Now that VMware has released vSphere 8.0, I thought it would be interesting to gather up all of the blade servers that are certified as “vSphere Ready Nodes.” The results were quite shocking.
What is a vSAN Ready Node?
Per the VMware vSAN Ready Node Configuration Guide,
“the vSAN ReadyNode is a validated server configuration in a tested, certified hardware form factor for vSAN deployment, jointly recommended by the server OEM and VMware. vSAN ReadyNode are ideal as hyper-converged building blocks for larger data center environments looking for automation and a need to customize hardware and software configurations vSAN ReadyNode is a turnkey solution for accelerating vSAN ReadyNode deployment with following benefits:
1. Complete server configurations jointly recommended by the server OEM and VMware
2. Easy to order and faster time to market
3. Benefit of choices.”
What OEM Blade Servers are Listed as a vSAN Ready Node?
I went through all 1284 pages of the October 11, 2022 Ready Node Configuration Guide (click here for a copy) and searched for “vSAN 8.0” under a blade server. I was very surprised that Dell Technologies is the only OEM listed at this time. If I were a betting man, I’ll bet we’ll see the other OEMs certify it soon, but for now, here are your blade server options for VMware vSAN Ready Nodes supporting vSAN 8.0:
AF-4: PowerEdge MX750c
| Components | Details | QTY |
| SYSTEM | PowerEdge MX750c | 4 |
| CPU | Intel Xeon(R) Gold 6348 2.60Ghz 28Core | 8 |
| MEMORY | DIMM,32GB,3200,2RX4,8G, DDR4 | 32 |
| CachingTier | Dell 800GB Solid State Drive, SED SAS PM1645 12Gbps 2.5inch | 8 |
| CapacityTier | MZILT1T9HAJQ0D3 | 32 |
| Controller | DELL HBA330 MMZ | 4 |
| Controller | HBA350i MX | 4 |
| NIC | Intel(R) Ethernet 25G 2P XXV710 Mezz | 4 |
| NIC | Mellanox ConnectX®-4 LX Dual Port 25 GbE KR Mezzanine Card | 6 |
| BootDevice | BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 Sticks 240G (RAID 1) | 4 |
| Supported Releases | ESXi 8.0 (vSAN 8.0),ESXi 7.0 U3 (vSAN 7.0 Update 3),ESXi 7.0 U2 (vSAN 7.0 Update 2),ESXi 6.7 U3 (vSAN 6.7 Update 3) |
AF-6: PowerEdge MX750c
| Components | Details | QTY |
| SYSTEM | PowerEdge MX750c | 4 |
| CPU | Intel Xeon Gold 6348 2.60Ghz 28Core | 8 |
| MEMORY | DIMM,32GB,3200,2RX4,8G, DDR4 | 32 |
| CachingTier | Dell Ent NVMe SED P5600 MU U.2 1.6TB | 8 |
| CapacityTier | MZILT1T9HAJQ0D3 | 32 |
| Controller | DELL HBA330 MMZ | 4 |
| NIC | Intel(R) Ethernet 25G 2P XXV710 Mezz | 4 |
| BootDevice | BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 Sticks 240G (RAID 1) | 4 |
| Supported Releases | ESXi 8.0 (vSAN 8.0),ESXi 7.0 U3 (vSAN 7.0 Update 3),ESXi 7.0 U2 (vSAN 7.0 Update 2),ESXi 6.7 U3 (vSAN 6.7 Update 3) |
AF-6: PowerEdge MX750c
| Components | Details | QTY |
| SYSTEM | PowerEdge MX750c | 4 |
| CPU | Intel Xeon(R) Platinum 8358 2.60Ghz 32Core | 8 |
| MEMORY | DIMM,32GB,3200,2RX4,8G, DDR4 | 64 |
| CachingTier | Dell 800GB Solid State Drive, SED SAS PM1645 12Gbps 2.5inch | 16 |
| CapacityTier | MZILT1T9HAJQ0D3 | 64 |
| Controller | DELL HBA330 MMZ | 4 |
| Controller | HBA350i MX | 4 |
| NIC | Intel(R) Ethernet 25G 2P XXV710 Mezz | 4 |
| NIC | Mellanox ConnectX®-4 LX Dual Port 25 GbE KR Mezzanine Card | 6 |
| BootDevice | BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 Sticks 240G (RAID 1) | 4 |
| Supported Releases | ESXi 8.0 (vSAN 8.0),ESXi 7.0 U3 (vSAN 7.0 Update 3),ESXi 7.0 U2 (vSAN 7.0 Update 2),ESXi 6.7 U3 (vSAN 6.7 Update 3) |
AF-8: PowerEdge MX750c
| Components | Details | QTY |
| SYSTEM | PowerEdge MX750c | 4 |
| CPU | Intel Xeon(R) Platinum 8358 2.60Ghz 32Core | 8 |
| MEMORY | DIMM,32GB,3200,2RX4,8G, DDR4 | 64 |
| CachingTier | Dell Ent NVMe SED P5600 MU U.2 1.6TB | 8 |
| CapacityTier | MZILT1T9HAJQ0D3 | 56 |
| Controller | DELL HBA330 MMZ | 4 |
| NIC | Intel(R) Ethernet 25G 2P XXV710 Mezz | 4 |
| BootDevice | BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 Sticks 240G (RAID 1) | 4 |
| Supported Releases | ESXi 8.0 (vSAN 8.0),ESXi 7.0 U3 (vSAN 7.0 Update 3),ESXi 7.0 U2 (vSAN 7.0 Update 2),ESXi 6.7 U3 (vSAN 6.7 Update 3) |
I used a search feature to find any blade servers that support vSAN 8.0. If you find one that I missed, please email me at bladesmadesimple AT gmail.com. Also, this was based on the October 11, 2022 version of the vSAN Ready Node Configuration Guide. If you see that another OEM blade server is added, please let me know. Thanks!
Kevin Houston is the founder of BladesMadeSimple.com. With over 24 years of experience in the x86 server marketplace Kevin has a vast array of competitive x86 server knowledge and certifications as well as an in-depth understanding of VMware virtualization. He has worked at Dell Technologies since August 2011 and is a Principal Engineer supporting the East Enterprise Region and is also a CTO Ambassador for the Office of the CTO at Dell Technologies.
#IWork4Dell
Disclaimer: The views presented in this blog are personal views and may or may not reflect any of the contributors’ employer’s positions. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved or published by any employer. No compensation has been provided for any part of this blog.
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