Category: vSphere Links

EMC specific

Using VMware vSphere with EMC VPLEX (EMC Tech Paper)
Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) using EMC VPLEX (2007545) (VMware KB)

HDS specific

Deploy VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster on Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (HDS Tech Paper)
Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using Hitachi Storage Cluster for VMware vSphere (2073278) (VMware KB)
Deploying a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) using Hitachi NAS (HNAS) Platform with Synchronous Disaster Recovery (SyncDR) Cluster software in VMware vSphere (2085108) (VMware KB)
Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using Hitachi Storage Cluster for VMware vSphere (featuring Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform) (2039406) (VMware KB)

HP specific

Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using HP 3PAR Peer Persistence (HP Tech Paper)
Implementing VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with HP LeftHand Multi-Site storage (HP Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with HP 3PAR Peer Persistence – Part I (vCloudNine)
VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with HP 3PAR Peer Persistence – Part II (vCloudNine)
Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using HP 3PAR StoreServ Peer Persistence (2055904) (VMware KB)
Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using HP LeftHand Multi-Site (2020097) (VMware KB)

IBM specific

Stretched Cluster on IBM SVC (Part 1) (CloudFix)
Stretched Cluster on IBM SVC (Part 2) (CloudFix)
Deploying Stretched vSphere clusters with Site Recovery Manager on SAN Volume Controller (Virtual Storage Speak)
Bridging datacenters with VMware vSphere and IBM SAN Volume Controller – Part 1 (Virtual Storage Speak)
Bridging datacenters with VMware vSphere and IBM SAN Volume Controller – Part 2 (Virtual Storage Speak)
Bridging datacenters with VMware vSphere and IBM SAN Volume Controller – Part 3 (Virtual Storage Speak)
Implementing vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (2032346) (VMware KB)
VMware HA and vMotion with stretched IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller Cluster (2000948) (VMware KB)

NetApp specific

A Continuous-Availability Solution for VMware vSphere and NetApp (NetApp Tech Paper)
MetroCluster Version 8.2.1 Best Practices for Implementation (NetApp Tech Paper)
VMware support with NetApp MetroCluster (1001783) (VMware KB)

General

How to automate vSphere Metro Storage Clusters, so VMs are running locally to storage (bmspeak)
VM Placement on a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with VCAC (Grant Orchard)
vSphere Metro Stretched Cluster with vSphere 5.5 and PDL AutoRemove (Long White Virtual Clouds)
vSphere Metro Storage Cluster and GAD: Rise of HDS Virtual Storage Machine (Paul Meehan)
Metro Clustering on VMware (Plain Virtualization)
New VMware HCL category: vSphere Metro Stretched Cluster (Virtual Geek)
vSphere Metro Storage Cluster – steps for non-disruptive site failover (Virtual Stace)
VMware Metro Storage Cluster Explained – Part 1: The Challenge (Virtualization Software)
VMware Metro Storage Cluster Explained – Part 2: The Potential Solution (Virtualization Software)
vSphere Metro Storage Cluster solutions and PDL’s? (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster Case Study (VMware Tech Paper)
Stretched Clusters and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager: Understanding the Options and Goals (VMware Tech Paper)
VMworld 2012: Session BCO1159 – Architecting and Operating a VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (VMworld video)
Operating and architecting a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster based infrastructure (VMworld 2013 slides)
vSphere Metro Storage Cluster – Uniform vs Non-Uniform (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere Metro Storage Cluster storage latency requirements (Yellow Bricks)

Dell

Best Practices for Configuring DCB with VMware ESXi 5.1 and Dell EqualLogic Storage (Dell Tech Paper)
Best Practices when implementing VMware vSphere in a Dell EqualLogic PS Series SAN Environment (Dell Tech Paper)
Configuring an iDRAC vFlash partition as a datastore in VMware ESXi (Dell Tech Paper)
Configuring Dell PowerEdge VRTX shared storage for VMware vSphere Environment (Dell Tech Paper)
Configuring iDRAC vFlash as a VMware ESXi VMKernel Coredump Collector (Dell Tech Paper)
Configuring iSCSI Boot for EqualLogic SAN with Dell PowerEdge Servers and VMware ESXi 5.1 (Dell Tech Paper)
Configuring stateless boot using Dell customized VMware ESXi 5.0 (Dell Tech Paper)

EMC

Storage Protocol Choices & Storage Best Practices for vSphere (EMC Presentation)
Using EMC VNX Storage with VMware vSphere (EMC Tech Paper)
EMC Powerpath/VE for VMware vSphere Best Practices planning (EMC Tech Paper)
Using VMware vSphere Storage APIs For Array Integration With EMC Symmetrix (EMC Tech Paper)
VMware vStorage APIs For Array Integration With EMC VNX Series For NAS (EMC Tech Paper)
EMC VPLEX – vSphere 5.1 Stretched Cluster Best Practices (Virtualization Team)
VMware vSphere 5.5 vMotion on EMC VPLEX Metro (VMware Tech Paper)
Implementing EMC Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning with VMware vSphere (VMware Tech Paper)

HP

HP P4000 LeftHand SAN Solutions with VMware vSphere Best Practices (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere VAAI for HP LeftHand Storage performance benefits (HP Tech Paper)
HP StoreVirtual VSA Design and Configuration Guide  (HP Tech Paper)
Best practices for deploying VMware vSphere 5 with VMware High Availability and Fault Tolerance on HP LeftHand Multi-Site SAN cluster (HP Tech Paper)
Implementing VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster with HP LeftHand Multi-Site storage (HP Tech Paper)
HP 3PAR Storage and VMware vSphere 5 best practices (HP Tech Paper)
HP XP7 Storage and VMware vSphere 5 Best Practices and Configuration Guide (HP Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere VAAI for HP 3PAR Storage performance benefits (VMware Tech Paper)
3PAR Utility Storage with VMware vSphere (VMware Tech Paper)
HP Enterprise Virtual Array Storage and VMware vSphere 4.0, 4.1 and 5.x configuration best practices (HP Tech Paper)

IBM

Deploying VMware vSphere 5.5 on IBM PureFlex System (IBM Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere best practices for IBM SAN Volume Controller and IBM Storwize family (IBM Tech Paper)

NetApp

NetApp TR-3808 – VMware vSphere and ESX 3.5 Multiprotocol Performance Comparison Using FC, iSCSI, and NFS (NetApp Tech Paper)
NetApp Storage Best Practices for VMware vSphere (NetApp Tech Paper)
vSphere 5 on NetApp MetroCluster Solution (NetApp Tech Paper)
FlexPod Datacenter with VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 1 and All-Flash FAS (NetApp Tech Paper)
VMware vSphere 5 on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP (NetApp Tech Paper)

Pure Storage

Pure Storage and VMware Storage APIs for Array Integration—VAAI (Pure Storage)
Pure Storage and VMware vSphere Best Practices Guide (Pure Storage)
Using the Pure Storage Content Pack for VMware vCenter Log Insight (Pure Storage)

Understanding TLC NAND (Anandtech)
The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and new drives from OCZ (Anandtech)
Threshold Voltage Distribution in MLC NAND Flash Memory: Characterization, Analysis, and Modeling (cmu.edu)
An Introduction to Flash Technology (Cormac Hogan)
Storage 101: Flash Storage Myths and Facts (Enterprise Storage Guide)
Solid State Drive Technology: Differences between SLC, MLC and TLC NAND (HP)
Understanding endurance and performance characteristics of HP solid state drives (HP)
What is the difference between MLC Flash and eMLC Flash, and is it required for Enterprise Flash? (Hu’s Blog)
All-Flash Array Performance Testing Framework (IDC)
Anatomy of SSDs (Linux Magazine)
NAND Flash Primer (Micron)
How Solid State Drives are Made (Micron)
NAND Flash 101: An Introduction to NAND Flash and How to Design It In to Your Next Product (Micron)
TLC, MLC, and SLC Devices (Micron)
NOR/NAND Flash Guide: Selecting a Flash Storage Solution (Micron)
Choosing the Right NAND (Micron)
Flash Memory Reliability – Read, Program, and Erase Latency Versus Endurance Cycling (NASA)
Introduction to Flash Memory (Pure Storage)
01: Why SSDs Are Awesome: An SSD Primer (Samsung)
02: Understanding SSD System Requirements: SATA Interface Basics (Samsung)
03: NAND Basics: Understanding the Technology Behind Your SSD (Samsung)
04: Understanding SSDs: A Peek Behind the Curtain (Samsung)
05: Maximize SSD Lifetime and Performance With Over-Provisioning (Samsung)
06: Protect Your Privacy: Security & Encryption Basics (Samsung)
07: Communicating With Your SSD: Understanding SMART Attributes (Samsung)
08: Benchmarking Utilities: What You Should Know (Samsung)
09: Why Integration Matters: What Samsung’s Vertical Integration Means to You (Samsung)
10: The Samsung Advantage: Why You Should Choose a Samsung SSD (Samsung)
11: Samsung Data Migration Software: The simplest way to get your new SSD up and running (Samsung)
12: Samsung Magician Software: OS Optimization Feature Overview (Samsung)
Floating Gate Basics (scu.ecu)
Increasing Flash SSD Reliability (Silicon Systems)
E‐MLC vs. MLC NAND Flash (Smart Storage Systems)
A detailed overview of flash management techniques (Smart Storage Systems)
Making the case for solid-state storage (Storage Magazine)
The truth about SSD performance benchmarks (Storage Magazine)
NAND vs. NOR Flash Memory Technology Overview (Toshiba)
MODELING THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NAND FLASH MEMORY (Virginia.edu)
FAQ: Using SSDs with ESXi (VMware Front Experience)
Yaffs NAND flash failure mitigation (Yaffs.net)

General

iSCSI Beats Fibre Channel at Interop 2011 (Video)
Storage Protocol Comparison – A vSphere Perspective (VMware vSphere Blog)
Storage Protocol Comparison (VMware Tech Paper)
The Debate-Why NFS vs Block Access for OS/Applications (vTexan)

iSCSI

A “Multivendor Post” on using iSCSI with VMware vSphere (Virtual Geek)
A “Multivendor Post” to help our mutual iSCSI customers using VMware (Virtual Geek)
Using iSCSI storage with vSphere (Storage Magazine)
Configuring VMware vSphere Software iSCSI with Dell Equallogic PS Series Storage (Equallogic)
How to Configure Openfiler iSCSI Storage for VMware ESX 4 (Xtravirt)
Putting your storage to the test – Part 1 iSCSI on Iomega IX4-200D (Gabe’s Virtual World)
How-to connect ESX4, vSphere to Openfiler iSCSI NAS (Vladan.fr)
EMC Virtual Infrastructure for Exchange 2007 using vSphere 4.0 and iSCSI (EMC)
How to setup basic software iSCSI for VMware vSphere (video)
iSCSI Design Considerations and Deployment Guide (VMware)
Converged Storage Infrastructure for VMware vSphere 4.1 (Broadcom)
Why can you not use NIC Teaming with iSCSI Binding? (VMware vSphere Blog)
How to configure ESXi to boot via Software iSCSI? (VMware vSphere Blog)
iSCSI Advanced Settings (VMware vSphere Blog)
Configuring Proper vSphere iSCSI Multipathing via Binding VMkernel Ports [Video] (Wahl Network)

NFS

NFS Best Practices – Part 1: Networking (Cormac Hogan)
NFS Best Practices – Part 2: Advanced Settings (Cormac Hogan)
NFS Best Practices – Part 3: Interoperability Considerations (Cormac Hogan)
NFS Best Practices – Part 4: Sizing Considerations (Cormac Hogan)
A “Multivendor Post” to help our mutual NFS customers using VMware (Virtual Geek)
Using NAS for virtual machines (Storage Magazine)
Putting your storage to the test Part 2 NFS on Iomega IX4-200D (Gabe’s Virtual World)
Best Practices for Running vSphere on NFS Storage (VMware)
NFS Block Sizes, Transfer Sizes & Locking (VMware vSphere Blog)
Load Balancing with NFS and Round-Robin DNS (VMware vSphere Blog)
Best Practices for Running vSphere on NFS Storage (VMware Tech Paper)
Republished: Dispelling Some VMware over NFS Myths (Scott Lowe)
Reasons For Using NFS With VMware Virtual Infrastructure (VM/ETC)

Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

“FCoE vs. iSCSI – Making the Choice” from Interop Las Vegas 2011 (Stephen Foskett)
VMware ESX FCoE CNA Compatibility in Plain English (Stephen Foskett)
How FCoE and iSCSI Fit into Your Storage Strategy (NetApp Tech OnTap)
Fibre Channel over Ethernet in the Data Center: An Introduction (Cisco)
VMware’s Software FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) Adapter (VMware vSphere Blog)

Fiber Channel

SAN System Design and Deployment Guide (VMware)
Configuring and Troubleshooting N-Port ID Virtualization (VMware)
NPIV: N-Port ID Virtualization (VMware vSphere Blog)

VAAI (Array Integration)

Is VAAI beneficial with Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) based solutions ? (CloudXC)
VAAI Comparison – Block versus NAS (Cormac Hogan)
VAAI UNMAP Performance Considerations (Cormac Hogan)
VAAI and VSA: The Benefits are Real (Enterprise Storage Guide)
VMware vSphere 4.1 vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) understanding (GeekSilver)
VAAI and Deployment – a Practical Example (NTPro.nl)
VMware VAAI pros and cons and the hidden fourth primitive (SearchVMware.com)
VMware VAAI Storage Array Support in Plain English (Stephen Foskett)
A Complete List of VMware VAAI Primitives (Stephen Foskett)
Exploring the performance benefits of VAAI (The Lower Case w)
vSphere 4.1 – What do the “vStorage APIs for Array Integration” mean to you? (Virtual Geek)
vSphere 4.1 and vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) (Virtual Storage Guy)
VMware vSphere VAAI Demo with NetApp (Virtual Storage Guy)
VAAI and the Unlimited VMs per Datastore Urban Myth (Virtualization Evangelist)
vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) (VMTN)
vStorage APIs for Array Integration FAQ (VMware KB)
VAAI Offloads and KAVG Latency (VMware vSphere Blog)
Low Level VAAI Behaviour (VMware vSphere Blog)
A brief history of VAAI & how VMware is contributing to T10 standards (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Offload Failures & the role of the VMKernel Data Mover (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP Issue (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP In Action (VMware vSphere Blog)
VAAI Thin Provisioning Block Reclaim/UNMAP is back in 5.0U1 (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI) (VMware Tech Paper)
VAAI sweetness (Yellow Bricks)
Using ESXTOP to check VAAI primitive stats (Yellow Bricks)
vStorage APIs for Array Integration aka VAAI (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere 5, VAAI and the Death of the Storage Array (ZDNet)

VASA (Storage Awareness)

What is VMware VASA? Not Much (Yet) (Stephen Foskett)

VAMP (Multi-pathing)

Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) Deep-Dive – Part 1 (Cormac Hogan)
Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) Deep-Dive – Part 2 (Cormac Hogan)
VMware PSP and SATP in Plain English (Stephen Foskett)
Configure VMware ESX(i) Round Robin on EMC Storage (boche.net)
What’s that ALUA exactly? (Yellow Bricks)
Pluggable Storage Architecture, exploring the next version of ESX/vCenter (Yellow Bricks)
A couple important (ALUA and SRM) notes (Virtual Geek)
Understanding more about NMP RR and iooperationslimit=1 (Virtual Geek)
vSphere Introduces the Plug-n-Play SAN (Virtual Storage Guy)
VMware PSA, MPP, NMP, PSP, MRU, … And Tutti Quanti! (DeinosCloud)
Best practices for HP EVA, vSphere 4 and Round Robin multi-pathing (Ivobeerens.nl)
vSphere Round Robin MultiPathing (Phil the Virtualizer)
Multipathing policies in ESX 4.x (VMware KB)
Did you know that you can now prioritize I/O Paths in the event of a failover? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Configuration Settings for ALUA Devices (VMware vSphere Blog)
Path failure and related SATP/PSP behaviour (VMware vSphere Blog)

Key Links

Virtual Volumes (VVols) Program (VMware Developer Center)
Virtual Volumes FAQ (VMware)
Virtual Volumes Solution Overview (VMware)
vSphere Virtual Volumes Overview Video (VMware)
Virtual Volumes Feature Page (VMware)
VMware Compatibility Guide for VVOLs (VMware)
VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes: Getting Started Guide (VMware)
VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) interoperability with other vSphere products and features (2112039) (VMware KB article)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) Interoperability Matrix (VMware vSphere Blog)

General

Videos to help you learn about VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) concepts and architecture (vSphere-land)
Only 4 vendors support VVOLs on Day 1 of vSphere 6 GA (vSphere-land)
When it comes to implementing Virtual Volumes (VVols) you better be on time (vSphere-land)
Is it VVOLs or VVols? (vSphere-land)
So VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) is here, when will people start using it (vSphere-land)
How VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) will impact your backups (vSphere-land)
Want to learn more about VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols), here’s 3 great sessions to help you (vSphere-land)
Survey highlights interest in VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) but also challenges (vSphere-land)
Customer adoption of VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) (vSphere-land)
Analyzing The Register’s latest article on VVols (vSphere-land)
Happy Birthday VVols – VMware provides a one year update on adoption (vSphere-land)
Observations and feedback on VMware VVols gathered from HPE Discover attendees (vSphere-land)
VVOLs Snakes and Ladders (3PARDude)
VVols, VASA – And Why It All Matters (Chuck’s Blog)
Virtual Volumes – A closer look at Storage Containers (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes – A new way of doing snapshots (Cormac Hogan)
More Virtual Volumes (VVols) and Snapshots goodness (Cormac Hogan)
The value of Virtual Volumes (VVols) (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes (VVols) – Syslog and Scratch Usage (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes (VVols) and Replication/DR (Cormac Hogan)
Virtual Volumes (VVols), vSphere HA and Heartbeat Datastores (Cormac Hogan)
VM Snapshots with VSS – Traditional versus VVols (Cormac Hogan)
Losing the VASA Provider and/or vCenter Server in VVols (Cormac Hogan)
Compare and Contrast – VSAN and VVols (Cormac Hogan)
#VMworld Follow-up | 5. VMware VVols & NetApp Integration (DataCenter Dan)
vVol Technical Overview (Derek Seaman)
VVOLs and VMware (Enterprise Storage Forum)
VMware To Complete Storage Virtualization With VVols – (Enterprise Tech)
VVols: All Systems Go (Great White Technologies)
GreyBeards talk VVOLs with “Father of VVOLs”, Satyam Vaghani, CTO PernixData (GreyBeards on Storage)
VVOLS – Improving Per VM Management (IT Blood Pressure)
VMware Virtual Volumes (Jason Gaudreau’s Blog)
VVOLs What are they? (NerdKnobs)
Primary Data VMworld 2015 VVOLs Survey Key Findings (Primary Data)
#vBrownBag Follow-Up What’s New in vSphere 6 VVols Part 1 w Rawlinson Rivera (@punchingclouds) (Professional VMware)
#vBrownBag Follow-Up What’s New in vSphere 6 VVols Part 2 w Rawlinson Rivera (@punchingclouds) (Professional VMware)
What’s New in VMware vSphere 6.0: Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) (Settlersoman)
What are VVols? (Storage Switzerland)
How Storage Vendors Integrate VVols (Storage Switzerland)
Are VMware VVOL’s in your virtual server and storage I/O future? (StorageIOblog)
VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals (Part I) (StorageIOblog)
VMware VVOL’s and storage I/O fundamentals (Part II) (StorageIOblog)
#vBrownBag vSphere 6 Introduction to VVOLs with Howard Marks (vBrownBag)
PEX Session Notes: VVOLs Technical Overview (vHersey)
VMware vSphere 6 – Virtual Volumes (vInfrastructure Blog)
At long last: VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) (Virtual Storage Zone)
VVOLs are more than just “per-VM”storage volumes (Virtual To The Core)
How To Create VMware Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
Storage Policy-Based Management with vSphere 6.0 (Virtualization Review)
Boxing, VVOLs And Replication (Virtualization Review)
The State of vSphere Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
5 Reasons To Adopt vSphere Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
vSphere 6.0 New Features – What is VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols)? (VMware Arena)
Understanding Virtual Volumes (VVols) in VMware vSphere 6.0 (2113013) (VMware KB)
Virtual Volumes (VVols) vSphere APIs & Cloning Operation Scenarios (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Virtual Volumes Interoperability: VAAI APIs vs VVOLs (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Virtual Volumes Overview (VMware Storage YouTube)
Virtual Volumes part 1: Concepts (VMware Tech Pubs YouTube)
Virtual Volumes part 2: Architecture (VMware Tech Pubs YouTube)
Getting Ready for Virtual Volumes (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)
Virtual Volumes: First Year In Review (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)
What’s New in vSphere 6.0: Virtual Volumes (WoodITWork)
Virtual Volumes primer (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual Volumes and queueing (Yellow Bricks)

Hands-On Labs

HOL-SDC-1627 – VVol, Virtual SAN & Storage Policy-Based Management (VMware HOL)
HOL-PRT-1674 – Dell Storage presents Virtual Volumes, vSphere Metro Stretched Cluster and more (VMware HOL)

KB Articles

How Virtual Volumes and UNMAP primitive interact? (2112333) (VMware KB)
Virtual Volumes and VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) (2111731) (VMware KB)
Virtual Volumes at scale support with Horizon View workflows (2109267) (VMware KB)
Attempts to deploy a VM OVF or to migrate a virtual machine to Virtual Volumes datastores fail if contents of potential config-VVol exceed 4 GB limit (2111421) (VMware KB)

News/Analyst

Top five things you need to know about VMware Virtual Volumes (Computer Weekly)
VMware Takes Wrapper Off VVOLs (Consultia)
VVOLs and VMware (Enterprise Storage Forum)
Why I Love VVols – And So Will You (Evaluator Group)
Waiting For VMware VVOLs (Network Computing)
The VVOLs Cometh (Network Computing)
VMware VVOL technology drives progress in storage management (SearchServerVirtualization)
VMware VVOLs redefine storage (SearchStorage)
Five key VMware VVOLs takeaways (SearchVirtualStorage)
Virtual machine management: VVOLs ‘complete picture’ (SearchVirtualStorage)
VMware VVOLs poised to shake up storage offerings (SearchVirtualStorage)
How VMware VVOLs compares to VM-aware storage (SearchVMware)
How will VMware VVOLs affect you? (SearchVMware)
What’s required for VMware Virtual Volumes? (SearchVMware)
What are the benefits of VMware Virtual Volumes? (SearchVMware)
What are the key components of vSphere VVOLs? (SearchVMware)
How are vSphere Virtual Volumes managed? (SearchVMware)
Is it Time to Upgrade VMware Storage? (Storage Switzerland)
VMware Virtual Volumes – What impact will they have on the datacenter? (Taneja Group Panel Discussion)
VMware Virtual Volumes and their Impact on the Datacenter (Taneja Group w/VMware)
Implementation of VMware VVols by Different Vendors (Taneja Group)
Top Takeaways from Vmware VVOLs (Tech Target)
Two years in the making: Sneak peek at VMware’s future VVOL tech (The Register)
The triumph of VVOL: Everyone’s jumping into bed with VMware (The Register)
Six-starved storage bods rush to support vSphere and VVOLs (The Register)
Listen up, VMware admins: If the array won’t support it, VVOL won’t help you… (The Register)
After all the sound and fury, when will VVOL start to rock? (The Register)

Performance

VMware VVOLs potential performance problems (Ray On Storage)
Backup performance of VMware VVOLs (Virtual To The Core)

Vendor Specific

Atlantis

Atlantis Partners with VMware To Extend Virtual Volumes to $300 Billion In Existing Datacenter Storage (Atlantis Computing)

DataCore

DataCore Announces Universal VVols Support to Expand Reach of VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (DataCore)
VMworld 2016: DataCore Introduces Second-Generation Universal VVols Software Functionality, Certified by VMware to Manage All Types of Storage (DataCore)
DataCore Software – VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) Storage Podcast – Episode 246 (DABCC)

Dell

Curious about VMware Virtual Volumes? (Dell)
Dell EqualLogic: Creating Virtual Volumes Datastores (Dell)
VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes on Dell PS Series (Dell)
vSphere Virtual Volumes and Dell Storage (Dell YouTube)
Dell Storage SC Series VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes – Part 1 (DellTechCenter YouTube)
Dell Storage SC Series VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes – Part 2 (DellTechCenter YouTube)
Virtual Volumes: Terminology and More (DellTechCenter YouTube)
Dell Announces VMware vVols and VSAN 6 Support (Storage Review)
Dell’s Implementation of VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols) (Taneja Group)
Dell EqualLogic OS 8.0 with vSphere Virtual Volumes (Virtualization Review)
Virtual Volumes: Another Round of Data Center Transformation from Dell and VMware (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

EMC

vRA 7 and VVols on VMAX3, VMAX All Flash (Drew Tonneson)
VMworld 2012 – Psst… Want to see the future of storage with VMware and EMC? (EMC)
VMworld 2013: vVol update with EMC VNX (EMC)
Virtual Volumes and EMC VMAX (EMC)
VVols Technical Preview for vVNX – Free download (EMC)
Using VMware Virtual Volumes With EMC VMAX3 and VMAX All Flash White Paper (EMC)
Manage VMware virtual volume datastores (EMC)
Manage VMware virtual volume datastores with CLI (EMC)
EMC Unity – Configuring VVols (EMC)
EMC Unity: Virtualization Integration (EMC)
VVols Tech Preview – Overview and Configuration (Part 1) (EMC YouTube)
VVols Tech Preview – Overview and Configuration (Part 2) (EMC YouTube)
VMworld 2016 EMC VVol Demo (EMC YouTube)
Configuring VVOLs with EMC Unity (ESXsi)
Deploying the EMC vVNX VVOLs Technical Preview (VirtXpert)
EMC Storage and Virtual Volumes (VMware Virtual Blocks)
EMC Unity With Native Virtual Volumes Support (VMware Virtual Blocks)
Virtual Volumes on EMC Unity (VMware Virtual Blocks)
UnityVSA VVOL 1 (YouTube)
UnityVSA VVOL 2 (YouTube)
UnityVSA VVOL 3 (YouTube)
UnityVSA VVOL 4 (YouTube)

Fujitsu

The Impact of VMware VVOLs on Storage (Fujitsu)

Hitachi (HDS)

VMware Virtual Volume Integration with Hitachi Storage Virtualization – A Winning Combination (HDS)
VVOL Demo by HDS: Worth a Watch (but let’s be careful out there) (HDS)
Hitachi Storage for VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol) FAQ (HDS)
Hitachi Storage Provider for VMware vCenter v3 (HDS)
Hitachi and VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 1 (HDS)
Hitachi and VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 2 (HDS)
Hitachi and VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 3 (HDS)
Hitachi Storage for VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol) FAQ (HDS)
Hitachi Virtual Volumes (VVol), Storage Containers and SPBM Demo (HDS)
Delivering Simplified Scalable IT with VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes and Hitachi Storage (webinar) (HDS)
Why VVol for All-Flash systems? (HDS)
VMware VVol – Real-world experience (HDS)
VVol’s with HNAS – How it works (HDS)
VMware vSphere 6.0 Virtual Volume Environment Deployment in File Storage From Hitachi (HDS)
VVOL Series: PART 1 Introduction (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVOL Series Part 2: Deeper Dive (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVOL Series Part 3: Implementation Considerations and Availability (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVol and HDS: An Introduction (Paul Meehan)
VVol and HDS Part 2: With and Without VVols (Paul Meehan)
VVol and HDS Part 3: New Storage Constructs (Paul Meehan)
VVol and HDS Part 4: So how is a VVol instantiated ? (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVol Part 5: Containers & Capability Profiles (Paul Meehan)
VMware VVol Part 6: The mythical Protocol Endpoint (Paul Meehan)
Experience with VMware VVols (Sam Walker)
HDS and VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVol) (Slideshare)
Not all VVols are Created Equal : Hitachi Storage for VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

HPE

3PAR VVOLs Demo – from HPE Discover (3PAR Dude)
The 3PAR Architecture Matters: VMware VVols (Around the Storage Block)
HP 3PAR StoreServ’s VVols Integration Brings Long Awaited Storage Automation, Optimization and Simplification to Virtualized Environments (DCIG)
Evaluation of HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage with VMware Virtual Volumes (HP)
ATSB: VMware vVol and HP 3PAR Technology Preview (HP)
VMware VVols is coming. Will your storage be ready for it? HP 3PAR StoreServ will be! (HP)
HP 3PAR StoreServ integration with VMware Virtual Volumes Solution Brief (HP)
Got VVOLs? If you have 3PAR StoreServ you do (HP)
vSphere 6, VVOLs and 3PAR (HP)
Implementing VMware Virtual Volumes on HP 3PAR StoreServ (HP)
Revisiting VMware VVOLs and HP 3PAR integration (HP)
HP 3PAR StoreServ and VMware vVols Demo (HPE YouTube)
HP 3PAR and VMware vVols demo: deeper dive (HPE YouTube)
vVols and 3PAR Snapshot with PowerCLI (HPE YouTube)
VSphere 6, HP 3PAR And VVols (V-Strange)
Implementing VMware Virtual Volumes on HP 3PAR StoreServ (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

Huawei

Huawei OceanStor Certified For VMware vSphere 6.0 and vVols (Storage Review)

IBM

VMware Virtual Volumes and XIV (IBM)
IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA (IBM)
IBM Spectrum Control Base and VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) (IBM)
VMware Virtual Volumes with IBM Storage – The Power of Integration (IBM)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVOL) with IBM XIV Storage System (IBM Redbooks YouTube)
IBM Storage and the Beauty and Benefits of VVol (VMware Virtual Blocks blog)

Kaminario

VMware VVols with Kaminario K2 AFA (Kaminario)

NetApp

VMware Datastores and Virtual Volumes (DataCenter Dude)
Get your NetApp – VVols while they are HOT (Great White Technologies)
Deploying VVols on NTAP (Great White Technologies)
[BETA] Using VVOLs with NetApp and VMware (NetApp)
NetApp and VMware vVol Demo (NetApp)
NetApp @VMworld 2014 VVol Demo (NetApp)
Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) On Horizon to Deliver Software Defined Storage for vSphere (NetApp)
VMware VVols On NetApp CDOT Beta CookBook (NetApp)
NetApp Unlocks the Power of VMware VVOLs (NetApp)
vSphere Virtual Volumes for Horizon 6 & NetApp All-Flash FAS (NetApp)
Virtual Infrastructure with Vmware VVOLs (NetApp YouTube)
What are the prerequisites for VVOLs on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP and vSphere 6.0? (Settlersoman)
How to configure VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) on NetApp to work with vSphere 6 – deplying VASA (Settlersoman)
Provisioning Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) on NetApp Clustered Data ONTAP and vSphere 6 (Settlersoman)

NexGen

ESG Lab Video Summary: NexGen Storage: Delivering QoS with VMware vSphere 6 VVols (ESG)
Using Storage QoS with VMware VVOL to Improve the End User Experience (NexGen)
NexGen Storage QoS Integration with VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) (NexGen)
Delivering Storage Quality of Service with VMware vSphere 6 and Virtual Volumes (NexGen)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) VM-Centric Storage Market Landscape Report (Taneja Group)

Nimble

VMware and Nimble Storage VVOL Integration Demo (Nimble Storage)
Nimble Storage & VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOL) – With vSphere 6 Demo (Nimble Storage YouTube)
VMware Virtual Volumes – The Next Level of Storage Integration (Nimble Storage)
VMware Virtual Volumes – Part 2 (Nimble Storage)
Virtual Volumes (VVOLs): Simplified, Dynamic, Granular VM Management (Nimble Storage)
Doing more with less – VVols and Simplified Storage Management (Nimble Storage)
Virtual Volumes on Nimble OS 3 (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)

Pure Storage

VMware VVols: next-gen storage goes back to the future (Pure Storage)

SanBlaze

SANBlaze VirtuaLUN 7.3 VMware Certified for VASA 2.0 and VVOL (SanBlaze)
Configuring SANBlaze VirtuaLUN for use in VMWare VVOL Environment (SanBlaze)

SolidFire

VMware VVOLs with SolidFire Quality of Service (SolidFire)
vSphere 6 Storage – The Future of Storage at Scale (SolidFire)
Technical Demo – VMware VVOLs with SolidFire Quality of Service (SolidFire)
Ask the Experts: SPBM and VVols Storage with SolidFire (SolidFire YouTube)
Virtually Speaking Podcast Episode 14 – SolidFire VVols done right (VMware Virtual Blocks Blog)

StarWind

Want to try VVOLs? How about StarWind? (mwpreston dot net)

Tintri

Tintri upgrades virtual machine QoS and takes a shot at VVOLs (Computer Weekly)
Tintri VVols Demo (Tintri)
Virtualization, vVOLs and the Importance of VM-Aware Storage (Tintri)
VMware Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) – What it is and what to look for in storage implementations (Tintri)
Tintri announces support for VMware vSphere 6 (Tintri)
VMware VVOL and Tintri (Tintri)

VMworld 2014

vBrownBag VMworld 2014 – Nick Howell – Policy Based Management and VVols (vBrownBag/NetApp)
VMworld TV Interview: Peter Kielty of VMware Discussed Virtual Volumes (VMworld TV)
STO1965.1 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive (Rawlinson Rivera, VMware Suzy Visvanathan, VMware)
STO2554-SPO – Zooming In: How VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols) Will Provide Shared Storage with X-ray Vision (Patrick Dirks, VMware – Ivan Iannaccone, HP)

VMworld 2015

STO4649 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive (Ken Werneburg, VMware – Patrick Dirks, VMware)
STO5888 – Top 10 Thing You MUST Know Before Implementing Virtual Volumes (Eric Siebert, HP)
STO5074 – Explaining Advanced Virtual Volumes Configurations (Ken Werneburg, VMware – Andy Banta, SolidFire)
STO4452 – Virtual Volumes (VVOLS) a game changer for running Tier 1 Business Critical Databases (Sudhir Balasubramanian, VMware)
STO5822 – Putting Virtual Volumes to Work — Storage Best Practices for vSphere 6 and Beyond (Howard Marks, DeepStorage)
STO6263-SPO – Veritas Technologies: How to use vSphere 6 and Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) the right way (George Winter, Symnatec)
STO6285-SPO – Beyond the Hype: The Customer Experience with Storage QoS (Ben Bolles, NexGen Storage)
STO4805 – How Virtual Volumes Will Solve Storage Challenges in the Datacenter (David Glynn, Dell Storage)
STO5522 – Virtual Volumes Technical Panel (US Version) (Ken Werneburg, VMware)
STO5522 – Virtual Volumes Technical Panel (EMEA Version) (Ken Werneburg, VMware)
STO5571 – What’s New in Virtual Volumes (Michael Haag, VMware – Juan Novella, VMware)
STO5721 – Virtual Volumes on NetApp – Ready For Prime Time! (Peter Learmonth, NetApp – Ken Werneburg, VMware)
STO6284-SPO – New Ideas for Simply Better VM Automation, Business Continuity and Data Protection with and without Virtual Volumes (Paul Morrissey, HDS)
STO6559-QT – Cloud-like Operational Efficiency with Virtual Volumes (Juan Novella, VMware)
STO6671-SPO – VMware & IBM: Optimized to Manage Oceans of Data in a Digitally-Driven World (Eric Herzog, IBM – Paul Braren, IBM – Carlos Fuente, IBM)

VMworld 2016

VMware VVol Sessions

STO8159 – Snapshots Suck: How VSAN and VVol fix all your operational nightmares (Pete Flecha, VMware – John Nicholson, VMware)
STO7645 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive (Pete Flecha, VMware – Patrick Dirks, VMware)
STO9977-QT – 5 Tips for Getting The Most From Virtual Volumes and vSphere Storage Policy-Based Management (Ben Meadowcroft, VMware)
STO7549 – Achieving Agility, Flexibility , Scalability and Performance with VMware Software Defined Storage (SDS) and Virtual Volumes for Business critical databases (Mohan Potheri, VMware – Sudhir Balasubramanian, VMware)
STO7650 – Software-Defined Storage at VMware Primer (Duncan Epping, VMware – Lee Dilworth, VMware)

Partner VVol Sessions

STO9617-SPO – Containers & VVols – a technical deep dive on new technologies that revolutionize storage for vSphere (Eric Siebert, HPE – Charles Tierney, HPE)
STO8422 – Virtual Volumes: Why? (Rajib Ghosh, EMC – Ben Meadowcroft, VMware)
STO8619 – Transitioning to VVols: Partner Panel (Pete Flecha, VMware – 6 partner panelists)
SDDC9726-SPO – Making SolidFire Invisible in your VMware Environment (Josh Atwell, NetApp)
STO8694 – High-Speed Heroics: Array-based Replication and Recovery for VMware Virtual Volumes (Narayan Kumar, Nimble Storage – Julian Cates, Nimble Storage – Rawlinson Rivera, VMware, Inc)
STO8144 – VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes in a NetApp Environment (Rhett Bigler, NetApp – Pete Flecha, VMware)
VIRT8074 – The SDDC: Full Stack on vSphere 6.0 SAP Business Warehouse Powered By HANA, NSX, vRealize Operations, SDS-Virtual Volumes on Hitachi Unified Platform (Gregory Smith, Hitachi – Bob Goldsand, VMware)
STO8840 – Deploy Scalable Private Cloud with vSphere Virtual Volumes (Paul Morrissey, Hitachi Data Systems – Pete Flecha, VMware)
STO9054 – VVol and Storage Policy-Based Management ? Is It Everything They Said It Would Be? (Ben Bolles, Pivot3 – Jeremiah Francis, Financial Advocates)

VSAN Launch webinar replay

VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast 269 – #VSAN

Key Links

VMware Virtual SAN Now Available (VMware Company Blog)
The Dawn of Virtual SAN (VMware CTO Blog)
vSphere 5.5 Virtual SAN requirements (2058424) (VMware KB)
Virtual SAN Hardware Compatibility Guide (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN Hardware Quick Reference Guide (VMware.com)
VMware Virtual SAN Ready Nodes (VMware.com)
VMware Virtual SAN Datasheet (VMware.com)
VMware Virtual SAN Design & Sizing Guide (VMware.com)
VMware Virtual SAN Sizing Tool (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN 5.5 Validation Guide (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware VSAN Interactive Product Walkthrough (VMware.com)
VMware Virtual SAN Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Reference Manual (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware Tech Paper)
The Best Infrastructure for OpenStack: VMware vSphere and Virtual SAN (VMware Tech Paper)
Some good VSAN related KB articles that you should read (vSphere-land)

Hands-On Lab

HOL-SDC-1308 – Virtual SAN (VSAN) and Virtual Storage Solutions (VMware HOL)

VMware VSAN Documentation

vSphere 5.5 Update 1 Storage Documentation (VMware.com)
vSphere 5.5 Update 2 Storage Documentation (VMware.com)
vSphere 5.5 Update 1 Troubleshooting Documentation (VMware.com)
ESXi 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes (VMware.com)
ESXi 5.5 Update 2 Release Notes (VMware.com)
vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes (VMware.com)
vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes (VMware.com)
Ready Node and Ready Block Recommended Configurations (VMware.com)

Beta Community Docs

VSAN Public Beta Registration (VMware.com)
VSAN Public Beta Program Community Site (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Beta Technical FAQ (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Proof of Concept (POC) Kit (VMware.com)
Proof Of Concept Guide for Virtual SAN (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN (beta) POC Pre-checklist v1.0a (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN (beta) POC Post-checklist v1.0a (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN Beta – Introduction (webinar slides) (VMware.com)
vSphere 5.5 Virtual SAN Public Beta Release Notes (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN Performance Webcast Final_121013.pdf (VMware.com)
VMware Virtual SAN Quick Monitoring & Troubleshooting Reference Guide (VMware.com)
VMware vSphere 5.5 Virtual SAN Hosted Beta (Lab Guide) (VMware.com)

Configuration/Management

Additional steps required to completely disable VSAN on ESXi host (Virtually Ghetto)
Why you should rename the default VSAN Datastore name (Virtually Ghetto)
VMware VSAN – Virtual SAN – How to configure (Virtual-blog)
Configure Disk Redundancy VMware VSAN – Virtual SAN (Virtual-blog)
I created a folder on my VSAN datastore, but how do I delete it? (Yellow Bricks)
Be careful when defining a VM storage policy for VSAN (Yellow Bricks)
Initialized disks to be used by VSAN task completed successfully, but no disks added? (Yellow Bricks)
How do you know where an object is located with Virtual SAN? (Yellow Bricks)

Cormac Hogan Series

VSAN Part 1 – A first look at VSAN (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 2 – What do you need to get started? (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 3 – It is not a Virtual Storage Appliance (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 4 – Understanding Objects and Components (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 5 – The role of VASA (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 6 – Manual or Automatic Mode (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 7 – Capabilities and VM Storage Policies (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 8 – The role of the SSD (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 9 – Host Failure Scenarios & vSphere HA Interop (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 10 – Changing VM Storage Policy on-the-fly (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 11 – Shutting down the VSAN cluster (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 12 – SPBM extensions in RVC (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 13 – Examining the .vswp object (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 14 – Host Memory Requirements (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 15 – Multicast Requirement for networking – Misconfiguration detected (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 16 – Reclaiming disks for other uses (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 17 – Removing a Disk Group from a Host (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 18 – VM Home Namespace and VM Storage Policies (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 19 – Common VSAN Configuration Gotchas (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 20 – VM Swap and VM Storage Policies (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 21 – What is a witness? (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 22 – Policy Compliance Status (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 23 – Why is my Storage Object Striped? (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 24 – Why is VSAN deploying thick disks? (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 25 – How many hosts needed to tolerate failures? (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 26 – Does Disk Size Matter? (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 27 – VM Memory Snapshot Considerations (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 28 – RVC login difficulties (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 29 – Cannot complete file creation operation (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 30 – Difference between Absent and Degraded (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 31 – Object compliance and operational status (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 32 – Datastore capacity not adding up (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 33 – Some common misconceptions explained (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 34 – how many disks are needed for stripe width (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 35 – Considerations when dynamically changing policy (Cormac Hogan)

Design Considerations

Of Software-Defined Storage and HCLs (Chuck’s Blog)
My completely ridiculous VSAN test (Gabe’s Virtual World)
My VSAN Nightmare (Reddit)
Root cause analysis of my VSAN outage (Reddit)
Checking hardware recommendations might prevent VSAN nightmare (UP2V)
About VSAN capacity and VMDK placement (viktorious.nl)
VMware Virtual SAN Scalability Limits – VSAN (Virtual-blog)
STO5027 VMware Virtual SAN Technical Best Practices (virtualarchitect.nl)
Virtual SAN Hardware Guidance Part 1 – Solid State Drives (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual SAN Hardware Guidance Part II – Storage Controllers (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual SAN – Sizing Considerations (VMware vSphere Blog)
VSAN and Storage Controllers (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual SAN & Disk Groups (VMware vSphere Blog)
Three Hosts, two VSAN Datastores! (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN: Cross Cluster Migrations (VMware vSphere Blog)
Do You Need Hardware Guidance to Accelerate Your Virtual SAN Deployment? (VMware vSphere Blog)
Designing your hardware for Virtual SAN (Yellow Bricks)
VSAN HCL more than VSAN-ready nodes (Yellow Bricks)
Selecting a disk controller for VSAN using the HCL (Yellow Bricks)
Building a hyper-converged platform using VMware technology part 1 (Yellow Bricks)
Building a hyper-converged platform using VMware technology part 2 (Yellow Bricks)
Building a hyper-converged platform using VMware technology part 3 (Yellow Bricks)
VSAN and the AHCI controller (hint: not supported!) (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN and Network IO Control (Yellow Bricks)
How VSAN handles a disk or host failure (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN and Data Locality/Gravity (Yellow Bricks)
VSAN Design Consideration: Booting ESXi from USB with VSAN? (Yellow Bricks)
Isolation / Partition scenario with VSAN cluster, how is this handled? (Yellow Bricks)
VMware vSphere Virtual SAN design considerations… (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN GA update: Flash vs Magnetic Disk ratio (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN Read IO – cache / buffer / spindles (Yellow Bricks)
Pretty pictures Friday, the VSAN edition… (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using Virtual SAN, can I do it? (Yellow Bricks)
How about an All Flash Virtual SAN? (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere HA and VMs per Datastore limit! (Yellow Bricks)
VSAN – Misconfiguration Detected (Yellow Bricks)
30K for a VSAN host @theregister? I can configure one for 2250 USD! (Yellow Bricks)
4 is the minimum number of hosts for VSAN if you ask me (Yellow Bricks)

General

Essential Virtual SAN (VSAN): Administrator’s Guide to VMware VSAN (Safari Books Online)
Five Reasons Why VSAN Is Different (Chuck’s Blog)
Considering VSAN (Chuck’s Blog)
Using VSAN with Storage Arrays (Chuck’s Blog)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Announcement Review (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN and vSphere Replication Interop (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN & VDP Interop (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN and vCenter Operations Interop (Cormac Hogan)
My VSAN session from the 2014 Nordics VMUG (YouTube) (Cormac Hogan)
Tips for a successful VSAN Proof of Concept (Cormac Hogan)
What about VSAN for SMB/SME? (DefinIT)
VMware VSAN has arrived! (DiscoPosse)
VMware VSAN Technical Notes (EckTech)
VMware VSAN Video (ESX Virtualization)
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) Launch and Configuration Maximums (ESX Virtualization)
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) 1.0 GA – FAQ, Pricing and Design Options (ESX Virtualization)
Why I love VSAN! (Frank Denneman)
Is VSAN more affordable? (Hans Deleenheer)
VSAN Clustering – Fact Check Update! (Hans Deleenheer)
VMware VSAN Launch Q&A (Ivobeerens.nl)
VMware’s new VSAN – What Matters (Keith Norbie)
VMware VSAN will be GA in the week of March 10. Licensing per socket or desktop (UP2V)
VMworld 2013: What’s New in 5.5 – vSAN (Mike Laverick)
VMworld 2013: What’s New in VSAN 1.0 (Mike Laverick)
VSAN is here: Hurray ! and NOFUD was used! (Paul Meehan)
What Roles Do Storage Profiles Play in VMware Virtual SAN Storage? (Petri)
VMware releases vSphere 5.5 U1 (SnowVM)
VSAN: A Giant Leap… Upwards? (Stu Radnidge)
VSAN – The Unspoken Truth (Technodrone)
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) is now available for download. Licensed per CPU or user (UP2V)
vSphere 5.5 VSAN, Introducing Your New Storage Vendor VMware (vClouds)
vSphere 5.5 Update 1 released to include VMware VSAN (vClouds)
VSAN Pricing (vClouds)
The Significance of VMware VSAN (vDestination)
VMware VSAN: revolution, evolution or reinventing the wheel? (vInfrastructure Blog)
A few thoughts and opinions on VSAN and Hyperconvergence (Virtual Geek)
VMware VSAN cements changes coming to the data center (Virtualization Admin)
VSAN Pricing Comparison (Virtualization Practice)
Working with VMware’s Virtual SAN (Virtualization Review)
VMware VSAN – 5 Reasons It’s Unique: Video Interview, Pricing, Slide Deck, & VSAN Links (Virtualization Software)
VSAN all things! (Virtxpert)
VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast – 251 – VSAN (VMware.com)
VMware vSAN on Open Compute (VMware Admins)
Virtual SAN: Powerfully Simple and Simply Powerful (VMware CTO Office)
Virtual SAN VM Density Contest Results! (VMware vSphere Blog)
Get Ready for Virtual SAN Ready Node and Ready Block (VMware vSphere Blog)
Backing up VMs on VSAN with VDP Advanced and Data Domain (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN: 32 Node Scale Out Capability (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN: Witness Component Deployment Logic (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN Interoperability: vCloud Automation Center (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN Interoperability: vSphere Replication and vCenter Site Recovery Manager (VMware vSphere Blog)
Myth versus Math: Setting the Record Straight on Virtual SAN (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSAN 1.0 Announcement (VMwaremine)
vSphere 5.5 Availability and VSAN Public Beta (vNinja.net)
VSAN – The Unspoken Future (vNinja.net)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 4 – Virtual SAN (VSAN) (Wahl Network)
In Which I Muse Over VMware’s Virtual SAN Architecture (Wahl Network)
Exploring VMware VSAN Ready Nodes, Per-Socket Pricing, and Design Guides (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: Virtual SAN (VSAN) (WoodITWork)
VSAN for ROBO? (Yellow Bricks)
VSAN – The spoken reality (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN GA aka vSphere 5.5 Update 1 (Yellow Bricks)
VMware Virtual SAN launch and book pre-announcement! (Yellow Bricks)
Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual SAN (Yellow Bricks)
Frequently asked questions about Virtual SAN / VSAN (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN news flash pt 1 (Yellow Bricks)

Home Labs

Homelab Thoughts – VSAN (ESX Virtualization)
Build vSAN vSphere Lab using PowerCLI (Everything Should Be Virtual)
VMware’s VSAN in the Home Lab (Sean Crookston)
DIY converged server software defined storage on a budget using Lenovo TS140 (SYS-CON)
VMware VSAN meets EZLAB (Virtual JAD)
My VSAN home lab configuration (Virtualize Tips)
VSAN – The Migration from FreeNAS (VMexplorer)
Home Lab – Part 4.1: VSAN Home Build (vWilmo)
Home Lab – Part 4.2: VSAN Configuration (vWilmo)
Testing vSphere Virtual SAN in your virtual lab with vSphere 5.5 (Yellow Bricks)
Rebuilding your Virtual SAN Lab? Wipe the disks first! (Yellow Bricks)

Installation

Getting started with Fusion-io and VSAN (Cormac Hogan)
VMware VSAN configuration steps with nested ESXi hypervisors (ESX Virtualization)
My VSAN Journey – Part 1 – The homebrew “node” (ESX Virtualization)
My VSAN journey – Part 2 – How-to delete partitions to prepare disks for VSAN if the disks aren’t clean (ESX Virtualization)
My VSAN Journey Part 3 – VSAN IO cards – search the VMware HCL (ESX Virtualization)
How to Setup and Configure VMware vSAN storage (Petri)
VSAN – Installation (Tim’s IT Blog)
How to create a VMware Virtual SAN Network (Unix Arena)
VSAN: Local disks not showing up? Wipe your disks straight from the ESXi console (Viktorious.nl)
How to quickly setup and test VMware VSAN (Virtual SAN) using Nested ESXi (Virtually Ghetto)
vSphere 5.5 – My 1st VSAN (Hands on Experience) (vTricks)

KnowledgeBase Articles

Retaining virtual machines of Virtual SAN Beta cluster when upgrading to vSphere 5.5 Update 1 (2074147) (VMware KB)
Enabling or disabling a Virtual SAN cluster (2058322) (VMware KB)
Configuring Virtual SAN VMkernel networking (2058368) (VMware KB)
Adding more than 16 hosts to a Virtual SAN cluster (2073930) (VMware KB)
VMware Virtual SAN datastores cannot store host-local and system swap files (2073944) (VMware KB)
Virtual SAN insufficient memory (2071753) (VMware KB)
Collecting Virtual SAN (VSAN) support logs and uploading to VMware (2072796) (VMware KB)
Moving Disk Groups to a New Virtual SAN cluster (2073931) (VMware KB)
Automatic disk claiming does not work as expected if license is applied after enabling VMware Virtual SAN (2073948) (VMware KB)
Virtual SAN node reached threshold of opened components (2071379) (VMware KB)
Enabling or capturing performance statistics using Virtual SAN Observer for VMware Virtual SAN (2064240) (VMware KB)
Network interfaces used for Virtual SAN are not ready (2058521) (VMware KB)
Adding a host back to a Virtual SAN cluster after an ESXi host rebuild (2059091) (VMware KB)
Virtual SAN clustering has been disabled on an ESXi host (2058794) (VMware KB)
Virtual SAN networking experiences connectivity problems (2058529) (VMware KB)
Virtual SAN network redundancy has been reduced (2058530) (VMware KB)
Enabling Virtual SAN on vSphere 5.5 does not create disk groups (2060786) (VMware KB)

News/Analyst

VMware VSAN software-defined storage comes out of beta (Computer Weekly)
As VSAN 2.0 goes beta VMware aims at hyper-converged x86 storage (Computer Weekly)
VMware Poised To Unleash vSAN Storage Tech, But Pricing Still Unclear (CRN)
VMware to launch storage solution VSAN this quarter (CRN)
SimpliVity CEO: We Love VMware And We’re Not Threatened By VSAN (CRN)
VMware To Begin Selling VSAN Next Week, But Still Isn’t Sharing Pricing (CRN)
VMware Details VSAN Pricing: Focus On Simplicity (CRN)
VMware’s Virtual SAN Threatens Traditional Data Storage Models (Enterprise Storage Forum)
Users Line Up For VMware Virtual SAN Storage (Enterprise Tech)
vSAN Pricing: Virtual Storage Costs Like Virtual Servers (Enterprise Tech)
A seismic shift is about to hit the SAN (MicroScope)
Are Server SANs The Future Or Just Hype? (Network Computing)
Server SANs And Healthy Paranoia (Network Computing)
Server SANs: The Dark Side (Network Computing)
How VMware wants to reinvent the SAN (Network World)
The Top 5 Opportunities for VMware EVO:RAIL Partners (Network World)
VMware Virtual SAN shines storage spotlight on VMware, hyper-convergence (SearchVirtualStorage)
Before you buy, be sure you can meet extensive VSAN requirements (SearchVirtualStorage)
Early users found VSAN hardware difficult, management easy (SearchVirtualStorage)
Top five VMware Virtual SAN takeaways of 2014 (SearchVirtualStorage)
Can VMware VSAN offer RAID-like safeguards? (SearchVMware)
Talking about the future of VSAN with Duncan Epping (SearchVMware)
VMware VSAN creating buzz around hyperconverged infrastructure (Silicon Angle)
VMware: Get your hands dirty + build your own VSAN nodes (Silicon Angle)
New CTO offers guidance on VMware software-defined data center (Tech Target)
VMware Offers Virtual SAN for vSphere (Tech Week Europe)
VMware embiggens VSAN to petabyte scale (The Register)
VSAN emerges at a WHOPPING 32 nodes and two MEEELION IOPS (The Register)
VMware wanted to keep its VSAN pricing secret – now it’s all over the web (The Register)
Wanted: Virtual Steve Jobs to tell us one more thing about VSAN (The Register)
VMware drops vSphere 5.5 Update 1 into sysadmins’ laps (The Register)
It’s storage’s HOLY GRAIL: VSANs, PSANs and virtual silos (The Register)
VMware happy for VSANs to work with actual SANs (The Register)
VMware reveals more VSAN nodes (The Register)
Why not build your own VSAN hardware, asks VMware (The Register)
Speedy storage server sales stumps sysadmin scribe: Who buys this? (The Register)
Is Trevor Pott-y? Nope – he’s bang on about VSAN performance (The Register)
VSANs choking on VMware’s recommended components (The Register)
VMware says anyone – not just EMC – can play with its best bits (The Register)
Server SANs: Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater (The Register)
News: VSAN Is Now GA (Virtualization Practice)
News: VMware VSAN GA Release Ships with vSphere 5.5 Update 1 (Virtualization Practice)
Will Scale-Out Architectures Kill Enterprise Storage? (Virtualization Practice)
VMware Announces Broad Ecosystem Support for VMware Virtual SAN (Wall Street Journal)
VMware (VMW) PT Raised to $124 at Jefferies on vSAN Product (Wall Street Pit)
Cube Conversations – VSAN Thrusts VMware into Server SAN Market (Wikibon)
VMware VSAN vs the Simplicity of Hyperconvergence (Wikibon)

Performance

VMware’s VSAN Benchmarks: Under The Hood (Network Computing)
VMware VSAN Posts 2 Million IOPS (Storage Review)
How to Supercharge your Virtual SAN Cluster (2 Million IOPS!!!) (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN Performance Testing – Part I (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN Performance Testing – Part II (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN Performance Testing – Part III (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN Performance Testing – Part IV (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Virtual SAN: Performance with Microsoft Exchange Server (VMware vSphere Blog)
Web 2.0 Application Performance on VMware Virtual SAN (VMware Tech Paper)
VMware Virtual SAN Performance with Microsoft SQL Server (VMware Tech Paper)
VDI Benchmarking Using View Planner on VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware Vroom)
VDI Benchmarking Using View Planner on VMware Virtual SAN – Part 2 (VMware Vroom)
VDI Benchmarking Using View Planner on VMware Virtual SAN – Part 3 (VMware Vroom)
VDI Performance Benchmarking on VMware Virtual SAN 5.5 (VMware Vroom)

Ruby vSphere Console

VSAN Observer (Punching Clouds)
vSphere 5.5: Using RVC VSAN Observer Pt1 (Punching Clouds)
vSphere 5.5: Using RVC VSAN Observer Pt2 (Punching Clouds)
Manage VSAN with RVC Part 1 – Basic Configuration Tasks (Virten.net)
Manage VSAN with RVC Part 2 – VSAN Cluster Administration (Virten.net)
Manage VSAN with RVC Part 3 – Object Management (Virten.net)
Manage VSAN with RVC Part 4 – Troubleshooting (Virten.net)
Manage VSAN with RVC Part 5 – Observer (Virten.net)
VMware Virtual SAN Observer Offline Mode (VMware vSphere Blog)
How to configure the Virtual SAN observer for monitoring/troubleshooting (Yellow Bricks)

Scripting/Command Line

Using the VSAN Observer in vCenter 5.5 (Erik Bussink)
Creating a VSAN Cluster with PowerCLI (Virtu-Al)
vdq – A useful little VSAN utility (Virtually Ghetto)
VMware VSAN APIs (Virtually Ghetto)
Required ESXi advanced setting to support 16+ node VSAN Cluster (Virtually Ghetto)
Restoring VSAN VM Storage Policies without vCenter Part 1: Using cmmds-tool (Virtually Ghetto)
Restoring VSAN VM Storage Policy without vCenter Part 2: Using vSphere API (Virtually Ghetto)
Exploring VSAN APIs Part 1 – Enable VSAN Cluster (Virtually Ghetto)
Exploring VSAN APIs Part 2 – Query available SSDs (Virtually Ghetto)
Exploring VSAN APIs Part 3 – Enable VSAN Traffic Type (Virtually Ghetto)
Exploring VSAN APIs Part 4 – VSAN Disk Mappings (Virtually Ghetto)
How to bootstrap vCenter Server onto a single VSAN node Part 1? (Virtually Ghetto)
How to bootstrap vCenter Server onto a single VSAN node Part 2? (Virtually Ghetto)
vSphere PowerCLI 5.8 SPBM Walkthrough (Part 1): Introduction (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere PowerCLI 5.8 SPBM Walkthrough (Part 2): Creating vSphere Storage Policies (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere PowerCLI 5.8 SPBM – Part3: Associating vSphere Storage Policies (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere PowerCLI 5.8 SPBM Walkthrough (Part4): Provisioning a new VM (VMware vSphere Blog)

Storage Policies

How to Create VMware vSAN Storage Policies (Petri)
Using VSAN Storage Policies in vCloud Automation Center (Virtual JAD)
Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) Configuration Maximums (2062751) (VMware KB)
vSphere Storage Policy Based Management Overview (part 1) (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Storage Policy Based Management Overview (part 2) (VMware vSphere Blog)
VSAN Basics – Changing a VM’s storage policy (Yellow Bricks)

Troubleshooting

Virtual SAN Troubleshooting: Multicast (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual SAN Troubleshooting: Automating Multicast Configuration (VMware vSphere Blog)

VDI

VSAN with Horizon View Interop (Cormac Hogan)
VMware VSAN Datastores supported on Horizon View 5.3.1 (ESX Virtualization)
How does VMware VSAN help Horizon View? (My Virtual Cloud)
How is Horizon View configured for VMware VSAN? (My Virtual Cloud)
Why is Content-Based Read Cache (CBRC) so important for Horizon View and VSAN? (My Virtual Cloud)
Horizon View 5.3.1 Is Here and Supports VMware Virtual SAN (VMware EUC Blog)
Horizon 6.0 and Virtual SAN: A match made in …… (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware Horizon with View and Virtual SAN Reference Architecture (VMware Tech Paper)
Horizon View 5.3.1 on VMware Virtual SAN – Quick Start Guide (2073795) (VMware KB)

VMware TV videos

VMworld 2013 session – STO5391 – VMware Virtual SAN (VMware TV)
VMware Virtual SAN Strategy: Storage for the Software-Defined Data Center (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN Beta Webinar – Introduction to VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Beta Webinar – How to Install, Configure & Manage (video) (VMware TV)
Migrating Virtual Machines Across VMware Virtual SAN Clusters (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Setup (VMware TV)
VMware Virtual SAN: Scale Up Storage Capacity (VMware TV)
VMware Virtual SAN: 32 Node Scalability (Scale Out) (VMware TV)
How To Monitor Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware TV)
How to Troubleshoot Your Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware TV)
Deploying a Virtual Machine on Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware TV)
Changing a VM Storage Policy On-The-Fly with VSAN (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) & VM Availability (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) & vSphere HA Interoperability (VMware TV)
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) Partner Montage (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) and the End User Computing Use Case (VMware TV)
VMware Virtual SAN Interoperability: OpenStack Framework Integration (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN Interoperability – Planned migration with vSphere Replication and SRM (VMware TV)
DOE Fund has found “The Holy Grail of Storage” using VMware Virtual SAN in New Facilities (VMware TV)
Adobe Systems Improves Internally and Deploys Solutions Faster with VMware Virtual SAN (VMware TV)
Cincinnati Bell Achieves Scalable Cloud Infrastructure & Reduces Costs with VMware Virtual SAN (VMware TV)
Itrica Provides Scalable Cloud Solutions using VMware Virtual SAN (VMware TV)

vSphere 5.1 Storage Enhancements – Part 7: Storage vMotion (CormacHogan.com)
vSphere 5.1 storage vMotion parallel disk migrations (Frank Denneman)
Video: vSphere4 Unleashed: 06 – Storage vMotion (Hypervisor)
The Design and Evolution of Live Storage Migration in VMware ESX (VMware Technical Paper)
Under the Covers with Storage vMotion (VMware Uptime Blog)
Enhanced Storage vMotion and vSphere (YouTube)