White Papers

1 Introduction
vSAN is an enterprise-class, storage virtualization software that allows you to manage compute and storage
with a single platform when combined with vSphere. With vSAN, you can reduce the cost and complexity of
traditional storage and take the easiest path to hyper-converged infrastructure and hybrid cloud.
Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are jointly tested and certified solutions that takes away your effort to build the
solutions. Based on trusted and proven PowerEdge servers, Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes offer powerful
processors, high core counts, maximum memory densities, lots of fast internal storage, and innovative modular
Network Interface Card (NIC) technology.
You will also get benefit from the simplicity of having a single trusted source for the entire solution—which can
be installed, implemented, and supported globally by Dell EMC.
You can also build vSAN solutions using the supported components as listed in the VMware Compatibility Guide
(VCG). There are wide range of options for selecting a host model, storage controller, flash devices, and
magnetic disks.
It is extremely important that you follow the VCG to select these hardware components. This online tool is
regularly updated to ensure that you always have the latest guidance from VMware based on hardware vendor
certifications.
1.1 Importance of compliance baselines for vSAN
OMIVV provides capability of creating cluster profiles which enables you to set baselines to track against
managed servers across server configuration, firmware, or driver levels to maintain corporate or support
compliance levels of mentioned vSAN clusters.
Before you begin the compliance and drift detection in the vSAN clusters, ensure that you have the following in
your environment:
• System profile (which determines the physical server configuration)
• Repository profile for both firmware and drivers
• Homogenous server models within the cluster
• vSAN service is enabled for the cluster
• Create a host credential profile for at least one host in the vSAN cluster where inventory is running
successfully.
1.2 Hardware compatibility for vSAN clusters
VMware Compatibility Guide (VCG) is a repository maintained by VMware where specific supported
benchmarks for firmware and driver support on vSphere and vSAN components are shown using certification
testing and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) submissions.
For instance, it makes specific recommendation for storage I/O controllers, Solid State Drives (SSDs), PCIe
flash cards, NVMe storage devices, and disk drives. It also specifies which drivers have been fully tested with
vSAN, and in many cases – identifies minimum levels of firmware required.
The minimum supported version is specified for BIOS, NICs, and SSDs. The exact supported version is
specified for storage I/O Controllers and NVMe drives. For a vSAN cluster, ensure that the storage components