1. What are Eaton solutions for VxRail?



Eaton continues its innovation leadership with the release of Intelligent Power Manager (IPM) version 1.67 that now integrates with Dell EMC VxRail Hyperconverged Infrastructure. By utilizing an Eaton UPS (5P, 5PX, 9PX, 9PXM, 9SX or 93PM UPS product family) with Gigabit Network Card (version 1.7.5) and IPM (Gold license), you can now enable automated and graceful shutdown of VxRail clusters experiencing unplanned power events to safeguard data integrity. Further enhance the solution with these Eaton products: metered or managed rack PDUs, environmental monitoring sensors, enclosure and cable management options.

2. How are Eaton solutions for VxRail unique in the market?

Existing solutions only had the capability of shutting down one or two nodes, leaving clusters exposed to power problems. Dell EMC and Eaton worked hand-in-hand to develop and extensively test an integrated solution from Eaton that utilizes VxRail APIs and existing functionality in place with VMware APIs so that Eaton IPM working with the Eaton UPS and Gigabit Network Card can gracefully shut down a VxRail cluster in the event of an unplanned power event to preserve data integrity. IPM is installed within the VxRail, eliminating the need for an external VM to host IPM for shutdown.

3. What is the typical or standard amount of UPS and rack PDUs needed for a 4-node VxRail solution?

A typical Eaton solution will consist of one UPS powered by the Gigabit Network Card, an IPM Gold license and possibly one rack PDU. For redundancy, you can have two UPS models each powered by a Gigabit Network Card, two rack PDUs and an IPM Gold license. The right UPS model is determined by the voltage and typical watts rating of the VxRail system, network switch and any other device included in the rack. Count the number of plugs that need to be connected to determine whether a rack PDU is needed. The IPM Gold license level is determined by the number of power devices, called nodes, to be supported.

4. What counts as a node when talking about IPM?

Nodes, when talking about IPM, are power devices like UPSs, rack PDUs and environmental sensors. The number of VxRail nodes is not calculated in the number of nodes IPM needs to support.

5. Is Eaton an Advantage member of the Dell EMC Technology Connect Partner Program and VMware Technology Alliance Program?

Yes. As an Advantage member of the Dell EMC Technology Connect Partner Program and VMware Technology Alliance Program, Eaton is proud to collaborate with Dell EMC and with VMware to deliver cohesive solutions to maintain business continuity.