Tag Archives: VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere 7 Now Supports AMD SEV-ES Encryption!

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VMware just announced that vSphere 7 Update 1 will add support for AMD SEV-ES encryption!

Find out what this means for enterprise security, and the future of AMD EPYC processors!

 

AMD SEV-ES Encryption : What Is It?

SEV-ES, short for Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Encrypted State, is a hardware-accelerated encryption capability in AMD EPYC processors.

Leveraging both the AMD Secure Processor and the AES-128 encryption engine built into every AMD EPYC processor, SEV-ES encrypts all CPU register contents when a virtual machine stops running.

This prevents the leakage of information from the CPU registers to components like the hypervisor. It can even detect malicious modifications to a CPU register state.

 

VMware vSphere 7 Now Supports AMD SEV-ES Encryption!

VMware vSphere 7 Update 1 adds support for both AMD SEV-ES and AMD EPYC processors.

The AMD Secure Processor in the first-generation EPYC processors can handle up to 15 encryption keys.

That increases to more than 500 encryption keys with the second-generation EPYC processors.

ESXi has many layers of isolation within its virtualised infrastructure, but all of that is implemented in software. They still require a level of trust in the hardware, which is where AMD SEV-ES comes in.

A guest operating system that supports SEV can ask the AMD Secure Processor to issue it an encryption key, for full in-memory, in-hardware encryption.

SEV-ES extends that protection to CPU registers, so that the data inside the CPU itself is encrypted. This protects the data from being read or modified when the virtual machine stops running.

Even a compromised hypervisor that accesses the register data cannot make use of it, because it is now encrypted.

Needless to say, adding support for AMD SEV-ES in vSphere 7 will spur the uptake of AMD EPYC processors in the datacenter.

 

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Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI + vHPC on VMware vSphere!

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Dell Technologies just introduced Dell EMC Ready solutions for both AI and virtualised HPC workloads on VMware vSphere 7!

Join us for the tech briefing on both new Dell EMC computing solutions for VMware, and find out how it can simplify your advanced computing needs!

 

Simplified Advanced Computing With Dell EMC Ready Solutions

Let’s start with the Dell Technologies briefing on the two new Dell EMC Ready solutions for both AI and virtualised HPC workloads.

Based on VMware Cloud Foundation, they are designed to make AI easier to deploy and consume, with new features from VMware vSphere 7, including Bitfusion.

 

 

Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI : GPU-as-a-Service (GaaS)

GPUs in individual workstations or servers are often under-utilised at less than 15% of capacity. The new Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI : GPU-as-a-Service fixes that and maximises your investment with virtual GPU pools.

The newest design includes the latest VMware vSphere 7 with Bitfusion, making it possible to virtualise GPUs on-premise. Factory-installed by Dell, VMware vSphere 7 with Bitfusion will let developers and data scientists pool IT resources and share them across datacenters.

Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI : GPU-as-a-Service also uses the latest VMware Cloud Foundation with VMware vSphere 7 support for Kubernetes and containerised applications to run AI workloads anywhere. Containers make it easier to bring cloud-native applications into production, with the ability to move workloads.

 

Dell EMC Ready Solutions for Virtualised HPC

Most HPC workloads run on dedicated systems that require specialised skills to deploy and manage. Dell EMC Ready Solutions for Virtualised HPC can include VMware Cloud Foundation with VMware vSphere 7 featuring Bitfusion.

That should make it simpler and more economical to use VMware environments for HPC and AI applications in computational chemistry, bioinformatics and computer-aided engineering. IT teams can quickly provision hardware as needed, speed up initial deployment and configuration, saving time with simpler centralised management and security.

For very large HPC implementations, Dell EMC Ready Solutions for vHPC can include VMware vSphere Scale-Out Edition for additional cost savings.

 

Dell EMC OpenManage for Dell EMC Ready Solutions

The new Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI and Virtualised HPC ship with the Dell EMC OpenManage systems management software, which helps administrators improve system uptime, keep data insights flowing and prepare for AI operations.

New Dell EMC OpenManage improvements include :

  • OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter, supporting vSphere Lifecycle Manager, automates software, driver and firmware updates holistically to save time and simplify operations.
  • The enhanced OpenManage Mobile app gives administrators the ability to view power and thermal policies, perform emergency power reduction and monitor internal storage from anywhere in the world.

 

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Kingston DC500 SSDs Are Now Certified VMware Ready!

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Kingston Technology just announced that their DC500 enterprise-grade SSDs are now certified VMware Ready. Find out what this means!

 

Kingston DC500 SSDs Are Now Certified VMware Ready!

After the VMware Ready validation process, the Kingston DC500 family of enterprise SSDs are now certified for VMware vSAN and vSphere in production environments.

The Kingston DC500 family of enterprise SSDs had earlier been validated by NAS providers like QNAP and Synology, but this is their first enterprise-class validation.

This gives their enterprise clients assurance that the Kingston DC500 SSDs can be deployed in production environments without worry.

The Kingston DC500 drives have been tuned using comprehensive QoS test scripts developed in-house that measure IO and latency patterns at varying block sizes and queue depths. This allows them to deliver low latency out to six 9s (99.9999 percent) of consistency while delivering high throughput and predictable IO.

The VMware Ready program is a co-branding benefit of the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program that makes it easy for customers to identify partner products certified to work with VMware cloud infrastructure.

 

The Kingston DC500 SSD Family

The Kingston DC500 SSD family consists of two models – DC500R and DC500M that are tuned for different use cases :

Kingston DC500R : Read-Centric SSD

The Kingston DC500R is highly optimised for read-centric workloads, delivering high I/O speeds and response times at lower price points than write-intensive SSDs.

Kingston DC500M : Mixed-Use SSD

The Kingston DC500M, on the other hand, is tuned for mixed-use workloads which demand a mix of read and write operations. It offers greater write endurance with strict performance consistency for datacenters.

Kingston DC500 Common Features

Both Kingston DC500R and DC500M SSDs incorporate end-to-end data path protection, which guarantee that all data will be written to the SSD and is protected against transient errors.

They also include on-board Power-Loss Protection (PLP) using tantalum capacitors. This ensures that data-in-flight is written to the flash memory in the event of unexpected power loss. The PLP also ensures that the drives’ mapping table (FTL) is updated before the drive powers down.

These safeguards reduce the risk of data loss, and ensure that the drive will initialise properly when the server powers up again.

 

Kingston DC500 SSD Family Specifications

For your convenience, we compare both DC500R and DC500M models in this table :

Specifications Kingston DC500R Kingston DC500M
Form Factor 2.5-inch
Interface SATA 3.0 (6 Gbps)
Storage Capacities 480 GB / 960 GB / 1.92 TB / 3.84 TB
NAND Flash Type 3D TLC NAND
Built-In Encryption 256-bit AES Encryption
Power Loss Protection Tantalum capacitors
QoS Read Latency < 500 µs
QoS Write Latency < 2 ms
Sequential Read Speed 480 GB : 555 MB/s
960 GB : 555 MB/s
1.92 TB : 555 MB/s
3.84 TB : 555 MB/s		 480 GB : 555 MB/s
960 GB : 555 MB/s
1.92 TB : 555 MB/s
3.84 TB : 555 MB/s
Sequential Write Speed 480 GB : 500 MB/s
960 GB : 525 MB/s
1.92 TB : 525 MB/s
3.84 TB : 520 MB/s		 480 GB : 520 MB/s
960 GB : 520 MB/s
1.92 TB : 520 MB/s
3.84 TB : 520 MB/s
Steady-State Random Read 480 GB : 98,000 IOPS
960 GB : 98,000 IOPS
1.92 TB : 98,000 IOPS
3.84 TB : 98,000 IOPS		 480 GB : 98,000 IOPS
960 GB : 98,000 IOPS
1.92 TB : 98,000 IOPS
3.84 TB : 98,000 IOPS
Steady-State Random Write 480 GB : 12,000 IOPS
960 GB : 20,000 IOPS
1.92 TB : 24,000 IOPS
3.84 TB : 28,000 IOPS		 480 GB : 58,000 IOPS
960 GB : 70,000 IOPS
1.92 TB : 75,000 IOPS
3.84 TB : 75,000 IOPS
Endurance 480 GB : 438 TBW
960 GB : 876 TBW
1.92 TB : 1752 TBW
3.84 TB : 3504 TBW		 480 GB : 1139 TBW
960 GB : 2278 TBW
1.92 TB : 4555 TBW
3.84 TB : 9110 TBW
Power Consumption Idle : 1.56 W
Average : 1.6 W
Max. Read : 1.8 W
Max. Write : 4.86 W
Vibration (Non-Operating) 20 G peak (10-2000 Hz)
Vibration (Operating) 2.17 G peak (7-800 Hz)
Storage Temperature -40°C ~ 85°C
Operating Temperature 0°C ~ 70°C
Dimensions 69.9 mm x 100 mm x 7 mm
Weight 92.34 g
Warranty 5 Years

 

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Dell EMC Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Advancements

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Dell EMC just announced the worldwide availability of the 14th Generation PowerEdge servers, as well as Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) advancements, at the Dell EMC Forum 2017 here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Join us for the media briefing on these two new developments at the Dell EMC Forum 2017, with KT Ong and William Tan from Dell EMC Malaysia!

 

Dell EMC Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Advancements

At the Dell EMC Forum 2017, Dell EMC announced that they will be integrating their Dell EMC PowerEdge servers into the Dell EMC VxRail Appliances Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI).

VxRail Appliances on PowerEdge servers deliver 40% more CPU performance for the same price, increased flexibility and scalability with more configurations, all-flash nodes equipped with double the storage capacity and a new 3-node entry point that is more than 25% less expensive.

This allows Dell EMC to address new workloads or use cases like :

  • Storage heavy workloads including Big Data Analytics and Microsoft Exchange can take advantage of VxRail Appliances based on the PowerEdge R730xd platform that has highly dense storage nodes coupled with the latest Intel processors to provide high-performance processing.
  • Graphics-heavy client virtualisation workloads that require increasing levels of performance found in the latest operating systems including Microsoft Windows 10, as well as productivity applications and graphics-intensive CAD/CAM, research and development applications based on the PowerEdge R730.
  • Remote Office/Branch Office environments can leverage the low-end 3-node entry option based on the PowerEdge R630 with a starting priced as low as US $25,000 for a three-node cluster, allowing customers to cost-effectively deploy HCI to simplify IT management at multiple remote sites.

In addition, Dell EMC announced the availability of Dell EMC VxRail Appliances 4.5 that delivers these new enterprise features :

  • Enhanced enterprise deployment features – Streamlined installation and implementation experience designed to help enterprise customers manage VxRail Appliances at scale. The VxRail Appliance deployment experience, which is optimised to deploy a single appliance in only 20 minutes, now can be applied to larger cluster sizes, allowing customers to add and manage 10 or more appliances as easily as a single appliance.
  • Additional hardware flexibility lowers total cost of ownership – New single processor options, reduce the cost of deploying processor-based licensed software for scaling up to 64 nodes. New network options, including up to 12 additional ports, allow VxRail Appliances to be deployed in environments requiring physical network segmentation of workloads.
  • Support for the latest VMware technologies – New VMware vSphere 6.5 and VMware vSAN 6.6 support adds optimised data service algorithms to accelerate flash performance, software-defined data-at-rest encryption to protect against unwanted access to data, and enhanced protection for stretched clusters.
  • Improved interoperability with Dell EMC technologies – Customers deploying VxRail Appliances now can leverage a centralised Dell EMC Secure Remote Services (ESRS) gateway to provide a single point of secure, two-way remote support for their entire Dell EMC infrastructure.
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Dell EMC VxRail Appliances on PowerEdge Availability

  • VxRail Appliances powered by PowerEdge servers is now available for order in Singapore, India, and Korea starting 14 August 2017.
  • VxRail Appliances powered by PowerEdge servers have planned available in October 2017 in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji, Guam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

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