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VMWare Server VMware Virtual SAN

Virtual SAN

Thinkmate's vSAN systems are ready to use out of the box and are the perfect solution for Enterprise Storage and SMB.

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Resources White Papers, Technical Information and deployment guides

Radically simplify your storage infrastructure and Lower your TCO by up to 50%.

Thinkmate offers the broadest portfolio in VMware® Virtual SAN Ready Systems. With the highest number of configuration options and fully integrated, VMware-certified systems, Supermicro VSAN solutions built by Thinkmate provide best-in-market reliability, performance, cooling and power consumption and capacity - Supporting up to 400 virtual desktops in a single system.

Radically Simple Storage for VMs

Simplify and streamline storage provisioning and management for vSphere environments. Use virtual machine-centric storage policies to provide finely granular control and automation of storage service levels. Self-tuning capabilities automatically rebuild and rebalance storage resources to align with the service levels assigned to each VM. Full integration with vSphere and the entire VMware stack delivers an efficient and cost-effective operational model.

Lower TCO by up to 50%

Enable flexible, predictable "grow-as-you-go" scaling and eliminate large up-front investments. Inexpensive industry-standard server components reduce storage CapEx and give you the flexibility to choose vendors and configurations. Lower OpEx by simplifying storage management with vSphere tools and automating management of storage service levels through VM-centric policies.

High Performance

Enable read/write caching using server-side flash. Virtual SAN is built into the VMware hypervisor, optimizing the I/O data path to deliver much better performance than a virtual appliance or an external device. An all-flash architecture provides data persistence on SSDs to deliver extremely high performance with consistent, fast response times.

Elastic Scalability

Provide elastic, non-disruptive scaling of storage resources. Scale both capacity and performance simultaneously by adding a new host to the cluster (scale-out). Or, scale capacity and performance independently by merely adding new HDDs or SSDs to existing hosts (scale-up).

Technical Information

Virtual SAN Datasheet
Virtual SAN Technical White Paper
Understanding data locality in VMware Virtual SAN
Tech Notes for Virtual SAN 6.0 Snapshots
Ruby vSphere Console Command Reference Guide for VSAN 6.0 PDF
VSAN Troubleshooting Reference Manual PDF
VSAN 6 Performance and Scalability White Paper PDF
Virtual SAN Hardware Guide PDF
Virtual SAN Design and Sizing Guide PDF
Virtual SAN Design and Sizing Guide for Horizon View PDF
Horizon View and Virtual SAN Reference Architecture PDF
VMware Virtual SAN Network Design Guide PDF

Test and Validate

Tips for a Successful VMware Virtual SAN Evaluation
Proof of Concept Guide for Virtual SAN
Quick Monitoring and Reference Guide

Install and Configure

Tips for a Successful VMware Virtual SAN Evaluation
TechNote: Bootstrapping Virtual SAN with vCenter
TechNote: Adding New Hosts Using vSphere Host Profiles

Optimize and Operationalize

Performance of Virtual SAN 6.0 Snapshots
Virtual SAN Scalability Performance Paper
Web 2.0 Applications on VMware Virtual SAN
VMware Virtual SAN Performance with Microsoft SQL Server
VMware Virtual SAN Backup Using VMware vSphere Data Protection Advanced

Get started

You can now configure, price and buy your own Virtual SAN server right from the Thinkmate website using our configurator.

See our system options

If you'd like to get more information on our vSAN-ready systems, fill out the short form below or call us at 1-800-371-1212.

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Single Bundle to procure

Seamless integration with VMware vSphere

Lower TCO - Granular scale-out

High Performance and Fault tolerant

Configure your Virtual SAN Solution now

Target use Entry Series VSAN
Hybrid Storage Pool 		Entry Series VSAN
All Flash Storage Pool		 Enterprise VSAN
Hybrid Storage Pool		 Enterprise VSAN
All Flash Storage Pool		 Turnkey 4-Node VSAN
Hybrid Storage Pool		 Turnkey 4-Node VSAN
All Flash Storage Pool
Performance
 80 VMs
20k IOPs
(per 4-Node Cluster)		 100 VMs
40k IOPs
(per 4-Node Cluster)		 400 VMs
160k IOPs
(per 4-Node Cluster)		 480 VMs
320k IOPs
(per 4-Node Cluster)		 200 VMs
80k IOPs
200 VMs
200k IOPs
Specification
Virtual Machine Profile
(2) vCPU and (2) 60GB Storage
4:1 vCPU to Core Ratio		   Virtual Machine Profile
(2) vCPU and (2) 60GB Storage
4:1 vCPU to Core Ratio
Processor Single Socket
Intel Xeon E5-2600v4 		Single Socket
Intel Xeon E5-2600v4		 Dual Socket
Intel Xeon E5-2600v4		 Dual Socket
Intel Xeon E5-2600v4		 4x Dual Socket
Intel Xeon E5-2600v4		 4x Dual Socket
Intel Xeon E5-2600v4
Memory 64GB DDR4 Memory
Expandable to 256GB 		64GB DDR4 Memory
Expandable to 256GB		 384GB DDR4 Memory
Expandable to 768GB		 384GB DDR4 Memory
Expandable to 768GB		 1TB DDR4 Memory
256GB per Node		 1TB DDR4 Memory
256GB per Node
Storage 5TB Hybrid Storage
1x 200GB SSD+
5x 1.0TB 7.2k SAS HDD 		4TB Flash Storage
1x 400GB SSD+
5x 800GB SSD 		12TB Hybrid Storage
2x 400GB SSD+
10x 1.2TB 10K SAS HDD 		12TB Flash Storage
2x 400GB SSD+
10x 1.2TB SSD 		24TB Hybrid Storage
4x 800GB SSD+
20x 1.2TB 10k SAS HDD 		25.6TB Flash Storage
4x 400GB SSD+
16x 1.6TB SSD
Disk Groups 1 Disk Group
1x SSD for caching
6x HDD for Storage Pool 		1 Disk Group
1x SSD for caching
6x SSD for Storage Pool		 3 Disk Group
3x SSD for caching
20x HDD for Storage Pool		 3 Disk Groups
3x SSD for caching
20x HDD for Storage Pool		 4 Disk Groups (1/node)
4x SSD for caching
20x HDD for Storage Pool		 4 Disk Groups (1/Node)
4x SSD for caching
20x SSD for Storage Pool
Software VMware vSphere 6.0
VMware vSAN 6.0		 VMware vSphere 6.0
VMware vSAN 6.0
vSAN Flash Addon		 VMware vSphere 6.0
VMware vSAN 6.0 		VMware vSphere 6.0
VMware vSAN 6.0
vSAN Flash Addon		 VMware vSphere 6.0
VMware vSAN 6.0 		VMware vSphere 6.0
VMware vSAN 6.0
vSAN Flash Addon
Model XT10-1160V4-VSANh XT10-1160V4-VSANf XT24-2262V4-VSANh XT24-2262V4-VSANf XT24-5262V4-ViBh XT24-5262V4-ViBf
Starting Price $9,999.00 $13,999.00 $24,999.00 $32,999.00 $82,499.00 $104,999.00
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Frequently Asked Questions



Source: Yellow-Bricks

Can I add a host to a VSAN cluster which does not have local disks?
Yes a VSAN cluster can consist of hosts which are not contributing to VSAN storage. You will need to create a VSAN VMkernel and simply add it to the cluster. Note that you will need at a minimum 3 hosts which contribute storage to VSAN.
When creating my VSAN VM Storage Policy, when do I use “failures to tolerate” and when do I use “stripe width”?
Failures to tolerate is all about availability, this is what you define when your virtual machine will need to be available when a host or disk group has failed. So if you want to take 1 host failure in to account, you define the policy to 1. This will then create 2 data objects and 1 witness in your cluster. Stripe width is about performance (read performance when not in cache and write destaging). Setting it to two or higher will result in data being striped across multiple disks. When used in conjunction with “failures” to tolerate this could potentially result in data of a single VM stored on multiple disks on multiple hosts.
Is there a default storage policy for VSAN?
Yes there is a policy applied by default to all VMs on a VSAN datastore but you cannot see this policy within the vSphere UI. You can see that a default policy is defined to various classes using the following command: esxcli vsan policy getdefault. By default an N+1 failures to tolerate policy is applied so that even in the case where user forgets to create and set a policy objects are made resilient. It is not recommended to change the default policy.
How is data striped across multiple disks on a host when stripe width is set to 2?
When stripe width is set to 2 first of all there is no guarantee that the data is striped across disks within a host. VSAN has it’s own algorythm to determine where data should be placed and as such it could happen that although you have sufficient disks in all host your data is striped across multiple hosts instead of disks within a host. When data is striped this is done in chunks of 1MB.
What is the purpose of “disk groups” since VSAN will create one datastore anyway?
A disk group defines the SSD that is used for caching/buffering in front of a set of HDDs. Basically a disk groups is a way of mapping HDDs to an SSD. Each disk group will have 1 SSD and a maximum of 7 disks.
How many disks can a single host contribute to VSAN?
  • – Max 5 diskgroup
    – 192GB Memory
    – Each disk group needs 1 SDD and 1 HDD at a mininum and 7 HDDs at a maximum
    – HDD count max per host = 5 x 7 = 35
    – SSD count max per host = 5 x 1 = 5

Are both SSD and PCIe Flash cards supported?
Yes both are supported but check the HCL for more details around this as there are guidelines and requirements
Is 10GbE a hard requirement for VSAN?
10GbE is not a hard requirement for VSAN. VSAN works perfectly fine in smaller environments, including labs, with 1GbE. Do note that 10GbE is a recommendation.
Why is it recommended for HA’s isolation response to be configured to “powered-off”?
When VSAN is enabled vSphere HA uses the VSAN VMkernel network for heartbeating. When a host does not receive any heartbeats, it is most likely that the host is also isolated/partitioned from a VSAN perspective from the rest of the cluster. In this state it is recommended to power-off the virtual machine as a new copy will be powered-on by HA on the remaining hosts in the cluster automatically. This way when the host comes out of isolation the situation where 2 VMs with the same identity are on the network does not occur.
Can I partition my SSD or disks so that I can use them for other (install ESXi / vFlash) purposes?
No you cannot partition your SSD or HDD(s). Virtual SAN will only, and always, claim entire disks. With VSAN it probably makes most sense to install ESXi on an internal USB/SD card, this to maximize the capacity for VSAN.
Does VSAN support deduplication or compression?
In the current version VSAN does not support deduplication or compression. The most expensive resource in your VSAN cluster is SSD/Flash, hence duplication of data is most relevant on that layer. While having multiple copies of your data results in two copies on HDDs, and two temporary copies in the distributed write buffer (30% of the SSDs), the distributed read cache portion of the Flash (70%) will only contain a single copy of any cached data.
Can VSAN leverage SAN/NAS datastores?
VSAN currently does not support the use of SAN/NAS datastores. Disks will need to be “local” and directly passed to the host.
Does VSAN use iSCSI or NFS to connect hosts to the datastore?
VSAN does not use either of these two to connect hosts to a datastore. It uses a proprietary mechanism.
What is the impact of maintenance mode in a VSAN enabled cluster?
here are three ways of placing a host which is providing storage to your VSAN datastore in maintenance mode:

1) Full Data Migration – All data residing on the host will be migrated. Impact: Could take a long time to complete.

2) Ensure accessibility – VSAN ensures that all VMs will remain accessible by migrating the required data to other hosts. Impact: Potentially availability policies are violated.

3) No Data Migration – No data will be migrated. Impact: Depending on the “failures to tolerate” policy defined some VMs might become unusable.

The safest option is option 1, with option 2 being the preferred and default as it is the fastest to complete. I guess the question is why you are placing the host in maintenance mode and how fast it will become available again. Option 3 is a fall back, in caseyou really need to get into maintenance mode fast and don’t care about potential data loss.
Are there any features of vSphere which aren’t supported/compatible with VSAN?
Currently vSphere Distributed Power Management, Storage DRS and Storage IO Control are not supported with VSAN.
How do I add a Virtual SAN / VSAN license?
VSAN licenses are applied on a cluster level. Open the Webclient click on your VSAN enabled cluster, click the “Manage” tab followed by “Settings”. Under “Configuration” click “Virtual SAN Licensing” and then click “Assign License Key”.
How will Virtual SAN be priced / licensed?
VSAN is licensed per socket, the price is $ 2495 per socket or $ 50,- per VDI user. Note that the license includes the Distributed Switch and VM Storage Policies, even when using a vSphere license lower than Enterprise Plus!
If a host has failed and as such data is lost and all VMs were protected N+1, how long will it take before VSAN starts rebuilding the lost data?
VSAN will identify which objects are out of compliance (those which had N+1 and were stored on that host) and starts a time-out period of 60 minutes. It has a time-out period to avoid an unnecessary and costly full sync of data. If the host returns within those 60 minutes then the differences will copied to that host. When a VM has multiple mirrors it doesn’t notice the failure, this 60 minute period is all about going back to full policy compliance, i.e. being able to satisfy additional failures may they occur.
When a virtual machines moves around in a cluster will its objects follow to keep IO local?
No, objects (virtual disks for instance) do not follow the virtual machine. Just imagine what the cost/overhead of moving virtual disks between hosts would be each time DRS suggests a migration. Instead IO can be done remotely. Meaning that although your virtual machine might run on host-1 from a CPU/Mem perspective, its virtual disks could be physically located on host-2 and host-3.
Does VSAN support Fault Tolerance aka FT?
No, VSAN does not support Fault Tolerance in this release.

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GSA Scheduling Available
For Government Purchases

We offer rapid GSA scheduling for custom configurations. If you have a specific hardware requirement, we can have your configuration posted on the GSA Schedule within 2-4 weeks.

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