r/vxrail

I moved into a new position with an abandoned VxRail cluster. Service contract and warranty are expired. I want to get it updated and squeeze some more life/functionality out of them as we can definitely use the compute. The VxRail manager VM is malfunctioning, so we can’t do anything with the composite update bundles.

Leadership says they don’t want to pay Dell $20k to extend the support contract/warranty and to have a Dell tech reinitialize the VxRail Manager. I’m reading about the option of converting VxRail to a white box install. Has anyone done this? Are there any hiccups? I personally feel like we should bite the bullet now and get the cluster updated/functional. We are using vSAN and the hosts are 4x V570F. Any input would be hugely appreciated as I want to make sure I don’t have any blind spots. I have <2yrs experience with vSphere/Horizon

I hope this isn't a stupid question but I'm a bit confused.

Dell says this:

Dell VxRail is a turnkey, hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) appliance jointly engineered with VMware. It combines Dell PowerEdge server hardware, software-defined storage (vSAN), and virtualization software (ESXi) into a single, pre-configured unit managed as a single system. 

What is VxRail?

VxRail is designed to simplify data center infrastructure. Key aspects include: [1]

Fully Integrated: It comes pre-installed with VMware vSphere (ESXi), vSAN, and VxRail Manager.

Simplified Management: Managed directly through the VMware vCenter interface.

Automated Lifecycle Management (LCM): VxRail Manager ensures that updates, patches, and node additions are non-disruptive and automatically validated for the entire stack.

Scalability: You can start with as few as two nodes and scale up to 64 nodes in a cluster.

Do I Still Need to Buy ESXi Hosts?

Yes, but you do not buy them separately. VxRail nodes are ESXi hosts. [1]

Included Software: When you buy a VxRail appliance, VMware vSphere ESXi and VMware vSAN are included as part of the appliance software bundle.

Licensing: While pre-installed, you must still supply vSphere and vSAN licenses to activate the software. You can purchase these licenses directly through Dell OEM or bring your own existing VMware licenses.

Hardware: You are buying Dell PowerEdge servers configured specifically to run as VMware ESXi nodes. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

In summary: You are buying a complete, pre-built, and supported "box" (VxRail) that includes all the necessary VMware software (ESXi + vSAN) pre-installed. You do not need to purchase separate bare-metal servers and then install ESXi yourself, but you must license the software that comes on the nodes. [1, 2]

VxRail Key Benefits vs. Traditional Hosts

Faster Deployment: Because it is pre-integrated, it is significantly faster to deploy than building an HCI cluster from scratch.

Single Support Point: Dell provides support for the entire stack—hardware and software.

Lifecycle Management: Automated testing and updating of firmware, ESXi, and vSAN, preventing compatibility issues.

So what I am reading is:

Each VxRail blade is equal to 1 ESXi host with all the compute, memory, & storage (vSan). So you need 3 VxRails at a minimum to make 1 cluster.