OpenStack based on Intel Xeon D-15xx SoCs

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Remko

New Member
Oct 26, 2015
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Netherlands
I'm planning to build my own privately held on-premise OpenStack - most likely Mirantis - cloud based entirely on the Intel Xeon D-15xx SoCs. The second wave really sparked my intrigue to go forth with the Xeon D chipset.

Any thoughts/insights/ideas/hardware brands from you is very much appreciated!

Background information
Privately held and on-premise due to the sensitivity of the information contained. My cloud will contain data about healthcare and educational status of children with complex physical and/or mental disabilities that are entirely dependent on specialized intensive medical care/early intervention programs. The children are surrounded with all kinds of (non-) professional caretakers (home, school, hospital).

I'm going to develop algorithms, services and automated intervention programs to the circles around these children, in which information is aligned between all caretakers at any given moment. In my opinion healthcare, education and intervention programs must be streamlined and tailor-made for the children. Not the other way around as it is now in my country (The Netherlands).

But above all for now I want to build a proof of concept model. The OpenStack fits nicely, you can expand when required and dedicate focus on the services.

Aim/Goal
  • Combine and develop Big Data/IoT/Business Intelligence tools and techniques
  • Develop algorithms and services
  • Expand cloud in near future with AI and/or Machine Learning capabilities via dedicated HPC nodes (4x Tesla M40 GPUs per node)

OpenStack cloud architecture


The Mirantis OpenStack distribution has a slightly different approach to the above architecture. Util node is a.k.a. the Fuel Node.

Initial setup/start with
  • 3x Controller nodes
    • Intel Xeon D1541/64 GB RAM/1.2TB Intel 750 NVMe 2.5" (via M2 adapter)
  • 3x Compute nodes
    • D-1541 or D-1567/128 GB RAM/1.2TB Intel NVMe PCIe
  • 1-3x Storage nodes
    • Most likely a flex ATX motherboard; perhaps Supermicro SSG-5018D8-AR12L
    • Preferred D-1548/128GB RAM/12 HDDs 6TBs/NVMe as cache/Ceph
  • 1x Fuel node/Util node (repurpose existing setup; already in my possession)
    • D-1540/32GB/400GB Intel 750 NVMe 2.5"
  • Not decided on dedicated network nodes
  • Internal network is 10 GbE.
    • Switch D-Link DXS-1210-10TS
  • Dedicated storage backbone (10GbE SFP+ ?)
    • Switch D-Link DXS-1210-12TS (10GBASE-T/ SFP+ combo ports)
    • or switch D-Link DXS-1210-12SC (SFP+ ports)
  • Any outside network/management/IPMI will be 1 GbE.
    • switch D-Link SmartPro DGS-1510-28X
Chassis for the nodes, except storage, will be based on the Supermicro SC505-203B. Firewall is PFSense.

Sincerely hoping that Supermicro is going to deliver the motherboards with the required SoCs... although they seem to be using for some of the new motherboards the slightly lower clocked SoCs according to their announcement.
 
Last edited:

Remko

New Member
Oct 26, 2015
21
5
3
46
Netherlands
Last edited:

Jeggs101

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Dec 29, 2010
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Yea we did a proof of concept using the Intel NUCs which was fine except really different. It was like $6000 after we set everything up, low power, low cost but then we had consumer gear and didn't have any use for it. I'm liking what you're trying to do.
 

Remko

New Member
Oct 26, 2015
21
5
3
46
Netherlands
Off-topic:
I expect huge improvements in the next 2 years in network gear and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization)/Software-Defined Secure Networks within OpenStack. Mostly because of the advancements of IoT (Internet of Things) and the enormous amount of information (Big data) versus the cloud. My professional expertise is/was business intelligence/big data within large corporations.

Networks need to become a lot smarter. Therefore I'm a bit reluctant to invest huge amounts of money into the current generation 'enterprise' network gear.

Above that information security (packet inspection, information retention and segmentation, AI+ML) is going to be a major part in my effort within the suggested market segment.

Information security is the number 1 reason to setup the cloud on-premise/privately held.

Also trying to setup a generic Small and Medium-sized Business OpenStack model. Openstack cloud information is still out of reach for almost all SMB that I know off. That is why I posted it on servethehome/servethe'SMB' forums.
 

Remko

New Member
Oct 26, 2015
21
5
3
46
Netherlands
As VXLAN top-of-rack (TOR) switches are incredibly expensive (>>8000 dollars or euros), here is a small list of VLAN switches.

Note: RJ45 == 10GBase-T

24-port 10GbE VLAN L2+ switches (around 3500-4000 dollars or euros):
10-12 port 10GbE VLAN switches (around 1000 dollars or euros)


List will be updated if I find more.