SteelFusion Edge Installation and Configuration Guide
7
Introducing SteelFusion
Introducing the SteelFusion Edge Appliance
SteelFusion Edge Appliance Architecture
The Edge hardware platform contains two distinct computing nodes within a single chassis: RiOS node and
Hypervisor node. The physical node design provides true hardware resource separation and isolation.
These two compute nodes, the RiOS node and the hypervisor node, are connected through Gbps Ethernet
interconnects that allow both nodes to communicate for management, networking, and storage data.
Figure 1-2. SteelFusion Edge Architecture
Each node has its own resources, for example each node has its own sensors for temperature, voltage, and
DIMMs. Storage for the Hypervisor node is provided from the RiOS node via the Gbps
interconnects
using
iSCSI.
Hypervisor Node
The Hypervisor node is a bare-metal virtualization platform that enables you to run multiple VMs on the
Edge appliance. With the Hypervisor node, you can consolidate multiple basic services in the branch such
as Active Directory (AD), Domain Name Service (DNS), print server, and file server. You install and run
VMs directly from the Hypervisor node of the Edge appliance.
The hypervisor uses the ESXi 5.5U2 software as the virtualization platform. The hypervisor is included in
the Edge appliance and does not require a separate download. After you install the Edge appliance, you set
up the hypervisor using the Edge Management Console Installer.
You set up and configure VMs through the VMware vSphere Client or a licensed vCenter. You must install
the VMware vSphere Hypervisor Client, which enables monitoring and management of a single instance of
ESX or ESXi server. You can download the vSphere applications from the VMware Web site, or you can
download the vSphere Client from the hypervisor host.
The Hypervisor node enables you to connect to the hypervisor serial console using the RiOS CLI command
hypervisor console
. You can also perform debugging by connecting via SSH to the hypervisor baseboard
management controller (BMC) internal IP address. For detailed information, see the
SteelFusion Command-
Line Interface Reference Manual
and the
SteelFusion Edge Hardware Installation and Maintenance Guide
.
