VSAN 6.0 HCL

[Morten_Dalgaard]

The HCL page doesn't seem to be updated for VSAN 6.0. I suppose it will support a bunch of new hardware?

Are there any other ways to find out what this is, or is the HCL page update just around the corner?

[ramakrishnak · Accepted solution]

if you look at our VMware Compatibility Guide: vsan we have posted this info

expect this to be available by March 18, 2015

<snip for the website>

The Virtual SAN Compatibility Guide is currently being enhanced to support new hardware components (I/O controllers, HDDs and SSDs) and Ready Nodes. Hardware components and Ready Nodes supported on Virtual SAN 6.0 will be listed by March 18, 2015. In the meantime, if you have any hardware compatibility queries relating to Virtual SAN 6.0, please contact vsan-hcl@vmware.com

[Morten_Dalgaard]

That message must have come up as i was writing the question 🙂

Thanks for the answer.

[Morten_Dalgaard]

So the HCL was updated.

26 supported I/O controllers in 6.0 as opposed to 80 in 5.5. At first i thought the list was incomplete, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

Thing is - I've recently purchased a bunch of new HP DL380 G9 servers which i plan to run VSAN on.

The 3 HP controllers on the list are only supported on the G8 servers.

The servers have an P440ar (smart array) controller built in. The previous generation of smart array controllers (P420) was supported in RAID0 mode in 5.5. Not optimal as this was not pass-through, but at least they were supported.

Can i expect the P440ar to be supported at some point as well, and when? The P440ar supports running in HBA mode as well, but will this be supported with VSAN?

Should i purchase H240 controllers for the server instead? I'm not really sure what to go for, since none of the controllers for the server are supported right now.

[ramakrishnak]

i would suggest to post your specific queries on vsan-hcl@vmware.com

Thanks,

[bigdazza75]

Similar here. i want to create a POC for VSAN 6 but we are a HP house and the Gen9 servers can't use the H220/H222 HBAs.... So no HP Gen9 solution for VSAN! Unreal. I realise why this HCL is in place, but it's becoming too restrictive. Even if I put something in place, there's such a big chance that the next gen HCL will back me into a corner that I'm beginning to think something like HP VSA would be 'better'. I can't go to my CIO in 18 months saying his £100k investment in VSAN needs to binned cos 6.x HCL has zero support with current HP servers, or the drives we bought, or the HBAs we bought, etc. disappointed with a lack of HCL content, and with HP/VMWare..... This is from someone who is/was keen to roll out VSA.

[zdickinson]

It's a good point.  I was assuming that if my config was in the 5.5 HCL, it would be valid in the 6.0 HCL.  Is that not always true?  I realize that a config can't be valid forever, but it seems like there should be an expectation of a number of versions.  For instance if a config it introduced in 6.0 HCL, I would expect VMware to commit and say, and this config will be valid for the next X number of major releases.  Is something like that in place?  Thank you, Zach.

[Morten_Dalgaard]

For anyone wondering, i've sent my above questions to the email as suggested. I am still waiting for a response however. Is anyone manning this email address?

[zdickinson]

I just checked the HCL and if I read it correctly there are no PCIe SSDs supported in vSAN 6.  That doesn't seem right and a particular bummer since we just bought Micron PCIe SSDs.  Can someone confirm what I'm seeing?  Thank you, Zach.

[ramakrishnak]

you can expect the updates on this in the HCL soon

Thanks,