Finally I had some time to catch up with all the VMware Explore US 2022 news. For vSAN 8 the biggest thing has been that there will be a new, single tier architecture called the Express Storage Architecture (ESA). The Orginal Storage Architecture (OSA, vSAN as we know it) will remain!

I have put together some quick infos about vSAN ESA:

vSAN 8 ESA – New and better
– space efficiency of RAID-5/6 erasure coding with the performance of RAID-1 mirroring
– adaptive RAID-5 erasure coding for guaranteed space savings on clusters with as few as 3 hosts
– storage policy-based data compression offers up to 4x better compression ratios per 4KB data block than the vSAN OSA
– encryption that secures data in-flight and at rest with minimal overhead
– adaptive network traffic shaping to ensure VM performance is maintained during resynchronizations
– lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by removing dedicated cache devices with the flexible architecture using a single tier in vSAN 8
– simplified management, and smaller failure domains by removing the construct of disk groups
– new native scalable snapshots deliver extremely fast and consistent performance to achieve backups more quickly through snapshot consolidations that are up to 100x faster

vSAN 8 ESA – Requirements (at the moment)
– Greenfield only
– vSAN Advanced or Enterprise license
– vSAN Read Nodes only
– All-NVMe TLC/QLC flash devices only, min. 4 devices per vSAN Node
– 25Gb Network

vSAN 8 ESA – Limitations (at the moment)
– no in-place upgrades from the OSA to ESA (OSA to OSA can still be performed)
– granular storage policies per VM(s) only (not per VMDK)
– no vSAN File Services
– no HCI Mesh (only as Client cluster)
– no deduplication
– no performing a Deep Rekey and/or turning off encryption on an already encrypted cluster
– no durability components

If you want to know more in detail, just follow the links:

Virtual Blocks Blog – Announcing vSAN 8
https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2022/08/30/announcing-vsan-8-with-vsan-express-storage-architecture/

TechZone Blog – An Introduction to the vSAN Express Storage Architecture
https://core.vmware.com/blog/introduction-vsan-express-storage-architecture

TechZone Blog – Comparing the Original Storage Architecture to the vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture
https://core.vmware.com/blog/comparing-original-storage-architecture-vsan-8-express-storage-architecture

TechZone Blog – Transitioning to the vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture
https://core.vmware.com/blog/transitioning-vsan-8-express-storage-architecture

TechZone Blog – RAID-5/6 with the Performance of RAID-1 using the vSAN Express Storage Architecture
https://core.vmware.com/blog/raid-56-performance-raid-1-using-vsan-express-storage-architecture

TechZone Blog – vSAN 8 Compression – Express Storage Architecture
https://core.vmware.com/blog/vsan-8-compression-express-storage-architecture

TechZone Blog – Express Storage Architecture (ESA) – FAQ
https://core.vmware.com/resource/vsan-frequently-asked-questions-faq#section1

VMware TV – What’s New with VMware vSAN
https://vmwaretv.vmware.com/media/t/1_1cawau2l

VMware TV – VMware vSAN Technology Overview
https://vmwaretv.vmware.com/media/t/1_vtpjjnmr

vSpeaking Podcast – Introducing vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture
https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2022/09/01/vspeaking-podcast-vsan-8-with-express-storage-architecture/

Unexplored Territory Podcast – Diving deep into vSAN (ESA) 8.0
https://unexploredterritory.tech/episodes/

Duncan Epping – Introducing vSAN 8 – Express Storage Architecture
https://www.yellow-bricks.com/2022/08/30/introducing-vsan-8-express-storage-architecture/

Cormac Hogan – VMware Explore 2022: What’s new in vSphere 8 & vSAN 8
https://cormachogan.com/2022/08/31/vmware-explore-2022-whats-new-in-vsphere-8-vsan-8/

VMware Blog – Introducing SplinterDB: A High-Performance Key-Value Store
https://blogs.vmware.com/opensource/2022/06/15/introducing-splinterdb-high-performing-key-value-store/

SplinterDB Blog – Introducing SplinterDB
https://splinterdb.org/posts/introducing-splinterdb/

Storage Review – VMware vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture Announced
https://www.storagereview.com/news/vmware-vsan-8-express-storage-architecture-announced

tbc