vSAN Hardware Quick Reference GuideDownload PDF Version
The purpose of this document is to provide sample server configurations as directional guidelines for use with vSAN™. Use these guidelines as your first step toward determining the configuration for vSAN.
How to use this document
- Determine your workload profile requirement for your use case
- Refer to vSAN ReadyNode profiles to determine the approximate configuration that meets your needs
- Use vSAN Hardware Compatibility Guide to pick a vSAN ReadyNode™ aligned with the selected profile from the OEM server vendor of choice
- Refer to blog What you can and cannot change in ReadyNode
vSAN All Flash Hardware Guidance (Intel)
Intel vSAN ReadyNode Profiles AF-8 Series AF-6 Series AF-4 Series Raw Storage Capacity per Node 12 TB 8 TB 4 TB CPU Core 24 core 24 core 20 core Memory* 384 GB 256 GB 128 GB Capacity Tier Flash- 12 TB (Minimum 3 drives in each disk group)
- SSD Endurance Class A or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- 8 TB (Minimum 3 drives in each disk group)
- SSD Endurance Class A or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- 4 TB (Minimum 2 drives in each disk group)
- SSD Endurance Class A or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- 2x400 GB
- SSD Endurance Class D or above
- SSD Performance Class E or above
- 2x200 GB
- SSD Endurance Class C or above
- SSD Performance Class D or above
- 1x200 GB
- SSD Endurance Class C or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- All NVMe
- NVMe + SAS
- All SAS
- NVMe + SATA
- SAS + SATA
- All SATA
vSAN All Flash Hardware Guidance (AMD)
AMD vSAN ReadyNode Profiles AMD-AF-8 Series AMD-AF-6 Series AMD-AF-4 Series Raw Storage Capacity per Node 12 TB 8 TB 4 TB CPU Core 32 core 24 core 20 core Memory* 384 GB 256 GB 128 GB Capacity Tier Flash- 12 TB (Minimum 3 drives in each disk group)
- SSD Endurance Class A or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- 8 TB (Minimum 3 drives in each disk group)
- SSD Endurance Class A or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- 4 TB (Minimum 2 drives in each disk group)
- SSD Endurance Class A or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- 2x400 GB
- SSD Endurance Class D or above
- SSD Performance Class E or above
- 2x200 GB
- SSD Endurance Class C or above
- SSD Performance Class D or above
- 1x200 GB
- SSD Endurance Class C or above
- SSD Performance Class C or above
- All NVMe
- NVMe + SAS
- All SAS
- NVMe + SATA
- SAS + SATA
- All SATA
Note:
- *Memory: Use balanced DIMM population as recommended by OEM partner to avoid any performance penalty(For example: Maintaining 1DIMM-Per-Channel is one of the recommendations)
- **Queue Depth: Queue Depth of the controller has to be the aggregated Queue Depth of all it's connecting device(same or greater)
vSAN Hybrid Hardware Guidance
vSAN ReadyNode Profiles HY-8 Series HY-6 Series HY-4 Series HY-2 Series Raw Storage Capacity per Node 12 TB 8 TB 4 TB 2 TB CPU Core 24 core 20 core 16 core 6 core Memory 384 GB 256 GB 128 GB 32 GB Capacity Tier Disk- 12 TB (Minimum 3 drives in each disk group)
- SAS 10K RPM
- 8 TB (Minimum 3 drives in each disk group)
- NL-SAS 7.2K RPM
- 4 TB (Minimum 2 drives in each disk group)
- NL-SAS 7.2K RPM
- 2 TB (Minimum 2 drives in each disk group)
- NL-SAS 7.2K RPM
- 2x400 GB
- SSD Endurance Class >=D
- SSD Performance Class >=E
- 2x200 GB
- SSD Endurance Class >=C
- SSD Performance Class >=D
- 1x200 GB
- SSD Endurance Class >=C
- SSD Performance Class >=D
- 1x200 GB
- SSD Endurance Class >=B
- SSD Performance Class >=B
vSAN Edge Hardware Guidance
vSAN ReadyNode Profiles SF-AF SF-HY Raw Storage Capacity per Node 0.6 TB 0.6 TB Total CPU Cores 6 core 6 core Memory 32 GB 32 GB Capacity Tier- 600 GB (Minimum 1 capacity drive in each disk group)
- Performance Class C or above
- Endurance Class A or above
- 600 GB (Minimum 1 capacity drive in each disk group)
- NL-SAS 7.2KRPM
- 1x350 GB (Minimum 1 capacity drive in each disk group)
- Performance Class C or above
- Endurance Class C or above
- 1x350 GB (Minimum 1 capacity drive in each disk group)
- Performance Class B or above
- Endurance Class B or above
Sizing Assumptions Used For vSAN ReadyNode Profiles
Disk Group Caching Tier to Capacity Tier Ratio- Disk Group Ratio: 1 SSD, 1 to 7 HDDs
- >=10% anticipated used capacity
- For all flash caching guideline, refer the blog here
- Min. 4GB (USB/SD Card) (Recommended: 8 GB)
- Min. 1 Dedicated SSD/HDD (Boot device needs to be in a separate controller than vSAN Datastore controller)
- Min. 30GB SATADOM with endurance of 512-1024 TBW sequential
- Min. 30GB M.2 SSD with min. endurance of 130 TBW (Recommended: mirrored M.2 SSD connected to on-board AHCI controller)
- Minimum two server side network adapter uplinks
- (Dual port NIC) recommended for redundancy
- SAS Expanders are supported only on a per platform basis. Check Ready Node listings for support. In absence of SAS expander support for a Ready Node, only 8 drives supported per controller. Add an extra controller if >8 drives are required.
- The capacity point for caching and capacity tier is for guidance only. You can choose different capacity points as long as Performance and Endurance classes are met.
Design Considerations Used For vSAN ReadyNode Profiles
Controller Queue Depth Controller queue depth impacts the rebuild/resync times. A low controller queue depth may impact the availability of your production VMs during rebuild/resync. A minimum queue depth of 256 is required in vSAN. Some profiles require minimum queue depth of 512 as noted above. Number of disk groups The number of disk groups impacts fault isolation as well as rebuild/resync times.**Fault isolation: Configuring more than 1 disk group allows better tolerance against SSD failures since data is spread across more disk groups.
**Rebuild/resync times: Configuring more than 1 disk group allows faster rebuilds/resyncs. Number of capacity drives (HDDs in Hybrid config / SSD in All Flash Configs) in a disk group The number of capacity tier drives in a disk group has an impact of the performance of vSAN. While a single capacity tier drive is the minimum requirement for a disk group, for better performance when there are more VMs, and better handling of rebuild/resync activities, we recommend configuring more than 1 capacity tier drive per caching tier SSD per our guidance above. Class of SSDs The class of SSD you choose has a direct impact on the performance of your overall system. Balanced vs Unbalanced cluster An unbalanced cluster can impact vSAN performance as well as the rebuild/resync times. A balanced cluster delivers more predictable performance even during hardware failures. In addition, performance impact during resync/rebuild is minimal when the cluster is balanced. 1G vs 10G Ethernet The choice of 1G vs 10G Ethernet has an impact of the vSAN performance. Both 1G and 10G networks are supported. For larger, higher performing workloads, 10G interconnect is recommended. De-duplication, Compression and Erasure Coding Considerations The sizing does not account for De-duplication, Compression and Erasure Coding. Please visit vSAN Sizing Calculator. If you want to size with storage efficiency turned on and then pick the right Ready Node profile. Device Protocol The ReadyNode are certified with particular device type (SAS/SATA/NVMe/HDD). You are not allowed to change the device type.
Performance Classes for SSDs
SSD PERFORMANCE CLASS WRITES PER SECOND B 5000 - 10000 C 10000 - 20000 D 20000 - 30000 E 30000 - 100000 F 100000 - 350000 (It was 100000+ before) G 350000+Endurance Classes for SSDs
SSD ENDURANCE CLASS SSD TIER TB WRITES IN 5 YEARS A vSAN All Flash - Capacity 365 B vSAN Hybrid - Caching 1825 C vSAN All Flash - Caching for Medium workloads 3650 D vSAN All Flash - Caching for High workloads 7300OLD PROFILE NAME | NEW PROFILE NAME |
Hybrid Profiles | |
Hybrid-Server-Low | HY-2 Series |
New Hybrid Profile | HY-4 Series |
Hybrid-Server-Medium | HY-6 Series |
Hybrid-Server-High | HY-8 Series |
Hybrid-VDI-Linked Clones | HY-8 Series |
Hybrid-VDI-Full Clones | HY-8 Series |
All Flash Profiles | |
All Flash-Server-Medium | AF-6 Series |
All Flash-Server-High | AF-8 Series |
All Flash-VDI-Linked Clones | AF-8 Series |
All Flash-VDI-Full Clones | AF-8 Series |
Additional Resources
For more detail on vSAN Design guidance, see