuration, the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node user interface can be accessed
through the IBM FSM.
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node can also be managed from within the vCenter server
environment, using the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter. An example of the IBM
Storage Management plug-in being used to create a new volume in the vCloud Suite lab environment is
shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17: IBM Storage Management plug-in

Connectivity between the IBM Flex System x240 Compute Nodes and the IBM Flex System V7000
Storage Node is achieved using the IBM Flex System FC5022 16GB Scalable SAN switches, as shown in
Figure 18.

Figure 18: FC5022 16GB SAN switch


For additional details on the FC5022 SAN switch, visit:
ibm.com/systems/flex/networking/fibrechannel/fc5022_16gb_esb/

Storage layout for vCloud Management Cluster
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node tested for this reference architecture consists of a
redundant control enclosure containing drives allocated to four Redundant Array of Independent Disks
(RAID) arrays , referred to as managed disks (MDisks), providing a total of 2 TB of usable capacity to
the vCloud Suite environment. Of the available space, 1 TB has been allocated to the vCloud Suite
Management Cluster, residing in a single data store.
The storage pool hosting the volumes used for the vCloud Suite reference architecture consists of
sixteen 136 GB, 15K rpm SAS drives, and six 200 GB SSDs, providing an optimized storage
configuration for the vCloud Suite software stack it supports. Details on the storage pool land volume
configurations are provided in Table 5 and Table 6. The Easy Tier function inside the IBM Flex System
V7000 Storage node is capable of monitoring I/O activity and proactively relocating the busiest disk
extents to the faster SSD volumes. This improves performance and maximizes flash storage utilization
by ensuring that the SSDs are used only for the workloads that require the faster disk.

Storage pool mdiskgrp0
MDisk (array) name

Array type (RAID)

Capacity

Drive properties

Mdisk0

RAID5 (8 drives)

953.62GB

136 GB 15K rpm HDD

Mdisk1

RAID5 (7 drives)

817.39GB

136 GB 15K rpm HDD

Mdisk2

RAID0 (2 drives)

185.81GB

200 GB SSD

Mdisk3

RAID0 (2 drives)

185.81GB

200 GB SSD

Volume name

Volume capacity

ESXi hosts mapped

Datastore name

vCloud_volume1

500 GB

isvngp2bt7, bt8

vCloud RA datastore

vCloud_volume2

500 GB

isvngp2bt7, bt8

vCloud RA datastore

Table 5: Storage pool layout

Volume assignments

Table 6: Volume assignments

There are other drive options available that ensure that the storage configuration can be modeled to suit
I/O requirements for specific cloud deployments, whether for capacity or performance, or both. With
support for 1 TB nearline SAS drives, the single control enclosure used in this reference architecture can
provide up to 24 TB of raw capacity. Additionally, storage expansion units can be added to the chassis,

increasing capacity or performance without affecting access to other resources in the IBM PureFlex
System chassis.

Storage planning considerations


Ensure that all compute nodes in the IBM PureFlex System chassis have redundant paths to
storage. This is simplified by the storage provisioning capabilities accessible from the IBM FSM
software. Appropriate zoning should be used to provide redundant paths between storage and
compute node host bus adapters (HBAs) through dual, redundant FC switches in a PureFlex
System chassis. This configuration protects the host from an I/O failure at both: the adapter and
switch levels.



All compute nodes in the vCloud management cluster should have access to the same data
stores.



Raw Device Mappings are not supported in the vCloud infrastructure.



Consider using a smaller number of larger data stores. When sizing the data stores, the amount of
space allocated should scale up to a calculation based on the number of vApps expected
multiplied by an average size of those vApps.



An NFS mount will be required for vCloud Director to use as a transfer volume to temporarily store
vApps.

vCloud Suite sizing considerations
There are many factors that contribute to an end-to-end sizing of an entire VMware vCloud environment.
This section is intended to provide some high-level guidance for vCloud Suite management cluster
configuration sizing, and an estimate of the number of virtual machines that IBM Flex System compute
(processor / memory) resources can support. These estimates can be used to scale vCloud Suite design
to meet specific customer requirements.
Figure 19 outlines the general requirements for the vCloud Suite management components.


Figure 19: vCloud Suite component sizing

Sizing for the vCloud Suite consumer resource cluster requires additional detail that is not in scope for this
reference architecture, but specifics are available in the VMware white paper Architecting vCloud,
available by downloading the VMware vCloud Architecture Toolkit, available at:
www.vmware.com/cloud-computing/cloud-architecture/vcat-toolkit.html
For comparative purposes, some high-level IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node to VM sizing is
included here. These VM consolidation estimates represent the conclusions of IBM from testing and
analysis of systems in a controlled environment. Actual performance characteristics can vary depending
on individual customer configurations and conditions. IBM makes no representation or warranty that an
individual user can achieve results equivalent to the levels stated.
Figure 20 provides an estimate of the number of virtual machines that can be consolidated using a single
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node given three different memory configurations (8, 16, and 24 x 16 GB
DIMMs).
The chart provides a VM consolidation given a conservative (blue), moderate (green), or aggressive
(amber) consolidation effort.

Figure 20: VM sizing estimates on lab IBM Flex System x240 Compute Nodes

Using the 3DPC configuration, a single Flex System chassis with 10 compute nodes using 384 GB of
memory each (reserving 4U for the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node) can host an environment of
up to 890 VMs, using an aggressive VM consolidation model.


Appendix 1: Bill of material
The following is an example of the bill of materials used for this reference architecture.
Product

Description

IBM PureFlex Chassis:
8721-A1U
00D7196
49Y4270
88Y6374
46C3447
IBM Flex System Manager:
8731-A1U
IBM Flex System Compute Nodes:
8737-AC1
A1BL
A1BJ
A1C2
A1BE
9206
A248
A2N5
A1BC
A1BF
5977
A2XC
A1SX
A1BA
A1SY
A2U5
A26R
Flex V7000 Storage Node and Software
4939-A49
4650
4680
9170
AD31
AD41
ADB2
Initial Software - ( 4939-A49 #1 )
5639-CM1
5639-EX1
5639-NZ1
5639-RE1

Qty

IBM Flex System Enterprise Chassis
1.8m, 15A/208V, C19 to NEMA 6-15P (US) Line Cord
IBM Flex System EN4093 10Gb Scalable Ethernet Switch
IBM Flex System FC5022 16Gb SAN Scalable Switch
IBM SFP+ SR Transceiver

1
2
2
2
1

IBM Flex System Manager

1

IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node
IBM Flex System Compute Node 2.5" SAS 2.0 Backplane
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node Cover
System Documentation and Software-US English
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node Label
No Preload Specify
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node Air Baffle
IBM Flex System FC3052 2-port 8Gb FC Adapter
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node with embedded 10Gb Virtual Fabric
IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node Front Bezel
Select Storage devices - no IBM-configured RAID required
IBM 300GB 10K 6Gbps SAS 2.5" SFF G2HS HDD
Intel Xeon Processor E5-2670 8C 2.6GHz 20MB Cache 1600MHz 115W
IBM Flex System Compute Node WW packaging - Standard
Addl Intel Xeon Processor E5-2670 8C 2.6GHz 20MB Cache 1600MHz 115W
16GB (1x16GB, 2Rx4, 1.5V) PC3-12800 CL11 ECC DDR3 1600MHz LP RDIMM
IBM Flex System Compute Node Fabric Connector

2
2
2
2
2
2
4
2
2
2
2
4
2
2
2
32
2

IBM Flex System V7000 Control Enclosure
Rack indicator, Not Integrated
Chassis indicator-Not Factory Integrated
Storage Subsystem ID 01
146 GB 15K 2.5 inch HDD
200 GB 2.5 inch SSD
8Gb FC 4 Port Card

1
1
1
1
18
6
2

IBM Flex System V7000 Real-time Compression
Flex Sys V7000 Ext Virt V6.4
IBM Flex V7000 Base Software V6.4
Flex Sys V7000 Remote Mirror V6.4

1
1
1
1

Figure 21: Bill of material


Appendix 2: Resources
The following websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper:


IBM Systems on IBM PartnerWorld®
ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/pub/overview/B5001PW



IBM Virtual Loaner Program]
ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/pub/systems/vlp/index



VMware vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT)
http://www.vmware.com/cloud-computing/cloud-architecture/vcat-toolkit.html



IBM PureFlex System
ibm.com/ibm/puresystems/us/en/pf_pureflex.html



IBM Flex System Manager
ibm.com/systems/flex/systems-management/



IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093 10Gb Scalable Switch
ibm.com/systems/flex/networking/ethernet/en4093_10gb_vf/



IBM Flex System FC5022 16Gb SAN Scalable Switch
ibm.com/systems/flex/networking/fibrechannel/fc5022_16gb_esb/



IBM Flex System x240 Compute Node
ibm.com/systems/flex/compute-node/x86/x240/
http://w3.itso.ibm.com/itsoapps/redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/tips0860.html?Open



IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
ibm.com/systems/flex/storage/v7000/index.html



IBM PartnerWorld whitepaper, Using IBM Flex System Manager for efficient VMware
vSphere 5.1 resource deployment
ibm.com/partnerworld/page/stg_ast_sto_wp_flex_system_vmware_deployment



IBM Techdoc, Using VMware vSphere and IBM Storwize V7000 as a complete
virtualization solution
ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP101842



IBM Techdoc, Deploying IBM Storwize V7000 in VMware Environments
ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP101760




IBM white paper, Understanding and Optimizing Memory Performance for Intel Xeon
Processor E5-2600 Series in IBM Flex System, System x, and Bladecenter Platforms
public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/xsw03123usen/XSW03123USEN.PDF


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