What’s New?
A new node type is now available for deployment with VMware Cloud on AWS. The i7i.metal-24xl instance type is now generally available for both new and existing SDDCs and cluster deployments on SDDC version 1.26v2. Exciting? Confusing? Let’s dive in.
Specifications
The key specifications of the i7i.metal-24xl are as follows:
| Specification | i7i.metal-24xl |
|---|---|
| Processor | 5th Gen Intel Xeon (Emerald Rapids) |
| Hyperthreaded Cores | 96 |
| Physical Cores | 48 |
| Memory | 768 GiB DDR5 (5600 MT/s) |
| Local NVMe Storage | 6 x 3.75 NVMe SSDs |
| Usable Capacity* | vSAN OSA ~ 13 TB* vSAN ESA ~ 20 TB* |
| Network Bandwidth | 56.25 Gbps |
*Note that the capacity of individual nodes will be dependent upon RAID configurations, FTT settings, and factors such as compression. You can check out the VMC Sizer to work out how much capacity a particular cluster configuration will give you.
Where Can I Deploy It?
The i7i.metal-24xl instance type is available today for purchase and deployment in the following AWS Regions:
| Geography | AWS Regions |
|---|---|
| Americas | US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), US West (N. California), Canada (Central) |
| Europe | Europe (Ireland), Europe (London), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Stockholm), Europe (Milan) |
| Middle East | Middle East (Bahrain) |
| Asia Pacific | Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Melbourne), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Seoul), Asia Pacific (Osaka), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) |
Deployment Considerations and Constraints
The i7i.metal-24xl can be deployed in a new SDDC, or deployed as a secondary cluster in an existing SDDC. Note that the i7i instance type is only available for SDDCs running on version 1.26v2. In-place cluster conversions are also supported, with support for converting i3, i4i, and i3en hosts to i7i.metal-24xl. Note that clusters running virtual machines on Virtual Machine Hardware version 21 are not eligible for conversion from i4i to i7i, due to hardware compatibility limitations. Also, if you are converting stretched clusters, these will be converted as OSA stretched clusters, as there is no current support for ESA stretched clusters in VMware Cloud on AWS, nor is there support for converting OSA to ESA in-place.
To better understand your sizing requirements, you can contact your account team to provide a conversion estimate. You can also run the VMC Sizer on your own SDDCs to provide an estimate.
Thoughts
The announcement was published on April 1st, but this is no joke. This instance type is a welcome addition to the VMware Cloud on AWS catalogue. Customers looking for a cost-effective replacement for their i3.metal hosts, or a smaller Pilot Light footprint for use with VMware Live Cyber Recovery will be happy, as will customers with processing requirements that want to take advantage of a modern CPU like the Emerald Rapids. The good news is that nothing else changes – your VMware Cloud on AWS service continues as before, managed by Broadcom, and evolving in line with your requirements. You can read the announcement blog post here, and the release notes are here.