{"id":443,"date":"2016-05-02T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ithinkvirtual.com\/?p=443"},"modified":"2018-02-10T10:06:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T15:06:31","slug":"creating-a-single-node-vsan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ithinkvirtual.com\/2016\/05\/02\/creating-a-single-node-vsan\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Single-Node VSAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating a Single-Node VSAN<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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Many of us homelab enthusiasts tend to build “whitebox” systems from spare PC parts and a few internal hard drives for local storage that we’ve either ordered or had laying around in order install ESXi and run a single-node lab environment. \u00a0VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) enables the ability to build a local SAN environment utilizing the local hard drives in the host. \u00a0The only downside\/caveat is that you need a minimum of (3) ESXi hosts in a cluster to enable and configure VSAN. \u00a0Bummer!<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Well, thanks to some very smart people in the community, there is a way to create a VSAN on your single-node host! \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Keep in mind that this is not supported by VMware and is recommended for testing purposes only and should not be done in a production environment\u00a0so use\u00a0at your own risk.<\/p>\r\n

I will mention that this topic has been covered by other bloggers\u00a0(one of my favorites,\u00a0William Lam<\/a>, and a few others…) in the community but for my own knowledge and sharing, I decided to write this post detailing how I configured this in my environment.<\/p>\r\n

Below, I will show you how to configure a hybrid and an all-flash VSAN on your ESXi host. \u00a0Again, I remind you that running a single-node VSAN is not supported by VMware and you run the risk losing all your data in the event of a\u00a0disaster scenario (system crash, etc.) \u00a0Please be sure to\u00a0understand the risks when\u00a0deciding to use this in your own home lab.<\/p>\r\n

Prerequisites:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n