VMware Virtual SAN
Radically Simple Storage for Hyper-converged Infrastructure

Key Features:

Kernel embedded: Virtual SAN is built into the vSphere kernel, optimizing the data I/O path to provide the highest levels of performance with minimal impact on CPU and memory.

Flash-Optimized: Virtual SAN minimizes storage latency by accelerating read/write disk I/O traffic with built-in caching on server-side flash devices. Virtual SAN all-flash can be deployed for as low as $1 per GB of usable capacity - over 50% less than the cost of competing hybrid hyper-converged solutions.

Granular non-disruptive scale-up or scale-out: Non-disruptively expand capacity and performance by adding hosts to a cluster (scale-out) or just grow capacity by adding disks to a host (scale-up).

NEW: Deduplication and Compression: Software-based deduplication and compression optimizes all-flash storage capacity, providing as much as 7x data reduction with minimal CPU and memory overhead.

NEW: Erasure Coding: Erasure Coding increases usable storage capacity by up to 100% while keeping data resiliency unchanged. It is capable of tolerating one or two failures with single parity or double parity protection.

NEW: Quality of Service (QoS): QoS controls, limits and monitors the IOPS consumed by specific virtual machines, eliminating noisy neighbor issues.

Virtual SAN Health Service: The updated Health Service provides integrated hardware compatibility checks, performance monitoring, storage capacity reporting and diagnostics directly from VMware vCenter Server™.

Single pane of glass management with vSphere: Virtual SAN removes the need for training and operating specialized storage interfaces. Provisioning is now as easy as two clicks.

VM-centric policy-based management: Virtual SAN uses storage policies, applied on a per-VM basis, to automate provisioning and balancing of storage resources to ensure that each virtual machine gets the specified storage resources and services.

Built-in failure tolerance and advanced availability: Virtual SAN leverages distributed RAID and cache mirroring to ensure that data is never lost if a disk, host, network or rack fails. It seamlessly supports vSphere availability features like vSphere Fault Tolerance, vSphere High Availability, etc. vSphere Replication™ for Virtual SAN provides asynchronous VM replication with RPOs of up to 5 minutes.

Virtual SAN Stretched Cluster: Creates a stretched cluster between two geographically separate sites, synchronously replicating data between sites. It enables enterprise-level availability where an entire site failure can be tolerated, with no data loss and near zero downtime.

Specifications:

Deployment Options

System Requirements

Hardware Host

• 1GB NIC; 10GB NIC recommended
• SATA/SAS HBA or RAID controller
• At least one flash caching device and one persistent storage disk (flash or HDD) for each capacity-contributing node

Cluster Size

• Min. 2 hosts - Max. 64 hosts

Software

• One of the following: VMware vSphere 6.0 U2 (any edition), VMware vSphere with Operations Management™ 6.1 (any edition), or VMware vCloud Suite® 6.0 (any edition updated with vSphere 6.0 U2)
• VMware vCenter Server 6.0 U1

Support:

VMware Basic Support & Subscription

Weekday Support for Test, Dev and Non-Critical Deployments

• Global, 12x5 access to support
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Basic Support is designed for non-critical applications and platforms that require support during normal business hours. Our global support centers have been strategically placed to provide you with fast and efficient access to the support center in your region. Each center is staffed with engineers that can provide industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

VMware Production Support & Subscription Service

Technical Support, 12 Hours/Day, per published Business Hours, Mon. thru Fri.

• Global, 24x7 support for Severity 1 issues
• Fast response times for critical issues
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Production Support is designed with your production environments in mind. Our global support centers are staffed around the clock to provide you access to our industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

¹ Hours of operation for Gemstone are Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PST/PDT). Severity 1 issues are responded to 24x7.
² Product updates and upgrades are not included with Basic Support and Subscription Service for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for VMware.
Product updates and upgrades are not included with Production Support and Subscription Service for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for VMware.
³ VMware Fusion Professional and VMware Workstation require a minimum of ten (10) licenses in order to purchase Basic support. VMware Workstation requires a minimum of ten (10) licenses in order to purchase Production Support.

Documentation:

Download the VMware Virtual SAN 6.2 Datasheet (PDF).