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brobby56
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Is vSAN suitable

Dear forum members,

For the virtualisation environment at my work I ended up at vsan.

All hardware is purchased new. It involves about 200 virtual machines.

100 servers: 1vcpu and 2GB of RAM

30 servers: 2vCPU and 2GB of RAM

5 servers: 4 vCPU and 16 GB of RAM

5 servers: 4 vCPU and 24 GB of RAM

60 servers 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM

I wonder if vsan is a right option for this environment, what hardware I need about and which licenses to purchase?

I hope someone can help me!!

thank you in advance

Brobby

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TheBobkin
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Hello Brobby,

Welcome to vSAN and Communities.

With regard to sizing and quantity of servers CPU and memory - this is going to be the same as any non-vSAN ESXi set-up and how much of each you need will depend largely on your ratio of over-commit and any required reservations.

Though bear in mind if you go with more, smaller compute resource hosts these will cost more overall in general + more again when you include factors such as licensing, S&S etc.

The main hardware consideration for using vSAN is what you are going to be using for controllers, cache-tier devices and capacity-tier devices - these are what your workload are going to be stored on and how large and performant the vsanDatastore will be depends on what it is formed of and in what configuration e.g. there is a world of difference (in price and performance) between a capacity-heavy Hybrid configuration and an All-NVMe configuration. What storage configuration will suit your workload should be determined by understanding the current workload in respect to their IO profiles and sizes. The next choice you would need to make is whether you want to purchase ReadyNodes (servers pre-configured with supported vSAN hardware components) or build your own with supported components - if choosing the latter then make sure the controllers, cache-tier and capacity-tier devices are all on the vSAN HCL:

VMware Compatibility Guide - vsan

(click 'Build Your Own based on Certified Components')

Planning Capacity in vSAN

https://www.robware.net/rvtools/

vSAN Sizing and RVtools Tips - Virtual Ramblings

Whether going with ReadyNodes or not, this is very useful site for determining sizing of the cluster:

https://vsansizer.vmware.com/

"I wonder if vsan is a right option for this environment, what hardware I need about and which licenses to purchase?"

Considering the vast range of ways clusters can be provisioned and configured vSAN is suitable for pretty much any workload - whether it is the best choice for your situation relies on many factors such as cost (and vs alternatives), whether you already have performant SAN storage available, redundancy and uptime requirements for workloads etc.

vSAN requires additional licensing in addition to ESXi licensing, what level of licensing is required depends on what type of implementation you are planning and/or required features:

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsan/vmware-vsan-67-licen...

Bob

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TheBobkin
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Hello Brobby,

Welcome to vSAN and Communities.

With regard to sizing and quantity of servers CPU and memory - this is going to be the same as any non-vSAN ESXi set-up and how much of each you need will depend largely on your ratio of over-commit and any required reservations.

Though bear in mind if you go with more, smaller compute resource hosts these will cost more overall in general + more again when you include factors such as licensing, S&S etc.

The main hardware consideration for using vSAN is what you are going to be using for controllers, cache-tier devices and capacity-tier devices - these are what your workload are going to be stored on and how large and performant the vsanDatastore will be depends on what it is formed of and in what configuration e.g. there is a world of difference (in price and performance) between a capacity-heavy Hybrid configuration and an All-NVMe configuration. What storage configuration will suit your workload should be determined by understanding the current workload in respect to their IO profiles and sizes. The next choice you would need to make is whether you want to purchase ReadyNodes (servers pre-configured with supported vSAN hardware components) or build your own with supported components - if choosing the latter then make sure the controllers, cache-tier and capacity-tier devices are all on the vSAN HCL:

VMware Compatibility Guide - vsan

(click 'Build Your Own based on Certified Components')

Planning Capacity in vSAN

https://www.robware.net/rvtools/

vSAN Sizing and RVtools Tips - Virtual Ramblings

Whether going with ReadyNodes or not, this is very useful site for determining sizing of the cluster:

https://vsansizer.vmware.com/

"I wonder if vsan is a right option for this environment, what hardware I need about and which licenses to purchase?"

Considering the vast range of ways clusters can be provisioned and configured vSAN is suitable for pretty much any workload - whether it is the best choice for your situation relies on many factors such as cost (and vs alternatives), whether you already have performant SAN storage available, redundancy and uptime requirements for workloads etc.

vSAN requires additional licensing in addition to ESXi licensing, what level of licensing is required depends on what type of implementation you are planning and/or required features:

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsan/vmware-vsan-67-licen...

Bob

brobby56
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Thank you for the reply.

With this information I can continue with my research. I am more confident about the VSAN as an option.

I had indeed come across these links.

I will use it and ask advice from a supplier.

the option for readynodes is also something to keep in mind.

I only have to find out if this is not much more expensive than building yourself


thanks,

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