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VMware Virtual SAN is a Software Defined Storage solution from VMware that also fits in the hyper(visor)-converged model. Although is a separate product, the core functions to implement it are already present in the vSphere versions making really easy to deploy and enable it.

Is a really fast growing product, by the end of 2016, VMware HCI solutions powered by vSAN have more than 7,000 customers (more than Nutanix and SimpliVity combined, but will be nice know how many are really in production).

Also it’s really fast in it’s releases and new features implementations:

Usually the release are related to the ESXi numbers or updates, but the new release (vSAN 6.6) doesn’t coincide with a vSphere release. It’s a “patch” release for vSphere but a major version for vSAN!

The new vSAN 6.6 (the 6th generation of the product) will add more than 20 new features:

  • vSAN Encryption – Datastore level encryption in a dedupe/compression efficient way
  • Local Protection for Stretched Clusters
  • Removal of Multicast
  • ESXi Host Client (HTML-5) management and monitoring functionality
  • Enhanced rebalancing
  • Enhanced repairs
  • Enhanced resync
    • Resync throttling
  • Maintenance Pre-Check
  • Stretched Cluster Witness Replacement UI
  • vSAN included in “Phone Home / Customer Experience Improvement Program”
    • Including Cloud based health checks!
  • API enhancements
  • vSAN Easy Install
  • vSAN Config Assist / Firmware Update
  • Enhanced Performance and Health Monitoring

Of course, not all features are in all vSAN editions, some (like QoS) have been extended to all editions, others (like security and encryption) are only in the Enterprise edition:

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Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-20 and vExpert Pro. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-19. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.