VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail supports the use of external storage to complement the use of vSAN storage that can be included with VxRail as principal storage. This is important for customers who have investments that are already made in existing external storage systems or have a use case in which external storage systems are required.

VMFS on FC external storage (such as Dell PowerMax, VMAX, PowerStore-T, and Unity XT) is supported as principal storage for VxRail VI workload domains. This capability has been integrated with SDDC Manager as part of VI WLD provisioning workflows allowing customers a choice in storage type that they would like to use when deploying VxRail dynamic node-based clusters into VI WLDs.

Customers can leverage their existing investments in IP, FC, or vVol based external storage and extend VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail with additional capacity for use cases such as:

• Storage for applications that require particular data services that an external storage array can provide to meet workload requirements
• Data protection (file/image backups)
• Data at rest (templates, backups, archives)
• Workload and data migrations to VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail from legacy environments
• General-purpose application storage
   

Figure 16.    VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail supported storage

The use of VMFS on FC Principal Storage (which includes FC-NVMe when using PowerMax and PowerStore-T systems) for VI workload domains is supported as of VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.1 on VxRail 7.0.241 and higher. It supports PowerStore-T, PowerMax, VMAX, and Unity XT Primary FC storage systems only. Since this feature leverages FC, VxRail nodes must be configured with Dell VxRail qualified FC HBAs. Check the E-Lab Support Matrix and VxRail hardware compatibility documentation for the latest supported firmware and software versions and supported VxRail hardware available.

The external storage as principal storage for VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail feature is currently supported only with VxRail dynamic node-based clusters. Administrators can use IP, FC, and vVol external storage as supplemental cluster storage in all VMware Cloud Foundation domains to complement vSAN principal or VMFS on FC principal storage. In this case, VxRail dynamic node-based clusters or VxRail HCI node-based clusters can be leveraged.

Note: Use of third-party FC storage systems for VMFS over FC Principal Storage in VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail is not supported. However, third-party FC Storage Systems can be used as Supplemental storage. In call cases when FC storage systems are used, life cycle management of those systems is the responsibility of the administrator. It is not performed or managed by SDDC Manager or VxRail Manager.