What to Look for in Network Switches for VMware vSAN

Why Network Switches Are so Important for vSAN Recommendations for ToR Switches Used with vSAN Downlink Port Count and Speed Uplink Port Count and Speed Switch Capacity Packets Per Second Port Buffers Summary Discover more from VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Blog Related Articles NVMe Memory Tiering Design and Sizing on VMware Cloud Foundation 9 Part 4: vSAN Compatibility and Storage Considerations Using Harbor as a Proxy Cache for Cloud-Based Registries What to Look for in Network Switches for VMware vSAN Since the recent series of blog posts on VMware vSAN networking came out earlier this year, one of the more common questions received has been “ What should I use as a Top of Rack (ToR) network switch in my vSAN environment?” Our Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) for vSAN details compatibility and requirements for the hosts that make up a vSAN cluster, but it does not address network switches. Almost any network switch will work with vSAN, but that does not mean they all meet your data center requirements. There are characteristics of modern network switches that you should consider when moving forward with your latest hardware refresh, or new cluster build. Let’s look at what warrants attention, and why these specifications are so important. vSAN is a distributed storage solution. It stores data across hosts in a cluster to ensure data resilience and availability. The hosts that make up a vSAN cluster depend on fast, reliable networking to provide consistent, low latency storage. Figure 1. vSAN’s distributed storage model and its reliance on networking. The dramatic increase in hardware capabilities found in servers over the past two decades is stunning. CPU cores have increased anywhere between 32-128 times of what they were 20 years ago. The same goes for RAM.