HE100 Series Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the HE100 Series?
A: The HE100 Series is a small form-factor platform designed to run Scale Computing HyperCore in a variety of environments. The HE100 Series is a fully-functional HCI offering based on small form-factor hardware, designed to deploy a fully redundant HCI cluster for smaller workloads, generally less than 15 VMs per cluster.
Q: How is it different from other Scale Computing appliances?
A: The HE100 Series is a small form factor, designed for edge deployments. With a single drive, the HE100 Series offer a simple configuration that can deploy quickly and easily. Redundancy and fault tolerance is provided by the native clustering within SC//HyperCore software.
Q: Does the HE100 Series support a single-node configuration?
A: Yes. Like other SC//HyperCore deployment requirements, a replication target is required for single-node. Since the HE100 Series only provides a single NVMe storage device, there will be only one copy of data stored when using a single node configuration.
Q: Can we add an HE500 series appliance to an HE100 Series cluster?
A: HE100 appliances can only cluster with other HE100 appliances. The architectural differences (one drive per node, one NIC per node) preclude the HE100 appliances from being clustered with other series’ appliances. Note that HE100 appliances and clusters can use built-in VM replication to replicate to any type of Scale Computing system or appliance.
Q: What are the switch requirements / what will be supported for an HE100 Series cluster?
A: An HE100 requires access to either 1GbE or 2.5GbE with two available ports. A managed or unmanaged switch may be used. If managed switches are used, ports should be set to trunk or to specifically handle the VLAN tag configured for backplane traffic use. Please consult the latest networking guidelines for further information.
Q: Since HE100 Series backplane traffic shared a physical NIC/network with LAN/VM traffic how is traffic prioritized?
A: There is a VLAN specified for backplane traffic that is created as an internal, private network that shares the bandwidth and throughput with the LAN/VM network. Testing has shown that even under sustained high load, both LAN/VM traffic and backplane traffic get fair access to the physical network port(s).
Q: Since HE100 Series backplane traffic travels over the same physical NIC(s)/network as LAN VM traffic, are there security concerns? Can VMs “sniff” backplane traffic?
A: The SC//HyperCore hypervisor does not permit virtual machines to observe backplane traffic in any way. The backplane VLAN is private to the hypervisor, and those packets are filtered out prior to entering the virtual bridge.
Q: Is the HE100 Series a fanless, ruggedized, or sealed system?
A: The HE100 Series is not a fanless, ruggedized, or sealed system; however, some enclosures may provide these attributes.
Q: Are HE100 Series nodes Power over Ethernet (PoE) ready? Can I get them or use them with SimplyNUC PoE lid or other PoE switches/solutions?
A: NUCs do not support PoE natively. Third-party sellers have a variety of options to provide PoE as an option for NUCs. Scale Computing is testing out the alternatives, along with PoE switches for complete deployments.
Q: How is hardware replacement supported on the HE100 Series?
A: The HE100 appliance is a small, tightly integrated form factor so when a component fails in an HE100, the entire node will be replaced, rather than individual components.
Q: How will a cluster of HE100 systems ship?
A: Each cluster will ship together (up to four systems) in one outer shipping box. The number of shipments/outer boxes will vary depending on the number of HE100s ordered. Packaging and shipping specifics are subject to change.
Q: Can I buy the software from Scale Computing and then buy the hardware separately on my own?
A: No, the solution is delivered as an appliance. In some cases, where very large volumes of appliances are needed, special considerations may apply.
Q: Are there different purchasing or license options for large deployments?
A: Multiple pricing options are available including an end user subscription, per site subscription, and MSP subscription. Please contact Scale Computing sales for more information.