Deploying Sunlight on-premises
Sunlight can be deployed in your on-premises datacentre(s). In this section we present the minimum guidelines for deploying a Sunlight cluster and also provide links to some pre-certified platforms from well-known vendors.
The minimal recommended specifications for a Sunlight cluster are as follows.
Minimum Server recommended specs
| Component | Minimum Recommended Units |
|---|---|
| CPU type | Single or dual socket Intel Xeon or AMD Epyc |
| Number of CPU cores | 8 cores or higher |
| System Memory | 64GB or more |
| Boot device | 128GB SSD |
| VM storage capacity tier | 2 x 1TB NVMe or higher capacity |
| Network interfaces | 2 x 10Gbit Intel X550 or X540 family NICs |
Note
Sunlight strongly recommends utilising 10Gbit switch infrastructure for network connectivity to the servers.
Redundant switches should be provided if network path high availability is required.
Any 10Gbit switch such as Netgear Prosafe are suitable.
The Sunlight on-premises product runs optimally on Intel architecture servers (Intel Xeon or AMD EPYC processors) with a minimum of 64GB RAM, all flash NVMe storage and dual Intel 10Gbit NICs (X550 and X540 family). Most existing or off-the-shelf servers can be configured this way (note the links in the section below on Add-on components). Sunlight performs best in such a configuration since the data and network paths are fully optimised to run virtual workloads with baremetal performance.
Complete systems
Following is a list of new servers from well-known vendors that meet the recommended configuration. For add-on components to existing any-brand servers, please see the components list at the end of the page.
| Vendor | System ID | Validation Status | Configuration Guidelines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altos | |||
| R320 F5 | Validated | Further information here | |
| R365 F5 | Validated | Further information here | |
| R385 F5 | Validated | Further information here | |
| R389 F4 | Validated | Further information here | |
| R685 F5 | Validated | Further information here | |
| Intel | |||
| HNS2600BPB24 (H2000P chassis) | Validated | BIOS configuration guide here | |
| HNS2600BPB24R (H2000P chassis) | Validated | BIOS configuration guide here | |
| Supermicro | |||
| SYS-1029U-TN10RT | Validated | Further information here | |
| Dell | |||
| PowerEdge 640 | Validated | Further information here | |
| PowerEdge R7525 | Validated | Requires a compatible 10Gbit NIC. Further information here | |
| HPE | |||
| ProLiant DL380 Gen10 | Validated | Further information here | |
| Gigabyte | |||
| G492-Z51 | Validated | Further information here |
Add-on components to make any brand of server compatible
| Vendor | Component ID | Validation Status | Configuration Guidelines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network Interface Cards (NICs) | |||
| Intel | X520-DA2 | Validated | Dual port 10Gbit SFP PCI Express NIC card (purchase here) |
| Intel | X540-T2 | Validated | Dual port 10Gbit RJ-45 PCI Express NIC card (purchase here) |
| NVMe HBA adapters | |||
| I/O CREST | I/O CREST Bifurcation SI-PEX40151 card | Validated | Dual SFF port connectors to enable U.2 NVMe drive add-on support (purchase here) |
| I/O CREST | I/O CREST Bifurcation SI-PEX40129 card | Validated | Dual M.2 drive connectors to enable NVMe drive add-on support (purchase here) |
| Supermicro | AOC-SHG3-4M2P | Validated | Quad M.2 NVMe drive carrier HBA card. For more details see here |