This section covers the different supported deployment options that are supported for vSAN clusters.
Standard vSAN Cluster
A standard vSAN cluster consists of a minimum of three hosts. Typically, all hosts in a standard vSAN cluster reside at the same location, and are connected on the same Layer 2 network. All-flash configurations require 10 Gb network connections, and this also is recommended for hybrid configurations.
For more information, see Creating a vSAN Cluster.
![Standard vSAN cluster diagram](images/GUID-7819AE76-484F-4429-8FC6-98E313B21ABC-high.png)
Two-Node vSAN Cluster
Two-node vSAN clusters are often used for remote office/branch office environments, typically running a small number of workloads that require high availability. A two-node vSAN cluster consists of two hosts at the same location, connected to the same network switch or directly connected. You can configure a two-node vSAN cluster that uses a third host as a witness, which can be located remotely from the branch office. Usually the witness resides at the main site, along with the vCenter Server.
For more information, see Introduction to Stretched Clusters.
![Two-node vSAN cluster diagram](images/GUID-A91E2DAF-810E-4489-B86A-0BBA61D8CD43-high.png)
vSAN Stretched Cluster
A vSAN stretched cluster provides resiliency against the loss of an entire site. The hosts in a stretched cluster are distributed evenly across two sites. The two sites must have a network latency of no more than five milliseconds (5 ms). A vSAN witness host resides at a third site to provide the witness function. The witness also acts as tie-breaker in scenarios where a network partition occurs between the two data sites. Only metadata such as witness components is stored on the witness.
For more information, see Introduction to Stretched Clusters.
![vSAN stretched cluster diagram](images/GUID-2F9F03F0-07B9-426C-A1D9-ADD5EBA68C70-high.png)