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Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide
Introduction Plan the VxRail network VxRail Cluster Types
VxRail Cluster Types
Original vSAN architecture
Express vSAN architecture
Dynamic cluster
FC storage option Remote VMware vSAN data store option PowerFlex storage option IP-based storage options NVMe option
VMware vSAN stretched cluster
2-node cluster
Satellite nodes
VxRail feature-driven decision points VxRail hardware and switch selection decision points Prepare the data center to implement VxRail Plan the VxRail cluster implementation Planning vSAN Witness Networking Planning VxRail Satellite Nodes Networking Configure the Network for VxRail Prepare to build the VxRail cluster VxRail network considerations after implementation Appendix A: VxRail Network Configuration Table Appendix B: VxRail Passwords Appendix C: VxRail cluster setup checklist Appendix D: VxRail Open Ports Requirements Appendix E: VMware VDS port group default settings Appendix F: Physical Network Switch Examples

Original vSAN architecture

Original vSAN architecture

  • The Original vSAN Architecture is a two-tier model that is built on the foundation of disk groups.

    A disk group consists of a single cache drive that is partnered with one or more capacity drives. A collection of disk groups is used to form a vSAN data store.

    Figure 18. Local vSAN OSA datastore deployed on a VxRail cluster. Local vSAN OSA datastore deployed on a VxRail cluster
    Local vSAN OSA datastore deployed on a VxRail cluster

    The cluster initialization process performs an inventory of the disk drives on the nodes, and uses that discovery process to identify the number of disk groups on each node to be used as the foundation for the vSAN data store. The high-endurance SSD drives discovered on each node serve as a cache for virtual machine I-O operations in each disk group, while the high-capacity drives discovered are the primary permanent storage resource for the virtual machines for each disk group. The vSAN build process partners the discovered cache drives with one or more capacity drives to form disk groups, with the resulting vSAN data store consisting of this collection of disk groups.

    VxRail clusters with vSAN datastores based on the Original vSAN Architecture support solid-state and NVMe drives for both cache and capacity, and solid-state and hard drives for capacity only. This architecture supports network speeds of 10 GbE, 25 GbE, and 100 GbE.