This post written by James H. Meeker, Global Product Marketing Manager, Dell Converged Solutions

The vStart team has announced an update to the vStart 50 management server, now qualified with the PowerEdge R420.

Why is this important: For most of our environments, flexible deployment of a vStart is a critical requirement. vStart allows for flexibility without impact to the architecture or key certification elements in the solution stack. The R420 introduces advanced server capabilities, at a competitive price to host the vStart 50 management stack.

For small- and medium-sized deployments, a decision needs to be made during the purchase process regarding the management server in the configuration. For example, should the customer already have a dedicated management server, they may wish to use the vStart solution as a virtualization farm for expansion. There are many opinions on this: experienced data center administrators will say that a dedicated management server is necessary when troubleshooting an error-event – it provides a known configuration to start from. Virtualization professionals may counter that a virtual management server with a virtual copy provides similar benefits, without the costs associated with having a dedicated management server.  

Forcing a management server into every configuration does not work either. For example, when it becomes time to expand a vStart by purchasing a second unit, the management server is not necessary at all – the design of vStart enables a cost improvement per VM as you scale it out by not requiring this overhead for each rack. For additional information on the vStart family of solutions, visit dell.com/vstart