VMware vSAN on Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers Getting Started Guide May 2021 Rev.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2018-2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Chapter 1: About this document.................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Introduction to VMware vSAN......................................................................................5 Chapter 3: vSAN ReadyNode (vSRN).............................................................................................6 Chapter 4: User-defined vSAN cluster or build your own configurations........................................
1 About this document This document provides the guidelines and instructions to be followed when deploying VMware vSAN on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. It also provides the supported configurations and the required information for building a vSAN ReadyNode or scaling an existing vSAN ReadyNode.
2 Introduction to VMware vSAN VMware vSAN is a hyper-converged, software defined storage platform that is completely integrated with VMware vSphere. vSAN aggregates locally attached disks from the hosts participating in the vSphere cluster, creating a distributed shared vSAN datastore. vSAN is the first policy driven storage solution from VMware that is designed for simplifying storage provisioning and management in vSphere environments.
3 vSAN ReadyNode (vSRN) A vSRN is a certified hardware form factor for vSAN deployment, which is recommended by the server OEM and VMware. vSRN is ideal for larger data center environments looking for hyper-converged building blocks for automation. The predefined hardware configuration is certified with specific versions of vSAN and listed in the VMware Compatibility Guide (VCG).
4 User-defined vSAN cluster or build your own configurations User-defined vSAN cluster allows you to build your own configurations. So, User-defined vSAN cluster is also called as build your own configurations. You can deploy vSAN by using one of the following: ● vSRN—Dell EMC predefined vSAN ReadyNodes supported by both Dell EMC and VMware. ● Create your own configuration or user-defined vSAN cluster—You can build a vSAN cluster by selecting individual software and hardware components.
components when used with the corresponding Dell EMC customized ESXi image. Together these two products provide an easy path to the desired vSAN cluster state. For more information, see Firmware Catalog for Dell EMC's vSAN Ready Nodes and Firmware catalog for Dell customized VMware ESXi images. NOTE: This firmware catalog is meant to be used only for Dell EMC's VMware vSAN Ready Nodes installed on PowerEdge R740xd, R740 and R640.
5 Getting help Topics: • • • Contacting Dell EMC Related information for vSAN Documentation resources Contacting Dell EMC Dell EMC provides several online and telephone based support and service options. If you do not have an active internet connection, you can find contact information about your purchase invoice, packing slip, bill, or Dell EMC product catalog. Availability varies by country and product, and some services may not be available in your area.
Discussion forums ● Communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsan Documentation resources This section provides information about the documentation resources. Table 2. Additional documentation resources for vSAN Document Location VMware vSAN docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSAN/index.html Trending support issues, Informational KBs and Best Practices for VMware vSAN https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2150754 Dell EMC vSphere support documents https://www.dell.
