This module focuses on the VxRail Manager views and common tasks performed with VxRail Manager.

Copyright © 2017 Dell Inc. VxRail Appliance Administration and Management 1

 This lesson presents the VxRail Manager views. We present each of the views at a high level.

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 The graphic shows the VxRail Manager Dashboard view when you log in to VxRail Manager. The VxRail
Manager has tabs for Dashboard, Support, Events, Health, and Config. Click on a specific tab to navigate
and use the functionality of that tab. VxRail Manager also has online help and a link to the vSphere Web
Client for the vCenter Server managing the VxRail cluster.

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 The VxRail Manager Dashboard displays the Overall System Health, Support, VxRail Community
information, and Event History. The Dashboard also shows upgrade availability and cluster expansion
information if applicable.
• Overall system health status can be shown as Healthy, Error, Warning, or Critical. Clicking the
health status link takes you to the Events view.
• The support section shows the last heartbeat status for ESRS and links to start a chat session with
support and to open a service request. The last heartbeat status is shown only if ESRS is enabled.
• The VxRail community section shows links to the most recent articles from the online VxRail
community. You can click on any of the links to open a new browser page to view the article on the
online VxRail community page. You can also click on the VxRail community link to go to the VxRail
community page - https://community.emc.com/community/products/vxrail.
• Event history shows the most recent system events. Select a specific event, and view its details in
the Events view.

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 To view VxRail Manager support resources, click the SUPPORT tab. The support tab has some of the
same information seen in the VxRail Manager Dashboard. Last heartbeat, links to chat with support, open
a service request and the VxRail community articles.

Other support resources available are:

• View the Last Configuration sent – displays the most recent VxRail Appliance configuration data
sent using ESRS connect home.
• Download – link to the downloads section of the VxRail Appliance on the Dell EMC support
website.
• Knowledge Base – Search the knowledge base on the Dell EMC support website for VxRail related
articles, the Dell EMC support username and password must be set.

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 Click the Events tab, and view the list of current VxRail system events. If there are critical events
detected, the Events icon displays the number of unread events in the navigation bar. The events list can
be sorted by clicking the column heading – ID, Severity, Component, or Time. The search box can be
used to filter the list of events by ID, severity, or component. Events can be exported as a .CSV file. All
events can be marked as read.

Select a specific event, and view its details. Clicking the Component ID in the event details view brings
you to the physical view of the specific component in the VxRail Manager Health tab.

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 Click the VxRail Manager Health tab, and view the physical system health or monitor the logical system
health. The physical health displays information about the hardware components in the VxRail cluster. You
can view the Cluster summary or click on an individual appliance to see the physical view of an individual
appliance. The appliance view shows the front and back views. Clicking an individual component in the
physical appliance view shows the details of the specific component. The appliance view also shows the
status of components if there are any critical, error, or warning events.

The example shows a VxRail cluster which has a Gen 2 appliance with four nodes and a Gen 3 node. The
appliance detail of the node shows the front view with the disks and the back view with the power supplies
and network interfaces. Clicking the node on the back view shows the details of the node.

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 To monitor the logical system health, click the Logical tab in the VxRail Manager Health view. The logical
view displays the storage IOPS, CPU, memory and storage usage of the entire cluster, individual
appliances, and individual nodes. The example on the slide is the logical view of the overall cluster.

The status is color coded:

• Green – less than 75% used
• Yellow – 75–85 % used
• Red – over 85% used

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 To view the logical system health of a specific appliance, click an appliance name. To view details about
capacity, cache, ESXi disk, or NIC of a specific node click on the component. The NIC detail shows the
send and receive rates for each vmnic.

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 To go to the VxRail Manager Config System tab, click the Config tab. The System tab of the displays
information about the applications and add-ons currently installed on the VxRail Appliance. Click the
Installed components link for a list of the components and version numbers.

When a new version is available, the Config icon in the left navigation bar displays a highlighted number,
and the Internet Upgrade button is displayed. The Local Upgrade button – shown on the slide – is always
available. The VxRail Manager VM must have connectivity to the internet for the internet upgrade option.

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 To go the VxRail Manager Market, click Market in the Config page. The VxRail Market lets you
download, install, and upgrade qualified software products for your appliance. Choose from a list of
applications that add functionality, protection, or management to your VxRail Appliance. The VxRail
Manager VM must have connectivity to the internet to show content in the VxRail Manage Market.

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 To go the VxRail Manager General tab, click General in the Config page. The General tab displays
information and settings for your VxRail Appliance. Use the General tab to:
• View the VxRail Manager software version running on your appliance.
• Set the support account. The support account must be set to enable ESRS and to use support chat
and open service ticket links from within VxRail Manager.
• Generate a new log bundle. Log bundles can be sent to the Dell EMC support team to diagnose
issues.
• Configure proxy settings. Proxy setting can be enabled to allow connections to an external network
through a proxy server. VxRail manager accepts internet traffic through the proxy server.
• Enable EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS).

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 Other options in the Config General tab are:
• Configure Network Environment Settings – used when you want to disable access to the internet
from VxRail.
• Cluster Health Monitoring is normally on. You may want to mute cluster health monitoring when
performing system maintenance. VxRail Manager displays a banner indicating that monitoring is
suppressed, when cluster health monitoring is muted.
• System Diagnostics – Run system diagnostics.
• Shut Down Cluster – Gracefully shut down the cluster. This action is the preferred way to shut down
the entire cluster.
• Choose your language for the VxRail Manager UI.

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 This lesson presents common tasks performed with VxRail Manager.

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 VxRail can be monitored with VxRail Manager and the VMware vSphere Web client. In this lesson we
focus on the monitoring with VxRail Manager. The VxRail Manager Dashboard, Health, and Events views
are used for monitoring. The Dashboard, Events, and the Logical health views were presented in the
previous lesson. We introduced the Physical health view in the previous lesson, we explore it further in the
next few slides. System diagnostics and log collection are done via the Config General tab.

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 The Physical health view of an appliance shows the status of components if there are any critical, error, or
warning events. Clicking the status icon on the component takes you to the Events view and highlight the
specific event.

In this example we see a warning status on the nodes of a G series appliance. Clicking the warning icon
on Node 1 takes us to the specific event. In this example we see that the message is a host heath
warning. One would have to use the vSphere Web client to explore further.

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 To see the details of a node, click the node in the back view of the appliance. The node information panel
lists the status, serial number, software versions, BIOS firmware version, and SATA DOM information.
The node information for G series (Gen 2) nodes also includes information on the MAC addresses on the
NICs and the link status. For E, V, P, and S series (Gen 3) nodes the NIC information is shown by clicking
the network interface ports.

The node information panel of a G series node can also be used to initiate maintenance activities:
• Add disks
• Toggle chassis LED indicator

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 To see the details of a node, click the node in the back view of the appliance. The example shows the
node details for an E series node. The node information does not show the NIC details unlike the G series
nodes. The node information panel of a Gen 3 node can also be used to initiate maintenance activities:
• Add disks
• Toggle chassis LED indicator
• Node shutdown

To see the NIC details for E, V, P, and S series (Gen 3) nodes, click the network interface ports in the
back view. The MAC addresses of the NICs and the link status are shown.

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 To see the details of a power supply, click the power supply in the back view of the node or appliance.

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 To see the details of a disk, click the disk in the front view of the appliance. VxRail E, V, P & S series (Gen
3) nodes support SSD drive rate write endurance monitoring. This example shows the details of the SSD
drive in slot 0 for an E series node.

The Disk Information panel displays a message when the remaining rated write endurance reaches
certain levels:
• Warning: 30% rated write endurance remaining
• Error: 20% rated write endurance remaining
• Critical: 5% rated write endurance remaining

The Error and Critical levels are reported on the VxRail Manager Events screen.

The disk information panel can also be used to initiate maintenance activities:
• Replace disks
• Toggle disk LED indicator

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 To see the details of a disk, click the disk in the front view of the appliance. Drive rate write endurance
monitoring is not displayed for SSD disks on G series nodes. This example shows the details of the SSD
drive in slot 0 in enclosure 1 of a G series appliance.

The disk information panel can also be used to initiate maintenance activities:
• Replace disks
• Toggle disk LED indicator

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 Events can be correlated back to physical components if the detail of the event lists a component ID. To
go to the physical view of the component, click the component ID hyperlink. For example, the event detail
of a critical disk event shows the component ID. Clicking the component ID brings us to the physical view
of the appliance with the disk highlighted in the front view.

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 To run a system diagnostic, go to the Config General tab and click the Diagnostic button. The diagnostic
highlights any errors and point to relevant knowledge base articles. The example on the left is a failed
diagnostic – failure due to missing power supplies. The example on the left shows a healthy VxRail
cluster.

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 To generate a new log bundle, go to the Config General tab and click the Generate New Log Bundle
button. Save the file to a known location. The file is a zip archive. The whole bundle can be sent to the Dell
EMC support team for troubleshooting and diagnosis.

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 VxRail Appliance power up/down procedures are available via the Dell EMC Solve Desktop application.
Use SolVe Desktop to generate the required power control procedure. Select Power Control Procedures,
then choose the power control activity. SolVe procedures specify the requirements, point to related
knowledge base articles, and give you step-by-step instructions.

The power down procedure is executed via VxRail Manager using the Shut Down Cluster feature. We
discuss the shutdown procedure in the next slide. The power-up procedure is a manual power on of each
host. The steps to power up a VxRail Appliance are:
• Make sure the TOR switch is fully powered on.
• Power on each host manually by depressing the power button.
• All the service VMs are powered on automatically, wait several minutes for VMs to power up. The
locator LED of Node 1 is automatically turned off when VxRail Manager starts.
• Users must power on the customer VMs manually.

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 Use the VxRail Manager Shut Down Cluster feature to gracefully shut down the entire VxRail cluster.
During the shutdown procedure, VxRail Manager provides detailed error messages with links to
appropriate knowledgebase articles if there are any problems. Users are responsible for properly shutting
down all customer VMs. VxRail Manager shuts down all VMs in the cluster. Dell EMC recommends that
users shut down all customer VMs gracefully before performing this procedure.

Go to the Config General tab and click the Shut Down button. Click Confirm in the confirmation dialog.
VxRail Manager runs a series or precheck tests. Any precheck failures must be resolved before shutting
down. After all the precheck tests pass, the Shut Down button becomes visible. Click Shut Down to initiate
the shutdown process. The VxRail Manager VM also shuts down as part of the process.

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 VxRail Appliance drive expansion procedures are available via the Dell EMC Solve Desktop application.
Use SolVe Desktop to generate the drive expansion procedure. Select Hardware Upgrade/Expansion
Procedures, then select Capacity Drive (HDD/SSD) Expansion. Choose the relevant VxRail Appliance,
and generate the drive expansion procedure.

Only capacity disks can be added to Gen 2 nodes. Gen 2 nodes have only one vSAN disk group, so a
cache disk would already be in place. SSD capacity disks can be added to all flash nodes, HDD capacity
disks can be added to hybrid nodes.

Cache or capacity disks can be added to Gen 3 nodes. Gen 3 nodes can have more than one vSAN disk
group – maximum number of disk groups varies with model. Cache disks can be added to systems which
have room to add more disk groups. At least one capacity disk has to be added along with a cache disk.
SSD capacity disks can be added to all flash nodes, HDD capacity disks can be added to hybrid nodes.

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 It is a best practice to add disks in a balanced manner across all nodes. Follow the procedures as
documented in the SolVe procedures.

The add disk procedures are initiated from VxRail Manager physical view. vSAN auto claim of storage is
disabled. VxRail Manager handles the addition of capacity disks to existing disk group or the creation of
new disk groups.

Multiple disk groups are created, but it depends on the number of disks and the model of VxRail. Some
models allow more disk groups than others. Disk group creation is done automatically when the add disk
procedure is run. The table lists the disk group matrix for the various VxRail models.

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 Drive expansions are initiated from the Node information panel of a node in the VxRail Manager health
view. Follow the procedures documented in the SolVe procedures.

The example shows a disk expansion for an E series node.

• Navigate to the physical view of the appliance and then view the node details.
• Click Add Disks to see the Add Disks panel. For Gen 3 nodes, you can add cache and capacity
disks. In this example, the node already has disks in slots 0–4. We have selected Cache and then
clicked Continue.
• The Add Disks panel shows the suggested slots where new disks can be inserted. You can click the
Show in view link to highlight the suggested slots in the Front View.
• Insert the new disks into the suggested slots and click Continue to proceed.

The rest of the steps are not shown. VxRail will perform a precheck of all the disks, after the precheck
passes click Continue. VxRail adds the disks to the vSAN cluster. New disk groups are created as
needed.

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 The rules related to VxRail cluster expansion are listed on the slide. You cannot mix hybrid and all-flash
appliances as a mix could lower the throughput of an all-flash VxRail Appliance. The first four nodes must
be identical. Additional nodes do not have to match, but symmetrical expansion is favored.

VxRail clusters can scale up to 64 nodes. 1 GbE VxRail clusters can only scale up eight nodes. An RPQ is
required for stretched clusters. Scaling or expansion is something that an administrator wants to keep in
mind while designing and maintaining a VxRail environment.

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 VxRail cluster expansion is initiated from the VxRail Manager Dashboard. Available nodes are discovered
and displayed in the Cluster Expansion section. Work with your Dell EMC account team or your Dell EMC
partner to help facilitate and execute the cluster expansion process. Currently the cluster expansion
procedure is not available as a Customer procedure in SolVe. Qualified Dell EMC personnel or Dell EMC
partners are required to execute the procedure. Starting with VxRail 4.5 multiple nodes (up to 6) can be
added at the same time.

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 The purpose of this lab is to use VxRail Manager to monitor a VxRail cluster.

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 This module presented the VxRail Manager views and common tasks performed with VxRail Manager.

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