vSAN All Flash Econimics

[bigdazza75]

I'm looking at vSAN (v6) as a possible storage alternative to traditional storage arrays. I've run some costing calculations through and this is what I'm looking at:

4 Node ESXi Cluster

2 CPU in each host, along with

2 x 400GB SAS 12G SSD (£4k per host)

8 x 800GB SATA 6G SSD (£24k per host)

Cluster capacity RAW (25TB)

Capacity allowing for NR10) (12.5TB)

vSAN License £3.5k per host

vSAN All Flash License £2k per host

So, if I have my calculations correct that equates to:

(Cluster costs)

tier 0 + storage tier + vSAN + AllFlash

£16k + £96k + 14k + 8k

=£134k for 12TB of usable VMDK storage.

About £11 per GB.(Not sure if its 'normal' to give this figure post-NR10?)

Am I missing something or is this not incredibly expensive??  That seems higher than traditional enterprise all-flash arrays (HP 3Par), etc

Thoughts welcome.

[zdickinson]

It seems cost effective when you consider you're getting compute too.  We specced out Cisco Invicta (are they even shipping it?) and XtremeIO and both had price point higher than 134k (some rough currency conversion in there).  Thank you, Zach.

[bigdazza75]

my costings are just for the storage components only. No compute at all. Hence why it would seem expensive to me.

[CHogan]

Its not really a fair comparison then.

With VSAN, you are also getting your compute and vSphere licenses included in the costings.

With an AFA (or any other non-converged solution), these are going to be additional costs that need to be considered.

Just my 2c

Cormac

[bigdazza75]

Er... I don't believe that's right. I did not include the ESXi (compute) licenses in my example costing. Only the additional storage licensing part costs of ......

vSAN @ £3.5k per host

plus the additional required vSAN "All Flash" license @ £2k per host

plus I didn't even add the necessary vSAN support cost!

Am I missing something??

[CHogan]

I wasn't talking about the licenses, but the actual compute hardware (servers/hosts).

Aren't you going to have to add this to the cost of an AFA in order to run your virtual infrastructure?

With VSAN, the compute is included.

[CHogan]

Never mind my previous updates - I read the thread again and see now that you haven't included any compute.

[zdickinson]

I missed that also, I thought that compute was included.  However, let me spec out what you did price.  Caveat, I could not verify this with the vSAN 6 HCL, as I don't believe it is out yet.  But I did not use new tech and went with a name brand, so it is reasonable to assume the hardware would be supported.

2 x 400 GB Intel P3600 ($818 each from New Egg) = $1,636/host

8 x 800 GB Intel S3610 ($894 each from New Egg) = $7,152/host

2 x vSAN License ($2,467 what we just paid) = $4,934/host

2 x vSAN All Flash License ($1,465 I can't find anywhere that this is extra, but will take your number) = $2,930

Total per host = $16,652

Total for the cluster = $66,608

Total for the cluster converted = 45,492 pounds

8 x 800 = 6,400 GB/host x 4 hosts = 25,600 GB for the cluster x 70% (You always want to have 30% free) = 17,920 GB x 75% (You can have max FTT = 1 with 4 nodes) = 13,440 GB Usable Space

45,492 pounds / 13,440 GB = 3.39 pounds/GB

I'm sure it's possible to spec out the config and get it close to your numbers, it seems like you would really have to try.  From my experience this is around 25% of the cost of entry into an enterprise AFA.  Fully laid out this, plus compute, plus networking, plus additional licensing would be less than an enterprise AFA.  Thoughts?

Thank you, Zach.

[bigdazza75]

FYI the new vSAN 6 HCL is out so you can have a look if you're interested but I think your SSDs are still valid.

The All Flash cost of £1,495 is "an add-on" to the hybrid configuration. It's less than hybrid vSAN license so it must be in addition to.

Anyway, thanks for your example. That certainly does seem a lot cheaper than my HP example. I'll try and apply the same economics to the components and see where I land. In all likelihood we may end up with hybrid anyway

Thanks for your help.

[zdickinson]

Got it, that was an HP config and I was going the build your own way.  Not really apples to apples.  I did a quick Dell config and it looks like the solution would in around 90,000 pounds.  Mid-range price I would say.  Great question, this was a fun exercise.  Thank you, Zach.

[bigdazza75]

Also, you maybe your FTT cal a wrong. You seemed to calculate FTT overhead as only 25% in 4 node. But as I read it, ALL data is duplicated in the cluster datastores so don't we lose 50% with FTT= 1? It's not NR5 but NR10.