What is the VMware Virtual SAN team announcing today?
The VMware Virtual SAN product team is very excited to announce 24 new Virtual SAN Ready Nodes from leading OEM vendors – Dell (3 Ready Nodes), Fujitsu (5 Ready Nodes), HP (10 Ready Nodes) and SuperMicro (6 Ready Nodes)!
What is a Virtual SAN Ready Node? How “Ready” is it?
Virtual SAN Ready Node is a hyper-converged ready-to-go hardware solution sold by server OEMs which has been pre-configured to run the Virtual SAN in a certified hardware form factor.
The Virtual SAN Ready Nodes include unique and optimized combination of hardware components from the OEM, and may also include software from the OEM for vSphere and Virtual SAN. Virtual SAN Ready Nodes are ideal as hyper-converged building blocks for large datacenter environments with strong automation and a need to customize hardware and software configurations.
OEM vendors offer Virtual SAN Ready Nodes that are unique to their server offerings and include optimized combination of hardware components (I/O controller, HDD, SSD) to run Virtual SAN. In some cases, they also include pre-loaded software for vSphere and Virtual SAN.
So what does a Virtual SAN Ready Node look like?
Virtual SAN Ready Node is a preconfigured ready-to-go hardware solution. Virtual SAN Ready Node is prescriptive in that it provides the size and quantity of CPU, Memory, Network, I/O Controller, HDD and SSD required to run a VDI or Server workload.
For a detailed list of available Ready Nodes from OEM vendors, please refer to the Virtual SAN Ready Node document
But what if I want to choose my own hardware components for Virtual SAN?
Sure, you can do that using the Build Your Own option on the VMware Virtual SAN Compatibility Guide. Using this option, you can pick any certified server, I/O Controller, SSD and HDD from your vendor of choice, decide on the quantity of each components and build out your own Virtual SAN solution.
Alternately, if you are interested in a preconfigured and ready-to-go solution which can be procured faster using a single SKU/Reference ID, go for the Virtual SAN Ready Node!
Virtual SAN Ready Nodes are also prescriptive and are classified under different solution profiles for VDI and Server use cases so we have made it easy for you to pick the Ready Node that best matches your workload profile requirement.
What are the different solution profiles under which Ready Nodes are classified?
Virtual SAN Ready Nodes are classified into Low, Medium and High profiles for Server workloads and Full Clone & Linked Clone profiles for VDI workloads. The solution profiles provide prescriptive hardware recommendations to meet different levels of workload requirements based on the maximum number of VMs (assuming an average instance size for each VM) that can be run per host.
For more details on infrastructure sizing assumptions and design considerations that were made to define sample Ready Node configurations categorized into these solution profiles, please refer to the Virtual SAN Hardware Quick Reference Guide. See snapshot of the document below:
So how do I choose the right Ready Node for my Virtual SAN?
Visit the VMware Virtual SAN Compatibility Guide website and follow this simple process:
1. Determine your Virtual SAN workload profile requirement for VDI or Server use case.
2. Refer to the node profiles and guidance in Virtual SAN Hardware Quick Reference Guide to determine the approximate configuration that meets your needs
3. Refer to the Virtual SAN Ready Nodes document to identify preconfigured and ready-to-go Virtual SAN Ready Nodes from OEM server vendors.
The server I want is not on the Ready Node list. Will it be supported with Virtual SAN?
As long as the server is certified on the VMware vSphere Compatibility Guide, it will work with Virtual SAN and can be selected as part of the Build Your Own option to build out your Virtual SAN even if it is not one of the standard Virtual SAN Ready Node offerings. This is also true for any certified component like I/O controller, HDD and SSD on the Virtual SAN compatibility guide.
How do I quote/order the Virtual SAN Ready Node from my vendor of choice?
Please contact your OEM sales representative and use the SKU/Reference ID listed for each Ready Node to quote/order the Ready Node from your vendor’s procurement system.
Note: For some of the vendors, the SKUs/Reference IDs are still under works and we expect to get these finalized soon.
Are there more Virtual SAN Ready Nodes from other server vendors to choose from?
Yes, stay tuned. We have more Virtual SAN Ready Nodes from other server vendors coming soon over the next few weeks.
Watch this space for more details!