This week VMware has published a new version of its Virtual SAN Beta. There are a lot of features that does not necessary need a real physical lab. To get into the initial setup, scale out and failover functionality and the various command line options, a virtual lab is definitely a reasonable option. As you might know, a SSD is required for vSAN. Instead of emulating an SSD, I am going to use a real SSD with the new SSD Passthrough feature in VMware Workstation 10.

Requirements



Physical Host with at least 16GB Memory

VMware Workstation 10

vSAN Beta Key

ESXi Image (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-vsanbetaref-1439689.x86_64.iso)

vCenter Server Appliance (VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.10000-1440531_OVF10.ova)

Configuration

A vCenter Server and at least 3 ESXi Hosts are required to build a Virtual SAN. Each ESXi Host has the following configuration:

2 vCPU

4GB Memory

8GB Disk for ESXi 5.5

100GB Disk for vSAN

10GB SSD

Static IP-Address

ESXi Installation

Open VMware Workstation Create a New Virtual Machine

Select Custom (advanced)

Select Workstation 10.0 Hardware compatibility

Select I will install the operating system later

Select VMware ESXi 5 as guest operating system

Set a name and location

Set the capacity to 8GB and select Store virtual disk as a single file.

After finishing the virtual machine creation, click on Edit virtual machine settings

Click Add to add a second virtual Disk



Select Hard Disk as Hardware Type

Set the Disk Type to SCSI

Select Create a new virtual disk

Set the capacity to 100GB and select Store virtual disk as a single file.

Specify the Disk location. This will be the vSAN Disk. Do not change the location, just click Finish.

Add a third virtual Disk

Set the capacity to 10GB and select Store virtual disk as a single file.

The location for the third disk has to be changed to the local SSD. Select Browse...

Specify the path to where you local SSD is mounted

Mount the ESXi Installer ISO (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-vsanbetaref-1439689.x86_64.iso) Power-on the virtual machine and install ESXi

Make sure to select the 8GB disk for the installation

After the installation, boot the ESXi Host and configure a static IP-Address (vSAN does not work well with DHCP)

Repeat above steps two times to get 3 ESXi Hosts

VCSA Installation

Open VMware Workstation Navigate to File -> Open... Select the VCSA Image (VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.10000-1440531_OVF10.ova)

Specify the Path where the Appliance should be deployed

Power on the Appliance When you have a DHCP Server, the the vCenter Server Appliance boots up. If you do not have a DHCP Server, you have to specify the IP address. Open the vCenter Server Appliance Configuration Webpage (https://<IP>:5480) Login as root (Password: vmware) Accept the License Agreement Select Configure with default settings



Press Start

The virtual appliance does now configure itself. This may take a while.



vSAN Configuration

When the installation is finished, you can access the vSphere Web Client (https://<IP>:9443/vsphere-client/) Login as root (Password: vmware)

Add the 3 ESXi to the vCenter Server at Datacenter level. Do not add them to a cluster yet.

Activate Virtual SAN traffic on all 3 hosts Click on the host within the web client

within the web client Navigate to Manage -> Networking -> VMkernel Adapters

Select vmk0

Edit Settings



Click

Virtual SAN traffic



Activate Select your Datacenter object Getting started tab click Create a cluster



On thetab Give the cluster a name and activate Virtual SAN, DRS and vSphere HA

Move the ESXi Hosts into the Cluster Select the Cluster Object Navigate to Manage -> Settings -> Virtual SAN Licensing Click Assign License Key Enter you Key The virtual SAN Configuration is finished. You can now start to deploy virtual machines.



Additional Hints

Install VMware Tools on each ESXi Host for better manageability.