Tag Archives: VSAN 6.5

Technical 301 (DEMO) – How to Enable & Configure vSAN 6.5!

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Technical 301 (DEMO) – How to Enable & Configure vSAN 6.5!

 

In this session, I provide a demo of enabling and configuring the latest version of Virtual SAN (vSAN) – version 6.5 from within the vSphere Web Client. It is extremely easy to enable, configure, and manage vSAN even if you are not a storage expert! I used the “Hands On Labs (HOL)” environment to demo how to enable and configure it. The specific HOL lab is the “HOL-1731-SDC-1 – vSAN v6.5: What’s New” lab. The HOL is free to use by anyone and can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. It is a techies playground to learn how to install, configure, and manage VMware solutions. So go out and register for an account and start using the Hands-On-Labs!

VMware vSAN is the industry-leading software powering Hyper-Converged Infrastructure solutions. vSAN is a core building block for the Software-Defined Data Center. There are more than 7,000 customers that have adopted vSAN in their production environments.

Enables You to Evolve Without Risk

Seamlessly extend virtualization to storage with an integrated hyper-converged solution that simply works with your overall VMware environment and reduces the risk in digital transformation by using existing tools, skillsets and solutions.

Reduces TCO

Lower total cost of ownership by 50% or more with capital and operational savings. Reduce storage CapEx with software-defined storage that leverages server-side economics and affordable flash. Avoid large capital expenses by growing-as-you-go with on-demand, granular scaling of compute and storage that delivers predictable performance and costs.

Scales to Tomorrow

Prepare for tomorrow’s dynamic business in the multi-cloud era with a solution designed to utilize the latest storage and server technologies and ready to support a wide range of applications, from current business critical applications to next-gen applications using containers.

Additional vSAN 6.5 Resources:   http://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san.html

Technical 301 (DEMO) – How to Enable & Configure vSAN 6.5:   Click Here To Watch It!!

vSAN Availability Part 11 – Stretched Cluster Stretched Cluster Failure Scenarios

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vSAN Availability Part 11 – Stretched Cluster Failure Scenarios – via JeffHunter.info

vSAN Availability Part 11 – Stretched Cluster…

Previous articles have covered how vSAN responds to and recovers from various environmental failures in a standard (non-stretched) cluster. This article provides concise coverage of similar environmental failures in a stretched cluster environment.

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Configure vSAN with iSCSI based disks – vMBaggum

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Configure vSAN with iSCSI based disks – via vMBaggum

Configure vSAN with iSCSI based disks – vMBaggum

This post describes how to configure vSAN with iSCSI based disks and allow vSAN to claim iSCSI disks and contribute to the vSAN Disk Group.

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VMware vSphere 6.5, vSAN among hottest topics in 2016

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VMware vSphere 6.5, vSAN among hottest topics in 2016

VMware vSphere 6.5, vSAN among hottest topics…

VMware vSphere 6.5 helped erase some doubt that the product was headed in the wrong direction. VSphere was just one of many popular VMware topics in 2016.

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Architecting a vSAN Cluster (Part 1)

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Architecting a vSAN Cluster (part 1) – FrancisDalyIT

Architecting a vSAN Cluster (part 1) -…

In this post I will talk about best practices when designing a vSAN cluster. I will start off by discussing why this is important, then look at disk groups and caching within these disk groups. You can also see videos where I explain these concepts in more depth on VMware Learning Zone, To see these…

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Creating ISCSI Targets Using Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5

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Creating ISCSI Target using vSAN 6.5 – virtualizationblog.com

Creating ISCSI Target using vSAN 6.5 -…

vSAN 6.5 also extended workload support to physical servers using ISCSI Target Service providing vSAN functionality such as deduplication, compression, mirroring, and erasure coding, RAID-1, RAID-5, RAID-6.

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Looking for a iSCSI Target Usage Guide for the New Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5?

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Looking for a iSCSI Target Usage Guide for the New Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5?

 

2016-11-21_11-49-55

 

Looking to learn how to use the new iSCSI Target feature when using Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5? Then click on the link below and download the iSCSI Target Usage Guide in a PDF format!

Link:  https://storagehub.vmware.com/#!/vmware-vsan/iscsi-target-usage-guide

 

 

vSAN Compatibility: vSAN Architectural Best…

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vSAN Compatibility: vSAN Architectural Best Practices

vSAN Compatibility: vSAN Architectural Best…

In this video, Francis Daly goes beyond just looking at storage with vSAN, and focuses on best practices, including a whiteboard discussion on architecture, and key hardware and software affecting vSAN performance.

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vSAN Software Components

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vSAN Software Components

vSAN Software Components

In this video, Francis Daly talks about the importance of the vSAN software components and what happens under the covers in a vSAN cluster.

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Get This Week's List of VMware's Solutions That Went GA!

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Get This Week’s List of VMware’s Solutions That Went GA!

 

images

 

The below are the list of VMware solutions that have been Generally Announced (GA) for this week Be sure to know about these and especially look at the details surrounding the vSphere/vSAN 6.5 announcement!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • PowerCLI 6.5 Release 1

Get This Week’s List of VMware’s Solutions That Went GA!

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Get This Week’s List of VMware’s Solutions That Went GA!

 

images

 

The below are the list of VMware solutions that have been Generally Announced (GA) for this week Be sure to know about these and especially look at the details surrounding the vSphere/vSAN 6.5 announcement!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • PowerCLI 6.5 Release 1

vSphere 6.5 & Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5 Now Generally Available (GA)!

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vSphere 6.5 & Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5

Now Generally Available (GA)!

images

 

vSphere 6.5:

There are 3 themes for vSphere 6.5:

  • Simplified Experience – 
    • simplified architecture (integrated vCenter Server Appliance, Update Manager included all-in-one), no Windows/SQL licensing
    • Native High Availability (HA) of vCenter for the appliance is built-in – Automatic failover (Web Client may require re-login)
    • Native Backup and Restore of vCenter appliance – Simplified backup and restore with a new native file-based solution. Restore the vCenter Server configuration to a fresh appliance and stream backups to external storage using HTTP, FTP, or SCP protocols.
    • New HTML5-based vSphere Client that is both responsive and easy to use (Based on our new Clarity UI)
  • Built-In Security – 
    • Encryption at rest and in motion – new VM-level encryption capability designed to protect against unauthorized data access. When used with vSphere vMotion, this capability safeguards both data at rest and data in motion
    • secure boot model to make sure images have not been tampered with and to prevent the loading of unauthorized vSphere component
    • secure access, vSphere 6.5 provides multi-factor authentication. You can now configure vCenter Server permissions to require 2-Factor authentication using both a password and a smartcard or RSA key. Plus, vSphere 6.5 offers enhanced audit-quality logging capabilities that provide more information about user actions. IT can now access auditable trails if an investigation into anomalies or security threats require it.
  • Universal App Platform – universal app platform that supports both traditional and next-generation apps (including 3D graphics, big data, machine learning environments, SAP Hana, and SaaS)… vSphere 6.5 expands its workload coverage model by focusing on both scale-up and scale-out next-gen apps that are increasingly built using evolving technology building blocks, such as containers.
    • VIC is extends vSphere capabilities to run container workloads and sits on top of vCenter, and integrates with the rest of the VMware stack like NSX and vSAN…
      • vSphere Integrated Containers where we are enabling the best of both worlds for contained based cloud native apps…
      • vSphere Integrated Containers is the easiest way for vSphere users to bring containers into an existing environment.
      • Integrated containers deliver an enterprise container infrastructure that provides the best of both worlds for the developer and vSphere operations team.
      • Containers are now just as easy to enable and manage as virtual machines.
      • For cloud native apps, there are two audiences we are trying to serve, one is the developers, they want to leverage native docker interface, using the tools that they are familiar with.
      • For IT, operations guys, they want to have control and visibility of these category of applications, they like to leverage tools and processes they have honed in over the years.
    • newly released VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation Service are built on vSphere 6.5.
  • IMPORTANT NOTE:  Please be sure to check the vSphere 6.5 compatibility blog (see KB 2147548) before upgrading to vSphere 6.5 if you are currently using other VMware solutions.

 

     vSphere 6.5 Announcement:  https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2016/10/introducing-vsphere-6-5.html

     vSphere 6.5 Release Notes: http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/vsphere/65/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-65-release-notes.html

     Download:  https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/6_5

vsan1

 

Virtual SAN (VSAN) 6.5:

  • Additional TCO Savings by…
    • Offering New Workload types such as Cloud-Native Apps and the ability for Physical workloads to point to the VSAN datastore via iSCSI
      • vSphere
        • Works off-the-shelf with Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes, …
        • Persistent Docker Volume Driver
      • vSphere Integrated Containers
        • Docker API Compatibility
        • Persistent Volume Driver
        • VM-like container isolation
      • Photon Platform
        • New VSAN for Photon Platform release available
      • Non-virtualized workloads can utilize VSAN for storage (using iSCSI initiators)
    • Support of All-Flash hardware in Virtual SAN (VSAN) STANDARD
    • While eliminating the cost of networking hardware for (2)-Node ROBO deployments.
      • Eliminate router/switch costs by connecting two nodes directly using crossover cables
      • Supports two cross over cables between the
        2-Nodes for higher availability of network
      • Separates VSAN data traffic from witness VM traffic
    • Then we can Accelerate Responsiveness of the business by…
      • Providing a Full-Featured PowerCLI tool to fully automate operational tasks.
      • And then separating witness and Virtual SAN (VSAN) traffic for Stretched Clusters.
    • We have accelerated the adoption of HCI with the support of Next-Gen Hardware…
      • By increasing the Cache Sizing
      • As well as now support large capacity drives through the 512e drives.

 

     Virtual SAN (vSAN) Announcement:  https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2016/10/18/vmware-virtual-san-6-5-whats-new/

     vSAN 6.5 Release Notes:  http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/vsan/65/vmware-virtual-san-65-release-notes.html

     Download:  https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsan/6_5

 

vSphere 6.5 & Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5 Now Generally Available (GA)!

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vSphere 6.5 & Virtual SAN (vSAN) 6.5

Now Generally Available (GA)!

images

 

vSphere 6.5:

There are 3 themes for vSphere 6.5:

  • Simplified Experience – 
    • simplified architecture (integrated vCenter Server Appliance, Update Manager included all-in-one), no Windows/SQL licensing
    • Native High Availability (HA) of vCenter for the appliance is built-in – Automatic failover (Web Client may require re-login)
    • Native Backup and Restore of vCenter appliance – Simplified backup and restore with a new native file-based solution. Restore the vCenter Server configuration to a fresh appliance and stream backups to external storage using HTTP, FTP, or SCP protocols.
    • New HTML5-based vSphere Client that is both responsive and easy to use (Based on our new Clarity UI)
  • Built-In Security – 
    • Encryption at rest and in motion – new VM-level encryption capability designed to protect against unauthorized data access. When used with vSphere vMotion, this capability safeguards both data at rest and data in motion
    • secure boot model to make sure images have not been tampered with and to prevent the loading of unauthorized vSphere component
    • secure access, vSphere 6.5 provides multi-factor authentication. You can now configure vCenter Server permissions to require 2-Factor authentication using both a password and a smartcard or RSA key. Plus, vSphere 6.5 offers enhanced audit-quality logging capabilities that provide more information about user actions. IT can now access auditable trails if an investigation into anomalies or security threats require it.
  • Universal App Platform – universal app platform that supports both traditional and next-generation apps (including 3D graphics, big data, machine learning environments, SAP Hana, and SaaS)… vSphere 6.5 expands its workload coverage model by focusing on both scale-up and scale-out next-gen apps that are increasingly built using evolving technology building blocks, such as containers.
    • VIC is extends vSphere capabilities to run container workloads and sits on top of vCenter, and integrates with the rest of the VMware stack like NSX and vSAN…
      • vSphere Integrated Containers where we are enabling the best of both worlds for contained based cloud native apps…
      • vSphere Integrated Containers is the easiest way for vSphere users to bring containers into an existing environment.
      • Integrated containers deliver an enterprise container infrastructure that provides the best of both worlds for the developer and vSphere operations team.
      • Containers are now just as easy to enable and manage as virtual machines.
      • For cloud native apps, there are two audiences we are trying to serve, one is the developers, they want to leverage native docker interface, using the tools that they are familiar with.
      • For IT, operations guys, they want to have control and visibility of these category of applications, they like to leverage tools and processes they have honed in over the years.
    • newly released VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation Service are built on vSphere 6.5.
  • IMPORTANT NOTE:  Please be sure to check the vSphere 6.5 compatibility blog (see KB 2147548) before upgrading to vSphere 6.5 if you are currently using other VMware solutions.

 

     vSphere 6.5 Announcement:  https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2016/10/introducing-vsphere-6-5.html

     vSphere 6.5 Release Notes: http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/vsphere/65/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-65-release-notes.html

     Download:  https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/6_5

vsan1

 

Virtual SAN (VSAN) 6.5:

  • Additional TCO Savings by…
    • Offering New Workload types such as Cloud-Native Apps and the ability for Physical workloads to point to the VSAN datastore via iSCSI
      • vSphere
        • Works off-the-shelf with Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes, …
        • Persistent Docker Volume Driver
      • vSphere Integrated Containers
        • Docker API Compatibility
        • Persistent Volume Driver
        • VM-like container isolation
      • Photon Platform
        • New VSAN for Photon Platform release available
      • Non-virtualized workloads can utilize VSAN for storage (using iSCSI initiators)
    • Support of All-Flash hardware in Virtual SAN (VSAN) STANDARD
    • While eliminating the cost of networking hardware for (2)-Node ROBO deployments.
      • Eliminate router/switch costs by connecting two nodes directly using crossover cables
      • Supports two cross over cables between the
        2-Nodes for higher availability of network
      • Separates VSAN data traffic from witness VM traffic
    • Then we can Accelerate Responsiveness of the business by…
      • Providing a Full-Featured PowerCLI tool to fully automate operational tasks.
      • And then separating witness and Virtual SAN (VSAN) traffic for Stretched Clusters.
    • We have accelerated the adoption of HCI with the support of Next-Gen Hardware…
      • By increasing the Cache Sizing
      • As well as now support large capacity drives through the 512e drives.

 

     Virtual SAN (vSAN) Announcement:  https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2016/10/18/vmware-virtual-san-6-5-whats-new/

     vSAN 6.5 Release Notes:  http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/vsan/65/vmware-virtual-san-65-release-notes.html

     Download:  https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsan/6_5

 

VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing PDF

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VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing PDF – vladan.fr

VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing PDF

There has been new VMware vSAN 6.5 Licensing paper released. As the offer evolved and the 6.5 of vSAN (now with small “v” have you noticed ?) product release is imminent, VMware is taking care of pushing the necessary information out.

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Video – Virtual SAN 6.5 iSCSI support

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Video – Virtual SAN 6.5 iSCSI support – ntpro.nl

Video – Virtual SAN 6.5 iSCSI support

Virtual SAN 6.5 adds support for native iSCSI support within VSAN. The main use cases are supporting physical servers and also Microsoft Clustering Technologies that require shared disks. One can create iSCSI Targets and LUNs on VSAN and use iSCSI initiator to access the storage.

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The difference between VM Encryption in vSphere…

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The difference between VM Encryption in vSphere 6.5 and vSAN encryption – Yellow Bricks

The difference between VM Encryption in vSphere…

More and more people are starting to ask me what the difference is between VMCrypt aka VM Encryption and the beta feature we announced not to long ago called vSAN Encryption.

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What’s New with VMware Virtual SAN 6.5

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What’s New with VMware Virtual SAN 6.5 -Virtual Blocks

What’s New with VMware Virtual SAN 6.5

VMware Virtual SAN 6.5 is the latest release of the market-leading, enterprise-class storage solution for hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). Virtual SAN 6.5 builds on the existing features introduced in 6.2 by enhancing automation, further reducing total cost of ownership (TCO), and setting the stage for next-generation cloud native applications.

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