vSAN Design Overview
Designing storage resources for a cloud model differs from the traditional vSphere approach used in defining storage for non-cloud onsite data center storage. Platform features such as VMware vSphere Storage DRS™ and storage policies assist in balancing workloads across storage resources, allowing providers to offer differentiated storage. This enables the provisioning of flexible pools of storage resources while maintaining consistent performance for consumers. Users can choose the appropriate storage tier for a particular type of workload.
• Historical data is usually the best guide for designing and determining the size and scale of a vSAN infrastructure. For example, if the average virtual machine requirements, in terms of storage, memory, IOPS, and compute can be correlated, this information can be used to efficiently design your vSAN infrastructure.
• Application data is also required in the design. Information, such as whether the application is cache-friendly, requires file services, and has availability requirements, is critical. After this information has been calculated, it must be correlated and aligned to future growth needs and the financial requirements of the provider with respect to operational and capital expenditures as well as profitability goals. The objective is to design the most efficient architecture that meets current and future demand.