New vSAN Setup Review / Confirmation

[hammyb]

Hello,

This is my first post and first setup of vSAN (free). I was looking to get some advice and confirmation on the following:

Current Setup
2 Nodes (each server has the following);
Windows Server 2025 DC
VSAN running on the Linux virtual machines
CPU - AMD EPYC 9355
RAM - 512TB
4 x 7.68TB NVMe PCIe5 (all pass directly through to the vsan VM as per the documentation)

Network:
10GB (HB/DATA), jumbo frames enabled, direct connection to each server (no switch in between)
25GB (Sync), jumbo frames enabled, direct connection to each server

Storage Pool:
Software RAID / RAID 10 (Raw Capacity 27.94TB / Usable capacity 13.97TB) - high availability

- The initial sync took about 5 1/2 hours.
- I let the sync run, once the sync completed, one storage pool showed as online and the other pool reported as checking (another 5 1/2 hours).
- The check completed and both storage pools reported as being online.
- Created a new HA LUN via PS script, reported as limited availability for about 20 min and then switch to HA. During that time, one of the storage pools went back into check w/ an estimated completion time of around 10 hours.

Is the above normal? Just need confirmation as I can't seem to find any documentation re: the expected sync / check times.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Welcome to StarWind Forum.
CVM is one of the ways to configure the system. For RAID10 and 1, I'd suggest using Windows-based VSAN with Storage Spaces. For parity RAIDs, use CVM. This being said, I think it might be better to reconfigure the system with Windows-based VSAN and Storage Spaces array for storage.
Is hardware RAID possible?

Is the above normal?

Yes, I guess. It depends on how large the HA device is.
-StarWind HA devices on top of a Storage Spaces array will have slowed synchronization (i.e., full hash sync) to avoid the load causing BSODs.
-MDADM check does not limit further configuration. True, it entails a performance drop, but you could proceed with further configuration.
-To skip initial sync, check this out viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6852&p=38686&hilit= ... ps1#p38686

Out of the box, a software RAID might not be fast. It might require additional CPUs added to the VM and more RAM assigned to the CVM. While running RAID operations like checking or initial sync of the RAID, the duration of this process depends on how well the discard is handled by the storage. The same applies to FS formatting.

Just need confirmation as I can't seem to find any documentation re: the expected sync / check times.

There is no documentation, as the duration of full synchronization depends on the setup config and varies from setup to setup. Initial synchronization can be skipped.

Please make sure that the networking is redundant.
Good luck with your project

[sledderacrobat]

Work well!