Configure VMware File Sharing with VMware vSAN File Service running on top of vSAN object storage

VMware vSAN File Service is a solution that allows running your enterprise file shares on top of VMware vSAN object storage. It allows having a solution that inherits the features, strengths, and capabilities of vSAN object storage for your file shares, including Storage Based Policy Management (SPBM). These features allow very granular control and management of the file shares in the environment.

VMware vSAN File Service is presented to the vSAN cluster using containers that provide the endpoints for connectivity for storage protocols such as SMB, NFSv3 and NFSv4.1. These specialized containers are provisioned using a special OVA appliance that vCenter Server pulls down as part of the creation process. It automatically spins up the VMs and underlying containers so this is not something you have to manually manage or configure.

The process involves setting aside IP addresses to use for the special File Service VMs, creating DNS records, and having your Active Directory connection information ready for connecting the vSAN File Services to Active Directory to use Kerberos authentication.


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Introduction - 0:00
What is vSAN File Service? - 0:52
Interesting containerized architecture - 3:10
Getting started configuring vSAN File Service - 3:57
Enabling vSAN File Service - 4:40
Launching the Configure File Service Wizard - 4:50
Configuring the file service domain, DNS servers, DNS suffixes, Directory service - 6:10
Configuring the basic networking, including Network, protocol, subnet mask, and gateway - 7:40
Configuring your IP Pool - 8:15
Finalize your configuration and configure vSAN File Service - 9:00
After configuration, a look at the ESX agents - File Service VMs - 9:20
Creating the vSAN File Service file share - 9:50
Starting the Create File Share wizard - 10:15
Review and configure the new file share - 10:55
Viewing the newly created file share and viewing options - 11:15
Concluding thoughts and wrapping up - 11:45

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Hey Brandon, do you have any ideas on how to automate creation of nfs shares with something like Ansible?

[thorr]

Is it possible to create snapshots using PowerShell, and as an end user, see the snapshot folders under the mount point and make copies of your old data if needed, similar to copying from snapshots on a NetApp?

[tonycaveirametal]

How performant can be vsan file services with nfs protocol, can it be scoped applications which require more than 5000 IOPS?

[JaiGaneshJG]

Can we export these file systems to external vms or servers out side of vsan cluster??

[Moodyhammer]

Great video, thank you for excellent quality of the process. I am assuming a File service can only be on one network. We can create multiple FS clusters with different networks?

[g.s.]

it would be nice to have a couple of video where you teach how to configure a single esxi server with vsphere and vsan just for noobs that do not have 3 server for a cluster. many of us have one server only and we try to learn working on it.

thx

[mannan]

@11.35 the shared folder path. is the share owner the first node, can it be vmotioned to any other node or it is static to node1