Dell Technologies, in partnership with Broadcom, has worked to determine the benefits of increased network connectivity for the new VMware vSAN 8.0 Express Storage Architecture (ESA) as delivered with VxRail.
In recent years, 25 GbE networking speed was considered more than sufficient for HCI networking. However, VMware has set the minimum networking speed requirements for vSAN ESA at 25 GbE with a recommendation for 100 GbE. Dell Technologies performed testing to compare 25 GbE to 100 GbE networking interfaces. The evidence discovered during testing confirms that 100 GbE is preferred for vSAN ESA deployments.
In addition to the benefits of 100 GbE, this paper highlights benefits afforded by vSAN ESA that make the combination of 100 GbE networking and VxRail with vSAN ESA an ideal option for customers demanding high storage performance. This combination allows customers to take full advantage of VxRail vSAN ESA-based deployments.