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Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is an IT architecture that combines compute, storage, networking, and virtualization resources into a single software-defined platform. Instead of managing separate servers, storage arrays, and virtualization layers, organizations can operate infrastructure resources through a unified management framework.
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) is Red Hat’s HCI solution designed to simplify enterprise virtualization by integrating Red Hat Virtualization with Red Hat Gluster Storage. It combines virtual machine management and distributed software-defined storage into a scalable infrastructure platform that runs on industry-standard hardware.
Offer automated and centralized backup and recovery capabilities to help organizations protect VMs and workloads running in HCI environments. Support immutable backup, ransomware protection. Learn More
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) works by combining virtualization, software-defined storage, and centralized management into a single integrated platform. RHHI uses a cluster of commodity servers where each node contributes both computing and storage resources.
This scale-out architecture allows organizations to deploy virtual machines while using distributed storage built across multiple nodes. When additional capacity or performance is required, administrators can expand the environment by adding more nodes to the cluster rather than redesigning the entire infrastructure.
At a high level, RHHI consists of three core layers:
Unlike traditional three-tier architectures that separate compute and storage into independent systems, Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure combines these resources within a unified cluster. Each node contributes CPU, memory, and storage capacity, allowing virtual machines to use resources from a shared infrastructure pool.
The virtualization layer of RHHI is based on Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), which uses the open-source KVM hypervisor technology built into the Linux kernel.
Red Hat Virtualization provides the capabilities required to create and manage virtual workloads, including:
Gluster is a software-defined distributed file system that aggregates storage from multiple servers into a single pool, which differentiates RHHI from traditional platforms.
In traditional environments, virtual machines typically depend on external storage systems such as SAN or NAS. RHHI removes this dependency by pooling local storage resources from multiple nodes into a distributed storage system.
The storage layer provides:
For example, when an administrator adds additional nodes to an RHHI cluster, those nodes can contribute additional CPU, memory, and storage resources simultaneously.
This integrated approach reduces infrastructure silos and simplifies capacity planning.
Red Hat Virtualization Manager provides a single interface for centralized management for managing compute, VMs and storage resources and performing other tasks, such as:
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure can refer to two distinct products with different technologies and target use cases.
It is built on Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) + Gluster Storage + Ansible; this product targets traditional virtualized workloads. RHHI for Virtualization combines compute, storage, networking, and management capabilities in one deployment
Ideal for: Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO), edge computing, development and testing, small-to-medium datacenter deployments
Key components:
Built on Red Hat OpenStack Platform + Ceph Storage, this product targets cloud-native workloads, network function virtualization (NFV), telco deployments, and service provider environments.
Ideal for: Private clouds, telecommunications, 5G deployments, NFV, large-scale cloud infrastructure
Key components:
|
Factor |
Choose RHHI for Virtualization |
Choose RHHI for Cloud |
|
Primary workload |
Traditional VMs (Windows/Linux) |
CCLoud-native, containers, NFV |
|
Team expertise |
Virtualization admins |
OpenStack/cloud engineers |
|
Scale |
3-12 nodes |
Larger deployments |
|
Use case |
ROBO, edge, datacenter consolidation |
Private cloud, telco, service provider |
So, in summary, if you are running VMs and need a simpler, more manageable infrastructure, start with RHHI for virtualization. If you are building a private cloud or deploying NFV workloads, choose RHHI for Cloud.
Minimum Requirement:
RHHI for Virtualization supports deployment configurations of 3, 6, 9, or 12 physical nodes
Three-node cluster (minimum for production HA):
Hardware requirements by deployment size
|
Deployment Size |
Minimum Cores |
Minimum RAM |
Maximum Storage |
|
Small |
12 |
64GB |
48TB |
|
Medium |
12 |
128GB |
64TB |
|
Large |
16 |
256GB |
80TB |
Single-node deployment:
Networking Requirements
Two separate networks are required so that client and management traffic are separated:
All host FQDNs and the Hosted Engine virtual machine’s FQDN must be forward and reverse resolvable by DNS.
Virtual Machine Limits:
Each virtual machine can have at most 4 virtual CPUs and 2TB virtual disk space
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Virtualization (RHHI for Virtualization) combines compute, storage, networking, and management capabilities in one deployment. It supports deployment on a single node or on 3 to 12 nodes. Red Hat provides two primary deployment methods:
Using Ansible is the recommended approach for consistency and scale. The workflow for deploying RHHI for Virtualization using Ansible is as follows
Step 1. Install an operating system on each physical machine that will act as a hyperconverged host.
Step 2. Configure key-based SSH authentication without a password to enable automated configuration of the hosts.
Step 3. Define the details of your environment in inventory and playbook files. The preparation of the inventory file based on user requirements is a one-time process and is created with the help of the example inventory files available.
Step 4. Execute the Ansible playbook to deploy RHHI for Virtualization.
Step 5. Verify your deployment.
For administrators who prefer a more guided, manual process, the steps are as follow.
Step 1. Install host physical machines. Install the physical machines that will act as hyperconverged hosts.
Your physical machines need an operating system and access to the appropriate software repositories.
Install Red Hat Virtualization Host on each physical machine.
Enable the Red Hat Virtualization Host software repository on each physical machine.
Red Hat Virtualization Host is a minimal operating system designed for setting up a physical machine that acts as a hypervisor in Red Hat Virtualization, or a hyperconverged host in RHHI.
Download the Red Hat Virtualization Host ISO image from the Red Hat Customer Portal.
Step 2. Configure key-based SSH authentication without a password to enable automated configuration of the hosts.
Step 3. Configure Gluster Storage. Configure Red Hat Gluster Storage on the physical hosts using the Web Console (Cockpit).
Step 4. Deploy the Hosted Engine. Deploy the Hosted Engine using the Web Console.
Step 5. Configure the Red Hat Gluster Storage nodes using the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Portal. Log in to Red Hat Virtualization Manager to complete configuration.
You can choose to deploy RHHI for Cloud using either the Red Hat OpenStack Platform Director web interface or the command-line interface (CLI).
The deployment workflow can consist of 5 main phases.
1. Verify Requirements
Verify three core requirements before deploying:
Hardware recommendations from Red Hat:
2. Deploy the Undercloud
Deploy the RHOSP director (undercloud) to manage the overcloud deployment. This involves:
3. Define the Overcloud
Define the overcloud configuration:
4. Tune the Overcloud
Configure performance optimizations including:
5. Deploy the Overcloud
Execute the final deployment using the OpenStack overcloud deploy command. The director deploys your cloud environment (the overcloud) with Red Hat Ceph Storage integrated.
While Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure improves workload availability through its distributed architecture, enterprises still need a dedicated backup solution to protect against data loss scenarios that HCI alone cannot prevent, including ransomware attacks, accidental deletion, application corruption, and operational mistakes.
Info2soft’s i2Backup provides enterprise-grade backup and recovery capabilities to help organizations protect virtual machines and critical workloads running in HCI environments. Unlike infrastructure-level redundancy, i2Backup focuses on preserving independent recovery points, allowing businesses to restore workloads quickly when unexpected incidents occur.
Key capabilities include:
For organizations running Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure, combining RHHI’s high availability capabilities with i2Backup’s independent backup protection creates a more comprehensive data resilience strategy.
RHHI helps keep workloads running during infrastructure failures, while i2Backup ensures organizations can recover data after cyberattacks, accidental deletion, or major operational disruptions.
Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure provides a simplified approach to enterprise virtualization by combining compute, storage, and virtualization resources into a unified platform. However, maintaining business continuity requires more than infrastructure availability.
A complete protection strategy should include reliable backup, recovery testing, and ransomware protection. By integrating Red Hat HCI with a dedicated backup solution such as i2Backup, organizations can strengthen data protection, minimize downtime, and ensure faster recovery when unexpected incidents occur.
