VSAN-Express Storage Architecture(ESA) question

[ManivelR]

Hi All,

I have a question that is related to VSAN ESA.

I'm going to build a new production VSAN setup with 3 nodes cluster(build your own components approach from the VSAN compatibility guide).

All my components are in VSAN/VMware 8.0 list.

Question:- Pasted the below information from some articles. This means, this ESA requires 4 nodes and can configure right now only through VSAN-ready nodes not possible to build your own hosts?

 

• Certified hardware: ReadyNodes approved for ESA are required. The VMware HCL will be extended for ESA, so that in future it will also be possible to build your own hosts if all components are approved for ESA. This will of course be fewer than with the normal vSAN HCL.
• VMware vSAN ESA requires Advanced or Enterprise licenses.
• Another “bad” thing is that you’ll need at least 4 nodes. I better say 4 READY NODES as only VMware certified Ready Nodes will be supported so you are no longer allowed to build your own nodes with certified components such as HBAs, SSDs etc.

Thanks,

Manivel R

 

 

 

[TheBobkin]

 "This means, this ESA requires 4 nodes" - No, this appears to be false and the article you referenced written by a non-VMware source. Have a look for yourself, there are plenty of references to 2-node and 3-node cluster in the ESA VMware resources (e.g. core.vmware.com) and if this was a limitation it would be mentioned in the ESA FAQ (which it is not). Maybe the author of that mis-remembered a slide from a presentation stating minimum 4 storage devices per node?

 

"and can configure right now only through VSAN-ready nodes not possible to build your own hosts?" - Yes, and for good reasons, including but not limited to the fact that vSAN ESA is in it's infancy here and trying to do sufficient validation testing required for adding support for potentially thousands of devices (like the vSAN OSA HCL) and other fun factors like whatever-hardware-combination-folks-decide-to-lash-in-the-server would be a logistical nightmare, not even to consider that as the product is in a deep state of tweaking and improvement that might invalidate any such validation tests.
It is far far far from a case of just saying something like that if devices are on the vSAN OSA HCL and are performance class F/G and have sufficient endurance that they should be automatically be rubber-stamped in an equivalency manner and added to the vSAN ESA HCL, in some cases that might be like saying "I put fuel in my car, so it doesn't matter if it is Petrol or Diesel, these are both fuels".

 

"VMware vSAN ESA requires Advanced or Enterprise licenses." - Yes it does, but so do most vSAN OSA licensed features that are embedded core parts of vSAN ESA.

[ManivelR]

Thank you Bob for reply.

What I understood is,As this is baby(ESA),it requires lot of time to enhance the product(ESA) like OSA(we can use this option for build your own components).

As of now,VSAN ready node is the correct  & recommended approach for VSAN ESA.

One more cache here is...,

As im going to use HCL essential kits license with 3 nodes CL,I can go with OSA then..(It is far far far from a case of just saying something like that if devices are on the vSAN OSA HCL and are performance class F/G and have sufficient endurance that they should be automatically be rubber-stamped in an equivalency manner and added to the vSAN ESA HCL, in some cases that might be like saying "I put fuel in my car, so it doesn't matter if it is Petrol or Diesel, these are both fuels".)

 

 

 

[Duncan Epping]

---

 wrote:

Hi All,

I'm going to build a new production VSAN setup with 3 nodes cluster(build your own components approach from the VSAN compatibility guide).

All my components are in VSAN/VMware 8.0 list.

Question:- Pasted the below information from some articles. This means, this ESA requires 4 nodes and can configure right now only through VSAN-ready nodes not possible to build your own hosts?

 

• Certified hardware: ReadyNodes approved for ESA are required. The VMware HCL will be extended for ESA, so that in future it will also be possible to build your own hosts if all components are approved for ESA. This will of course be fewer than with the normal vSAN HCL.
• VMware vSAN ESA requires Advanced or Enterprise licenses.
• Another “bad” thing is that you’ll need at least 4 nodes. I better say 4 READY NODES as only VMware certified Ready Nodes will be supported so you are no longer allowed to build your own nodes with certified components such as HBAs, SSDs etc.

Thanks,

Manivel R

---

Please, do not rely on information found on articles from a 3rd party vendor. That article by Vladan on Starwind is incorrect. Vladan probably misunderstood. You can have a 2-node configuration with a witness with ESA, and you can have 3 host, 4 host... all the way up to 64 hosts.

Yes, hosts will need to be on the vSAN Ready Node list. All those configurations have been tried and tested by our partners. The reason we do this is so that we can guarantee that the components (and combination of components) actually meet the standards to take advantage of the new architecture. You will need to pick hosts which are listed and can then select the components which are certified for ESA. Or if you want to build your own, you can use the OSA architecture, which is also part of 8.0.

[ManivelR]

Thank you Depping.

[vladanseget]

Thanks Duncan for pointing this out. I do usually do my own research on the current information available and it's possible that during the write up of the article those were the information I had. I'll update the post will be updated with the correct info.

 

Best,

Vladan

[remakethegame]

Hello  

Thank you for pointing this out!

As Vladan just said, we will update this article on the StarWind blog to make sure it provides correct information. Sorry for the confusion it caused.