I’ll walk through VSPEX Blue below.
In keeping with the EVO:Rail reference architecture, each VSPEX Blue appliance has four server nodes in a 2U rackmount form factor. Viewed from the front of the rack, the VSPEX appliance looks like the picture below:
Viewed from the back of the rack, the VSPEX Blue appliance looks like this:
In the current offering, VSPEX Blue is available in two different configurations, the “standard” model and the “performance” model. The two configurations differ only in the memory installed. The VSPEX Blue specifications are in the table below:
At release, VSPEX Blue can scale up to 4 appliances (16 nodes) in a cluster.
In keeping with the EVO:Rail standard, the VSPEX Blue comes with the following VMware software:
You’re likely familiar with the first three, but the fourth may be new to you. The EVO:Rail Engine automates deployment and configuration of the EVO:Rail cluster. It also handles scale-out (adding a new appliance to the cluster) and non-disruptive upgrades.
EVO:Rail Manager provides for easy cluster management by providing a simple interface, pre-sized VM templates, and single-click policies.
Above and beyond the standard EVO:Rail software, VSPEX Blue provides additional functionality through the addition of their VSPEX Blue Manager software. The VSPEX Blue Manager provides:
Additionally, the VSPEX Blue Manager includes the VSPEX Blue Market. The Market provides and easy way for customers to download software upgrades or purchase additional licenses for CloudArray or RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines.
Version 1 of the VSPEX Blue appliance will be GA on 16 February.
In Q3, EMC plans to release an updated version of VSPEX Blue. This update will be based on the next-generation Intel CPUs (Haswell) and will include:
