VMware vSAN: Deployment, Configuration, and Administration

Shift from maintaining aging infrastructure to digital transformation by embracing software defined storage and the software defined data center, enabling VMware virtualization and faster innovation.

Explore how VMware vSAN delivers software-defined storage by using existing disks and converging storage and compute in a single vSphere interface with policy-based management and scalability for efficiency and ROI.

Understand how vSAN architecture enables a software defined data center by pooling local host storage into a vSAN data store, abstracting away physical storage and applying storage policies across cluster.

Explore vSAN features like policy based management, five-minute RPO with vSphere replication, all-flash mode with deduplication and compression, iSCSI target, stretched clusters, data at rest encryption, and scalable disk groups.

Explore the broad use cases of VMware vSAN, from test and development to production-grade applications, edge and remote office deployments, VDI, and built-in disaster recovery via vSphere replication.

Meet hardware, cluster, software, network, and license requirements for deploying VMware vSAN 7, verify compatibility and memory needs, and choose a consumption option (VxRail, ready node, or bring your own).

Explore vSAN licensing with standard, advanced, and enterprise editions, featuring policy-based management, deduplication, compression, and erasure code, plus branch office additions, a 25 VM pack, desktop licenses, and evaluation options.

Discover cache tier sizing for hybrid and all-flash vSAN: 70/30 read/write split for hybrid, 100% write buffer for all-flash, and 10% cache sizing guidance for hybrid.

Scale up or scale out to grow vSAN, and maintain a balanced cluster with all hosts contributing flash for caching and disks for capacity, as scale-out balances storage automatically.

Understand fault domains in VMware vSAN to deliver rack-aware data distribution across hosts and racks, ensuring cluster resilience during rack power or network outages.

Explore how stretch clusters extend vSAN availability across two sites with a third-site witness, supporting up to 30 hosts and rapid WAN connectivity for high availability.

Set up two vSAN nodes with a direct connect, using 10 gig ethernet or a crossover cable, and add a witness for tiebreaker in split-brain scenarios, suitable for remote offices.

Learn how vSAN integrates with the ESXi hypervisor to provide software-defined storage, and how to download the latest vSAN and related components from VMware for lab or production use.

Explore practical ways to practice vSAN using VMware Workstation and Hands-on Lab. Consider renting a physical server or using a small server in your lab, with caution for production networks.

To practice this course, install vmware workstation and Windows Server 2019 Active Directory to enable DNS for iSCSI and vCenter, then build three ESXi hosts to configure a vSAN lab.

Explore how to access the VMware hands-on lab, configure vSAN on a three-host cluster, manage lab time limits, and choose between hands-on or workstation labs based on your vSphere experience.

Verify prerequisites for vSAN by inspecting a three-node ESXi cluster in the vSphere web client, confirm disk setup for capacity and cache, reference VMware compatibility list.

Take snapshots of ESXi, iSCSI, and vCenter Server before configuring vSAN to enable safe rollbacks and to practice multiple times.

Choose storage controllers for vSAN with pass-through mode or raid-zero single-disk presentation; avoid hardware raid so software-defined storage manages data redundancy.

Add a 40 GB SATA capacity disk and a 10 GB NVMe cache tier to ESXi for vSAN, then configure storage devices and data stores in vSphere.

Enable a single-site vSAN hybrid cluster by configuring vSAN in the cluster and selecting the single-site option for three hosts in their data centers, noting default settings and encryption options.

Configure a single site hybrid vSAN datastore by claiming disks across hosts, assigning cached flash and HDD capacity tiers, ensuring disks are unused and unpartitioned, with a snapshot recommended.

Upgrade to the latest vSphere 7270.2 build, configure vSAN with a single site cluster and custom fault domains, and establish fault domains to tolerate one failure and enable rack awareness.

Validate the vSAN configuration by reviewing disks, disk groups, fault domains, and capacity across three ESXi hosts, then monitor the vSAN datastore, cache, and capacity in the quick start.

Migrate a test workload to the vSAN datastore on a hybrid cluster using change storage only, then perform storage vMotion to move the VM with zero downtime.

Explore policy based management in vSAN and its default storage policy. Create and apply tier one app storage policies, customize tolerance and encryption, with automatic data movement and no downtime.

Enable deduplication and compression on all-flash vSAN data stores only via data services, and monitor capacity and history, noting encryption options for data in transit and at rest.

Learn how to implement quality of service on vSAN by configuring IOPs limits via storage policies, monitor performance, and reserve bandwidth for vSAN traffic.

Enable vSAN encryption at rest to secure the entire vSAN data store. Use RS 256 bit encryption and integrate a KMS with vSphere, establishing trust.

Enable the vSAN iSCSI target service to turn vSAN into an iSCSI san for Windows failover clusters and Linux clients. Configure authentication, multipathing, and a home object policy.

Explore vSAN data protection and disaster recovery features, including data distribution, fault tolerance, five-minute recovery point objective, vSphere replication, and site recovery manager for cross-site protection.

Explore the vSAN Health Service and Skyline Health to monitor cluster status, diagnose issues, and run proactive tests that verify hardware compatibility and build recommendations with VMware guidance.

Learn to place an ESXi host in maintenance mode in a vSAN cluster, manage VM migrations with DRS moves or manual moves, and choose ensure accessibility or data migration options.

Monitor disk health and disk group status in vSAN. Replace a failed disk by removing and adding it to the disk group, ensuring deduplication and compression settings are configured.