H38BFS - Managing HPE Alletra dHCI

This course covers the general concepts of Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) and disaggregated Hyperconverged Infrastructure (dHCI), as well as HPE offerings from the HCI portfolio with focus on HPE Alletra dHCI using HPE Alletra 6000 or HPE Alletra 5000, or HPE Nimble Storage. Hands-on labs are used to reinforce selected content discussed in the lecture.

The course covers HPE Alletra dHCI features and theory of operation, including building blocks, available deployment options, and networking aspects. It also lists HPE Alletra dHCI management options, such as on-premises integration with VMware vSphere® client and HPE GreenLake cloud-based management. HPE InfoSight support for dHCI is covered as well.

In addition, the course discusses use cases and integration of HPE Alletra dHCI with VMware (vCenter® plug-in, vSphere® Virtual Volumes™(vVols), and vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with HPE Peer Persistence, plus VMware Site Recovery Manager™ (SRM) and VMware Cloud Foundation™) as well as integration with Kubernetes® (including overview, CSI driver, and architecture). The course then presents the Intelligent Upgrade process.

Audience

This course is for anyone who manages the HPE Nimble Storage or HPE Alletra dHCI solutions.

Prerequisites

Prior to taking this course, we recommend knowledge and experience with HPE Alletra 6000 or HPE Alletra 5000, or HPE Nimble Storage.

Course objectives

After completing this course, you should be able to:
Understand the concepts of HCI and dHCI
Describe HPE Alletra dHCI features and theory of operation
List HPE Alletra dHCI building blocks, variants, and options, as well as solution installation
Discuss networking of HPE Alletra dHCI
Overview HPE Alletra dHCI management options
List HPE Alletra dHCI main use cases and integrations
Explain the HPE Alletra dHCI upgrade process

Detailed course outline

(d)HCI Introduction

(d)HCI definition
Drivers for hyperconvergence
Drivers for converged adoption
dHCI advantages
HPE HCI offerings

HPE Alletra dHCI Technical Introduction

Architectural principles
HPE ProLiant servers for private cloud
Traditional three-tier vs HPE Alletra dHCI deployment
Traditional HCI vs HPE Alletra dHCI efficiency
HPE Alletra dHCI architecture
HPE Alletra dHCI scalability
Non-dHCI hosts compatibility
HPE Alletra dHCI use cases

HPE Alletra dHCI Solution Building Blocks

HPE Alletra dHCI platform building blocks
HPE Alletra dHCI: Greenfield and Brownfield deployment paths
Stack setup flow with Greenfield and Brownfield
HPE Alletra dHCI reference configurations
dHCI + HPE Services installation and startup service

HPE GreenLake and (d)HCI

HPE GreenLake consumption on-premises concept
HPE GreenLake for HPE Alletra dHCI
HPE GreenLake for Private Cloud Business Edition
FAQ

dHCI Networking Recommendations

Networking considerations
Selecting the right switch
Third-party switch support
Cabling topologies
The use of dHCI compute nodes’ ports
Cabling and networking examples

Network Automation

Network automation overview
Network automation flow
Network automation supported network topology
Stack setup with network automation

VMware vSphere Distributed Switch Support

VMware vSphere Distributed Switch—Greenfield support
VMware vSphere Distributed Switch—Stack setup changes

dHCI Stack Manager

dHCI Stack Manager
Home
Datastores
vVol VMs
Inventory
Inventory: network
Inventory: server
Adding compute
Inventory: storage
Events
Configuration checks
HPE InfoSight Welcome Center
dHCI applicable HPE InfoSight features

HPE Alletra dHCI: Main Use Cases and Integrations

HPE Storage Integration Pack for VMware vCenter
VMware vVols
VM recycle bin
VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with HPE Peer Persistence
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
VMware Cloud Foundation
Containers and Kubernetes
Containers vs VMs
HPE CSI Driver for Kubernetes
Implementation using the native VMware vSphere CSI Driver

Intelligent Upgrades

Upgrades and lifecycle management
dHCI Intelligent Upgrades
Intelligent Upgrades for full-stack automation
Software update catalog
dHCI Intelligent Upgrades flow overview
Catalog matching
HPE Alletra dHCI upgrade process
One-click upgrades in action
dHCI Intelligent Upgrade example

Additional Resources

Useful information
Lightboard
Video demos

Appendix

Stack setup with network automation—Greenfield
Stack setup—Brownfield
VMware Cloud Foundation—HPE dHCI integration setup

Detailed lab outline

Lab 1: Initial Configuration

Task 1: Discovering and initializing the storage array
Task 2: Configuring the dHCI stack

Lab 2: Managing the dHCI Environment from within vCenter

Task 1: Touring the HPE Storage vCenter plug-in
Task 2: Storage system information
Task 3: Configuration check

Lab 3: Storage System Management from the Plug-in

Lab 4: VMFS Datastores

Task 1: Creating a VMFS datastore
Task 2: Growing a VMFS datastore
Task 3: Snapshots and snapshot schedules
Task 4: Zero-copy clones
Task 5: Deleting VMFS Datastores

Lab 5: HPE Alletra/HPE Alletra dHCI and VMware vVols

Task 1: Create a vVol datastore
Task 2: Create a VMware storage policy
Task 3: Create a vVol VM by using a storage policy
Task 4: vVol delete and restore from recycle bin
Task 5: Create manual snapshots for vVols from VMware
Task 6: Restore or create a clone from a snapshot

Lab 6: One Button Upgrade (read-only lab, do not perform)

Overview
Procedure