There are many Ethernet networking offerings available for Azure Stack HCI, but very few can deliver a complete end-to-end high-speed Ethernet solution supporting RDMA. With nearly a decade of Microsoft software-defined and Azure Stack HCI solutions under its belt, DataON chose to partner with NVIDIA Networking (formerly Mellanox Technologies) as its primary provider for high-speed RDMA over Ethernet (RoCE) solutions. DataON offers a broad line of validated Mellanox Spectrum® Ethernet Switches and Mellanox ConnectX® family of network interface adapters (NICs) for its Azure Stack HCI solutions.
Here are five NVIDIA Networking technologies that power Azure Stack HCI solutions from DataON.
1. NVIDIA Networking delivers industry-leading support for RDMA over Converged Ethernet for Azure Stack HCI
Mellanox ConnectX adapters and Spectrum switches offer support for RoCE to deliver efficient data transfer with very low latencies across Ethernet networks. Using remote direct memory access otherwise known as RDMA over Ethernet technology, applications can perform data transfers without the involvement of the network software stack, bypass the kernel, and access remote memory without consuming any CPU time.
NVIDIA Networking end-to-end RoCE solutions maximize Azure Stack HCI converged and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) performance by allowing a cluster of server nodes to process data instantaneously as if they were one. Because of NVIDIA’s RoCE solutions, Azure Stack HCI can deliver larger numbers of hosted VMs per physical servers, more virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) instances, and SQL environments achieve high-performance to complete queries faster
At DataON, NVIDIA end-to-end RoCE networking is the backbone of our Azure Stack HCI solutions.
2. NVIDIA Networking supports RoCE v2 for Azure Stack HCI
The RoCE v2 standard enables routing RDMA traffic across Layer 3 Ethernet networks. Utilizing Mellanox 25/40/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) adapters and switches with RoCEv2 support is a key factor in delivering efficient, high performance, and cost-effective Azure Stack HCI solutions. It enables them to process the massive amounts of data required for today’s demanding workloads.
RoCE v2 helps better scale cloud deployments in an Azure Stack HCI software defined networking infrastructure and meets the expanding virtualization needs organizations today demand.
3. NVIDIA Networking provides 25/40/50/100 GbE Mellanox ConnectX solutions for Azure Stack HCI
The Mellanox ConnectX series of adapters deliver best-in-class hardware with capabilities that accelerate and secure traditional data center, hybrid cloud, and cloud deployments in Azure Stack HCI environments. ConnectX adapters offer a cost-effective Ethernet adapter solution for 25/40/50/100 Gb/s Ethernet speeds, enabling seamless networking, clustering, or storage.
Mellanox ConnectX adapters deliver the bandwidth and IOPS Azure Stack HCI solutions demand. The higher the interconnect speed, the more organizations can save, reducing the overall cost per VM.
4. NVIDIA Networking delivers high performance for Azure Stack HCI
Azure Stack HCI set the industry record: 13.7 million IOPS with Azure Stack HCI (running Windows Server 2019), Intel® Optane™ DC persistent memory, and Mellanox ConnectX 25GbE adapters.
Many Azure Stack HCI deployments configured with all-NVMe flash running applications like SQL Server, VDI, backup and disaster recovery, and virtualized workloads require higher bandwidth and more IOPS. Not having high enough networking bandwidth will result in an unbalanced system and reduced deployment efficiency. Mellanox ConnectX adapters reduce application runtime and offer the flexibility, high performance, and scalability to make an Azure Stack HCI infrastructure run as efficiently and productively as possible.
5. NVIDIA Networking offers end-to-end networking solutions, from network adapters to switch fabric
High throughput, low latency, active-active network switching capabilities, and RoCE support are crucial when deploying Azure Stack HCI converged and hyper-converged infrastructures. Providing high-bandwidth cut-through performance, and offload acceleration, Mellanox Spectrum Ethernet switches and ConnectX adapters are used exclusively in Azure Stack HCI solutions from DataON.
As a complete end-to-end networking Ethernet fabric, NVIDIA Networking and DataON simplify the evaluation process and takeaway the guesswork, providing the highest performance, manageability, and compatibility, and security offered in a turnkey experience.
If you’re looking to deploy Azure Stack HCI in your data center, DataON can help.
Contact us for a detailed consultation with our sales team and we can help turn your IT challenge into a success.