VMware Virtual SAN has received amazing response from the virtualization community. Now as more and more customers are completing the acquisition and implementation processes, we are receiving more requests for operational guidance. Day 2 operations is perhaps my favorite topic to explore. Essentially the questions asked can be summed up as “Ok, I have done the research, proved the concept, and now have this great new product. Help me know the recommended practices to monitor, manage, and troubleshoot the inevitable issues that pop up with any software”. This question is the driver behind our new blog series, “Operationalizing VMware Virtual SAN“.

In this series, our aim is to take your most frequently asked questions around Virtual SAN Operations and provide detailed recommendations and guidance. In our first article in this series we look to answer the question “How do I configure vCenter Alarms for Virtual SAN?”

(Many thanks to William Lam (@vGhetto), Christian Dickmann (@cdickmann), Rawlinson Rivera (@PunchingClouds), and Ken Werneburg (@vmKen) for their much appreciated interest and contribution to this series): [Joe Cook: @CloudAnimal]

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Oregon State University, a public institution with more than 26,000 students and growing VDI workloads wanted a high performance storage tier for their VDI environment. However, they wanted the solution to be up and running before the school summer session began, along with being easy to operate and scale on an on-going basis, without requiring large upfront investments.

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In Part I, Part II and Part III of this blog post series, we reviewed methods of running benchmark tests on a Virtual SAN cluster using three different methods; synthetic I/O Tools such is Iometer, pre-created application I/O trace replay files available for download, or custom created application I/O trace replay. Once you are running benchmark testing, there will be the need to assess and analyze the performance results of your Virtual SAN cluster, and how they meet the needs of the target applications within your environment . In this post, we will review some key concepts in performing a performance analysis of your Virtual SAN solution.

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It has been 10 months since we released the first set of Virtual SAN Ready Nodes , which are validated server configurations jointly recommended by VMware and Server OEMs to accelerate Virtual SAN deployment. We have been working closely with multiple Server OEM partners to continuously update the list of Virtual SAN Ready Nodes.

The Virtual SAN Ready Node is another great option besides the DIY/Build-your-own option to deploy Virtual SAN, as we had discussed in the past such as in the June 23^rd blog.

We have expanded the list from 24 (in June) to 40 Virtual SAN Ready Nodes from eight Server OEMs.

Why should you care about the Virtual SAN Ready Nodes and how do you use them?

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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?

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:

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!