You can use the Configure vSAN wizard in the HTML5-based vSphere Client to complete the basic configuration of your vSAN cluster.

Note:

You can use Quickstart to quickly create and configure a vSAN cluster. For more information, see Using Quickstart to Configure and Expand a vSAN Cluster.

Prerequisites

Create a cluster and add hosts to the cluster before using the Configure vSAN wizard to complete the basic configuration.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to an existing cluster in the vSphere Client.
  2. Click the Configure tab.
  3. Under vSAN, select Services and click the Configure button.
  4. Select the configuration type, and click Next.
    • Single site cluster. All hosts at one site, with shared witness functions.
    • Two host vSAN cluster. One host at each site, and a witness host at another site.
    • Stretched cluster. Two active data sites, each with an even number of hosts and storage devices, and a witness host at a third site.
  5. On the Services page, configure vSAN services, and click Next.
    1. (Optional) Enable Deduplication and Compression on the cluster.
    2. (Optional) Enable Encryption, and select a KMS.
    3. You can select the Allow Reduced Redundancy check box to enable encryption or deduplication and compression on a vSAN cluster that has limited resources. For example, if you have a three-host cluster with the Primary level of failures to tolerate set to 1. If you allow reduced redundancy, your data might be at risk during the disk reformat operation.
  6. On the Claim disks page, select the disks for use by the cluster and click Next.
    For each host that contributes storage, select one flash device for the cache tier, and one or more devices for the capacity tier.
  7. Follow the wizard to complete the configuration of the cluster, based on the fault tolerance mode.
    1. If you selected Configure two host vSAN cluster, choose a witness host for the cluster, and claim disks for the witness host.
    2. If you selected Configure stretched cluster, define fault domains for the cluster, choose a witness host, and claim disks for the witness host.
    3. If you selected Configure fault domains, define fault domains for the cluster.
    For more information about fault domains and stretched clusters, see Administering VMware vSAN.
  8. On the Ready to complete page, review the configuration, and click Finish.

Results

Enabling vSAN creates a vSAN datastore and registers the vSAN storage provider. vSAN storage providers are built-in software components that communicate the storage capabilities of the datastore to vCenter Server.

What to do next

Verify that the vSAN datastore has been created. See View vSAN Datastore.

Verify that the vSAN storage provider is registered. See Administering VMware vSAN.

Claim disks or create disk groups. See Administering VMware vSAN.