VMware VSAN announced

http://www.vmware.com/now (announcement)

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2014/03/get-ready-virtual-san-ready-node.html (blog)

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware_Virtual_SAN_Whats_New.pdf (whitepaper)

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VSAN_Design_and_Sizing_Guide.pdf (vSAN design and sizing guide)

http://vmware.com/go/vsanlab (vSAN lab)

http://docs.hol.vmware.com/HOL-2013/HOL-SDC-1308_html_en (VSAN lab manual)

http://cormachogan.com/vsan/ (blog)

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2073795 (Horizon View on vSAN)
https://vsantco.vmware.com/vsan/SI/SIEV (sizing calculator)

VMware announced general availability of virtual SAN (vSAN) yesterday at $2,495 per CPU.

vSAN is a hyper-converge storage solution which abstracts local SSD and HDD storage and pools to to highly performance and resilient and persistent storage tier. other words saying – make a storage cluster out of local server storage. Do not mix up vSAN with VSA, in vSAN solution there is not software appliance running between storage and hypervisor,  vSAN is build in hypervisor kernel that’s why is so unique. VMware vSAN delivers superior performance while minimizing resource utilization resulting in the consumption of less than 10 percent of CPU resources. Claims elastic and linear scalability for both capacity and performance. It supports VMware Horizon / View.  

Either buy from traditional IT vendors: Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, and Supermicro are rolling out multiple Ready Nodes and Ready Blocks over the next 30 days. Alternatively build your own:

vSAN details:

• up to 32 hosts  vSphere 5.5 limitation, minimal vSAN implementation is 3 nodes in vSAN cluster

• max 3200 virtual machines,

• max 4.4 PB storage in 32 node vSAN cluster

• 2M IOPS – based on information provided by Cormac Hogan from VMware, using IOmeter 100% read, 4KB block size. Also 640K IOPS using IOmeter with 70/30 read/write ratio & 4KB block size) – would be fantastic to see test use case some day.

• vSphere 5.5 U1 will support vSAN 1.0

• vSAN is fully integrated with HA, DRS, vMOTION

Supported by:

• VMware SRM – automated DR

• vCloud Automation Center

• VMware View

System requirements – Host:

• 1GB NIC; 10GB NIC recommended

• SATA/SAS HBA or RAID controller (with pass-through or HBA mode)

• At least one SSD and one HDD for each capacity contributing node

Cluster: 

• Minimum cluster size: three hosts

• Recommended SSD capacity: 5 percent of HDD capacity

 

Software – One of the following:

• vSphere 5.5 (VMware vSphere® Standard Edition™ or above),

• VMware vSphere® with Operations Management™ 5.5 (any edition),

• VMware vCloud® Suite 5.5 (any edition)

• VMware® vCenter Server™ 5.5

Performance:




Update 16/4/2014:
VMware published Recommended Ready System configuration:
https://partnerweb.vmware.com/programs/vsan/VMW-VIRTUAL-SAN-RDY-NODE-RDY-BLK-v1.0.pdf
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4U/F627/SYS-F627R3-R72B_.cfm Supermicro Fat Twin
http://www.thinkmate.com/system/superserver-f627r3-r72b+ Price for Supermicro Fat Twin



Update 28/3/2015 - Vsan 6.0:
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware_Virtual_SAN_Whats_New.pdf
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VSAN_Design_and_Sizing_Guide.pdf
http://partnerweb.vmware.com/programs/vsan/Virtual%20SAN%20Ready%20Nodes.pdf