vSAN Features

vSAN version vSAN 7.0 vSAN 7.0 U1 vSAN 7.0 U2 vSAN 7.0 U3 vSAN 8.0 (OSA) vSAN 8.0 (ESA) vSAN 8.0 U1(OSA) vSAN 8.0 U1(ESA) vSAN 8.0 U2(OSA) vSAN 8.0 U2(ESA)
Release Date April-2020 October-2020 March-2021 October-2021 November-2022 November-2022 March-2023 March-2023 TBD TBD
Category hybrid all-flash hybrid all-flash hybrid all-flash hybrid all-flash hybrid all-flash all-flash hybrid all-flash all-flash hybrid all-flash all-flash
In-Place Upgrades from OSA to ESA in vSAN 8 Management N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Per VM storage polices Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Per VMDK storage policies Management x x x x x x x x x x *1 x x x x x x
HTML5 vSphere Client Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN Health Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN Fault Domains Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Stretched cluster topology Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
2-node topology Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
2-node direct connect Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Cluster-based Deduplication and Compression (OSA) Space Efficiency x x x x x x x
Data resilience using RAID-5/6 erasure coding (OSA) Space Efficiency x x x x x x x x x x
Software checksum Security & Integrity x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
IOPS limit storage policy Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
ISCSI service Data Services x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
WSFC with vSAN iSCSI Data Services x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Stretch cluster local data resilience using RAID-1 Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Stretch cluster local data resilience using RAID-5/6 Resilience x x x x x x x x x x
Cluster-based Data-at-Rest encryption (OSA) Security & Integrity x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
PowerCLI Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN Aria Operations Dashboards Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Smart & partial repairs Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Manual resync throttling Management x x
Adaptive Resynchronization Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Reactive rebalance Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Proactive rebalance Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN Support Insight (Humbug) Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Mixed MTU with Witness Traffic Separation Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
TRIM/UNMAP VM Guest Support Space Efficiency x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Guided HCI cluster creation and extension Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Network Card Firmware/Driver HCL check Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Nested FD for Standard vSAN Cluster (RPQ only) Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
PowerCLI enhancement for vSAN Objects Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Upload/Download vmdk from vSAN Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Enhanced resync & capacity monitoring Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Parallel resynchronization Performance & Efficiency x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Performance metrics and troubleshooting utility Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN ISCSI online LUN resizing Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
CNS - Cloud Native Storage through deployment of First Class Disks Cloud Native Storage (CNS) x x x x x x x x x x *1 x x x x x x
vSAN File Services - NFS v3/4.1 on vSAN Data Services x x x x x x x x x x *1 x x *1 x x x
vLCM Unified Cluster Lifecycle management Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Improved Capacity view using SRM/VR Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN File Services - SMB on vSAN Data Services x x x x x x x x *1 x x *1 x x x
Disaggregation of vSAN HCI clusters to vSAN HCI clusters Disaggregation x x x x x x x x *1 x x x *2 x x x
CNS - vSAN Data Persistence Platform (DPp) Cloud Native Storage (CNS) x x x x x x x x *1 x x x x x x
CNS - vSAN Direct Configuration Cloud Native Storage (CNS) x x x x x x x x *1 x x x x x x
vSAN Shared Witness for 2-Node Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Cluster-based Compression-only (OSA) Space Efficiency x x x x N/A x N/A x N/A
Cluster-based Data-in-transit encryption Security & Integrity x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Support of secure wipe for storage devices Security & Integrity x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN IO Insight Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN "Reserved Capacity" Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Ability to override default gateway through the UI Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vLCM support for Lenovo Readynodes Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Durability components for planned maintenance events Resilience x x x x x x x x *1 x x x *3 x x x
Durability components for unplanned events Resilience x x x x x x *1 x x *1 x x x
Performance Monitoring vSAN Direct Integration Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN over RDMA Performance & Efficiency x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Disaggregation of vSAN HCI cluster to compute-only cluster Disaggregation x x x x x x *1 x x x x x *4
vSAN File Service support for 2-Node topologies Data Services x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN Native KMS integration Security & Integrity x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN Proactive-HA integration Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Stretch Cluster improvement DRS Awareness Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Stretch Cluster 20-20-1 cluster size support Scalability x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vLCM enhancement Hitachi Vantara / Lenovo ThinkAgile, Dell 14G Management x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Improvement network monitoring and supportability Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vSAN Performance monitoring improvements Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Improved alarms integration and usuability Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x x x
vLCM Driver & Firmware HCL validation for NVMe devices Management x x x x x x x x x x x
vLCM Update vSAN Witness host appliance Management x x x x x x x x x x x
I/O-Trip Analyzer / Network and Health Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x x x x x x
RDT checksum Resilience x x x x x x x x x x x
Proactive Insights Management x x x x x x x x x
Secondary levels of resilience in 2-Node topology (using RAID-1 or RAID-5) Resilience x x x x
Secondary levels of resilience in 2-Node topology (using RAID-1, RAID-5 or RAID-6) Resilience x x x
1.6TB Write Buffer Support (OSA only) Performance & Efficiency x N/A x N/A x N/A
Data resilience using RAID-5/6 erasure coding at performance level of RAID-1 Performance & Efficiency x x x
Adaptive RAID-5 supporting as few as three-host clusters Space Efficiency x x x
Highly CPU and space efficient, storage policy based compression Performance & Efficiency x x x
HIghly CPU efficient cluster based encryption services Performance & Efficiency x x x
Native scalable snapshots Performance & Efficiency x x x
Adaptive Network Traffic Shaping Performance & Efficiency x x x
Device level failure/maintenance domain of data Resilience x x x
Removal of dedicated cache devices for better TCO and servicability Performance & Efficiency x x x
Cross-cluster capacity sharing for Stretched Clusters Disaggregation x x x x x
Cross-cluster capacity sharing across vCenter Server Instances Disaggregation x x x x x
Namespace Object customized sizing Management x x x x x x
Skyline Health Scoring and Remediation Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x
High Resolution Performance monitoring Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x
VM I/O Trip Analyzer Task Scheduler Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x
Central storage of vSAN trace logs Health & Diagnostics x x x x x x
CNS - vSAN Data Persistence Platform (DPp) using common distributed switching Cloud Native Storage (CNS) x x x x x x
CNS - Thick provisioning of persistent volumes in vSAN Direct Configuration Cloud Native Storage (CNS) x x x x x x
ESA Adaptive Write Path Performance & Efficiency x x
ESA Optimized per object processing Performance & Efficiency x x
ESA Auto-Storage Policy Management for Default Storage Policies Management x x
ESA PowerCLI Integration Management x x
ESA Multibank for Adaptive Write path Performance & Efficiency x
ESA Adaptive Write path for disaggregated storage Performance & Efficiency x
ESA Support for up to 500 VMs per host Scalability x
ESA Auto-Policy Management one-click remediation Management x
ESA Prescriptive disk claim Management x
ESA Deep Rekey operation for clusters using Encryption Security & Integrity x
ESA Support for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Management x
Support for key expiration attribute by key providers Security & Integrity x x x
Top Contributors and hotspot detection Management x x x
I/O-Trip Analyzer for Stretched clusters Health & Diagnostics x x x
vSAN Witness traffic tagging in User Interface Management x x x
Disaggregation using vSAN Max Storage Clusters*5 Disaggregation x

*1 = Not available in intial releases of the vSAN ESA

The listing of vSAN Max in this matrix is to simply convey that it was introduced in the vSAN 8 U2 code base. The new vSAN Max offering will be licensed separately
from existing vSAN editions, and is not a part of the purchase of vSAN licensing (e.g. vSAN Advance, vSAN Enterprise, etc.). vSAN Max will be offered as a
subscription and planned to be licensed on a per tebibyte metric. A seperate vSAN Max feature matrix will be created at a later time. For the most up to date vSAN
Max pricing and packaging, please view the vSAN Licensing Guide