Virtual SAN Best Practices and Use Cases

2. Disclaimer
• This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development.
• This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these
features in any generally available product.
• Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or
sales agreements of any kind.
• Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.
• Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not
been determined.
CONFIDENTIAL 2

3. 3
1 Introduction to VMware Virtual SAN
2 Use Case Overview
3 Use Cases Characteristics & Sizing Considerations
5 Best Practices
6 Q & A – We’d love to hear about your use cases and recommendations
Agenda

4. Not Covered
Hardware Best Practices:
STO1211 - Virtual SAN Ready Node and Hardware Guidance for
Hypervisor Converged Infrastructure
Architecture Deep Dive:
STO1279 - Virtual SAN Architecture Deep Dive
Troubleshooting:
STO3098 - Virtual SAN Best Practices for Monitoring and
Troubleshooting

5. The Software-Defined Data Center
Transform storage
by aligning it with
app demands
Management
tools give way
to automation
Expand virtual
compute to all
applications
Virtualize the
network for speed
and efficiency
5

6. The Software-Defined Data Center
Transform storage
by aligning it with
app demands
6

7. VMware Software-Defined Storage
Bringing the Efficient Operational Model of Virtualization to Storage
Policy-driven Control Plane
Virtual Data Plane
Virtual Datastores
PerformanceMobilityData Protection
Virtual Data Services
Cloud Object
Storage
SAN /
NAS
x86 Servers
7

8. VMware Virtual SAN
Introduction

9. VMware Virtual SAN Introduction
Hypervisor-Converged Storage Platform
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
• Software-defined storage software solution.
• Design to aggregates locally attached storage
from each ESXi host in a cluster.
• Hybrid disk storage solution
– Magnetic disks (HDD)
– Flash based disks (SSD)
• VM-Centric data operations and policy driven
management principles.
• Resilient design based on a Distributed RAID
architecture
– No single points of failures
• Dynamic capacity and performance scalability

10. VMware Virtual SAN
Use Case and Best Practices

11. 11
Management Clusters
Use Cases
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
ROBO
Virtual SAN
Backup and DR
Target
Site A Site B
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Production
Tier 2 / Tier 3
NewDMZ / Isolated
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Dev Test Stage
ProdNew SDLC
Virtual Desktop
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Horizon

12. 12
Management Clusters
Use Cases
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
ROBO
Virtual SAN
Backup and DR
Target
Site A Site B
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Production
Tier 2 / Tier 3
DMZ / Isolated
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Dev Test Stage
Prod
SDLC
Virtual Desktop
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Horizon

13. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Key Requirements
• Handle peak performance
requirements:
– boot storms
– login storms
– read/write
• Support High VDI density
• Linear Scalable Capabilities
– Scale Up
– Scale Out
• Cost
• Supportability for all types of desktops
Horizon

14. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Advantages
disk group disk group disk group
VSAN network VSAN networkVSAN network
vsanDatastore
HDD
disk group
HDD HDD HDD
disk group
VSAN network
HDD
scaleup
scale out
• Storage for VDI is contained within a single
server
• Allows granular scaling – Add one server with
SSD & Disk to scale out
• Deployment Simplicity – Eliminates need for
extensive storage design and sizing
• Accelerate Deployment - Customers can quickly
go from POC to Pilot to Production

15. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Best Practices
1. Desktop Sizing
2. VSAN VM Storage Policy Definition
3. Size the cluster
4. Size the host Horizon
Best
Practices

16. 1. Desktop Sizing
• Class of worker and type of pool
– Knowledge worker
• Dedicated full clone
• Dedicated linked clone
– Task worker
• Floating linked clone
• VM instance definition
– OS
– CPU, memory, storage,network
• # of desktops per cluster
• Desired consolidation ratio

17. 2. Virtual SAN Policies
• Failures to Tolerate
– For n failures, n+1 copies and 2n+1 hosts
– FTT has the greatest impact on capacity utilization in the cluster
– Set default FTT value = 1; For linked clone floating pools consider setting FTT=0
• Object space reservation
– Default is 0
– For full clone, consider setting this to 100%, as it guarantees deterministic placement of desktops
• Flash Read Cache reservation
– Typically default is 0
– Consider setting it to 10% for the replica disk in linked-clone floating pools
• Number of disk stripes per host
– Leverage the default value of 1 for optimal performance
Horizon 6.0 automatically sets the recommended values for policies

18. Horizon View – Default Storage Policies
• Horizon View automatically creates default storage policies based on Pool type
REPLICA_DISK PERSISTENT_DISK OS_DISK VM_HOME
Stripes 1 1 1 1
Resiliency 1 1 1 1
Space Reservation
0%
Thin
100%
Thick
0%
Thin
0%
Thin
Read Cache Reservation 10% 0% 0% 0%

19. 3. Sizing the cluster
• Cluster Size
– (# of Desktops/desired consolidation ratio per host) + 1
– Keep head room for host failure
• Datastore capacity
– Usable: Capacity/Desktop * # of Desktop’s per cluster
– Raw: Usable* (FTT+1) * 130%
• Flash Capacity
– 10% or more usable datastore capacity
• Keep VSAN component count below max limit (3000/host)

20. 4. Sizing the Host
• CPU
– Average # of vCPU’s per desktop
– CPU utilization per desktop
– Additional CPU for View – up to 15%
– Additional CPU for VSAN – up to 10%
• Memory
– Memory allocated per desktop
– Video memory overhead - # of monitors and monitor resolution per desktop
– View Accelerator – up to 2GB
– Additional CPU for VSAN – up to 10%
• Network
– Dedicated redundant 10GbE uplinks

21. Sizing the host (contd)
• Magnetic Disk
– Linked clone: 10K RPM or better
– Full clone: 7.2K or 10K RPM drives
• Disk groups
– Consider multiple disk groups per host – improved performance, smaller failure domains and
quicker rebuilds
– Linked clones: 1 disk group
– Full clones: 2 disk groups

22. Sizing Example
Desktops
Projected Desktops 1000
VM storage 40 GB
Type of desktop Linked Clone
Virtual SAN VM storage policy
Failures to tolerate 1
Flash Read Cache
Reservation
10% (for replica disk)
0% for rest
Object Space
Reservation
0%
Host Sizing
Capacity/host ~10TB
# of disk groups/host 2
HDD/host 10 x 900GB 10KRPM
SSD/host 2 x 200 GB
Cluster Sizing
# of hosts 10+1
# of VM’s/host 91
Total usable capacity 40TB
Total raw capacity 40TB*2*130%=104TB
Total Flash Capacity 4TB
1 2
3
4

23. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Ready Nodes – Node and Service Profiles
Linked Clones Full Clones High Medium
# of VM per Node Up to 100 Up to 100 Up to 60 Up to 30
IOPS per Node Up to 10K Up to 10K Up to 20K Up to 12K
Raw Capacity Per
Node
1.2TB 10.8TB 14.4 TB 8TB
CPU 2x10 core 2x10 core 2x10 core 2x10 core
Memory 256 GB 256 GB 384 GB 256 GB
HDD 4x300GB SAS
15K RPM
12x900GB SAS
10K
12x12TB SAS
10K RPM
8x1TB NL-SAS 7.2K
RPM
SSD 1X400GB SSD
(Class E)
2x400GB SSD
(Class E)
2x400GB SSD
(Class E)
2x200GB SSD (Class
D)
IO Controller Queue Depth
>=256
Queue Depth
>=256
Queue Depth
>=512
Queue Depth >=256
NIC 10GbE 10GbE 10GbE 10GbE
Ready Node ProfileService Profile

24. 24
Management Clusters
Use Cases
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
ROBO
Virtual SAN
Backup and DR
Target
Site A Site B
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Production
Tier 2 / Tier 3
DMZ / Isolated
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Dev Test Stage
Prod
SDLC
Virtual Desktop
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Horizon

25. Remote Office / Branch Office
• Small number of virtual machines and capacity
– 10 to 15 virtual machines
– Apps include – file and print server, domain
controller, small development environment
– Storage capacity less than 5 Terabyte's
– Centralized management
– Limited or no remote IT support on site
– Smallest footprint possible
– High Availability
– Automated failover
– Data protection to datacenter
Virtual SAN
Key Requirements

26. Remote Office / Branch Office
Host Design
– Typically 3 1-CPU node cluster – provides
availability while maintaining costs!
– 1G network is OK
• vCenter deployed at data center or as a Virtual
Appliance on Virtual SAN
• High availability and automated failover
• VDP/VR for asynchronous replication
Advantages
disk group disk group disk group
VSAN network VSAN networkVSAN network
vsanDatastore
HDD
disk group
HDD HDD HDD
disk group
VSAN network
HDD

27. Remote Office / Branch Office
Best Practices
Best
Practices
Virtual SAN
Avoid possible performance and recoverability
issues
– Do not exceed the number of recommended
virtual machines on a 1G network
VM Storage Policy Definition
– Create a VM Storage Policy with the following
settings:
• Number of failures to tolerate 1 (FTT=1)
• Object Disk Stripe-width 1 (ODSW=1)

28. Remote Office / Branch Office
Low
# of VM per Node Up to 15
IOPS per Node Up to 2K
Raw Capacity Per
Node
5TB
CPU 1x6 CPU cores
Memory 64 GB
HDD 5x1TB NL-SAS 7.2K
RPM
SSD 1x200GB SSD (Class B
or above)
IO Controller Queue Depth >= 256
NIC 1GbE
Ready Nodes
Ready Node Profiles

29. 29
Management Clusters
Use Cases
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
ROBO
Virtual SAN
Backup and DR
Target
Site A Site B
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Production
Tier 2 / Tier 3
DMZ / Isolated
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Dev Test Stage
Prod
SDLC
Virtual Desktop
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Horizon

30. DMZ | Isolated
Key Requirements
• Complete resource access isolation (Air Gap)
– Logical
– Physical
• Regulatory compliance
– PCI
– HIPPA
– Others
• High Availably with multiple levels of redundancy
• RPO - 30 Minutes
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance

31. DMZ | Isolation
Best Practices
disk group disk group disk group
VSAN network VSAN networkVSAN network
vsanDatastore
HDD
disk group
HDD HDD HDD
disk group
VSAN network
HDD
scaleup
scale out
• Set up separate VSAN VLANs for your
DMZ network
• vCenter can be shared between other
VSAN clusters
• Deployment Simplicity
– Follow sizing principles covered elsewhere in
this presentation

32. DMZ | Isolated
Ready Nodes
High Medium
Up to 60 Up to 30
Up to 20K Up to 12K
14.4 TB 8TB
2x10 core 2x10 core
384 GB 256 GB
12.12TB SAS 10K RPM 8x1TB NL-SAS 7.2K RPM
2x400GB SSD
(Class E)
2x200GB SSD
(Class D)
Queue Depth >=512 Queue Depth >=256
Ready Node Profile

33. Use Cases
34
Management Clusters
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
ROBO
Virtual SAN
Backup and DR
Target
Site A Site B
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Production
Tier 2 / Tier 3
DMZ / Isolated
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Dev Test Stage
Prod
SDLC
Virtual Desktop
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Horizon

34. Management Cluster
Key Requirements
• Minimum of 3 ESXi Hosts
• Support all necessary infrastructure
application and components
• Separate infrastructure application and
components from resources utilized by
production workloads
• Improve manageability of infrastructure
Management Cluster

35. Management Cluster
Advantages
• Storage Managed by vSphere Admin
• Eliminate resource contention between
production workloads and infrastructure
components
• Support infrastructure application
• Flexible Scalable Capabilities
– Scale Up
– Scale Out
• Optimize performance of resource
intensive management application
– vCenter Server
– vCenter Operations
– Etc.
disk group disk group disk group
VSAN network VSAN networkVSAN network
vsanDatastore
HDD
disk group
HDD HDD HDD
disk group
VSAN network
HDD
scaleup
scale out

36. Management Cluster
Best Practices
Management Cluster
Best
Practices
• Desktop Sizing
– Make sure the # of VM’s/host is below the
supported limit of 100
• VM Storage Policy
– Consider the use of object space reservation to
sustain performance during data management
operations
– Flash Read Cache reservation: Typically set to 0;
one can consider reserving capacity for the base
image
• Host and Disk Groups
– Consider the use of 4 nodes
– Consider configuring multiple disks groups

37. Management Cluster
Ready Nodes
High Medium
Up to 60 Up to 30
Up to 20K Up to 12K
14.4 TB 8TB
2x10 core 2x10 core
384 GB 256 GB
12.12TB SAS 10K RPM 8x1TB NL-SAS 7.2K
RPM
2x400GB SSD
(Class E)
2x200GB SSD
(Class D)
Queue Depth >=512 Queue Depth >=256
Ready Node Profiles

38. Use Cases
39
Management Clusters
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
ROBO
Virtual SAN
Backup and DR
Target
Site A Site B
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Production
Tier 2 / Tier 3
DMZ / Isolated
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Dev Test Stage
Prod
SDLC
Virtual Desktop
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Horizon

39. Backup and DR Target
Key Requirements
Self-service development environment with:
• Application lifecycle management
• Separate and isolated development
execution zones
– Compute
– Storage
– Network
• Accelerated workload deployments
• Performing, scalable and secure
dedicated infrastructure
• Policy based governance with automated
delivery
• Fully automated Policy migration across
execution zones
• Interoperable with vSphere and third party
complementary solutions
Backup and DR Target
Site A Site B

40. Backup and DR Target
Advantages
Flexible DR capabilities:
• Support Virtual SAN as a target destination from any
array
• VM Centric based protection
• Guaranteed storage requirements characteristics
through VM Storage Policy
– Availability
– Performance
– Capacity
• Integrate with vCenter Site Recovery Manager for
extensive capabilities:
– Automated DR operation & orchestration
– Automated failover – execution of user defined plans
– Automated failback – reverse original recovery plan
– Planned migrations – ensure zero data loss
– Point-in-time-recovery – multiple recovery points
– Non-disruptive test – automate test on isolated
infrastructures
Backup and DR Target
Site A Site B

41. Backup and DR Target
Best Practices Best
Practices
Keep track of component counts when using VR
point in time recovery.
– Plan cluster size and component count
appropriately based on recovery configuration
and requirements
– Maintain consistent Virtual SAN VM storage
policies across sites when target and destination
are both Virtual SAN
Backup and DR Target
Site A Site B

42. Backup and DR Target
Ready Nodes
High Medium
Up to 60 Up to 30
Up to 20K Up to 12K
14.4 TB 8TB
2x10 core 2x10 core
384 GB 256 GB
12.12TB SAS 10K RPM 8x1TB NL-SAS 7.2K
RPM
2x400GB SSD
(Class E)
2x200GB SSD
(Class D)
Queue Depth >=512 Queue Depth >=256
Ready Node Profiles

43. Use Cases
44
Management Clusters
Test / Dev / Staging
Private cloud
ROBO
Virtual SAN
Backup and DR
Target
Site A Site B
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Production
Tier 2 / Tier 3
DMZ / Isolated
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Regulatory Compliance
vSphere + Virtual SAN
Dev Test Stage
Prod
SDLC
Virtual Desktop
vSphere + Virtual SAN
…
Horizon

44. Software Development Lifecycle
Key Requirements
Dev Test
Prod
Stage
Self-service development environment with:
• Application lifecycle management
• Separate and isolated development execution zones
– Compute
– Storage
– Network
• Accelerated workload deployments
• Performing, scalable and secure dedicated
infrastructure
• Policy based governance with automated delivery
• Fully automated Policy migration across execution
zones
• Interoperable with vSphere and third party
complementary solutions

45. Software Development Lifecycle
Advantages
Dev Test
Prod
Stage
Flexible service offerings:
• High Availability (tolerate failures) and Performance for
demanding workloads
• Fully automated Policy migration across execution zones
• Ability to manage service offerings and automated
migration capabilities on a per VM basis
• Better linear scalability options
– Scale capacity and IOPS together
– Avoid Storage IO hot spots
• Accelerated workload deployments
• Policy based governance with automated delivery
• Interoperable with vSphere and third party
complementary solutions

46. Software Development Lifecycle
Best Practices
Dev Test
Prod
Stage
Best
Practices
Leverage the vCloud Automation Center Storage
Policy-Based Management integration
• Define default policies per Virtual SAN cluster
and execution zones
• Size Virtual SAN cluster capacity and
acceleration layers suitable to the different
requirements per execution zones
Implement approval procedures for:
• Virtual machine allocation
• Migration across execution zones

47. Software Development Lifecycle
Ready Nodes
High Medium
Up to 60 Up to 30
Up to 20K Up to 12K
14.4 TB 8TB
2x10 core 2x10 core
384 GB 256 GB
12.12TB SAS 10K RPM 8x1TB NL-SAS 7.2K
RPM
2x400GB SSD
(Class E)
2x200GB SSD
(Class D)
Queue Depth >=512 Queue Depth >=256
Ready Node Profiles

48. Summary
Virtual SAN is suitable but not limited to the presented use cases
Always follow the recommended guidance for best results and supportability
We’re here to help you size your environment!