Vsan stretched cluster requirements. Pinging the Witness node from a vSAN ESXi host fails.

Vsan stretched cluster requirements The hosts within the private cloud are evenly Specific vSAN configurations, such as a stretched cluster, require a witness host. Both availability zones must contain an equal number of hosts to ensure failover in case any of the availability zones goes down. In my opinion, this is one of the primary advantages of the VMware Cloud on AWS Service. The A stretched cluster is configured by deploying an AVS private cloud across two availability zones (AZs) within the same region and placing a vSAN witness in a third AZ in that same region. How can I size a vSAN cluster so that it meets my capacity and performance requirements? Stretched clusters extend the vSAN cluster from a single data site to two sites for a faster level of availability and intersite load balancing. May 30, 2017 · So if the requirement is PFTT=1 and SFTT=1 with the Failure Tolerance Method (FTM) set to RAID-5 then the vSAN Stretched Clustering configuration will be: 4+4+1. vSAN even has durability mechanisms in place (such as durability components) that help data to remain intact and accessible over multiple disruptions. If one site is down due to maintenance or failure and the witness host fails, objects become non-compliant but remain accessible. Jul 7, 2025 · If the necessary latency, host shape, and network connectivity requirements are met, it can also be replicated in OCI Public Regions. Consider the requirements for using vSAN storage for standard and stretched clusters in VMware Cloud Foundation , such as required capacity, number of hosts, storage policies, and the similar best practices for having vSAN operate in an optimal way. vSAN Planning and Deployment describes how to design and deploy a vSAN cluster in a vSphere environment. For vSAN stretched clusters, support is based on network latency and bandwidth requirements, rather than distance. Configure DRS settings for the stretched cluster. Architecture When selected, a vSAN Stretched Cluster is created across three AZ's, creating a vSphere Cluster that can survive the loss of entire Availability Zone. The third site Jan 31, 2020 · This article will help you to understand the detailed step by step procedure to create a vSAN Stretched cluster using vSAN witness node Specific vSAN configurations, such as a stretched cluster, require a witness host. The network must be lossless. In an environment with multiple availability zones, Layer 2 networks must be stretched between the availability zones by the physical infrastructure. To protect against split-brain scenarios and help measure site health a When Virtual SAN is deployed in a stretched cluster across multiple sites using fault domains, there are certain networking requirements that must be adhered to. You can choose the storage architecture and deployment option when creating a vSAN cluster. Advanced features include RAID 5/6 erasure coding, and deduplication and compression. As you have already heard, one of the major features in VSAN 6. Jul 16, 2025 · Explore VMware vSAN 9's biggest enhancements, including global deduplication, file services upgrades, Live Recovery, and improved stretched cluster features. Since the ESA is designed to power traditional vSAN HCI clusters and disaggregated vSAN storage clusters, the flexibility of ESA may invite non-optimal configurations when deployed as a vSAN storage cluster. Dec 10, 2024 · Update cluster by Stretching a standard vSAN cluster After a successful validation of the JSON specification, you are ready to update the cluster for stretching. vSphere Cluster Design Considerations You consider different number of hosts per cluster according to the storage type and specific resource requirements for standard and stretched vSAN clusters. Note, that also when you use RAID-1 you will need at minimum 3 hosts per site. Dec 21, 2022 · Network Requirements for the ESA in Stretched Clusters While the vSAN ESA has new networking requirements connectivity of hosts in a standard vSAN cluster, the network requirements for the ISL in a stretched cluster remain the same. The following is a collection of … Continued Apr 17, 2025 · - In a vSAN cluster, vSphere HA agents communicate over the vSAN network by default. See the Networking and Latency Requirements for vSAN Stretched Clusters and configure your network so that it meets the recommended requirements. If activated, vSAN aggregates the specified local storage disks available on the hosts into a single datastore shared by all hosts. When you deploy the vSAN witness appliance, you must configure the size of the witness supported by the vSAN stretched cluster. Sep 1, 2016 · VSAN v6. This can include anything from vSAN’s data placement schemes to stretched cluster topologies that maintain the availability requirements for customers. dita#GUID-A2A2EDDA-4C4D-438C-98DF-6511C5DF72B2-en. This, in turn, avoids conflicts when vSphere HA and vSAN experience different partitions when failures occur. Simply declare via policy how vSAN should protect a VM and or VMDK, and vSAN will make it so. It is used to decide the virtual machine objects availability in the Stretched vSAN Cluster & 2 Node vSAN Cluster. Select a witness host that is license to the cluster, or a license that covers advanced functions. The method for stretching these Layer 2 networks and providing a highly available Layer 3 gateway is vendor-specific. A stretched cluster with fewer hosts that has been optimized with hardware and settings for performance may be an alternative to a single larger cluster that is trying to cover a wider variety of requirements. Configure the DCBx mode to IEEE. We' Comprehensive guide on vSAN Stretched Cluster and 2 Node configurations, covering setup, management, and failure scenarios. The witness host must be managed by the same vCenter Server managing the vSAN Cluster. The key requirement is the actual latency numbers between sites. Aug 16, 2016 · In my previous post, I introduced you to VMware VSAN . The options below provide some of the different for stretched cluster network configuration. Verify that your environment meets the requirements listed in the Prerequisite Checklist sheet in the Planning and Preparation As per the vSAN Stretched Cluster Guide, several different network topologies are supported for vSAN Stretched Cluster. The third site, or tertiary site hosts a vSAN Witness Host that is connected Dec 24, 2024 · A private cloud created with a vSAN stretched cluster is designed to offer a 99. VSAN Stretched Cluster The purpose of this document is to explain how to size bandwidth requirements for Virtual SAN in Stretched Cluster configurations. Configure the port properties on each host to add the vSAN service. Specific vSAN configurations, such as a stretched cluster, require a witness host. When failures occur, vSAN uses a voting mechanism to determine object availability based on component distribution across sites and the witness host. A VMware vSAN stretched cluster is a cluster configuration where the hosts that comprise a vSAN cluster reside in two geographic locations. Stretching vSAN Clusters in VMware Cloud Foundation Monitoring Capabilities in the VMware Cloud Foundation System Updating VMware Cloud Foundation DNS and NTP Servers Supportability and Serviceability (SoS) Utility Replacing Host Components in VMware Cloud Foundation Managing Users and Groups in VMware Cloud Foundation Jan 14, 2025 · This service covers an Omnissa Horizon 8 deployment that builds on the replication capability of VMware vSAN and the high-availability (HA) features of VMware vSphere High Availability when used in a stretched cluster configuration between two data centers. The specific combination of policy To ensure high performance and availability, vSAN clusters must meet certain bandwidth and network latency requirements. Jun 14, 2025 · The behavior during failure scenarios in vSAN stretched clusters is determined by the interaction between the Site Disaster Tolerance policy setting and the Secondary Failures to Tolerate (FTT) configuration. The appliance is a preconfigured virtual machine that runs ESXi and is distributed as an OVA file. Configure the storage policy Site disaster tolerance rule to Site mirroring - stretched cluster. Under vSAN, click Fault Domains . Verify that vCenter is operational. Verify that you have completed the Planning and Preparation Workbook with the management domain or workload domain deployment option included. Learn about VMware vSAN. Each vSAN host must have a vSAN certified RDMA-capable NIC, as listed in the vSAN section of the VMware Compatibility Guide. Pinging the Witness node from a vSAN ESXi host fails. The information includes system requirements, sizing guidelines, and suggested best practices. To do this, navigate to the Developer Center, then to API Explorer, and select Clusters. Sep 10, 2019 · Which vSphere license do I need to install a vSAN streched cluster? Is DRS necessary or is it possible to install a vSAN streched cluster without DRS using a standard or essential plus vSphere license? All three sites in a vSAN stretched cluster communicate across the management network and across the vSAN network. Select a witness host that is For example, the implementation of a new network infrastructure or the migration of vSAN standard cluster (non-routed network) to a vSAN stretched cluster (routed network). The VMs in both data sites communicate across a common virtual machine network. You protect your VMware Cloud Foundation environment against a failure of a single hardware fault domain by implementing multiple availability zones. vSAN activates the rapid provisioning of storage within VMware vCenterTM as part of virtual machine creation and deployment operations. Choose the PATCH /v1/clusters/ {id} option. vSAN 7. See vSAN Stretched HCI Cluster Storage Model for design requirements and recommendations. Instead of using a dedicated physical ESXi host as a witness host, you can deploy the vSAN witness appliance. While OCI does not offer a native or automated method for deploying a cross-region VMware vSAN stretched cluster, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution makes it possible through its unique flexibility. on a vSAN stretched cluster, you can use a default vSAN storage policy or create a storage policy compliant with the requirements of the vSAN stretched cluster. Hardware Requirements The following requirements are common to all three deployment types (Standard, Two-Node, Stretched), regardless of which one is being used. The VSAN Stretched Cluster is setup across two sites, with preferably an identical number of ESXi hosts distributed evenly between the two sites, and a witness host residing at a third site. Jul 3, 2025 · Overview of networking requirements for a witness appliance (VM) in a VxRail stretched or two node cluster. Aug 12, 2019 · Primary role of vSAN Witness host is to be a witness in 2 Node vSAN cluster & vSAN Stretched Cluster configuration to avoid split brain scenarios. 1 is the Stretched Cluster feature, with this feature Virtual SAN is enabling customers to have a 2nd site where the data exists in order to provide an increase in Availability and Data Protection, so what does the stretched cluster feature offer exactly?? Let’s take a look: Increased Enterprise availability and data protection Verify that the network infrastructure and the networking configuration on the ESXi hosts meet the minimum networking requirements for vSAN . When Virtual SAN is deployed in a stretched cluster across multiple sites using fault domains, there are certain networking requirements that must be adhered to. If you want to build a vSAN Stretched Cluster, you can also continue reading my other post about Configure vSAN Stretched Cluester. Mar 13, 2023 · The VMware Stretched Cluster, aka the VMware Stretched Metro Cluster (vMSC) A stretched cluster is a deployment model in which two or more host servers are part of the same logical cluster but in separate geographical locations, usually two sites. For more information about working with vSAN stretched clusters, see the vSAN Mar 13, 2025 · A short article on how to build a stretched vSAN cluster in the VCF. Use only the same model network adapters from the same vendor on each end of the connection. A standard vSAN cluster must contain a minimum of three hosts that contribute capacity to the cluster. scsiUnmapAllowed flag with a value of 'false Verify that the data site to witness traffic connection has a minimum bandwidth of 2 Mbps for every 1,000 vSAN components. Please note that the final Standard vSAN Cluster needs to consist of a minimum of 3 vSAN Hosts (= no Witness) contributing Storage to vSAN to be fully operational Design Reference . Configure This document primarily details the overall architecture and setup of vSAN Express Storage Architecture™ (ESA) cluster environments. May 20, 2025 · Configure VMware vSAN ESANote vSAN TRIM/UNMAP is enabled by default on vSAN ESA based clusters. When a VM storage policy of PFTT of "Dual-Site Mirroring" and an SFTT of 1 is used by the workload VMs. Jan 1, 2023 · The vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) introduced in vSAN 8 and enhanced in vSAN 8 through U3 delivers new capabilities that are unachievable in the vSAN Original Storage Architecture (OSA). vSAN Original Storage Architecture™ (OSA) environments are covered where they differ from vSAN ESA. 0 Update 2 enables you to operate DRS in automatic mode, and recover gracefully from network partitions. Today, I will discuss the hardware requirements for VMware's hyper-converged infrastructure solution. The vSAN witness continuously monitors all hosts within the cluster to serve as a quorum in case of split-brain scenarios, and is fully managed by Microsoft. Choose one of the following options: Jan 28, 2022 · vSAN Stretched cluster introduced in vSAN 6. For information about assigning licenses, see assign-a-license-key-to-a-virtual-san-cluster. If you place DRS in partially automated mode, you can control which VMs to migrate to each site. VMware Cloud Foundation vSphere cluster design must consider the requirements for standard, stretched and remote clusters and for the life cycle management of the ESXi hosts in the clusters according to the characteristics of the workloads. vSAN deployments require specific network ports and settings to provide access and services. vSAN aggregates locally attached disks of hosts that are members of a vSphere cluster to create a distributed shared storage solution. With modern hardware, and vSAN ESA, customers can build incredibly robust 2-Node configurations that can achieve extraordinary levels of performance. vSAN vSAN storage clusters are powered by the ESA, which provides tremendous flexibility in meeting performance, capacity, and resilience requirements for all types of environments. DRS must be enabled on the cluster. For information about the considerations for a May 7, 2024 · Before we dive in about the list of Stretched Cluster Storage Policy lets us understand what defines a stretched cluster. In stretched cluster configurations, two data fault domains have one or more hosts, and the third fault domain contains a virtual witness appliance to help determine availability of the data sites. VxRail 7. All three sites in a vSAN stretched cluster communicate across the management network and across the vSAN network. ) Feb 26, 2025 · If the test returns a warning or error, it means that the site latency exceeds the threshold of 5msec RTT between sites for a stretched cluster. 0 is GA! Running vSphere Supervisor on vSAN Stretched Cluster provides instructions and best practices for deploying a Supervisor on a vSAN stretched cluster and configuring high availability (HA) for workloads running on TKG clusters. Create two host groups, one for the preferred site and one for the secondary site. In this architecture, ESXi hosts would be placed in two different physical locations and join together with high bandwidth low latency networking. The hosts that are listed under the Preferred fault domain are in the preferred site. Summary With the very latest updates to vSAN in VCF 9. See "Requirements for Enabling vSAN" in vSAN Planning and Deployment . When using two availability zones, connect the vSAN witness appliance to the workload domain vCenter Server so that you can perform the initial setup of the stretched cluster and have workloads failover between the zones. Jun 1, 2021 · Consider a multiple-stretched cluster design. Create two VM This document explains how to size network bandwidth between sites when using vSAN HCI clusters and vSAN Max clusters in a stretched cluster configuration. Verify that the network infrastructure and the networking configuration on the ESXi hosts meet the minimum networking requirements for vSAN . In this video we will discuss what a VMware vSAN Stretched cluster is and the components that make one up. 0, you can now provide a fully site aware stretched cluster arrangement using vSphere clusters and vSAN storage clusters. You can use vSAN as the shared storage for a vSphere HA cluster. This requires an AWS VPC with two subnets, one subnet per availability zone. Navigate to the vSAN cluster. Oct 16, 2025 · Convert a 2-Node Stretched Cluster to a Standard vSAN Cluster by adding additional Host (s) Optional: Remove vSAN Hosts while converting to a Standard vSAN Cluster. An enterprise license is required for encryption and stretched clusters. vSAN stretched clusters are typically deployed in environments where the distance between data centers is limited, such as metropolitan or campus environments. Click the Configure tab. Oct 3, 2024 · Learn how to stretch a VCF cluster with this detailed guide. 1 and it brings high availability in an active-active fashion. The data sites are connected via a high bandwidth/low latency link. Mar 4, 2024 · With the release of vSAN 7 Update 3, administrators can even provision storage to traditional, non virtualized hosts via highly available NFS shares and iSCSI devices. The appliance is a preconfigured virtual machine that runs ESX and is distributed as an OVA file. Instead of using a dedicated physical ESX host as a witness host, you can deploy the vSAN witness appliance. The two sites typically have an equal number of hosts residing in each site, and are connected using a high bandwidth/low latency connection known as an inter-site link, or ISL. Verify that your environment meets all requirements. 2 (the newest version), VMware added deduplication and compression as well as erasure coding; these processes add the ability to construct RAID 5/6 clusters. The VMs in all data sites communicate across a common virtual machine network. You may refer to below link for vSAN stretched cluster network design and requirements. Aug 17, 2022 · A vSAN stretched cluster is a special type of vSAN cluster configuration where organizations want to build out their vSAN cluster for resiliency and downtime avoidance purposes. The specific focus of the document includes overviews of: Sep 18, 2023 · vSAN stretched cluster -> Requires minimum 2 ESXi hosts in a vSphere cluster (one per site) and a witness host in the third site (the best option). 99% infrastructure availability commitment when the following conditions exist: A minimum of six nodes are deployed in the cluster (3 in each availability zone). This because locally you will have 2 “data” components and 1 witness component. May 31, 2018 · Stretched Clusters for VMware Cloud on AWS enable customers to focus exclusively on requirements. Dec 4, 2024 · Deploy a stretched cluster private cloud When the request support details are received, quota is reserved for a stretched cluster environment in the region requested. In other words, the Underlying Network between the vSAN ESXI data hosts and the witness appliance host do not meet the requirements. To disable UNMAP at the VM level, the following lists additional requirements are needed for it to function as intended. Jun 19, 2025 · See the “ Design and Operational Guidance for vSAN Storage Clusters ” for more recommendations on the use of vSAN storage clusters. Stretched clusters are typically deployed in environments where the distance between data centers is limited, such as metropolitan or campus environments. From JSON configuration to NSX and vSAN setup, find everything you need to know The Stretched Cluster Model allows you to protect workloads on vSphere clusters in your environment against a failure of a single fault domain by implementing a stretched cluster across multiple availability zones. You also must provide a Layer 3 gateway that is highly available between availability zones. In v6. A two host vSAN cluster consists of two data hosts and an external witness host. Click Next . Introduction VMware vSAN is a hyperconverged, software-defined storage system integrated directly into the hypervisor. This is due to missing networking requirements. Sep 4, 2020 · These requirements may be hard to swallow for many organizations who simply are limited by the pipe between sites for doing vSAN stretched clustering. If any host loses RDMA support, the entire vSAN cluster switches to TCP. Apr 1, 2025 · Please note that vSAN witness traffic and Data traffic should be configured on different VMkernel Port when mixed mode of MTU is used. All capacity devices, drivers, and firmware versions in your vSAN configuration must be certified and listed in the vSAN section of the VMware Compatibility Guide . 1 introduced VMware VSAN Stretched Cluster configuration. Dec 28, 2022 · Creating a vSAN Stretched Cluster with vSAN 8 explains in a practical way how to create a Cluster using the new vSAN architecture called ESA. Stretched clusters with 11 or more hosts per site must have less than 100 ms RTT. In this document each data fault domain Jul 16, 2023 · In this blog post, I will explore the vSAN 8 requirements, focusing on different types of deployments and their respective considerations. Click Configure Stretched Cluster to open the vSAN stretched cluster configuration wizard. VMware vSAN Stretched Cluster Failover with Dual Site Mirroring You can take a look at my specific vSAN stretched cluster configuration in the referenced post on how to configure the solution. stretched clusters can tolerate a witness host failure when one site is unavailable. Create a cluster and add hosts to the cluster before enabling and configuring vSAN . The subscription gets enabled to deploy a stretched cluster SDDC through the Azure portal. Select the hosts that you want to assign to the secondary fault domain and click >> . All hosts must support RDMA. This guide was developed to provide additional insight and information for the design, installation and configuration of vSAN stretched clusters. You deploy the vSAN witness host using an appliance instead of using a dedicated physical ESXi host as a witness host. Verify the latency requirements: Two-node vSAN clusters must have less than 500 ms RTT. For the Management Domain on the default cluster of a VMware Cloud Foundation environment, the minimum requirements are as follows: Single Availability Zone (Standard vSAN cluster): 4 x ESXi hosts Two Availability Zones (Stretched vSAN cluster): 8 x ESXi hosts (4 on each site. We will examine the different options when it comes to the Witness node, should it be . Jul 7, 2025 · The VMware vSAN witness appliance is a specialized VMware ESXi installation that provides quorum and tiebreaker services for stretched clusters in VMware Cloud Foundation. UNMAP can be disabled using the disk. vxrail-appliance-series | Dell VxRail Architecture Overview | revision-history You can stretch a vSAN cluster in a workload domain across two availability zones within a region. Virtual SAN Stretched Cluster configurations can be spread across distances, provided bandwidth and latency requirements are met. May 14, 2020 · You need to wait and upon successful boot of witness appliance, you can add it to respective in designated vSAN environment. With stretched-cluster, two-node, and ROBO (remote office/back office) deployment options, utilizing All-Flash or Hybrid modes, vSAN is proving to be incredibly flexible. As a result, guidance to achieve optimal performance in the ESA is different than recommendations found for the OSA. In this post, I want to show you, how to deploy vSAN 8 (OSA) using “Two node vSAN cluster” option. See “vSAN Cluster Design – Large Clusters versus Small Clusters” for more information. Two-node vSAN Each vSAN stretched cluster requires a witness host deployed in a vSAN witness zone, which must be different from the location of both availability zones. Sep 24, 2019 · A vSAN stretched cluster must meet certain basic networking requirements: Management network requires connectivity across all three sites, using a Layer 2 stretched network or a Layer 3 network. All VMs in vSAN ESA clusters are set by default to use UNMAP inherited from the cluster level. This is so that in the event of a network failure, vSphere HA and vSAN are on the same network. To ensure high performance and availability, vSAN clusters must meet certain bandwidth and network latency requirements. May 13, 2025 · Unable to configure vSAN cluster . The subnets determine an ESXi host placement between the two availability zones. Compliance with the Additional Requirements vSAN stretched clusters extend the vSAN cluster from a single data site to two sites for a better level of availability and intersite load balancing. Aug 28, 2025 · The vSAN Witness node cannot form a cluster with the remaining vSAN data nodes in a stretched cluster configuration. All three sites in a stretched cluster communicate across the management network and across the vSAN network. Stretched clusters with less than 11 hosts per site must have less than 200 ms RTT. rlxklb sytb pebur nlbvjl cwyswz cfb yjnz gpl pbefg pffci rqfsfx pyg bqkx vbjze ledq