Agnostic Hypervisor

[diablo666]

Hi there, i'm reading these days lot of docs about Hyperconverged Infrastructure.

One key point is the Agnostic Hypervisor feature of VSAN.

I've read that VSAN from version 6.2 can map itself via NFS or iSCSI, but obviously, mapping the datastore via network with this protocols, will transform my infrastructure in a NON-Hyperconverged infrastructure,

because data will no more be access locally, but through the netowkr. In the same time i'll make mi infrastrucutre more and more complex introducing differente managment interface (one for VSAN and one for the other Hypervisor).

I've read that real agnostic Hypervisor are produt like Nutanix and HPE hyperconverged infrastrcutre.

Some one ha some other info info about that for Vmware VSAN?

Best regards.

[zdickinson]

Good morning, let me summarize and see if I am close.  You like vSAN, but want to expose that storage to other resources.  The other resource could be a hypervisor that is not VMware.  You can do this in the latest version of vSAN with iSCSI.   However, this would increase the complexity of administration and the panes of glass you would have for management.

You're asking for an agnostic hypervisor, but what I think you really want is agnostic storage provider.  Enter ScaleIO.  https://www.emc.com/collateral/data-sheet/h12713-emc-scaleio.pdf  It can aggregate storage from many sources and is available for free in non-production use cases.

Thank you, Zach.

[admin]

VMware vSAN is actually a hardware-vendor agnostic, storage agnostic solution. It is not a Hypervisor Agnostic solution as It is fully optimized and customized for VMware ESXi. vSAN is embeded into the ESXi kernel and hence a very good solution if vSphere customers are looking for performance.

What do you mean by vSAN being hardware-vendor agnostic and storage agnostic?

-> It means you can choose the hardware vendor and storage devices as per your wish from a list of VMware vSAN certified hardware. VMware certifies the hardware vendor and its storage devices for vSAN.

VMware vSAN compatibility guide - VMware Compatibility Guide - vsan

VMware vSAN ready nodes - http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_vsan_rn_guide.pdf

What is "Hypervisor Agnostic" SDS?

-> The software defined solution which can host the data from applications and workload operating under multiple hypervisors.

In my opinion, the word "Hypervisor Agnostic" is just a fancy way to say - "not optimized for any hypervisor" which means the Hypervisor Agnostic solution is not 100% customized and optimized to work with a one specific Hypervisor.

I believe the most value for a customer is to use a Solution which is optimized and customized to work with the existing infrastructure. Hence for vSphere customers, VMware vSAN is the most right solution for Software Defined Storage as It is 100 percent optimized and customized for VMware ESXi.

At the end of the day it is up to the customer to decide which is best for them as each has pros and cons. This is how I look at the data storage solutions:

A. Hardware array (i.e. EMC VMAX/VNX or HDS VSP/HUS)

B. Hyper-converged stack (i.e. VxRail or Nutanix)

C. Software-defined Hypervisor based virtual SAN (i.e. VMware vSAN)

D. Software-defined OS/Hypervisor agnostic virtual SAN (i.e. EMC ScaleIO)

Small info about VxRail vs Nutanix vs HPE

VxRail solution (based on VMware vSAN) is the industry’s only hyper-converged solution featuring kernel layer integration between VMware Virtual SAN and the vSphere hypervisor, delivering unique and unmatched performance and efficiency.

Nutanix and HPE solutions are not integrated into the kernel.

Here is a small post that you may like to read - EMC’s ScaleIO vs VMWare’s VSAN | One Guy in IT

Hope this is helpful.

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Cheers!

-Shivam

[StarWindRP]

Hi! Have you had a chance to look at StarWind's Virtual SAN for VMware. It only requires 2-nodes (no witness) and does not require flash for cache. They simply utilize RAM. Overall it a far more cost-effective option. You can even trial the full blown version here: StarWind Software – StarWind Virtual SAN® – Starwindsoftware.com