With EVO: RAIL, customers experience a radically new, end-to-end user experience that drives simplicity. EVO: RAIL Deployment, Configuration, and Management streamline initial setup and ongoing operations.Deployment - EVO: RAIL deployment is simple, with just four steps:
- Configure your network (VLANs and top-of-rack switch). Instructions are provided in the EVO: RAIL User Guide.
- Rack and cable.
- Power on EVO: RAIL.
- Connect a laptop to the TOR switch, point your browser to EVO: RAIL, and answer configuration questions.
Within minutes EVO: RAIL is configured and ready to create VMs!
Configuration - EVO: RAIL Configuration has three options: Just Go! or Customize Me! or Upload Configuration File.
With Just Go!, EVO: RAIL automatically configures a default set of IP addresses and hostnames for extremely fast deployment in a green-field scenario. Configure your TOR switch and click the Just Go! button. All you have to create are two passwords.
With Customize Me!, customers can specify the following configuration parameters:
- Hostnames for vCenter Server and ESXiTM hosts naming scheme • Networking (IP ranges and/or VLAN ID): ESXi, Virtual SAN, vSphere vMotion®, vCenter Server, VM Networks
- Passwords: ESXi hosts and vCenter Server, optional Active Directory authentication
- Globals: Time zone; your existing NTP, DNS, and Proxy servers; logging: vCenter Log Insight or third-party syslog server
With Upload Configuration File, an existing json configuration file can be selected and uploaded.
EVO: RAIL implements data services, creates the new ESXi hosts, and configures vCenter Server. The final screen contains the link to EVO: RAIL Management.
Management EVO: RAIL Management provides a dashboard to view all virtual machines and arrange them with sorting and filtering. Users create virtual machines with only a few clicks to select the guest OS, VM size, VLAN, and security options. EVO: RAIL simplifies virtual machine sizing by offering single-click small, medium, and large configurations, as well as single-click security policies.
EVO: RAIL Management revolutionizes live compute management with health monitors for CPU, memory, storage, and VM usage for entire EVO: RAIL clusters, individual appliances, and individual nodes. EVO: RAIL Management streamlines log collection, licensing, and offers language choice for globalization. It also provides notifications and tracks tasks.
EVO: RAIL Management radically simplifies scale-out. Increasing compute, networking, and storage resources is as easy as powering up a new appliance to join an existing EVO: RAIL cluster. EVO: RAIL automatically distributes the configuration to seamlessly add new appliances with zero additional configuration.
EVO: RAIL Management allows users to check for vCenter, ESXi, and EVO: RAIL software upgrades. EVO: RAIL downloads and installs any patches for these VMware products. With a minimum of four independent ESXi hosts in an EVO: RAIL cluster, updates are non-disruptive and require zero downtime.
EVO: RAIL Software
The EVO: RAIL software bundle is fully loaded onto the EVO: RAIL qualified partner’s hardware. This software bundle is comprised of:
- EVO: RAIL Deployment, Configuration, and Management • vSphere Enterprise Plus, including ESXi for compute
- VMware Virtual SAN for storage
- vCenter Server
- vCenter Log InsightTM
EVO: RAIL is optimized for the new VMware user as well as for experienced administrators. Minimal IT experience is required to deploy, configure, and manage EVO: RAIL, allowing it to be used where there is limited or no IT staff on-site. As EVO: RAIL utilizes VMware’s core products, administrators can apply existing VMware knowledge, best practices, and processes.
