Azure Stack Hardware

Source: Microsoft

An Azure Stack appliance is a single vertical hardware rack containing server, storage, networking, and supporting power and other integration equipment. Stack hardware appliances are available from Dell EMC, HPE, and Lenovo. Cisco and Huawei will subsequently deliver offerings. Vendors work with Microsoft to design appliances, which must meet a range of specifications.

A Stack appliance contains a minimum of four and maximum of 12 server nodes. Each server node consists of the following:

• 20 or more CPU cores
• 256GB memory or more
• A two-port 10 gigabit ethernet (GbE) or higher network interface card (NIC)
• A 400GB or larger boot disk, which stores the OS image, a patched OS image, platform logs, and memory dump images taken when faults occur
• A two-tier set of storage devices that uses Windows Server Storage Spaces Direct.

The storage devices consist of two or more cache devices and four or more capacity devices. The cache and capacity devices must use different bus types. For example, the cache devices could be SATA and the capacity devices could be SSD. Microsoft is working with Intel and Wortmann AG who will produce an all-flash Stack appliance, which could be used to maximize performance, albeit at a higher cost point.