VMware has shipped the latest release of EVO:RAIL software to its partners, version 1.1. EVO: RAIL is designed to dramatically simplify delivery and deployment of software-defined infrastructures in a rapid and repeatable manner, as well as simplifying configuration, on-going management, patching, and upgrading of software (with zero-downtime and automatic discovery of any new appliance added). The latest version of EVO:RAIL comes with increased scalability, improved hardware monitoring, serviceability automation, and deeper configure validation.
VMware has shipped the latest release of EVO:RAIL software to its partners, version 1.1. EVO: RAIL is designed to dramatically simplify delivery and deployment of software-defined infrastructures in a rapid and repeatable manner, as well as simplifying configuration, on-going management, patching, and upgrading of software (with zero-downtime and automatic discovery of any new appliance added). The latest version of EVO:RAIL comes with increased scalability, improved hardware monitoring, serviceability automation, and deeper configure validation.
Since its release last August, VMware has partnered with several companies to release EVO:RAIL versions of their solutions. These partners and solutions include HP, with its HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC EVO: RAIL, Supermicro and Nexenta with their Supermicro EVO:RAIL, Dell with its Software-Defined Storage Solutions for VMware EVO: RAIL, EMC with its VSPEX BLUE, and NetApp with its Integrated EVO: RAIL Solution. VMware’s partners will start rolling out new appliances with the EVO:RAIL 1.1 soon.
Version 1.1’s enhancements include:
- Increased scalability – now users can scale up to 8 EVO:RAIL appliances, a total of 32 nodes. This new scalability doubles the maximum supported CPU, memory, and storage. Version 1.1 now supports up to 800 general purpose server VMs and 2000 VMware Horizon View VMs.
- Improved hardware monitoring – the management interface now offers an improved look into the hardware’s health. The status of every node in every appliance will be able to be monitored along with HDDs, SSDs, NICs, and ESXi boot devices.
- Serviceability automation – the hardware replacement process for HDDs, SSDs, and 10 GbE NICs has now been automated through the management interface. And ESXi boot device replacement is now semi-automated.
- Configuration validation – to address common errors that occur while configuring or adding an appliance, the new update has deeper configure validation, verifying:
- All hosts are able to communicate with each other on a link-local network.
- Only the primary ESXi host is running vCenter Server.
- Only two configured port groups exist, one for EVO:RAIL and one for the vCenter network.
- All Qualified EVO:RAIL Partners Solution VMs are configured properly.
- An uploaded JSON configuration file is valid and any incorrect fields are highlighted in EVO:RAIL Configuration.
- Support for mixed CPU clusters – EVO:RAIL appliances built with the new 1.1 release now support mixing Ivy Bridge (2620v2) and Haswell (2620v3) CPUs in the same EVO:RAIL cluster.
Availability
Partners will be rolling out appliances with the latest EVO:RAIL 1.1 software release in the coming weeks and months.
