About VSAN architecture in production environment

[Escape2here]

Hi guys.

which is the best  VSAN architecture for a production environment?

Is all in one cluster VSAN witch storage and VM on the same cluster/node or have 2 cluster one for cluster VSAN and another with a virtual machine only that store a virtual disk on the cluster VSAN?

Thanks in advance.

[CHogan · Accepted solution]

If I understand the question correctly, then you do not have a choice with the current versions of VSAN.

In order to access the VSAN datastore, the VM must be deployed on an ESXi host that is part of the VSAN cluster.

The VSAN datastore cannot be exported externally to ESXi hosts that are not participating in the VSAN cluster.

HTH

Cormac

[Escape2here]

Thanks!

[AnatolyVilchins]

Yeah, that`s a known issue of VMware VSAN. Not too convenient in my opinion.

BTW, maybe you have resources to check outher solutions?

[zdickinson]

Good afternoon, in a cluster you could have hosts that do not contribute storage to vSAN.  You could have 5 hosts in a cluster, with only 3 contributing storage.  I believe this is against best practices according the great book by Cormac and Duncan.  Thank you, Zach.

[MaxCraft]

+1 to Cormac's reply.

I'd add that vSAN is hyper-converged, so the ESXi hosts are all acting as both storage and hypervisor cluster.

And you also need to license all the hosts participating in that cluster.

If you need a solution which can also share the storage to outside world (e.g other vSphere clusters) I'd look at StoreVirtual or SanSypmhonyV.

[zdickinson]

Good morning, there are several third party products that can serve up vSAN to for external needs.  A closer look at Nexenta Connect for VSAN - CormacHogan.com  For example.  Thank you, Zach.