Selecting or Verifying the Compatibility of Storage Devices

An important step before you deploy Virtual SAN is to verify that your storage devices, drivers, and firmware are compatible with Virtual SAN by consulting the VMware Compatibility Guide.

You can choose from several options for Virtual SAN compatibility.

Use a Virtual SAN Ready Node server, a physical server that OEM vendors and VMware validate for Virtual SAN compatibility.

Assemble a node by selecting individual components from validated device models.

VMware Compatibility Guide Section	Component Type for Verification
Systems	Physical server that runs ESXi.
Virtual SAN	Magnetic disk SAS or SATA model for hybrid configurations. Flash device model that is listed in the VMware Compatibility Guide. Certain models of PCIe flash devices can also work with Virtual SAN. Consider also write endurance and performance class. Storage controller model that supports passthrough. Virtual SAN can work with storage controllers that are configured for RAID 0 mode if each storage device is represented as an individual RAID 0 group.

VMware Compatibility Guide Section

Component Type for Verification

Systems

Physical server that runs ESXi.

Virtual SAN

Magnetic disk SAS or SATA model for hybrid configurations.
Flash device model that is listed in the VMware Compatibility Guide. Certain models of PCIe flash devices can also work with Virtual SAN. Consider also write endurance and performance class.
Storage controller model that supports passthrough.

Virtual SAN can work with storage controllers that are configured for RAID 0 mode if each storage device is represented as an individual RAID 0 group.