The VMware Virtual SAN Assessment Tool is now generally available!!!!

The Virtual SAN Assessment Tool is a usability and manageability tool that is available to the public free of charge. VMware is providing access to this solution using a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model that is accessible for any new or existing customers interested in Virtual SAN. The tool is designed to provide customers a simple one-stop shop solution for all things related to the assessments of Virtual SAN.

The Virtual SAN Assessment Tool is based on two components, and together they provide data collection and presentation in the form metrics visualization.

• Virtual SAN Assessment Tool Portal – is a public web application that receives the I/O traces from customers infrastructures and presents the detailed results. It also provides the ability to export the results onto different document types excel, powerpoint, etc.
• Virtual SAN Assessment Tool Collector – is a virtual appliance (OVF file) deployed in customer environment that collects data and sends it to the portal. The appliance is configured with 4 vCPUs / 8 gb ram / 200 gb disk space, and it introduces a low of overhead while collecting data.

The tools delivers the most complete and detailed package of information on all aspects of Virtual SAN ranging from environmental infrastructure analysis to financial information of overall storage CAPEX savings. All of the gathered performance and sizing information information is sent to the Virtual SAN Assessment Portal. It is extremely important to highlight that the tool does NOT collect or stores content any customer sensitive data anywhere or is it sent to the portal at anytime. The gathered results can also be exported into spreadsheets that can be utilized for further local analysis.

For details on the security aspects and privacy features of the Virtual SAN Assessment Tool, please refer to the VMware Infrastructure Planner Security white paper. The paper can be downloaded directly from the link below.

VMware Infrastructure Planner Security White Paper

The Virtual SAN Assessment Tool performs two types of assessments which are accessible from the portal. The two analysis are Environment Analysis and Storage CAPEX Savings.

Environment Analysis

The environmental analysis is performed to identify all of the virtual machines that are suitable candidates for Virtual SAN and for which architecture is the absolute best-fit either Hybrid or All-Flash. This part of the analysis should be run for the recommended period of seven days in which the tool will gather vSCSI traces (I/O patterns) from running virtual machines that are hosted on existing vSphere infrastructures with traditional or legacy storage arrays (NAS/SAN). All of the running virtual machines are evaluated in order to accurately identify the sizing requirements from a workload perspective. The virtual machines metrics that are collected and presented as part of the assessment are active working sets, write buffer sizes, minimum usable capacity, peak cache sizes, and maximum usable capacity.

To determine the suitable Virtual SAN architecture (Hybrid or All-Flash) for virtual machines and their workload the tool uses a set of proprietary algorithms to run several practical exercises ranging from cache simulation on the virtual machines workloads in order to predict read cache hit rates for workloads on Virtual SAN. In order to get a 90% hit rate for a given I/O pattern, the algorithms determines how much cache is required for the virtual machine’s workloads. By adding up the read cache sizes of all the running virtual machines, the tool can identify the cluster’s wide cache requirements and provide accurate Virtual SAN cluster design recommendations.

The Virtual SAN recommended sizing best practice for the caching tier is based on a minimum of 10% of capacity tier usable capacity. If this value is greater than the sum of all the read caches, then the tool ends up recommending that value for the total cluster wide cache size. The tool gathers all of the values and metrics and then normalizes the data in order to provide accurate and detailed sizing recommendations.

Storage CAPEX Savings

Virtual SAN is designed to enable rapid provisioning of storage directly from vSphere Web Client with a few simple clicks, without the need of LUNs or volumes. As a self-tuning system, Virtual SAN optimizes itself to deliver the right capacity, performance and availability SLAs through policy based on the requirements of each virtual machine. From within the Storage CAPEX Savings assessment section, the Virtual SAN TCO and Sizing Calculator is accessible.

Virtual SAN TCO and Sizing Calculator

The Virtual SAN TCO and Sizing Calculator allows customers to review the Virtual SAN cluster sizing recommendations gathered through the environment analysis, and the findings and recommendations are automatically imported onto the Virtual SAN TCO and Sizing Calculator. Here customers can review the recommendations made by the tool based on the results gathered by assessments. Customers can also modify the inputs that have been automatically populated by the Virtual SAN Assessment Tool in order to make adjustments to accommodate comparison with other solutions or configurations.

All of the automatically imported data from the Virtual SAN Assessment Tool is displayed on the Virtual SAN TCO and Sizing Calculator across four major sections. As mentioned above, the inputs can be customized on a per section basis a needed.

Sizing Input Section

Presents the following inputs and sections: environmental requirements, ready node configuration, virtualization platform type, number of virtual machines and usable capacity required, virtual machines sizing aggregate results.

Sizing Results Section

Presents the complete picture of the assessments recommendation. Literally! as every aspect of the Virtual SAN cluster design and sizing recommendation are presented in graphical dashboard including number of hosts, number of caching devices per host, size of the cashing devices, total storage capacity in the cluster, number of persistent devices, number of max Virtual SAN component count, estimated max IOPS supported in the cluster, disk usage distribution, server configuration of selected performance.

TCO Inputs Section

Presents the following inputs and sections: Overall TCO Period, License & Storage Solutions, OPEX Assumptions, Virtual SAN License, Current/Alternative storage solution configuration, Labor cost OPEX, VSAN Specific task savings, Power and Cooling OPEX.

TCO Results Section

Presents the following inputs and sections: OPEX assumptions, CAPEX results, configuration summary, 5- years TCO results, graphical representation, first year CAPEX metrics, 5 year TCO metrics.

TCO Results Graphical Representation Section

Presents the following inputs and sections: VSAN Savings by year, TCO without VSAN. The tool also provides the ability to download the graphical representation of the assessment directly in Powerpoint format.

There is no denying the Virtual SAN Assessment Tool and its seamless integration with the Virtual SAN TCO and Sizing Calculator deliver a one-stop shop usability and manageability solution for Virtual SAN. Just about ever possible configuration option with the justifiable CAPEX and TCO are accurately presented based on actual data.

It’s time to get your Virtual SAN evaluation and assessment started and sorted out the right and accurate way. You can almost say that this bad boy is the usability and manageability silver bullet.

To get started contact your local VMware SE and request access to the portal. It’s Free!!!!! 

In the meantime VMware partners can begin helping customers by going to the portal link below:

Virtual SAN Assessment Tool Portal

– Enjoy

For future updates on Virtual SAN (VSAN), vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVol) and other Storage and Availability technologies, as well as vSphere Integrated OpenStack (VIO), and Cloud-Native Apps (CNA) be sure to follow me on Twitter: @PunchingClouds