Eric Sloof

The introduction of Memory Tiering in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 marks a new era for scalability and cost efficiency in modern datacenters. Traditionally, memory has been one of the most expensive components in a server. With workloads demanding more memory than ever, and performance-sensitive applications leaving little room for overcommitment, Memory Tiering provides a smarter, more economical approach.

So, what is Memory Tiering?

It combines two types of memory:

Tier 0 – DRAM: high-speed, expensive memory used for frequently accessed (“hot”) data.

Tier 1 – NVMe: slower, but more cost-effective memory used for infrequently accessed (“cold”) data.

VCF 9.0 dynamically places hot pages in DRAM and cold pages in NVMe, all completely transparent to the virtual machines. The default 1:1 ratio doubles the system’s available memory with a fraction of the cost increase, effectively increasing VM density while maintaining performance.

Testing across a wide range of enterprise workloads shows impressive results:

• Login Enterprise (VDI): up to 2x VM density with less than 6–8% performance loss

• VMmark (enterprise apps): 2x VMs with less than 5% drop in performance

• SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle (database workloads): up to 2x VM density with less than 10% performance degradation

• vMotion: slightly increased migration time, but no meaningful guest performance penalty

The key takeaway: Memory Tiering allows you to scale your workloads without doubling your DRAM investment. Monitoring remains important—keep active memory usage around 50% of DRAM and ensure NVMe read latency stays below 200 microseconds for optimal results.

For IT teams managing memory-constrained environments or facing budget limitations, Memory Tiering in VCF 9.0 offers a compelling way to reduce TCO by up to 40%, increase VM density, and maintain user experience across VDI, databases, and general enterprise workloads.

Want to learn how Memory Tiering can work in your environment or lab setup? Reach out via ntpro.nl for tailored VMware insights, real-world training, and hands-on expertise.

🚀 **VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0: Revolutionary Deployment Pathways Explained**

Discover the game-changing improvements in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 with our comprehensive deep-dive presentation! This video covers everything you need to know about the new VCF Installer appliance, flexible deployment pathways, and simplified infrastructure modernization.

**What You'll Learn:**
✅ Four powerful deployment pathways for every infrastructure scenario
✅ How the new VCF Installer replaces Cloud Builder with UI-driven workflows
✅ Simple vs High Availability deployment models comparison
✅ Convergence strategies for existing vSphere environments
✅ Complete SDDC stack integration and management
✅ Software distribution options and fleet management

**Perfect for:**
- VMware administrators and architects
- IT infrastructure professionals
- Cloud engineers planning VCF deployments
- Anyone modernizing their data center infrastructure

**Key Highlights:**
🔧 **New VCF Installer Appliance** - Say goodbye to Excel spreadsheets and hello to intuitive UI-driven deployment workflows

🛤️ **Four Deployment Pathways:**
- Deploy New VCF Instance
- Expand Existing VCF Fleet  
- Converge Existing vCenter
- Import vCenter Deployment

⚡ **Simplified Convergence** - Convert existing vSphere/vSAN clusters to fully functional VCF instances without complex import scripts

🏗️ **Flexible Architecture** - Choose between Simple (7 appliances) or High Availability (13 appliances) deployment models

📊 **Complete SDDC Stack** - Integrated vSphere, vCenter, NSX, VCF Operations, and VCF Automation in every deployment

## Video Timestamps

🕐 **Chapter Breakdown:**

00:00 - Title Slide & Introduction
00:20 - Introduction & Overview
00:40 - Current Infrastructure Challenges
01:00 - VCF 9.0 Solution Overview
01:20 - Four Deployment Pathways Explained
01:40 - Deploy New VCF Instance Pathway
02:00 - Expand Existing VCF Fleet Pathway
02:20 - Converge Existing vCenter Pathway
02:40 - Import vCenter Deployment Pathway
03:00 - Meet the VCF Installer Appliance
03:20 - Revolutionary Features & Capabilities
03:40 - Flexible Software Distribution Options
04:00 - UI-Driven vs JSON Deployment Methods
04:20 - VCF Fleet Architecture & Management
04:40 - Management Cluster Configuration
05:00 - Seamless Convergence Process
05:20 - Convergence Requirements & Considerations
05:40 - Simple Deployment Model (7 Appliances)
06:00 - High Availability Model (13 Appliances)
06:20 - Simple vs HA Model Comparison
06:40 - Complete SDDC Stack Integration
07:00 - Conclusion & Next Steps

## Technical Specifications Covered

**VCF Installer Appliance Features:**
- Lightweight replacement for Cloud Builder
- UI-driven workflow eliminates Excel spreadsheets
- Built-in convergence workflows
- No VCF Import scripts needed
- Flexible deployment options

**Deployment Models:**
- **Simple Model:** 7 required appliances (vCenter, SDDC Manager, NSX Manager, VCF Operations components)
- **High Availability Model:** 13 required appliances with 3x redundancy for production environments

**Software Distribution:**
- Online Depot: Direct connection to Broadcom Support Portal
- Offline Depot: Private depot for multiple VCF instances
- Download once, use multiple times approach

**Convergence Requirements:**
- vSphere environments must be updated to version 9
- Works with vSphere clusters with or without vSAN
- Converts first cluster within vCenter to VCF management cluster

See full post

Met de komst van VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 is het VMware-landschap ingrijpend veranderd. Nieuwe versies van vSphere 9, vSAN 9, NSX 9 en de volledige automation- en operations-stacks worden voortaan alleen nog beschikbaar gesteld via de VCF-distributie. Voor veel organisaties betekent dit dat het traditionele beheer van losse clusters en afzonderlijke lifecycle management tools plaats moet maken voor een geïntegreerd platform.

Voor IT-teams die momenteel nog een standalone vSphere-infrastructuur beheren, is het essentieel om nu kennis te maken met de voordelen – én complexiteiten – van VCF 9. Of je nu net begint aan je VCF-reis of concrete migratieplannen hebt, goede voorbereiding is cruciaal.

🔍 Wat is er nieuw in VCF 9?
 

VCF 9 is geen simpele versie-upgrade. Het is een architecturale shift waarin alle componenten – compute, netwerk, storage, automation én monitoring – samenkomen in één beheerde lifecycle.

Enkele highlights:
 

• vSphere 9: moderne kernel, verbeterde AI workload ondersteuning, strakkere vTPM-integratie
• vSAN 9: geoptimaliseerde performance en compressie, uitgebreide disaggregatie
• NSX 9: security default-first, nieuwe segment- en policyarchitectuur, IPv6 & edge clusters
• VCF Automation 9: geavanceerde API’s, template-driven provisioning, integratie met Aria Automation
• VCF Operations 9: deep observability, NSX Intelligence, integratie met fysieke netwerken
   

Deze vernieuwingen zijn krachtig, maar vereisen ook een andere denkwijze qua ontwerp, beheer en governance.

🎓 Tweedaagse training: VCF 9 Highlights & Migration

Om jouw organisatie en team klaar te stomen, bied ik een tweedaagse on-site training aan. Deze praktische sessie is speciaal ontworpen voor IT-beheerders, netwerk-/security-engineers en architecten die betrokken zijn bij de overstap van vSphere naar VCF.
 

✔ Wat kun je verwachten?
 

• Overzicht van alle nieuwe features in VCF 9
• Labopstellingen met VCF 9 deployment & installer
• Migratiestrategieën vanaf bestaande vSphere-omgevingen
• Automation en network/security consumption in context
• Best practices uit het veld, inclusief real-world ervaringen
   

De training combineert theorie met hands-on labs. Na afloop ben je volledig op de hoogte van wat VCF 9 voor jouw organisatie betekent – én wat er nodig is om over te stappen.
 

🧠 Voor wie is deze training bedoeld?

Deze training is ideaal voor:

• IT-teams die overwegen te migreren naar VCF
• Beheerders die nog geen ervaring hebben met de VCF-stack
• Security, netwerk- of infra-architecten die betrokken zijn bij de roadmap
• Organisaties die recent Broadcom-licentiestructuren hebben herzien

📍 Praktisch
 

• Duur: 2 dagen (op locatie)

• Taal: Nederlands of Engels

• Trainer: Eric Sloof – VMware Certified Instructor of the Year (EMEA)
  Meer dan 15 jaar ervaring in training & real-world consultancy

• Materiaal: labs, slides, naslagwerk

• Kosten: op aanvraag
   

📩 Interesse?
 

Wil je deze training op locatie boeken voor jouw team, of eerst even sparren over de inhoud?
Stuur me gerust een bericht via LinkedIn, neem contact op via  What'sApp, of vraag het PDF-datasheet op.

🔄 VMware verandert. Zorg dat jouw team meebeweegt.
 

#VCF9 #vSphere9 #NSX9 #vSAN9 #Automation #VMwareTraining #Datacenter #HybridCloud #VCFMigration #EricSloof #NTPro

Broadcom's VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 introduces a comprehensive private cloud platform that integrates compute, storage, networking, security, and management. This latest release simplifies deployment, boosts operational efficiency, and offers built-in automation for full-stack infrastructure management. Alongside VCF, VMware also offers the vSphere Foundation 9.0 — a lighter, scalable platform for modern workloads that includes vSphere, vSAN, and Kubernetes runtime.
 

Key Differences

VMware Cloud Foundation includes everything in vSphere Foundation and adds advanced components like NSX, HCX, Aria Automation, and SDDC Manager. It’s targeted at organizations requiring full-stack infrastructure as a service (IaaS), end-to-end lifecycle automation, and enterprise-grade workload management.

vSphere Foundation is ideal for teams focused on core virtualization and container workloads. It provides vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, and basic operations management via Aria Operations.
 

Compute and Kubernetes

Both platforms support modern Kubernetes workloads through vSphere Kubernetes Service. However, only VCF offers advanced lifecycle management, workload domain management, and integration with Supervisor Services, GitOps, Terraform providers, and Private AI services.
 

Storage Capabilities

VCF delivers higher storage capacity per core, advanced compression and deduplication (especially with ESA), stretched clusters, and integrated Cloud Native Storage. It also supports VMware’s full range of storage integrations (vVols, VMFS, NFS, etc.) and features like immutable snapshots, replication, and QoS.
 

Networking and Security

Only VCF includes NSX for software-defined networking, L2–L7 capabilities, and advanced security services such as segmentation, firewall, NAT, VPN, and multi-tenancy. Networking visibility and assurance tools like Aria Operations for Networks are also part of VCF.
 

Automation and Management

VCF supports extensive automation with Aria Automation, including IaC with YAML and Terraform, Git integration, and full support for tenant provisioning, governance, extensibility, and orchestrated workflows. vSphere Foundation includes only basic lifecycle and operations management.
 

Operations Visibility

VCF offers deep operational insights with Aria Operations Enterprise, supporting monitoring, compliance, troubleshooting, cost management, and full-stack visibility (compute, storage, network, and applications). It includes advanced features like guided remediation, predictive analytics, and SecOps integration.
 

Upgrade Paths
 

VMware outlines clear upgrade paths from previous editions such as vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCloud Suite, and vSphere with Aria. Organizations can transition from legacy deployments to VCF or vSphere Foundation, depending on feature requirements and infrastructure goals.
 

Conclusion

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 is designed for enterprises seeking a fully integrated, scalable, and automated private cloud environment. It supports the most demanding workloads with advanced features across compute, storage, networking, and automation. Meanwhile, vSphere Foundation 9.0 serves as a robust core platform for virtual infrastructure with Kubernetes support and essential management tools.

For organizations planning their modernization journey, understanding the differences and upgrade paths between these platforms is essential to align with strategic IT goals.

As containers revolutionize how applications are built and deployed, security challenges have grown just as quickly. The VMware Tanzu Platform offers a comprehensive, layered approach to container security—designed to protect applications throughout their entire lifecycle.

Why Container Security Matters

Containers are lightweight, fast, and efficient—but they come with unique risks. They share the host’s kernel and resources, making them more exposed than traditional virtual machines. Misconfigured containers, outdated images, and exposed secrets are just a few of the common vulnerabilities that attackers exploit.

Tanzu’s Approach to Container Isolation

Tanzu Platform enforces strong isolation by using Linux namespaces for each container. This includes separate IPC, PID, user, network, and mount namespaces, effectively shielding containers from one another and from the host system. Each container runs unprivileged by default, minimizing the risk of breakout attacks.

Filesystem and Resource Isolation

Using a combination of OverlayFS and XFS, Tanzu ensures each container has a read-only root filesystem and tightly controlled write access. It enforces disk quotas at the directory level and leverages cgroups to control CPU and memory usage. Tanzu also prevents fork-bomb attacks and restricts access to critical devices.

Reducing the Attack Surface

Tanzu eliminates unnecessary Linux capabilities to minimize privilege escalation opportunities. By default, capabilities like CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_NET_ADMIN, and CAP_SYS_PTRACE are dropped. Tanzu also hardens its OS stemcells and root filesystem, removing unnecessary packages and disabling risky protocols.

Defense-in-Depth with AppArmor and Seccomp

Tanzu uses AppArmor to enforce access controls at the process level, blocking access to sensitive files like /proc/kcore and /proc/sysrq-trigger. In addition, Seccomp filters system calls, allowing only the ones explicitly needed by the container, further reducing the risk of kernel-level exploits.

Protecting Secrets and Communications

Tanzu integrates CredHub for secure credential management and rotates application identity certificates every 24 hours. It also includes built-in support for mTLS (mutual TLS), ensuring encrypted communication between containers and the platform’s routing layer.

Immutable Infrastructure and Automated Patching

By treating containers and VMs as disposable and replacing them from golden images, Tanzu avoids configuration drift and speeds up patching. The platform supports zero-downtime upgrades using BOSH, enabling security updates without disrupting application availability.

Secure by Default

From buildpacks that manage application dependencies to sidecar proxies that enforce TLS, Tanzu ensures that security is built-in—not bolted on. The platform is constantly scanned for vulnerabilities, and patches are released rapidly and deployed automatically.

Conclusion

VMware Tanzu Platform provides an enterprise-grade foundation for securely running containerized applications. With its defense-in-depth model, Tanzu reduces risk at every layer of the stack—giving InfoSec and platform teams peace of mind and developers the freedom to innovate.

The much-anticipated VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 Design Guide is now officially released, providing cloud architects, platform engineers, and VI admins with a comprehensive framework for designing robust, scalable, and efficient private cloud infrastructures using VCF.

Whether you're building a new deployment from scratch or optimizing an existing environment, this guide delivers actionable insights, structured blueprints, and a robust decision-making framework tailored to the latest VCF release

The guide is meticulously structured into several core sections, each designed to help you make informed decisions during every phase of your VCF design and deployment journey.
 

Explore a high-level overview of each VCF component — including compute, storage, and networking — along with the trade-offs, benefits, and implications of various architectural choices.
 

Jumpstart your implementation using pre-defined blueprints tailored to specific use cases. These blueprints provide end-to-end design recommendations that can be fully adopted or used as a foundation to customize based on your organizational needs.

Available blueprints include:

• VCF Fleet in a Single Site with Minimal Footprint

• VCF Fleet in a Single Site

• VCF Fleet with Multiple Sites in a Single Region

• VCF Fleet with Multiple Sites Across Multiple Regions

• VCF Fleet with Multiple Sites in a Single Region plus Additional Regions
   

Dive deep into the design considerations for each individual VCF component. Each entry includes:

• Design Requirements – Mandatory configurations necessary for VCF to operate as intended.

• Design Recommendations – Best practices based on field experience and engineering validation.

• Design Choices – Decision points where multiple valid options exist, along with guidance on when to choose each.

vSAN availability technologies are designed to ensure data resilience and minimize downtime in the event of failures. These technologies work in tandem with VMware vSphere HA and the storage policy-based management (SPBM) framework to maintain the integrity of data and the availability of virtual machines. Understanding how vSAN handles failures at various levels is critical to maintaining a highly available environment.

vSAN achieves data availability by distributing data components across multiple hosts and fault domains based on policies. The most commonly used policy is failures to tolerate. This defines the number of host, disk, or fault domain failures a virtual machine object can withstand without data loss. For example, a RAID-1 mirror with one failure to tolerate (FTT=1) stores two copies of data on separate hosts. If one host fails, the other retains availability.

Beyond mirroring, vSAN also supports erasure coding with RAID-5 and RAID-6 configurations. RAID-5 supports one failure while RAID-6 tolerates two. These configurations offer space efficiency but require more hosts to satisfy policy requirements. Erasure coding is ideal for capacity-focused workloads that can tolerate slightly higher write latencies compared to mirroring.

One of the key availability mechanisms is vSAN’s ability to detect and respond to failures. When a component becomes inaccessible, vSAN determines whether the failure is transient or permanent. It uses a time-based mechanism to wait before rebuilding data, preventing unnecessary resyncs due to brief outages. The default delay is 60 minutes, after which a repair operation may commence if the component remains unavailable.

In addition to failure handling, vSAN includes automatic rebalancing features. When disk space across the cluster becomes uneven or after repairs, vSAN may redistribute components to optimize performance and avoid hotspots. This helps ensure balanced use of storage resources and sustained performance.

Witness components play an important role in maintaining quorum during failures. These are small metadata objects that participate in cluster decisions. For example, in a 2-node configuration, a witness resides on a separate host or appliance to act as a tie-breaker. This ensures that split-brain scenarios are avoided, and availability decisions are made accurately.

vSAN also incorporates features to protect against storage device failures. It can mark devices as degraded or failed and migrate components as needed. When a disk exhibits signs of wear or IO errors, vSAN initiates evacuation processes and alerts administrators via health checks and vCenter alarms.

Stretched cluster configurations allow for availability across two sites with a third witness site. Each site has its own fault domain, and vSAN ensures synchronous writes between them. In the event of a site failure, vSAN maintains availability by failing over to the other site. The witness in a third site helps determine which site should remain active, ensuring consistency and preventing data corruption.

Maintenance mode operations are also availability-aware. vSAN supports three modes: ensure accessibility, evacuate all data, and no data migration. The chosen mode affects whether VMs remain accessible during host maintenance and how data is protected. For example, ensure accessibility keeps data available but may reduce resilience until the host returns. Evacuate all data fully preserves availability by migrating components off the host in advance.

Proactive monitoring and alerting are critical to vSAN availability. Skyline Health checks for cluster, network, and hardware issues, while vCenter provides event logs and alerts for deeper investigation. Administrators can define alarms for capacity thresholds, degraded hardware, and other risk indicators to prevent outages.

In summary, vSAN offers a comprehensive set of availability technologies that span hardware failure detection, policy-driven resilience, automated repair and rebalancing, and integration with vSphere HA. These mechanisms ensure that virtualized workloads remain protected, resilient, and highly available, even in the face of component or site failures.

Troubleshooting vSAN performance requires a structured approach that considers the various components involved in a vSAN cluster. Performance issues can originate from compute, network, or storage layers, and identifying the root cause demands visibility into all three. Administrators should begin with clear problem definitions. Determine whether the issue is affecting a single VM, a set of workloads, or the entire cluster. It’s important to assess whether the issue is read or write related, and whether it is consistent or intermittent. These distinctions help narrow down the scope and focus the investigation.

vSAN Health and Skyline Health provide the first layer of diagnostics. These tools can indicate common misconfigurations, hardware issues, and network latency. Health checks should be reviewed for signs of contention, failed components, or cluster imbalance. Next, use vSAN Performance Service to gather metrics on IOPS, latency, and throughput at various levels including the cluster, disk group, and object layers. This visibility helps identify hotspots or bottlenecks that may not be immediately apparent.

Key metrics to analyze include write buffer usage, backend throughput, and resync activity. Elevated resync traffic from recent host failures or policy changes can reduce available bandwidth for regular I/O. Administrators should examine whether the congestion is due to background operations such as data rebuilds, rebalancing, or deduplication tasks. Disk group saturation, especially when cache drives are full or underperforming, is another common cause of elevated latency.

Network troubleshooting is essential. Check for dropped packets, high retransmissions, or latency spikes. vSAN is sensitive to network performance, and even minor disruptions can lead to delays in data replication or acknowledgments. Confirm that network hardware supports adequate throughput and low latency. Ensure all vSAN VMkernel interfaces are properly configured, with consistent MTU settings and failover policies.

Another important area to investigate is workload behavior. Some performance issues are tied to application characteristics rather than infrastructure faults. Identify whether the workload is generating large block writes, unaligned I/O, or excessive metadata operations. Test whether performance improves when running on alternative hardware or in a different vSAN cluster. This can help isolate whether the issue is systemic or localized.

Where possible, leverage performance graphs in vCenter, esxtop, or vSAN Observer for deeper analysis. Esxtop can be used to monitor CPU, memory, and disk contention in real time. Look for signs such as high device latency (DAVG), queue latency (QAVG), or kernel latency (KAVG). vSAN Observer can display the internal behavior of vSAN such as component ownership and object layout, giving insights into imbalance or misdistribution of data.

If a performance problem remains unresolved, consider collecting support bundles and engaging VMware GSS. Include a clear problem statement, the specific time range of impact, and any changes made in the environment that may have contributed. VMware recommends enabling advanced logging options before recreating the issue to capture sufficient detail.

Proactive steps can also prevent performance issues. Keep firmware and drivers up to date, validate hardware compatibility using the VMware Compatibility Guide, and avoid unnecessary policy changes during peak workloads. Regularly review capacity usage and aim to maintain at least 30% free space in vSAN to allow room for internal operations.

By combining structured analysis, proper tooling, and best practices, administrators can identify and resolve vSAN performance issues efficiently and minimize downtime across critical workloads.

vSAN File Services in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 introduces a powerful and streamlined way for administrators to provide file sharing capabilities directly from within the hypervisor layer. Whether serving SMB shares to Windows clients or NFS exports to Linux systems and cloud-native applications, vSAN File Services eliminates the need for traditional filers or separate virtual appliances. Its integration with vSphere makes deployment and ongoing administration simple, with configuration and management fully accessible through the vSphere Client UI.

This built-in service supports up to 500 file shares per cluster, with a limit of 100 SMB shares for Windows environments. Shares are intelligently distributed across the cluster using vSAN’s Cluster-Level Object Manager, and a dedicated protocol services layer ensures fair access and automatic load balancing. vSAN File Services supports Kerberos authentication for both NFS and SMB protocols, enhancing security and integration with enterprise environments.

Mounting shares is simplified through guided syntax in the UI, providing administrators with exact commands for mounting in Linux or connecting in Windows. This feature accounts for protocol version differences, including NFS v3 and NFS v4.1, and handles the appropriate redirection for optimal access.

vSAN File Services supports multiple deployment models, including hyperconverged clusters, disaggregated storage clusters, stretched clusters, and 2-node clusters. This flexibility makes it suitable for everything from core data centers to edge sites. Administrators can configure placement policies to ensure optimal site affinity, and services are automatically balanced to maintain performance and availability.

From a management perspective, everything is handled centrally via vCenter. Administrators can adjust storage policies, set quotas, configure access controls, and monitor usage. Integrated health checks appear in Skyline Health, covering file server availability, infrastructure health, and share status. Performance metrics such as IOPS, latency, and throughput are provided per share, alongside capacity usage statistics.

Security and governance features include quota enforcement and Access Based Enumeration, which hides files and folders users do not have permission to access. These features help reduce data exposure and support compliance goals.

Architecturally, vSAN File Services runs protocol services as stateless containers within agent VMs on each host. These containers handle I/O presentation for NFS or SMB shares but do not store data. Instead, the underlying vSAN Virtual Distributed File System handles data placement and storage, using vSAN objects to represent shares and apply policies for resilience and availability.

The system uses a zero-copy data path to minimize latency and reduce processing overhead. Failover mechanisms automatically reinstantiate containers on healthy hosts if needed, and containers are rebalanced every 30 minutes based on the number of shares served.

Scaling is straightforward. Adding hosts increases both capacity and share distribution, while growing share size triggers automatic creation of additional backing objects. This allows vSAN File Services to scale up or out depending on workload requirements.

Key considerations include reserving IP addresses for containers, ensuring proper DNS setup, and selecting either NFS or SMB per share. vSAN File Services does not support presenting NFS datastores to ESXi for VM storage, and snapshot capabilities are only available via API. Replication must be performed using external tools such as rsync or Robocopy.

vSAN File Services is a modern, hypervisor-integrated solution for providing enterprise-grade file shares across a wide range of deployment scenarios. It reduces complexity, improves manageability, and offers flexible performance and capacity benefits without the cost and overhead of separate file servers or appliances. For organizations already using vSAN, enabling File Services can simplify infrastructure and consolidate storage services into a single platform.

As data volumes continue to grow, space efficiency becomes a key concern for modern IT infrastructures. With the release of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, organizations can take advantage of new capabilities in vSAN to significantly optimize storage consumption without compromising performance.

In this article, we explore the opportunistic and deterministic space efficiency features built into vSAN, comparing the capabilities of the Original Storage Architecture (OSA) and the newer Express Storage Architecture (ESA).

Opportunistic features deliver savings based on data compressibility and structure, but results may vary. Key capabilities include:

Compression (ESA): In ESA, compression happens immediately at the top of the vSAN stack, before data is written to disk or transmitted across the network. This drastically reduces CPU and network utilization while improving performance—especially in stretched clusters.

Global Deduplication (ESA): Unlike OSA, where deduplication is disk group-bound, ESA enables cluster-wide deduplication with adaptive throttling. Deduplication is performed post-write and prioritizes cold data, minimizing performance impact.

Deduplication & Compression (OSA): In OSA, deduplication and compression are performed during destaging, which may degrade performance depending on the capacity tier. It’s a viable option for legacy environments but introduces latency in high-throughput workloads.

Compression-Only Mode (OSA): Introduced in vSAN 7 U1, this mode offers a middle ground—providing space savings without the overhead of deduplication. It’s particularly beneficial for performance-sensitive environments using modern flash storage.

These features guarantee capacity savings by using RAID-level redundancy instead of simple mirroring.

RAID-5/6 (ESA): With ESA, RAID-5 and RAID-6 deliver deterministic space efficiency without performance penalties. For instance, RAID-5 (4+1) consumes just 1.25x the data footprint, making it ideal for clusters with 6+ nodes.

RAID-5/6 (OSA): OSA uses a 3+1 or 4+2 data placement strategy. While this offers a significant reduction in capacity consumption compared to RAID-1, it comes at the cost of higher CPU, network, and I/O overhead—especially under high write loads.

Additional vSAN Space Saving Tools:

• Thin Provisioning: Efficient allocation of disk capacity on demand.

• TRIM/UNMAP: Reclaims unused space after guest OS deletions.

• Storage Policies: Fine-tuned controls for per-object resiliency and efficiency.

Recommendations:

Choose ESA whenever possible – It delivers superior space savings with no performance trade-offs.

Use Compression-only (OSA) for performance-sensitive workloads on legacy hardware.

Apply RAID-5/6 erasure coding in ESA to reduce capacity usage while maintaining high resilience.

Monitor space savings via vCenter Capacity View, and stay current with the latest vSAN releases to benefit from performance and efficiency enhancements.

With vSAN in VMware Cloud Foundation 9, organizations can confidently strike a balance between performance, resilience, and capacity optimization. Whether you’re modernizing with ESA or managing legacy OSA clusters, understanding and applying the right space efficiency techniques is key to maximizing your investment.

For hands-on workshops or custom vSAN training sessions, feel free to get in touch.