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Getting Started with VMware Virtual SAN
Getting Started with VMware Virtual SAN

Getting Started with VMware Virtual SAN: Build optimal, high-performance, and resilient software-defined storage on VSAN for your vSphere infrastructure

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Getting Started with VMware Virtual SAN

Chapter 2. Understanding Virtual SAN

In the first chapter, we discussed in detail SDDC, the role of software-defined storage, the current choices of storage in the market, and also an introduction to VMware Virtual SAN. In this chapter, we will turn our focus to what Virtual SAN is and build a basic understanding of how it is put together.

The following topics will be discussed in this chapter:

  • Why should I use VSAN
  • What is VSAN
  • Where do I start? Back to the drawing board

Why should I use VSAN?

In this section, we'll discuss about the advantages of leveraging VSAN and its key differentiators.

Imagine a large environment with a heterogeneous cluster of storage provisioned from different arrays through iSCSI/FC/NFS. An administrator has to be skilled and knowledgeable in building and maintaining all of the components or, as in most cases, will have to depend on storage, network administrators, and various other teams and vendors to build and maintain such a setup.

Furthermore, beyond building and maintaining such a setup, the excruciating aspect would be when something breaks down in the environment, a true "needle in a haystack" situation. The complexity results in prolonged outages and multivendor coordination, and the root cause can be anything between an administrator tripping a cable and a software or hardware defect.

Now, compare this with only needing to worry about a set of hyper-converged x86 servers, just like the old just like old times...

What is VSAN?

Let's start with a simple comparison: Virtual SAN is to storage as vSphere is to compute. In other words, VSAN revolutionizes storage in a very similar way to how vSphere or virtualization, in general, revolutionized x86 servers.

VSAN has evolved through two generations so far, the first generation embedded with the vSphere 5.5.x stream (update 1 and higher) and the second generation commenced with vSphere 6.0. In this section, we will discuss the first generation to keep things simple and cover the newer features, enhancements, and architectural changes in the second generation of VSAN in Chapter 9, What's New in VSAN 6.0?.

The key features of VSAN are as follows:

  • Use a combination of solid state disk (SSD) or PCIe flash devices with HDD (magnetic disks) to provide a server-based storage solution
  • SSD is leveraged to optimize performance
  • HDD provides the capacity

All read and write I/O will be funneled through the flash device, which will act as the first point reference...

Where do I start? Back to the drawing board

We can get started with VSAN by following a traditional practice to get your feet wet in lab/test (dev set up is recommended for this).

Furthermore, it is important to ensure that, for any solution, the components need to be certified and should be listed in the compatibility matrices of VMware.

VSAN, in particular, is sensitive to this and comes in a few variants or packages. You can either choose to select the components individually and assemble, or choose a much safer option and go for a bundled solution.

Software requirements

At the time of writing, the supported releases to build a VSAN are as follows:

vSphere components

Versions supported

Specifications(per host)

ESXi version

vSphere ESXi 5.5 update 1 (and higher)

6 GB memory

At least 1 SDD

At least 1 HDD

vCenter versions

vCenter Server 5.5 update 1 (and higher)

vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 update 1 (and higher)

Follow the standard sizing guidelines

The VSAN cluster enables a dynamic...

Some simpler options

If manually assembling the components is found to be cumbersome, there are two simpler options:

  • Virtual SAN ready nodes
  • EVO: RAIL

Virtual SAN ready nodes

Virtual SAN ready nodes are hyper-converged nodes that are sold by server OEMs. These readymade nodes are generally preconfigured to run vSphere with VSAN that have been tested/certified, and come in a specialized and optimized hardware form factor.

Virtual SAN ready nodes also provide a detail of combination of hardware resources in terms of the size, type, and quantity of the CPU, memory, network, I/O controller, HDD, and SSD, combined with a certified server that is best suited to run a specific Virtual SAN workload.

Furthermore, the OEM vendors provide a sizing classification with low, medium, and high profiles for server workloads, and full clone and linked clone profiles for VDI workloads. These can be used as guidance to design and deploy solutions catering to business needs.

EVO: RAIL

EVO: RAIL is the complete package...

Summary

We established why a solution such as VSAN can simplify the administration of IT in terms of skill and cost and yet provide better performance and availability.

We also gained a basic understanding of VSAN and the components that make up the architecture. Furthermore, we built a step-by-step definition of the minor details and importance of each component; this is of particular significance if one intends to assemble VSAN. We delved into some simpler options that ease the sophistication of verifying each and every component by choosing a VSAN ready node and the next-gen form factor of VSAN through EVO: RAIL.

When we move on to the next chapter, there will be more emphasis on specific examples, profiling, and sizing based on the workloads.

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Description

This book is intended for server administrators and storage administrators who would like to successfully build and scale a VSAN-backed vSphere infrastructure. A basic understanding of vSphere concepts and storage fundamentals will be helpful.

Who is this book for?

This book is intended for server administrators and storage administrators who would like to successfully build and scale a VSAN-backed vSphere infrastructure. A basic understanding of vSphere concepts and storage fundamentals will be helpful.

What you will learn

  • Understand what softwaredefined storage is and how it is implemented through VMware Virtual SAN
  • Install, configure, and administer VSAN
  • Architect VSAN to cater to your specific business requirements
  • Define storage tiering at the software layer by implementing storage policybased management
  • Understand how every I/O flows through the VSAN infrastructure
  • Monitor your VSAN infrastructure to discover issues at an early stage
  • Efficiently use utilities to troubleshoot and fix issues

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : May 30, 2015
Length: 162 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784393694
Vendor :
VMware

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Product Details

Publication date : May 30, 2015
Length: 162 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784393694
Vendor :
VMware

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
1. An Introduction to Software-defined Storage and VSAN Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Understanding Virtual SAN Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Workload Profiling and Sizing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Getting Started with VSAN – Installation and Configuration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Truly Software-defined, Policy-based Management Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Architecture Overview Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Design Considerations and Guidelines Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Troubleshooting and Monitoring Utilities for Virtual SAN Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. What's New in VSAN 6.0? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
(4 Ratings)
5 star 100%
4 star 0%
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1 star 0%
Rebecca Fitzhugh Aug 25, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The “Getting Started with VMware Virtual SAN” is an excellent resource from Packt Publishing. Not only does it provide a great starting point, discussing the software and hardware requirements and step by step instructions for configuration. Assistance is provided with capacity planning and how to profile workloads. One of the core concepts of VSAN, (and software defined storage as a whole) storage policy based management and each different capability’s concept and configuration. One of my favorite parts was the over of the architecture itself and how to design a solid architecture. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about VSAN or looking for assistance deploying VSAN in their environment.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
M. Holder Oct 19, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
vSAN is an interesting topic along with storage defined datacenters as a whole. I had to get up to speed with vSAN so we could start promoting it to our customers. This book does a good job of laying down the fundamentals and gaining an appreciation for the technology. It also includes the generation 2 (vSAN on vSphere 6.0) improvements and enhancements, which are quite significant.The book starts off with the basics and then goes into the more in depth concepts, giving real world examples and instructions on how to actually implement vSAN. I used this book in conjunction with my homelab and feel suitably prepared to start implementing on live equipment.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Rajesh Puri Aug 04, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I was looking for a book on VMware's vSAN which can help me in the deployment of vSAN in the customer's Datacenter. After reading this book, I was not only able to get the concept but it also helped me know the hands on steps for configuring the vSAN. This is one of the most well structured books I have read on technology. I will definately recommend this book to admins/architects looking for gaining knowledge on vSAN.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Jerry Mar 10, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The simple language and clearly defined steps are the real differentiators with this book. This solution as a whole is a good fit for my organization.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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