Storage controllers used for vSAN must be fully supported as per the vSAN Compatibility Guide
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Storage controllers used for vSAN must be fully supported as per the vSAN Compatibility Guide

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Article ID: 424920

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

The vSAN Health Service proactively monitors the environment to identify storage controllers or disks running unsupported driver and firmware combinations.

It is critical to understand that general vSphere (ESXi) certification does not imply vSAN support. While a Host Bus Adapter (HBA), HDD, or SSD may be certified for standard ESXi storage presentation—including RAID 1 or RAID 5 virtual disks—they may still be strictly unsupported for use within a vSAN cluster. vSAN requires specific hardware validation to handle its unique distributed I/O and consistency requirements.

Key Distinctions

  • vSphere Certified: The device can safely present a LUN to ESXi for VMFS or RDM use.

  • vSAN Certified: The device, its firmware, and its driver have been stress-tested for vSAN’s specific queuing and data integrity protocols.

  • RAID vs. Passthrough: While standard ESXi supports hardware RAID, vSAN (OSA) strongly recommends "Pass-through" or "JBOD" mode for controllers to allow vSAN direct control over individual physical disks.

 

Environment

VMware vSAN (All Versions)

Resolution

To ensure the stability and supportability of a vSAN environment, it is critical to adhere to the strict hardware requirements defined by the vSAN Compatibility Guide (VCG). Standard vSphere certification is insufficient for vSAN-specific workloads.

vSAN Hardware Support & Compliance Statement

Maintaining a vSAN environment on uncertified hardware introduces significant operational risk. All storage controllers and disks must be validated against the specific ESXi version in use.

Impact of Non-Compliance:

  • Performance & Stability: Devices not on the HCL frequently exhibit driver/firmware mismatches, leading to high latency, I/O timeouts, or controller resets.

  • Data Integrity: Incompatible hardware may fail to handle vSAN’s specific I/O patterns, potentially resulting in Data Unavailability (DU) or permanent Data Loss (DL).

  • Supportability: VMware Technical Support cannot provide assistance for vSAN clusters running on unsupported configurations. If a component is not on the HCL for your specific ESXi build, the environment is officially in an unsupported state

 

 

 

Additional Information

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