VMware vSAN Reviews and Pricing

Solutions Architect with 51-200 employees

Feb 26, 2015

The solution is simple to manage but redirect-on-write snapshots is needed

Over the past decade VMware has changed the way IT is provisioned through the use of Virtual Machines, but if we want a truly Software-Defined Data Centre we also need to virtualise the storage and the network.

For storage virtualisation VMware has introduced Virtual SAN and Virtual Volumes (expected to be available in 2015), and for network virtualisation NSX. In this, the first of a three part series, we will take a look at Virtual SAN (VSAN).

So why VSAN?

Large Data Centres, built by the likes of Amazon, Google and Facebook, utilise commodity compute, storage and networking hardware (that scale-out rather than scale-up) and a proprietary software layer to massively drive down costs. The economics of IT hardware tend to be the inverse of economies of scale (i.e. the smaller the box you buy the less it costs per unit).

Most organisations, no matter their size, do not have the resources to build their own software layer like Amazon, so this is where VSAN (and vSphere and NSX) come in – VMware provides the software and you bring your hardware of choice.

There are a number of hyper-converged solutions on the market today that can combine compute and storage into a single host that can scale-out as required. None of these are Software-Defined (see What are the pros and cons of Software-Defined Storage?) and typically they use Linux Virtual Machines to provision the storage. VSAN is embedded into ESXi, so you now have the choice of having your hyper-converged storage provisioned from a Virtual Machine or integrated into the hypervisor – I know which I would prefer.

Typical use cases are VDI, Tier 2 and 3 applications, Test, Development and Staging environments, DMZ, Management Clusters, Backup and DR targets and Remote Offices.

VSAN Components

To create a VSAN you need:

From 3 to 32 vSphere 5.5 certified hosts
For each host a VSAN certified:
- I/O controller
- SSD drive or PCIe card
- Hard disk drive
4 GB to 8GB USB or SD card for ESXi boot
VSAN network – GbE or 10 GbE (preferred) for inter-host traffic
- Layer 2 Multicast must be enabled on physical switches
A per socket license for VSAN (also includes licenses for Virtual Distributed Switch and Storage Policies) and vSphere

The host is configured as follows:

The controller should use pass-through mode (i.e. no RAID or caching)
Disk Groups are created which include one SSD and from 1 to 7 HDDs
Five Disk Groups can be configured per host (maximum of 40 drives)
The SSD is used as a read/write flash accelerator
The HDDs are used for persistent storage
The VSAN shared datastore is accessible to all hosts in the cluster

The solution is simple to manage as it is tightly integrated into vSphere, highly resilient as there is zero data loss in the event of hardware failures and highly performant through the use of Read/Write flash acceleration.

VSAN Configuration

The VSAN cluster can grow or shrink non-disruptively with linear performance and capacity scaling – up to 32 hosts, 3,200 VMs, 2M IOPS and 4.4 PBs. Scaling is very granular as single nodes or disks can be added, and there is no dedicated hot-spare disks instead the free space across the cluster acts as a “hot-spare”.

Per-Virtual Machine policies for Availability, Performance and Capacity can be configured as follows:

Number of failures to tolerate – How many replicas (0 to 3 – Default 1 equivalent to a Distributed RAID 1 Mirror)
Number of disk stripes per object – The higher the number the better the performance (1-12 – Default 1)
Object space reservation – How Thickly provisioned the disk is (0-100% – Default 0)
Flash read cache reservation – Flash capacity reserved as read cache for the storage object (0-100% – Default 0)

The Read/Write process

Typically a VMDK will exist on two hosts, but the Virtual Machine may or may not be running on one of these. VSAN takes advantage of the fact that 10 GbE latency is an order of magnitude lower than even SSDs therefore there is no real world difference between local and remote IO – the net result is a simplified architecture (which is always a good thing) that does not have the complexity and IO overhead of trying to keep compute and storage on the same host.

All writes are first written to the SSD and to maintain redundancy also immediately written to an SSD in another host. A background process sequentially de-stages the data to the HDDs as efficiently as possible. 70% of the SSD cache is used for Reads and 30% for Writes, so where possible reads are delivered from the SSD cache.

So what improvements would we like to see in the future?

VSAN was released early this year after many years of development, the focus of the initial version is to get the core platform right and deliver a reliable high performance product. I am sure there is an aggressive road-map of product enhancements coming from VMware, but what we would like to see?

The top priorities have to be efficiency technologies like redirect-on-write snapshots, de-duplication and compression along with the ability to have an all-flash datastore with even higher-performance flash used for the cache – all of these would lower the cost of VDI storage even further.

Next up would be a two-node cluster, multiple flash drives per disk group, Parity RAID, and kernel modules for synchronous and asynchronous replication (today vSphere Replication is required which supports asynchronous replication only).

So are we about to see the death of the storage array? I doubt it very much, but there are going to be certain use cases (i.e. VDI) whereby VSAN is clearly the better option. For the foreseeable future I would expect many organisations to adopt a hybrid approach mixing a combination of VSAN with conventional storage arrays – in 5 years time who knows how that mix will be, but one thing is for sure the percentage of storage delivered from the host is only likely to be going up.

Some final thoughts on EVO:RAIL

EVO:RAIL is very similar in concept to the other hyper-converged appliances available today (i.e. it is not a Software-Defined solution). It is built on top of vSphere and VSAN so in essence it cannot do anything that you cannot do with VSAN. Its advantage is simplicity – you order an appliance, plug it in, power it on and you are then ready to start provisioning Virtual Machines.

The downside … it goes against VMware’s and the industries move towards more Software-Defined solutions and all the benefits they provide.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. We are Partners with VMware.

Parin Thaker

Solution Specialist at Dotcad Pvt Ltd

May 21, 2023

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Great option for network security and integration of NSX technology

Pros and Cons

"Easy-to-use, and easy-to-scale product."

"The upgrading process could be simplified."

What is our primary use case?

Our customers use this product when they don't want to deploy an expensive storage device but they're looking for good storage technology. I'm a system integrator.

What is most valuable?

This is a mature, easy-to-use, and easy-to-scale type of technology. When a customer wants network security and integration of NSX technology, vSan is a good solution.

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see a simplification of the upgrading process. For now, I have to verify each and every component before upgrading. If there were a technology to check the compatibility without the complexity, it would be helpful to users.

For how long have I used the solution?

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Whenever I need support from VMware, I get very good support from the team.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is somewhat complex. It involves checking hardware compatibility before buying it and installing the VMware components. One person can deploy an entire environment in a day.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing costs are more or less on par with other similar products.

What other advice do I have?

It's important to check the compatibility before deploying. This is a good solution and I rate it nine out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator

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reviewer1295955

Solutions Coordinator at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Feb 22, 2022

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Good support, straightforward to set up, and integrates well with other VMware products

Pros and Cons

"The technical support is good."

"Improvements can be made with respect to scalability."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers. Our clients are in different industries, including banking and finance, and utilities such as oil and gas.

I do not use this product personally. Rather, I sell it and my clients use it.

I generally sell vSAN on VxRail version 7.

What is most valuable?

The integration with other VMware products is good.

What needs improvement?

Improvements can be made with respect to scalability.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with VMware vSAN for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of this solution can be improved a little bit.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. People with existing knowledge in VMware technology will find it easy to set up because it's not a different platform than what they are used to.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is looking into implementing vSAN is that it's a good platform if you're working with VMware. My customers generally do not complain about vSAN. However, if they are interested in a Hyper-V or Nutanix environment then this is not a good solution.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

reviewer1747830

Professional Member at a tech company with 1-10 employees

Jan 10, 2022

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Beneficial multi-homing feature and straightforward installation

Pros and Cons

"I have found that the multi-homing feature is very valuable in VMware vSAN. It is an easy-to-use solution."

"I have used the VMware Replication but I can't get it to work properly. The process should be simplified."

What is most valuable?

I have found that the multi-homing feature is very valuable in VMware vSAN. It is an easy-to-use solution.

What needs improvement?

I have used the VMware Replication but I can't get it to work properly. The process should be simplified.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSAN for a couple of years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

VMware vSAN is stable.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted support.

How was the initial setup?

The Initially setup is easy. We have only three or four hosts. However, I might need to use some more services. A larger environment requires more hosts.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I have been told that if I used VxRail it would be cheaper than the system we are using now with buying the products separately. The solution is expensive overall.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

In my company have some new consultant technicians who have more experience in the bigger setups. They suggest that I look at the VxRail solution.

We have been evaluating VMware Horizon and we are thinking about using it.

What other advice do I have?

I rate VMware vSAN an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Shams K

Vmware Administrator at Intertech

Dec 2, 2021

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Scalable and secure with easy setup

Pros and Cons

"Storage is expandable with no extra cost."

"Pricing is something of a concern."

What is our primary use case?

My primary use case of this solution is to combine old storage into logical volumes. You can create a VMS partition and deploy it among the host, which provides the best performance.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using vSAN for almost three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good - storage is expandable with no extra cost.

How was the initial setup?

Setup is simple because the product is automatically installed once the license is activated.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is something of a concern.

What other advice do I have?

I would say that if you need more storage-level performance, scalability, or security, you can definitely consider using this solution. I would rate this solution as nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator

Sebastian Antunez

System Engineer at GoVirtual

Nov 7, 2021

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Overall good functionality, straightforward installation, and reliable

Pros and Cons

"Overall the solution is very good."

"VMware vSAN could improve by having better integration with other vendors and the storage is limited, I prefer it to the traditional storage."

What is our primary use case?

I provide a workshop for VMware vSAN to the final customers. For example, in Chile, I installed the solution for a company called NG. I have customers in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. VMware vSAN is used as a storage solution.

What is most valuable?

Overall the solution is very good.

What needs improvement?

VMware vSAN could improve by having better integration with other vendors and the storage is limited, I prefer it to the traditional storage.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSAN for approximately 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

VMware vSAN is scalable.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward. I have developed an automatic script that can install the solution which has been very good for customers.

What about the implementation team?

I do the implementation and maintenance of the solution. Additionally, I support those who are wanting to do the implementation.

What other advice do I have?

This is a good solution.

I rate VMware vSAN a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner

reviewer1682655

Head of Professional Solutions at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Oct 10, 2021

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Very integrated and is scalable

Pros and Cons

"vSAN is very integrated."

"Ease of administration is one area where vSAN could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

VMware vSAN is software-defined storage. I think that says it all. You don't have to buy additional external storage, and you can manage all the storage entities from the console. That's very important to our customers.

What is most valuable?

vSAN is very integrated.

What needs improvement?

Ease of administration is one area where vSAN could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using vSAN for probably four to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

For our purposes, vSAN's stability is okay.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

vSAN is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

As far as I know, any VMware tickets that we've escalated have been handled professionally. and their support team is very skilled.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward. Because we are deploying it from the VxRail global setup, there is no dedicated vSAN setup that we are providing. It's all integrated into the VxRail setup. However, installing vSAN itself can be quite complex if you're doing it from scratch.

What other advice do I have?

I rate vSAN eight out of 10. I would recommend it to others.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner