What’s New in VMware vSAN 9.0? A Deep Dive into the Express Storage Architecture
The world of hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is constantly evolving, and with the release of VMware vSphere 8, its storage backbone, vSAN, has taken a monumental leap forward. The latest version introduces a fundamental shift in how storage is managed, delivering unprecedented levels of performance, efficiency, and simplicity. Let’s explore the groundbreaking features of vSAN 9.0 and what they mean for your data center.
The Game-Changer: vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA)
The most significant innovation in this release is the introduction of the vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA). This is not just an update; it’s an entirely new, optional architecture designed to harness the full potential of modern hardware, particularly NVMe-based TLC flash devices.
For years, vSAN has operated on what is now called the Original Storage Architecture (OSA). OSA uses a two-tier system of cache and capacity disks. While effective, this model was designed for a world where flash was a premium component and slower spinning disks were common.
ESA reimagines this structure by creating a single-tier storage pool where every device contributes to both cache and capacity. This unlocks several key benefits:
- Maximized Performance: By eliminating the potential bottleneck of a dedicated cache tier, ESA allows data to be written and accessed with maximum speed and minimal latency across all devices.
- Enhanced Efficiency: The new architecture is built from the ground up for superior data compression and encryption with minimal performance overhead.
- Simplified Management: With a single tier of devices, storage pool and disk group management becomes significantly more straightforward for administrators.
Key Performance and Efficiency Gains in vSAN 9.0
Beyond the new architecture, vSAN 9.0 delivers tangible improvements that directly impact your infrastructure’s performance and bottom line.
1. RAID-5/6 Erasure Coding at RAID-1 Performance
One of the most impressive feats of the Express Storage Architecture is its ability to deliver RAID-5/6 erasure coding with the performance of RAID-1 mirroring. In the past, administrators often had to choose between the superior space efficiency of RAID-5/6 and the higher performance of RAID-1. With ESA, that compromise is no longer necessary. You can now achieve excellent data resilience and storage savings without sacrificing application performance, making it ideal for business-critical workloads.
2. Adaptive Write Path and Intelligent Traffic Management
vSAN ESA introduces an intelligent, adaptive write path. It ensures that incoming writes are processed in the most efficient way possible, bypassing resource contention and optimizing for speed. Furthermore, the system is smarter about managing network traffic for data resynchronization, prioritizing guest VM I/O to ensure that maintenance or recovery operations have a minimal impact on running applications.
3. Next-Generation, High-Performance Snapshots
VM snapshots are a critical tool for backups and data protection, but they have historically been associated with performance degradation and challenging consolidation processes. vSAN 9.0 revolutionizes this with highly efficient, space-saving native snapshots. These snapshots are faster, have a negligible performance impact, and integrate seamlessly with VMware Data Protection solutions, making your backup and recovery operations quicker and more reliable than ever.
Enhanced Data Security and Simplified Policies
Security remains a top priority, and vSAN 9.0 strengthens its data protection capabilities.
- Streamlined Encryption: With ESA, data is compressed and encrypted at the highest possible point in the storage stack, ensuring maximum security with minimal performance impact. Enabling encryption is now a simple, cluster-wide policy that doesn’t require complex data migration or reformatting.
- Simplified Storage Policy Management: Managing storage policies is now more intuitive. Instead of navigating complex rules, administrators can focus on the desired level of availability and performance, letting vSAN handle the optimal data placement and protection in the background.
Actionable Security and Management Tips
To make the most of vSAN 9.0, consider these best practices:
- Assess Your Hardware: If you plan to use the new Express Storage Architecture, ensure your hardware is on the VMware Compatibility Guide for ESA. It is specifically designed for high-performance, NVMe-based systems.
- Review Your Storage Policies: Take this opportunity to simplify and standardize your storage policies. Leverage the new capabilities of ESA to apply efficient RAID-5/6 protection to more workloads without performance concerns.
- Utilize vSAN Health Checks: Regularly use the proactive vSAN Health Check tool within vCenter to monitor the health and configuration of your cluster. This tool is updated to support both ESA and OSA, helping you identify and resolve potential issues before they impact operations.
- Plan Your Snapshot Strategy: Re-evaluate your backup and development workflows to take advantage of the new high-performance snapshots. This can significantly reduce backup windows and improve the efficiency of your CI/CD pipelines.
In summary, VMware vSAN 9.0 represents a major milestone in the evolution of hyper-converged infrastructure. With the powerful new Express Storage Architecture, it delivers a platform that is faster, more efficient, and simpler to manage, providing a robust foundation for both traditional and cloud-native applications.
Source: https://nolabnoparty.com/le-novita-in-vmware-vsan-9-0-uno-sguardo-alle-top-feature/
