What is vSAN, and what benefits can vSAN bring for you? In a virtual environment, vSAN is quite critical, it can achieve simple management of both compute and storage resources. So if you know the way to configure vSAN it will be helpful for you to optimize your virtual environments.
VMware vSAN is enterprise-class storage virtualization software integrated with VMware vSphere. It aggregates local and direct-attached datastores across VMware vSphere clusters to create a single datastore that can be shared by all hosts in a vSAN cluster, enabling you to create high-performance storage environments.
1. Hyper-Converged Infrastructure: vSAN enables organizations to manage both resources from a single platform by combining storage and compute resources together.
2. Policy-Based Management: vSAN allows users to define storage policies based on their application requirements, such as performance and redundancy.
3. Integrated with vSphere: Seamless integration of VMware tools and management interfaces is possible between vSAN and vSphere.
When you configure vSAN you can centralize management and simplify operations with vCenter Server. Next are the detailed steps to configure vSAN.
Before heading into the steps to configure vSAN, you need to do the following preparations:
▶1. Make sure you have the compatible versions of vSphere and vCenter Server.
▶2. Make sure there is a dedicated Vmkernel network for vSAN traffic.
▶3. Ensure you have the correct VMware licenses for vSAN.
Step 1. Create a Cluster
In the vSphere Web Client, right-click a data center select New Cluster, and enable DRS for the cluster, then add hosts to the vSAN cluster.
Step 2. Configure vSAN
Right-click the created cluster, and select vSAN to begin the configuration process. What you need to do is finish four settings, including Configuration Type, Service, Claim disks, and Create fault domains. After completing, click FINISH.
📌Note: vSAN automatically claims and configures the disk groups based on available storage devices.
Step 3. Enable vSAN
Select your cluster, navigate to the Configure tab, and click on General > Configure… to enable vSAN.
Step 4. Set up Storage Policies
Right-click the cluster, and select Policies and Profiles to edit the VM storage policy or clone storage policies. You can create storage policies that define levels of data protection, such as failure tolerance levels (FTT) and performance requirements.
Step 5. Monitor vSAN Health
Select the configured vSAN, and navigate to Monitor tab > vSAN > Health to monitor cluster health and performance metrics.
With AOMEI Cyber Backup, you can gain an effective backup solution for VMware vSphere that can help you protect your virtual environment and have the ability to quickly recover your virtual machines. It allows you to create complete and independent image-level VM backups for VMware and Hyper-V, and it also allows you to perform file-based backups.
Key benefits and features you can enjoy when using AOMEI Cyber Backup:
😊Easy-to-use Interface: It provides an intuitive operating interface that simplifies the backup process with simple clicks, then you can create a complete backup task that covers multiple VMs. ✨Automated Backup: You just need to set up a VMware backup schedule once and the program will automatically back up your data on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis according to the schedule. 🔰Point-in-time Recovery: You can restore a virtualized environment to a specific time from full/incremental/differential backups, based on multiple backup versions. 🔆Multiple Backup Storage Options: It supports various types of storage such as local paths, external drives, NAS drives, and network shares. It also integrates with cloud storage such as Amazon S3. This ensures data recoverability even if a single backup storage device fails. ✌Backup Archive: It can archive VMware VM backups to cloud storage such as Amazon S3 to enforce the 3-2-1 backup rule. ✍Role Assignment: It allows an administrator to create sub-accounts with limited privileges, effectively reducing administrative costs and manual errors.
Step 1. Bind Device
Go to the AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to open the add device page, enter the Device and User Information, and click Confirm after finishing.
Step 2. Create Backup Task
Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and choose VMware ESXi Backup as the Backup Type. Then set the Task Name, Device Name, Target, Archive, Schedule, Backup Cleanup, and Email Notification.
Device: For there are multiple VMs on the host, you need to choose the VM that you need to be backed up.
Target: You can choose to backup to a local path, or a network path.
Archive: You can add an Amazon S3 bucket, and archive backup versions to it.
Schedule: You have the choice to perform full, differential, or incremental backups and have them automatically execute daily, weekly, or monthly basis at a frequency you specify.
Backup Cleanup: You can configure a retention policy to auto-delete backup files and save storage space.
Email Notification: You can turn on the email notification to notify you of the backup process.
Step 3. Run Backup
Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.
Configuring vSAN enables you to simplify storage management in virtualized environments, provide scalability, and reduce costs. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can configure a vSAN for virtualized environments and then use it with AOMEI Cyber Backup to keep your data at peak performance at all times.