vSAN Storage with VMware Cloud Foundation

vSAN is the preferred principal storage type for VMware Cloud Foundation. It is an enterprise-class storage integrated with vSphere and managed by a single platform. vSAN is optimized for flash storage and can non-disruptively expand capacity and performance by adding hosts to a cluster (scale-out) or by adding disks to a host (scale-up).

Storage Type	Consolidated Workload Domain	Management Domain	VI Workload Domain
Principal	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supplemental	No	No	No

Prerequisites for vSAN Storage

To create a VI workload domain that uses vSAN as principal storage you must ensure the following:

• A minimum of three ESXi hosts that meet the vSAN hardware, cluster, software, networking and license requirements. For information, see the vSAN Planning and Deployment Guide.
• The hosts must be in the SDDC Manager inventory. See Commission Hosts.
• A network pool that includes details for the vMotion and vSAN networks that will be used for the cluster. See Network Pool Management.
• A valid vSAN license. See Managing License Keys in VMware Cloud Foundation. You cannot use vSAN ESA or vSAN Max without a qualifying license.

In some instances SDDC Manager may be unable to automatically mark the host disks as capacity. Follow the Mark Flash Devices as Capacity Using ESXCLI procedure in the vSAN Planning and Deployment Guide.

Procedures for vSAN Storage

• To use vSAN as principal storage for a new VI workload domain, see Deploy a VI Workload Domain Using the SDDC Manager UI.
• To use vSAN as principal storage for a new cluster, see Add a vSphere Cluster to a Workload Domain Using the SDDC Manager UI.

vSAN Original Storage Architecture (OSA)

With vSAN OSA, each host that contributes storage devices to the vSAN datastore must provide at least one device for flash cache and at least one device for capacity. The devices on the contributing host form one or more disk groups. Each disk group contains one flash cache device, and one or multiple capacity devices for persistent storage. Each host can be configured to use multiple disk groups.

vSAN OSA clusters can mount a remote datastore from other vSAN OSA clusters.

vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA)

With vSAN ESA, all storage devices claimed by vSAN contribute to capacity and performance. Each host's storage devices claimed by vSAN form a storage pool. The storage pool represents the amount of caching and capacity provided by the host to the vSAN datastore.

vSAN ESA clusters can mount a remote datastore from vSAN Max clusters or other vSAN ESA clusters.

To use vSAN ESA, you need:

• A direct or proxy internet connection OR a downloaded copy of the vSAN HCL JSON file
  Note: SDDC Manger will keep the HCL file updated if it has direct or proxy internet connection.
• ESXi host disks to support vSAN ESA
• A vLCM image to manage clusters.
  • If you need to create a new cluster image, go to the management domain's vCenter to create the image.
  • If there are no vLCM images available, go to Image Management (Lifecycle Management > Image Management > Import Image) to extract or import a cluster image. See Extract a vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image and Import a vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image for more information.
  • See the vSAN ESA VCG for information about compatible hardware.

vSAN Max

vSAN Max is a fully distributed, scalable, shared storage solution. Storage resources are disaggregated from compute resources, so you can scale storage and compute resources independently. A vSAN Max cluster acts as a server cluster that only provides storage. You can mount its datastore to vSAN compute clusters or vSAN ESA clusters.

vSAN Max uses vSAN Express Storage Architecture and high-density vSAN Ready Nodes for increased capacity and performance.

Since vSAN Max uses vSAN ESA, it has the same requirements listed above.

vSAN Compute Clusters

A vSAN compute cluster is a vSphere cluster with a small vSAN element that enables it to mount a remote datastore. The hosts in a compute cluster do not have local storage. A compute cluster can only mount a remote datastore from a cluster within the same workload domain.

A vSAN compute cluster can mount a datastore from one of the following cluster types:

• vSAN OSA
• vSAN ESA
• vSAN Max

Once you mount a remote datastore on a vSAN compute cluster, you can only mount additional datastores of the same cluster type.

NOTE: Datastores on clusters created outside of VMware Cloud Foundation cannot be mounted on VCF-created clusters. Likewise, clusters created outside of VMware Cloud Foundation cannot mount a datastore from a VCF-created cluster.