One Stop Virtualization Shop
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario
with VMware vSphere 6.5 MARCH 2019
TECHNICAL PAPER
TECHNICAL PAPER 2
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Trademarks
“StarWind”, “StarWind Software” and the StarWind and the StarWind Software logos are registered
trademarks of StarWind Software. “StarWind LSFS” is a trademark of StarWind Software which may be
registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.
Changes
The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While
reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy,
StarWind Software assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from
the use of the information contained herein. StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in
the product design without reservation and without notification to its users.
Technical Support and Services
If you have questions about installing or using this software, check this and other documents first -
you will find answers to most of your questions on the Technical Papers webpage or in StarWind
Forum. If you need further assistance, please contact us.
In 2018, StarWind was named a Niche player in Gartner Magic Quadrant for
Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and
does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other
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implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose
About StarWind
StarWind is a pioneer in virtualization and a company that participated in the development of this
technology from its earliest days. Now the company is among the leading vendors of software and
hardware hyper-converged solutions. The company’s core product is the years-proven StarWind
Virtual SAN, which allows SMB and ROBO to benefit from cost-efficient hyperconverged IT
infrastructure. Having earned a reputation of reliability, StarWind created a hardware product line and
is actively tapping into hyperconverged and storage appliances market. In 2016, Gartner named
StarWind “Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms” following the success and popularity of StarWind
HyperConverged Appliance. StarWind partners with world-known companies: Microsoft, VMware,
Veeam, Intel, Dell, Mellanox, Citrix, Western Digital, etc.
Copyright ©2009-2019 StarWind Software Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written consent of StarWind Software.
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TECHNICAL PAPER 3
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................4
Solution Diagram ...............................................................................................................................5
Preparing Hypervisor for StarWind Deployment .......................................................................6
Creating Datacenter ....................................................................................................................... 11
Preparing StarWind Virtual Machines ........................................................................................ 17
Downloading, Installing and Registering the Software .......................................................... 21
Provisioning Storage with StarWind VSAN ................................................................................ 36
Preparing Datastores ..................................................................................................................... 51
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 59
Contacts ............................................................................................................................................ 60
TECHNICAL PAPER 4
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Introduction
VMware requires a shared storage to guarantee the data safety and allow the virtual
machines migration. It enables continuous application availability and eliminates any
single point of failure within IT environment. VMware users have two options when
choosing the shared storage:
• Hyperconverged solutions allow sharing the same hardware resources for the
application (i.e. hypervisor, database) and the shared storage, thus decreasing
the TCO and achieving the outstanding performance results.
• Compute and Storage Separated solutions keep compute and storage layers
separately from each other, thus making the maintenance easier, increasing the
hardware usage efficiency and allowing users to build the system accurately for
solving the tasks.
This guide is intended for the experienced VMware and Windows system
administrators and IT professionals who would like to configure StarWind Virtual
SAN® Hyperсonverged solution for vSphere deployments. It provides a step-by-step
guidance on configuring a 3-node vSphere cluster using StarWind Virtual SAN® to
convert the local storage of the ESXi hosts into a fault-tolerant shared storage resource
for ESXi.
The document describes the configuration using Heartbeat failover strategy.
A full set of up-to-date technical documentation can always be found here, or by
pressing the Help button in StarWind Management Console.
For any technical inquiries please visit our online community, Frequently Asked
Questions page, or use the support form to contact our technical support department.
https://www.starwind.com/resource-library/http://www.starwindsoftware.com/technical-papershttps://www.starwind.com/forums/https://www.starwindcom/starwind-faqhttps://www.starwindcom/starwind-faqhttps://www.starwind.com/support-formhttp://www.starwindsoftware.com/support-form
TECHNICAL PAPER 5
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Solution Diagram
The diagram bellow illustrates the network and storage configuration of the resulting solution
described in the guide.
TECHNICAL PAPER 6
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Preparing Hypervisor for StarWind Deployment
Configuring Networks
Configure network interfaces on each node to make sure that Synchronization and
iSCSI/StarWind Heartbeat interfaces are in different subnets and connected physically according
to the network diagram above. In this document, 172.16.11.x, 172.16.12.x, 172.16.13.x subnets
are used for iSCSI/StarWind Heartbeat traffic, while 172.16.21.x, 172.16.22.x, 172.16.23.x subnets
are used for the Synchronization traffic. All the actions below should be applied to each ESXi
server.
1. Go to Networking -> Virtual Switches and click Add standard virtual switch. Type
vSwitch Name, set MTU to 9000 and specify proper uplink. Create four vSwitches: two
for the iSCSI/ StarWind Heartbeat channel and two for the Synchronization channel.
TECHNICAL PAPER 7
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
TECHNICAL PAPER 8
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
2. Create two VMkernel ports one per each iSCSI/ StarWind Heartbeat channel at
Networking -> VMkernel NICS. Create new Port groups while adding VMkernel ones.
Specify the static IPv4 address for each VMkernel.
TECHNICAL PAPER 9
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
3. Add four more Virtual Machine Port Groups: two more for iSCSI/StarWind Heartbeat
channel and two for Synchronization channel. Assign vSwitch used for specified traffic at
Networking -> Port groups tab.
TECHNICAL PAPER 10
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
4. Repeat the steps 1-3 for any other links intended for Synchronization and iSCSI/Heartbeat
traffic on all ESXi nodes. Assign the corresponding subnets to VMkernels on the second
and third hosts.
TECHNICAL PAPER 11
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Creating Datacenter
NOTE: Before creating Datacenter, the vCenter server should be deployed.
5. Connect to vCenter, select the Getting Started tab, click on Create Datacenter and
enter Datacenter name.
TECHNICAL PAPER 12
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
TECHNICAL PAPER 13
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Creating Cluster
6. Click the Datacenter Getting Started tab and Create a cluster. Enter the name of the
cluster and click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 14
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Adding Hosts to Cluster
7. Open the Cluster tab and click Add a host.
8. Enter the name or IP address of the ESXi host and enter the administrative account.
TECHNICAL PAPER 15
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
9. Lockdown mode is disabled by default.
TECHNICAL PAPER 16
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
10. Apply the license by clicking Home -> Administration -> Licensing. Verify the settings.
TECHNICAL PAPER 17
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Preparing StarWind Virtual Machines
11. Create Virtual Machines (VMs) on each ESXi host with Windows Server 2016 (2012 R2) and
StarWind VSAN installed.
Make sure that server hardware used for StarWind Virtual SAN deployment satisfies the
requirements listed below.
Minimum requirements:
RAM: 4 GB (plus the size of the RAM cache if it is planned to be used);
CPUs: 4 virtual processors with 2 GHz reserved;
Hard disk 1: 100 GB for OS (recommended)
The location of StarWind VM on the local drive (Boss card, SATA DOM, etc.) makes it possible to
connect the underlying storage to StarWind VM as RDM disk;
Hard disk 2: depends on the storage volume to be used as shared storage.
Each hard disk should be Thick Provisioned Eager Zeroed.
NOTE: Each hard disk should be Thick Provisioned Eager Zeroed.
Network adapter 1: Management
Network adapter 2: iSCSI for connection from first to second node
Network adapter 3: iSCSI for connection from first to third node
Network adapter 4: Sync for connection from first to second node
Network adapter 5: Sync for connection from first to third node
NOTE: All the network adapters should be configured as VMXNET 3. It is recommended to set
jumbo frames to 9000 on vSwitches and VMkernel ports for iSCSI and Synchronization traffic.
Additionally, vMotion can be enabled on VMkernel ports.
NOTE: In this technical guide, a Windows Server 2016-based virtual machine created to run
StarWind Virtual SAN is called StarWind Virtual Machine (StarWind VM). Active Directory Domain
Services role can be added on StarWind VM if necessary. Thus, it can serve as a domain
controller.
NOTE: It is not recommended to make backups and snapshots of StarWind VM with
synchronous replication feature inside as this can pause the VM operation. Pausing the VMs
while StarWind service is under load may lead to split-brain issues and data corruption.
TECHNICAL PAPER 18
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Configuring StarWind VMs autostart/shutdown
12. Login to vCenter Web Client and configure the StarWind VMs autostart policy on each
ESXi hosts in the Configure -> VM Startup/Shutdown tab.
TECHNICAL PAPER 19
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
13. Click Edit to configure the VM Startup/Shutdown policies. Check Automatically start
and stop the virtual machines with the system option. Select Guest shutdown
action as the shutdown action. Move StarWind VMs and vCenter VM up to setup
Automatic Startup. Click OK to proceed.
14. Complete the actions on each ESXi host.
TECHNICAL PAPER 20
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
15. Turn on vSphere HA, click Cluster -> Configure -> Edit.
16. Start the StarWind VMs, install OS and StarWind Virtual SAN.
TECHNICAL PAPER 21
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Downloading, Installing and Registering the Software
17. Download the StarWind setup executable file from StarWind website by following the link:
https://www.starwind.com/registration-starwind-virtual-san
18. Launch the downloaded setup file on the server where StarWind Virtual SAN or one of
its components should be installed. The setup wizard will appear.
19. Read and accept the License Agreement. Click Next to continue.
https://www.starwind.com/registration-starwind-virtual-san
TECHNICAL PAPER 22
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
20. Carefully read the information about new features and improvements. Red text indicates
warnings for users who are updating existing software installations. Click Next to
continue.
21. Specify one of the following installation types and the components which should be
installed:
• Full installation (recommended):
Full installation includes both StarWind Service and the StarWind Management Console
elements. It allows users to manage storage resources on the machine where StarWind
Virtual SAN is installed, as well as manage other StarWind Virtual SAN installations on the
network.
• StarWind Virtual SAN Service:
This installation type is designed for Core OS editions. StarWind Service is the “core” of
the software. It enables the creation of iSCSI targets as well as sharing virtual and physical
devices. StarWind Management Console installed on any Windows computer or virtual
machine in the network can manage the service.
TECHNICAL PAPER 23
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
• StarWind Management Console:
StarWind Management Console is the Graphic User Interface (GUI) part of the software
that controls and monitors all storage-related operations (e.g. allows users to create
targets and devices on the available Virtual SAN servers). Once installed, StarWind
Management Console is connected to the servers running StarWind Virtual SAN.
TECHNICAL PAPER 24
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
22. Specify Start Menu Folder and click Next to continue.
23. Enable the checkbox to create a desktop icon. Click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 25
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
24. The appeared prompt will ask to request a time-limited fully functional evaluation key, a
FREE version key, or a fully-commercial license key sent to you with the purchase of
StarWind Virtual SAN. Select the appropriate option.
25. Click Browse to locate the license file and click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 26
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
26. Review the licensing information. Click Next to apply the license key.
27. Verify the installation settings. Click Back to make any changes or Install to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 27
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
28. Click Finish to complete the installation process. Optionally, StarWind Management
Console can be launched by ticking the corresponding checkbox.
29. Repeat the steps above on all StarWind Virtual Machines.
TECHNICAL PAPER 28
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Configuring Automatic Storage Rescan
For each ESXi host, configure an automatic storage rescan.
30. Log in to StarWind VM and install vSphere PowerCLI on each StarWind Virtual Machine by
adding the PowerShell module (Internet connectivity is required). To do so, run the
following command in PowerShell:
Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -AllowClobber
NOTE: In case of using Windows Server 2012 R2, online installation of PowerCLI requires
Windows Management Framework 5.1 or later version available on VMs. Windows Management
Framework 5.1 can be downloaded by following the link:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=839516
31. Open PowerShell and change the Execution Policy to Unrestricted by running the
following command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=839516
TECHNICAL PAPER 29
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
32. Create the PowerShell script which will perform an HBA rescan on the hypervisor host.
Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI $counter = 0 if ($counter -eq 0){ Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction ignore -Confirm:$false| Out-Null } $ESXiHost = "IP address" $ESXiUser = "Login" $ESXiPassword = "Password" Connect-VIServer $ESXiHost -User $ESXiUser -Password $ESXiPassword | Out-Null Get-VMHostStorage $ESXiHost -RescanAllHba | Out-Null Get-ScsiLun -VMHost $ESXiHost -LunType disk | Where-Object Vendor -EQ "STARWIND"| Where-Object ConsoleDeviceName -NE " " | Set-ScsiLun -MultipathPolicy RoundRobin -CommandsToSwitchPath 1 | Out-Null Disconnect-VIServer $ESXiHost -Confirm:$false $file = Get-Content "$PSScriptRoot\rescan_script.ps1" if ($file[1] -ne "`$counter = 1") { $file[1] = "`$counter = 1" $file > "$PSScriptRoot\rescan_script.ps1" }
In the appropriate lines, specify the IP address and login credentials of the ESXi host on which
the current StarWind VM is stored and running:
$ESXiHost1 = “IP address”
$ESXiUser = “Login”
$ESXiPassword = “Password”
Save the script as rescan_script.ps1 to the root of the C:\ drive of the VM.
33. Perform the configuration steps above on the partner nodes.
TECHNICAL PAPER 30
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
34. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Task Scheduler -> Create Basic
Task and follow the wizard steps:
35. Specify the task name, select When a specific event is logged option, and click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 31
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
36. Select Application in the Log dropdown menu, type StarWindService as the event
source and 788 as event ID. Click Next.
37. Select the Start a Program option as the action the task should perform and click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 32
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
38. Type powershell.exe in the Program/script field. In the Add arguments field, type:
“ -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoLogo -NonInteractive -NoProfile -WindowStyle Hidden -File
C:\rescan_script.ps1 ”
39. Click Finish to exit the Wizard.
TECHNICAL PAPER 33
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
40. Configure the task to run with the highest privileges by enabling the corresponding
checkbox at the bottom of the window. Make sure that Run whether user is logged on
or not option is selected.
41. Switch to the Triggers tab. Verify that the trigger on event 788 is set up correctly.
TECHNICAL PAPER 34
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
42. Click New and add other triggers for Event ID 782, 257, 773, and 817.
43. All the added triggers should look like in the picture below.
TECHNICAL PAPER 35
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
44. Switch to the Actions tab and verify the task parameters.
Press OK and type in the credentials for the user whose rights will be used to execute the
command.
45. Perform the same steps on all StarWind VMs, specifying the corresponding settings.
TECHNICAL PAPER 36
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Provisioning Storage with StarWind VSAN
Creating StarWind HA devices (DS1, DS2)
46. Open StarWind Management Console and click on the Add Device (advanced) button.
TECHNICAL PAPER 37
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
47. Select Hard disk device as the type of device to be created. Click Next to continue.
48. Select the Virtual disk option as a disk device type and click Next to continue.
TECHNICAL PAPER 38
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
49. Specify virtual disk Name, Location, and Size. Click Next to continue.
50. Specify Virtual Disk Options.
NOTE: Sector size should be 512 bytes when using ESXi.
TECHNICAL PAPER 39
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
51. Define the RAM caching policy and specify the cache size in corresponding units.
NOTE: It is recommended to assign 1 GB of L1 cache in Write-Back or Write-Through mode per 1
TB of storage capacity. The cache size should correspond to the storage working set of the
servers.
52. Define the Flash caching policy and the cache size. Click Next to continue.
NOTE: The recommended size of the L2 cache is 10% of the initial StarWind device capacity.
TECHNICAL PAPER 40
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
53. Specify Target Parameters. Select the Target Name checkbox to enter a custom name
of the target if required. Otherwise, the name will be generated automatically in
accordance with the specified target alias. Click Next to continue.
54. Click Create to add a new device and attach it to the target and Finish to close the
wizard.
55. Right-click on the recently created device and select Replication Manager from the
shortcut menu.
TECHNICAL PAPER 41
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
56. Click Add replica.
57. Select Synchronous “Two-Way” Replication as a replication mode. Click Next to
proceed.
TECHNICAL PAPER 42
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
58. Specify partner host name, IP address and port number. Click Next to proceed.
TECHNICAL PAPER 43
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
59. Select the Failover Strategy policy.
NOTE: With Heartbeat failover strategy, one node remains active even in case of all partner
nodes failure. With Node Majority failover strategy, the system can tolerate failure of only one
node. If two nodes fail, the third one will become unavailable to the clients’ requests.
This document describes the creation of an HA device with Heartbeat failover strategy.
The creation of an HA device with Node Majority failover strategy is covered in the following
document: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/creating-highly-available-device-
using-node-majority-failover-strategy
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/creating-highly-available-device-using-node-majority-failover-strategyhttps://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/creating-highly-available-device-using-node-majority-failover-strategy
TECHNICAL PAPER 44
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
60. Select Create new Partner Device and click Next.
61. Select the device location and specify target name if required. Otherwise, the name is
generated automatically in accordance with the specified target alias. Click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 45
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
62. Click Change Network Settings.
63. Specify interfaces for Synchronization and Heartbeat channels. Click OK->Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 46
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
64. Select Synchronize from existing Device. Click Next to continue.
.
65. Click Create Replica.
66. Click Finish to close the wizard.
TECHNICAL PAPER 47
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
67. Add one more replica to the third StarWind VM.
68. Specify a partner hostname, IP address and port number. Click Next to proceed.
TECHNICAL PAPER 48
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
69. Create a new partner device or select an existing device. Click Next.
70. Click Change network settings.
TECHNICAL PAPER 49
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
71. Click Create Replica.
72. Click Finish to close the wizard.
TECHNICAL PAPER 50
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
73. The successfully added devices will appear in the StarWind Management Console.
Repeat the steps above to create other virtual disks that will be used as datastores.
TECHNICAL PAPER 51
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Preparing Datastores
Adding Discover Portals
74. To connect the previously created devices to the ESXi host, click Storage Adapters and
+, select Software iSCSI adapter and the Enabled option to enable Software iSCSI
storage adapter.
75. On the same page, go below and click Targets tab. Click Add to add dynamic targets.
TECHNICAL PAPER 52
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
76. In iSCSI Server field, enter the iSCSI IP address of the first StarWind node and add other
IP addresses of the second and third StarWind nodes from the virtual local networks
172.16.11.*. Click Save configuration.
77. Rescan all storage adapters. The result should look like in the image below. Now, the
previously created StarWind devices are visible.
78. Repeat all the steps from this section on all three ESXi nodes, specifying corresponding IP
addresses for the iSCSI subnet.
TECHNICAL PAPER 53
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Creating datastores
79. Right-click on Datacenter ->Storage ->New Datastore.
80. Select VMFS Datastore and click Next. On the next step, type the Datastore name,
select the previously discovered StarWind device, and click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 54
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
81. Select the VMFS 6 file system. Click Next.
82. Enter Datastore size. Click Next.
TECHNICAL PAPER 55
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
83. Verify the settings. Click Finish.
84. Add another Datastore (DS2) in the same way but select the second device for the second
datastore.
85. Verify that the storages (DS1, DS2) are connected to all hosts. Otherwise, rescan the
storage adapter.
TECHNICAL PAPER 56
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
86. Path Selection Policy changing for Datastores from Most Recently Used (VMware) to
Round Robin (VMware) has been already added into the Rescan Script, and this action
is performed automatically. For checking and changing this parameter manually, the hosts
should be connected to vCenter.
87. Multipathing configuration can be checked only in vCenter. To check it, click the
Configure button, select the Storage Devices tab, select the device, and click the Edit
Multipathing button.
88. Select Round Robin (VMware) MPIO policy.
TECHNICAL PAPER 57
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Additional Tweaks
89. On each ESXi host open Configure tab, switch to Security Profile and then click Edit to
configure Services.
90. Select SSH. Click start service and set up Startup Policy on Start, then select Start and
Stop with host.
TECHNICAL PAPER 58
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
91. Connect to the host using SSH client (e.g. Putty).
92. Check the storage device list and get UID of StarWind device(s) using the following
command:
esxcli storage nmp device list | grep STARWIND
93. For devices, adjust Round Robin size from 1000 to 1 using the following command:
esxcli storage nmp psp roundrobin deviceconfig set --type=iops --iops=1 --
device=STARWIND_UID
NOTE. Paste UID of StarWind device in the end of the command. Also, this parameter has been
already added into the Rescan Script and this action is performed automatically.
94. Repeat the steps above on each host for each datastore.
TECHNICAL PAPER 59
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Conclusion
This technical paper covers the configuration of the StarWind Virtual SAN for Hyperconverged 3-
node scenario with VMware 6.5. In this setup, all virtual machines are stored on the shared
storage that is provided by StarWind. VMware HA provides VMs with redundancy, while StarWind
is responsible for the storage uptime. The combination of StarWind shared storage and VMware
ensures high availability for applications and data across the entire virtualized environment.
Using StarWind VSAN, the local storage of both ESXi hosts is converted into a fault-tolerant
shared storage synchronously ''mirrored'' between the nodes. Virtual SAN nested inside a VM
and running on both ESXi hosts ensures data safety and maintains continuous application
availability.
TECHNICAL PAPER 60
StarWind Virtual SAN®
Hyperconverged 3-node Scenario with VMware vSphere 6.5
Contacts
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(Spain and Portugal)
Customer Support Portal:
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