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VMware vSAN is a versatile solution that users and customers have used to address various storage challenges. For instance, some users …
Overview
What is VMware vSAN?
VMware vSAN is an enterprise-class storage virtualization software that provides a simple path to hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and multi cloud. VMware vSAN is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud…
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VMware vSAN 6.6 Nested Lab Deployment DEMO
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vSAN 6.7 U1 Quickstart Demo
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VMware vSAN 6.6 Demo
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Product Details
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- Tech Details
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What is VMware vSAN?
VMware vSAN is an enterprise-class storage virtualization software that provides a simple path to hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and multi cloud. It enables users to scale compute and storage independently at petabyte scale via disaggregation for optimal resources utilization and lower costs.
VMware vSAN's additional features include:
VMware vSAN is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.
VMware vSAN's additional features include:
- Developer-Ready Infrastructure - Enables developers to consume storage to create apps at scale, while providing the governance admins need to manage the infrastructure for VMs and containers.
- Integrated File Services - Provisions a file share with a single workflow, and vSAN can be used as a unified storage control plane for both block and file storage.
- Stateful Services - The vSAN Data Persistence platform framework can be used to integrate cloud-native applications into the underlying virtual infrastructure.
- Consistent Storage Policy-Based Management - Storage can be aligned with the application demands of VMs and container volumes. Define storage needs for a VM, volume or VMDK and let the software apply and enforce the requirements.
- Cloud-Connection for vSAN+ - Transforms on-premises infrastructure with cloud-connected services that centralize management and enhance efficiency.
VMware vSAN Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
VMware vSAN is an enterprise-class storage virtualization software that provides a simple path to hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and multi cloud. VMware vSAN is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.
Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.2.
The most common users of VMware vSAN are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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- Pros
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VMware vSAN is a versatile solution that users and customers have used to address various storage challenges. For instance, some users have migrated their SQL databases from all-flash storage vendors to vSAN, effectively solving issues related to SQL and storage licenses. Additionally, vSAN has been leveraged in production environments to run critical business services like ERP, VDI, HRM, EMAIL, Active Directory, DNS, and in-house applications. This demonstrates the product's ability to handle diverse workloads efficiently.
In terms of configuration flexibility, vSAN supports different kinds of raids such as 5, 6, and 10 for each VM service. Moreover, the vSAN configuration with 2xSSD and 4xSAS disks has proven to provide faster IOPS compared to iSCSI storage. This not only enhances performance but also helps reduce hardware and maintenance costs.
One highlight of vSAN is its ease of setup and integration with all VMware products. This seamless integration allows users to maximize their existing VMware infrastructure while benefiting from the unified storage pool created by vSAN. Furthermore, the compatibility with all-flash technology ensures that it can meet a wide range of workload requirements.
vSAN has been highly recommended for use cases such as testing performance on VMware clusters for Test/Dev departments and hyper-converged models used by SMB users. It also serves as the main hyper-converged infrastructure solution for housing production virtual servers and critical systems. Customers who prefer not to use external storage can leverage vSAN's ability to combine the storage of servers in a cluster, eliminating the need for a separate SAN and storage administrator.
Overall, vSAN provides a unified storage management solution for multiple storage devices from various vendors while delivering features like data deduplication and compression. Its usage spans across virtual desktops, cluster management, data warehouse support, VM, file, and backup storage across networks. With positive outcomes reported by users and a wide range of use cases, VMware vSAN proves to be a reliable, flexible, and cost-effective solution for storage challenges in various industries.
Cost Savings: Several users have mentioned that using VMware vSAN allowed them to save costs in terms of storage and managed services. They were able to manage all aspects of their workload in one interface, reducing the need for rack space and improving business agility.
Flexibility and Data Accessibility: Users appreciated the ability to write data anywhere and access it anytime, even in the event of hardware failure. This feature provided them with flexibility and uninterrupted access to their data, contributing to a seamless user experience.
Simplified Management: Many users highlighted the ease of managing VMware vSAN from a single management platform, specifically mentioning vCenter. They found it convenient that VMware runs VSAN certification programs to ensure OEMs sell validated nodes, making it easier for customers to select appropriate certified ready nodes. This unified approach simplified infrastructure management and reduced complexity for users.
Difficult Disk Management: Some users have found it challenging to manage disks in the vSAN cluster, citing issues with finding unused/unassigned hard drives and balancing disk usage. They suggest a more user-friendly interface and guided configuration to simplify the process.
Limited Datastore Choice: Several reviewers express dissatisfaction with vSAN's limitation of having a single datastore for the entire cluster, which restricts their ability to isolate or group virtual machines as desired. This has been seen as a drawback by some users.
Compatibility Concerns: Many users mention compatibility issues with older servers and find it difficult to meet all hardware requirements. They believe that an expanded Hardware Compatibility List - HCL would be helpful in ensuring more compatibility and avoiding any potential complications during implementation.
Users of VMware vSAN have made several recommendations based on their experiences with the product. First, they suggest considering building your own VSANS (Ready Nodes) instead of using VXRails. This recommendation comes from users who have found that building their own VSANS allows for more customization and flexibility in their vSAN deployments. Second, users advise finding an easy algorithm to reduce CPU overhead and improve disk read and write cache. Some users have suggested that optimizing the CPU overhead and improving disk performance could enhance the overall efficiency of vSAN. Lastly, users recommend talking to support to confirm compatibility with the operating system requirements. They advise reaching out to support to ensure that vSAN is compatible with the specific operating system requirements of their environment. These recommendations provide valuable insights for users looking to make the most of VMware vSAN, allowing them to explore alternative deployment options, optimize performance, and ensure compatibility with their existing infrastructure.
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Reviews
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September 21, 2020
Some info about vSAN features
We used vSAN to test performance on VMware clusters for our Test/Dev Department. It is handy technology that provides fast and easy access to virtual storage on a VMware farm. Due to the high load of our current SAN for the production environment, we decided to test this possibility and it showed good outcomes.
- Provide management for computing and storage in one place.
- Improved business agility.
- Unify resources under policy based management
- Improve security for data.
- License politic from VMware.
- Hard to meet all hardware compatibility on old servers hardware.
- Balancing the disk usage in the vSAN cluster is sometimes hard.
- vSAN gave us the possibility to test HCI technology.
- It is mostly positive impact because we've done our testing on time.
- Good product for inexpensive storage.
vSAN was handy to do our testing. It helps to provide plenty of storage performance with a simple interface. It is easy to configure and works just great. VMware software, in general, provides the best performance and reliability for the virtualization platform. It's always worth trying HCI and testing modern technology.
September 17, 2020
Attractive, yet expensive, solution for hyper-convergence.
Our current license is the standard ( we previously had an advanced license). Managing an increasingly complex storage infrastructure with proper efficiency and costs is not an easy task, but vSAN has proven remarkably helpful in order to do that. In conjunction with vCenter and vSphere, it has reduced our complexity and costs greatly.
Our vSAN deployment is currently being used as the main infrastructure solution. We use vSAN for virtual desktops, cluster management, and data warehouse support. We use an SSD disk and HD per each ESXi, vSAN uses the SSD for the cache and the HD for data storage. What I especially appreciate is the data deduplication and compression and the raid 5 versus erasure coding, since it enables higher consolidation ratios, reducing costs. (Sadly this feature is only enabled starting at advanced licenses). It holds the majority of our production virtual servers, It really helps us to solve multiple problems such as data integrity, system stability, and has improved hyper-convergence for speeds and workloads.
Our vSAN deployment is currently being used as the main infrastructure solution. We use vSAN for virtual desktops, cluster management, and data warehouse support. We use an SSD disk and HD per each ESXi, vSAN uses the SSD for the cache and the HD for data storage. What I especially appreciate is the data deduplication and compression and the raid 5 versus erasure coding, since it enables higher consolidation ratios, reducing costs. (Sadly this feature is only enabled starting at advanced licenses). It holds the majority of our production virtual servers, It really helps us to solve multiple problems such as data integrity, system stability, and has improved hyper-convergence for speeds and workloads.
- Very strong data integrity.
- The portability of the VMs.
- Dataflow is great without a lot of tweaking.
- The in-place encryption is a strong layer of security and it is great for establishing multi-tenancy trust.
- Ease of use from vCenter.
- Great data compression, lowering costs.
- Expensive, but it's worth it since it actually reduces costs (in addition, whichever vSphere licenses you need).
- Even though the license prices were a huge investment, this has brought us better performance.
- VM portability made testing faster.
- Lower costs of ownership.
September 14, 2020
VMware vSAN is powerful yet simple to use.
We use vSAN in the College of Life Sciences at BYU. We have two VMware clusters with multiple hosts. vSAN allows us to utilize the storage of each host to create a virtual storage pool for our virtual machines. It has allowed us to eliminate our previous SAN and the administration that came with having a SAN. We no longer need a storage administrator.
- It is built in vCenter so you don't need to run a virtual controller VM on each host.
- Very easy to implement, it is just a matter of purchasing licenses and turning it on.
- Simple to monitor within the vSphere console.
- I have not found anything about VSAN that needs improvement. It does what it is supposed to do, and is easy to work with.
- With vSAN, we no longer need a storage admin to run a SAN. And yet we still have all the functionality in vSphere including vMotion.
- With vSAN, we no longer need a storage admin to run a SAN. And yet we still have all the functionality in vSphere including vMotion.
- HPE SimpliVity (formerly OmniCube)
We used HPE SimpliVity in the past. HPE SimpliVity provided a similar functionality, but it required a virtual controller VM on each host which consumed CPU, RAM, and Storage. Upgrades and maintenance on the HPE SimpliVity nodes was more difficult because the controller VMs had to be shutdown separately because they could not be vMotioned to another host. vSAN is a far superior product.
September 14, 2020
Fast, solid and easy to use vSAN solution!
We are using our VMware vSAN across the entire network for the majority of our VM, file, and backups storage at this time. Since all our user file shares live there, technically all our departments are using it too. We had many issues before with a physical SAN, but those are mostly a thing of the past.
- Fastest SAN solution hands down.
- Easy to connect hosts to LUNS/Datastores.
- Great support staff and easy ticket system.
- More direct integration with backup systems.
- More user friendly interface.
- Lower tier options for budget users would be nice.
- Positive impact: lots of time saved.
- Positive impact: ease of use is through the roof.
- Negative: We use it so much we need more space already!
We started using VMware ESX in a typical dedicated host and dedicated storage model using Dell hosts and Nimble Storage arrays several years ago. We figured out a few years back that a hyper-converged model seemed to make more sense for lower budget SMB users like us. Researching hyper-convergence led us to VMware vSAN. We currently are using vSAN in four datacenters and in several other locations leveraging their vSAN Robo product across our entire organization. vSAN seems to give us more flexibility in upgrades to our environment related to storage, compute, and RAM.
- We are using VMware vSAN in our primary datacenters using relative in-expensive flash storage drives. This allowed us to really increase our storage performance over dedicated storage at a much lower overall price.
- By buying ESX hosts that were only partially loaded with drives, we have great flexibility in adding additional capacity without much effort.
- The volume management versus dedicated storage was greatly simplified. Each ESX cluster acts as one single large volume rather than having lots of carved up volumes all over the place as we did with dedicated storage.
- Management is integrated directly into the vSphere client rather than having to go elsewhere.
- We were a fairly early adopter of VMware vSAN and as such experienced several growing pains.
- We experienced a few bugs that took a few software versions upgrades to go mostly away.
- The biggest issue we had overall was with host drivers. Even with vSAN ready node compatible hosts, you have to be very careful that the drivers for NIC and RAID controllers are right.
- The ROI for VMware vSAN seems very positive. We have yet to need to upgrade since we put it in a few years ago, but without the heavy cost of dedicated storage, we have already seen reduced hardware maintenance costs and reduced management time spent.
- With the cost of dedicated storage and its separate maintenance costs, all this is rolled back into the hosts. The hosts cost more with drives in them, but not near as much as the separate dedicated storage did.
- Before VMware vSAN, you had hosts and storage devices aging out, running out of capacity, or underperforming. With vSAN you only have to worry about the hosts.
VMware vSAN is the only hyper-convergence product we have used, but it replaced multiple dedicated Nimble storage arrays. Nimble had a vCenter plugin which made it much easier to use, but VMware vSAN is baked right into the vCenter. vSAN also really doesn't require much if any management after it is setup and running which wasn't the case with the dedicated storage array.