2-Node vSAN ROBO over 3 sites

[MJMSRI]

Hi all,

we currently have 3 sites, 2 separate datacenters (london DC1, cardiff DC2) and 1 office. currently there is a vSAN Stretched cluster between the DCs, with 3 Nodes in each DC and the Witness in the office location. VCSA resides as a VM within the vSAN Cluster.

We now have a new requirement for a new VDI workload that needs GPUs in the hosts. The current vSAN Cluster has no GPUs and doesn't need them. So one idea is to purchase 2 new hosts and fit one into each DC then set these up as a ROBO with a new witness in the office location. So this would then be 1+1+1. Most specific point here is that in this new vSAN Cluster there would only be 1 vSAN Host in each DC, would this be supported? Do you have a KB that details this topology as i cannot find one?

This would then result in 2 vSAN Clusters across the 3 sites that if supported we would make the new vSAN Cluster on new VLANs separate etc. This would then mean for the new cluster would have 1 Host in each DC that would be managed by the vCenter in the other vSAN Cluster and a new Witness in the office location.

Only 10 VMs to run in the 2-Node vSAN So believe pack of 25 VM licences could be used instead of CPU licence?

seems it is possible as depping​ wrote about this but cant see this detailed as supported from VMware? Two host stretched vSAN cluster with Standard license? | Yellow Bricks

[TheBobkin · Accepted solution]

Hello MJMSRI​

Yes, completely supported and fine:

"Scenario 10: 1 host + 1 host + witness (2-node cluster) across physical sites with maximum 25 VMs

This scenario requires either 1 vSAN STD for ROBO (per-VM 25-pack) or 4 vSAN STD per CPU licenses. Customer does not

require ENT licenses for a 2-node cluster stretched across 2 physical site."

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsan/vmware-vsan-licensin...

(Note: 6.7 licensing is the same but the doc has been replaced with the 7.0 one and can't find a link).

Bob

[MJMSRI]

Hi TheBobkin​ thanks for the speedy response. so in terms of licencing for this new setup we would just for example need one of the below options and would not need an ESXi CPU licence and separate vSAN Licence? The below would cover VMware Licencing for the 2 new vSAN hosts in the 1+1+1 cluster?

• VMware HCI Kit ROBO Standard (per-25 VMs) that includes vSphere ROBO Enterprise and vSAN ROBO Standard
• VMware HCI Kit ROBO Advanced (per-25 VMs) that includes vSphere ROBO Enterprise and vSAN ROBO Advanced

[TheBobkin]

Hello MJMSRI​,

Yes either of those would suffice, however I am not sure if the vSphere+vSAN kits are still available (at least not directly from VMware), I think something similar is still available but bundled with other products that might make it more expensive than necessary (vRealize suite IIRC) - have a look but otherwise just vSphere (or just ESXi if you have a vCenter already) + (any) vSAN license is needed.

Bob