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Dell VxRail Network Planning Guide

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Prepare for VMware vSAN HCI mesh topology

This section is relevant only in situations for sharing VMware vSAN data store resources over the network.

With an VMware vSAN HCI Mesh topology, the local VMware vSAN data store on a VxRail cluster can be shared with other VxRail clusters. This storage sharing model applies only in a multicluster environment where the VxRail clusters are configured under a common data center object on a common VMware vCenter Server instance.

With a VMware vSAN HCI Mesh network, the VxRail cluster that leverages a local vSAN data store for primary storage can also leverage the capacity on a remote VMware vSAN data store for application workload. If dynamic clusters are to be part of the VMware vSAN HCI Mesh network, they can mount a remote VMware vSAN data store on a cluster with free vSAN storage capacity and use that as their primary storage resource.

Figure 1. Storage resource sharing between VxRail clusters with VMware vSAN HCI mesh
Storage resource sharing between VxRail clusters with vSAN HCI mesh
To enable vSAN HCI mesh, the data center must have a network topology that can enable connectivity of the vSAN networks on the two participating VxRail clusters.
  • Two Ethernet ports on each node in the cluster will be configured to support vSAN network traffic.
  • A common VLAN can be assigned to this vSAN network on each cluster so they can connect over a Layer 2 network. This method is preferable if the client cluster does not have a local VMware vSAN data store. If a common VLAN is assigned, and the VxRail clusters are deployed against different sets of ToR switches, the VLAN must be configured to stretch between the set of switches.
  • If a unique VLAN is assigned to the vSAN network on each cluster, then connectivity can be enabled using Layer 3 routing services. If this option is selected, be sure to assign routable IP addresses to the vSAN network on each participating VxRail cluster.
Figure 2. Enabling vSAN HCI mesh connectivity over a Layer 3 network
Enable vSAN network connectivity between clusters

To share storage resources between VxRail clusters both with VMware vSAN data stores in a VMware vSAN HCI mesh, prepare your data center to meet the following prerequisites:

  • A VMware vCenter Server instance at a version that supports VxRail 7.0.100 or later.
  • A VMware vSAN Enterprise license for each VxRail cluster using VMware vSAN HCI mesh topology.

If your plans include sharing the VMware vSAN resources of a VxRail cluster with one or more VxRail dynamic clusters, meet the following prerequisites:

  • A VMware vCenter Server instance at a version that supports VxRail 7.0.240 or later.
  • A VMware vSAN Enterprise license is needed only for the VxRail cluster that is sharing its VMware vSAN storage resources. This license is not needed on a dynamic cluster because it does not have a local VMware vSAN data store.

If your plans include sharing the VMware vSAN resources from a VxRail stretched cluster, meet the following prerequisites:

  • The VxRail cluster participating in the vSAN HCI mesh topology must be running VxRail 8.0.100 or later.
  • The VMware vCenter Server instance that supports the VxRail clusters must be running at a version that supports VxRail 8.0.100.
  • The VMware vSAN data store being shared is based in the VMware vSAN OSA.

The VxRail client cluster can consist of:

  • Dynamic nodes with no local VMware vSAN data store.
  • VxRail cluster with a local VMware vSAN data store using the remote stretched VMware vSAN data store as secondary storage.
  • VxRail cluster with a stretched VMware vSAN data store using the remote stretched VMware vSAN data store as secondary storage.
Figure 3. VxRail stretched cluster sharing VMware vSAN storage with a client cluster
VxRail stretched cluster sharing VMware vSAN storage with a client cluster

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