VMware vSAN is a software-defined, enterprise storage solution that supports hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) systems. vSAN is fully integrated with VMware vSphere, as a distributed layer of software within the ESXi hypervisor.

vSAN aggregates local or direct-attached data storage devices to create a single storage pool shared across all hosts in a vSAN cluster. A hybrid vSAN cluster uses flash devices for cache and magnetic drives for capacity. All-flash vSAN clusters use flash devices for both the cache and capacity. vSAN Express Storage Architecture uses NVMe-based TLC flash devices and high performance network interfaces. These architectures provide a flash-optimized, resilient shared datastore designed for the software-defined data center (SDDC).

vSAN eliminates the need for external shared storage, and simplifies storage configuration through Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM). Using virtual machine (VM) storage policies, you can define storage requirements and capabilities.

Want to know what is in the current release of vSAN? Look at the latest vSAN release notes.

Diagram of a standard vSAN cluster.

Learn About Some of Our Features

Before you deploy vSAN in a vSphere environment, learn about system requirements for vSAN, how to design and size a vSAN cluster to meet your needs, and how to create a vSAN cluster.

Learn how to configure and manage a vSAN cluster. You can learn how to define storage policies for your virtual machines, how to use features like deduplication and encryption, and how to manage storage devices.

You can check vSAN health and monitor performance, and learn how to troubleshoot issues with your vSAN cluster.

You can use vSAN File Service to provide file sharing services using Network File System (NFS). vSAN File Service uses the vSAN Distributed File System (vDFS) to provide a scalable filesystem that is integrated with vSAN Storage Policy Based Management. This lets you leverage policy-based management to define file sharing and storage requirements. Learn how to configure the file service, create file shares on the vSAN datastore, and access a file share from a host client.

Explore Our Videos

You can learn about deploying, managing, and administering vSAN by watching videos on the VMware vSAN video channel.

Learn More About vSAN

To learn about vSAN, see the following resources.

  • Learn more about vSAN by visiting the vSAN product page.
  • Ask questions about vSAN by visiting the vSAN Community Forum. You can get help, opinions, and feedback from other VMware users by participating in the discussion forums.
  • Explore vSAN without having to install it using the VMware vSAN Hands-on Labs environment.
  • Learn how to create a more efficient hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) using vSAN by reading vSAN technical documents on Cloud Platform Tech Zone.
  • Visit the Cormac Hogan vSAN Blog. Cormac Hogan is the Director and Chief Technologist in the Office of the CTO for the Storage and Availability Business Unit at VMware. The blog focuses on vSAN.
  • Visit the William Lam blog. William Lam is a Staff Solutions Architect working at VMware. The blog focuses on automation, integration, and operation of the VMware Software Defined Datacenter (SDDC).

Use vSAN Documentation

The vSAN documents in HTML reflect the latest vSAN update release of each major vSphere version. For example, version 8.0 contains all the updates for 8.0.x releases. All our documentation comes in PDF format, which you can access by selecting the Download PDF icon Download PDF icon on any page in the HTML documentation. PDFs for previous releases of vSAN are available for download in a ZIP archive format. The archive can be found under the vSAN Documentation Archive heading for each major version in the table of contents on the left.

You can create custom documentation collections, containing only the content that meets your specific information needs, using MyLibrary.