This session was presented by Lee Dilworth and Duncan Epping at VMworld in the US in 2015. Five common customer use cases of the last 12-18 months are discussed in this deck.

1. STO4650-QT - Five Common Customer
Use Cases for Virtual SAN
Duncan Epping – Chief Technologist
Lee Dilworth – Principal SE

2. Agenda
• Introduction (Duncan)
• Five Common Customer Use Cases for Virtual SAN
1. Production (Lee)
2. Management Cluster (Duncan)
3. ROBO Deployment (Lee)
4. DMZ / Isolation (Duncan)
5. Development Platform (Lee)
• Q&A (if time permits)
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3. We need to transform storage the way we transformed compute
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Fast and Simple Provisioning Application-Centric Control
Memory
CPU
Memory
CPU
Automated Self-Tuning

4. The hypervisor is best positioned
4(1) Gartner Market Trends: x86 Server Virtualization, Worldwide, 2013
Why the Hypervisor:
• Over 70% of x86 server workloads
are virtualized1
• It’s inherently app-aware
• Sits directly in the I/O path
• Has global view of underlying storage
resources
• It’s hardware agnostic
vSphere

5. VMware Virtual SAN
• Storage scale out architecture built into the
hypervisor
– 3 node minimum
• Aggregates locally attached storage from
each ESXi host in a cluster
– Flash + Magnetic Disk or Flash + Flash
• Dynamic capacity and performance
scalability
• Flash optimized storage solution
• Fully integrated with vSphere and
interoperable:
• vMotion, DRS, HA, VDP, VR …
• VM-centric data operations
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vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Magnetic
Devices
Flash
Devices
Magnetic
Devices
Flash
Devices
Magnetic
Devices
Flash
Devices
Virtual SAN Datastore

6. Two Ways to Implement VMware Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
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• 50+ validated server configurations
• Jointly recommended by VMware and
Server OEM
• Ready for Virtual SAN deployment
• Build your own SDDC by adding VMware
software components
Virtual SAN Ready Node / BYO
Certified Hardware
Flexibility Ease of Use
• Pre-integrated and pre-configured
software with certified partner H/W
• Software to simplify deployment,
configuration and lifecycle management
• vSphere, Virtual SAN and management
software included
EVO Family
Integrated Systems

7. Yes… really simple!
Virtual SAN is a cluster level feature similar to:
– vSphere DRS
– vSphere HA
– Virtual SAN
Deployed, configured and manage from vCenter through the vSphere Web Client
– Radically simple
• Configure VMkernel interface for Virtual SAN
• Enable Virtual SAN by clicking Turn On
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8. Use Case 1: Production
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9. Production
• VSAN isn’t just for VDI or Test/Dev
• Most of our customers run Production and even Mission Critical workloads on VSAN
– MS Exchange / SQL
– Oracle
– SAP
– Billing Systems (6-7 million customers!)
• Physical system runs for 22 hours
• Virtual system on traditional storage 14 hours
• Virtual system on VSAN 3 hours!
• Growth pattern unknown? VSAN scales up and out!
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10. Production – Typical Design
• In production most used is a 2U server platform
• 256 / 384GB and 2 x 10 core Intel (v3) CPU
• Two disk groups is typical per server
• Per disk group:
– Disk controller SAS Expander
– 400GB flash for read/write cache
– 6 magnetic disks per disk group
• Most customers use SAS
• Note, more than 8 disks? SAS Expander!
• Those who use NL-SAS buy more flash!
• 2 x 10GbE
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11. 11
Many customers run production workloads on Virtual SAN

12. Use Case 2: Management Cluster
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13. Management Cluster
• Typical 1U form factor, or 2U / 4 Node
• Perfect fit for VSAN
• “Externally” hosted Management Cluster
– Not running on components you are managing
• Typically small clusters of 3 or 4 hosts
• Use of single CPU hosts not uncommon
– Reduces cost
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14. Management Cluster
• Typically small clusters of 3 or 4 hosts
– Take maintenance mode in to account!
• Use of single CPU hosts not uncommon
– Reduces cost (not just hardware, but also licenses!)
• 64GB / 96GB memory
• Single disk group
– 200GB Flash
– 5 x 1TB (NL-SAS)
• 2 x 10GbE
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15. But how do I run vCenter on VSAN before I have vCenter?
• Bootstrapping method 1
– Local VMFS move to VSAN using Storage vMotion
• Bootstrapping method 2
– Create VSAN using esxcli
• Change the default VSAN policy to set “Force Provisioning” to 1
• Tag all the local devices accordingly (Is Local: true / Is SSD: true / false)
• Create a new VSAN cluster using “esxcli vsan cluster new”
• Add disks to the cluster using “esxcli vsan storage add”
• Deploy vCenter to VSAN using the C# Client
Read all about it on VirtuallyGhetto.com: http://bit.ly/1m3cO5o
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16. Use Case 3: ROBO Deployments
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17. ROBO Deployments
• Virtual SAN very popular for ROBO
• No need for dedicated storage appliance, leverage local
disk slots
– Lowers overall power and cooling requirements
• Easy to manage, no special skills required
• Can be managed centrally!
– You are not stretching the cluster, just managing remotely
• Virtual SAN can run “headless”, network down to main
site does not impact workload!
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18. ROBO Deployments
• Typically small clusters of 3 hosts
• Use of single CPU hosts not uncommon
– Reduces cost
• 64GB / 96GB
• Single disk group
– 200GB Flash
– 3-5 x 1TB (NL-SAS)
• 4 x 1GbE
– Create multiple VMkernel interfaces for VSAN or..
– Use IP-Hash (requires specific switch configuration!)
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19. Use Case 4: DMZ / Isolation
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20. DMZ / Isolation
• Customers today typically run fully isolated except shared storage
• Buying a separate array for just DMZ is too expensive
• Smaller arrays do simply often not offer same performance or features
• Very common use case for VSAN, as it will offer full isolation!
• Examples: Mini data center on Trains, Oil Platforms, Boats…
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21. DMZ / Isolation
• 1U or 2U/4 Node systems
• Configuration greatly varies depending on VM requirements
• Interesting configuration I’ve seen:
– All-flash VSAN
• Lower power consumption
• Minimize moving parts
• And a great performance…
• Dell FX2 System with FC430 Compute and FD332 Storage Blades
– Networking, 10GbE switch, in the box!
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22. Use Case 5: Development Platform
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23. Development Platform
• Programmatically accessed
• Differentiate through policies instead of
tiers
• Fast provisioning, agile, and no impact on
production
• Running next to the traditional
infrastructure
• Extend existing platform to meet “different”
needs
• Front-end VSAN/vSphere with VIO, vCloud
Director, vRealize Automation
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24. Thanks!
Don’t forget to fill out the survey!