Best practices for vSAN implementations using Dell PERC H730 or FD332-PERC storage controllers

Products

• VMware vSAN
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the best practices for implementing vSAN using Dell PERC H730 or FD332-PERC storage controllers.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
VMware vSAN 6.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSAN 6.2.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSAN 6.5.x
VMware vSAN 6.7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0
VMware vSAN 6.6.x
VMware vSAN 6.0.x
VMware vSAN 7.0.x

Resolution

General best practices

 

Note: VMware recommends you follow these best practices to avoid a vSAN cluster failure.

• Ensure that the driver and firmware version in use is compliant per the VMware Compatibility Guide for vSAN (VCG).
• Ensure that all drives are Dell supported drives that are validated for vSAN, and that all Dell firmware updates are applied to these drives.
  
  For assistance with this verification process, contact Dell support.
  
  Disclaimer: VMware is not responsible for the reliability of any data, opinions, advice, or statements made on third-party websites. Inclusion of such links does not imply that VMware endorses, recommends, or accepts any responsibility for the content of such sites.
• This article also includes links to the VCG for all applicable controllers, including the PERC H730 and FD332-PERC controllers.
• Review and implement the recommendations outlined in Best practices when using vSAN and non-vSAN disks with the same storage controller

PERC H730
FD332-PERC(Dual ROC)
FD332-PERC(Single ROC)

Additional Information

SAS or SATA Controller Personality and Disk Config Mode
For related information on Dell H730 controllers, see Deployment guidelines for running VMware vSAN and VMware vSphere VMFS datastores on a Dell H730 controller with the lsi_mr3 driver.

If best-practice recommendations are not followed, the vSAN cluster may fail with an unexpected disk failure declaration. One or more behaviors may manifest in the vSAN environment:

• When vSAN is under load, you see that vSAN status as Unhealthy:
  
• Latency-related alarms may be triggered.
• In the ESXi host /var/log/vmkernel.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  WARNING: lsi_mr3: fusionReset:2565: megaraid_sas: Hardware critical error, returning FAILED.
  WARNING: ScsiPath: 7133: Set retry timeout for failed TaskMgmt abort for CmdSN 0x0, status Failure, path vmhba0:C0:T0:L0