Shared Storage Design

VMware vSAN Storage design includes conceptual design, logical design, network design, cluster and disk group design, and policy design.

In a cluster that is managed by vCenter Server, you can manage software-defined storage resources as you manage compute resources. Instead of CPU or memory reservations, limits, and shares, you can define storage policies and assign them to VMs. The policies specify the characteristics of the storage and can be changed as the business requirements change.

vSAN Disk Groups

Disk group sizing is an important factor during the volume design. If more ESXi hosts are available in a cluster, more failures are tolerated in the cluster. This capability adds cost because additional hardware is required for the disk groups.

More available disk groups can increase the recoverability of vSAN during a failure.

When deciding on the number of disk groups per ESXi host, consider these data points:

• Amount of available space on the vSAN datastore.

• Number of failures that can be tolerated in the cluster.

The optimal number of disk groups is a balance between the hardware and space requirements for the vSAN datastore. More disk groups increase space and provide high availability. However, adding disk groups can be cost-prohibitive.

Table 1. Recommended Shared Storage Design

Design Recommendation	Design Justification	Design Implication
Configure vSAN with a minimum of one disk group per ESXi host.	A single disk group provides the required performance and usable space for the datastore.	Losing the caching tier disk in an ESXi host takes the disk group offline. Two or more disk groups must be used to increase the availability and performance.

Note:

This shared storage design uses vSAN. Any supported storage solution can be used as long as it meets the characteristics of this storage design. For best practices, see the vendor documentation.