vSAN Policies, Storage Rules & Data Services Explained for 5V0-22.23 Mastery

 


VMware vSAN lies at the core of modern hyper-converged storage, enabling organizations to build scalable, policy-driven, and software-defined storage environments. For anyone preparing for the 5V0-22.23 – VMware vSAN Specialist v2 certification, mastering Storage Policies, Rules, and Data Services is essential. The exam heavily tests how well you understand these mechanisms and how they influence performance, availability, resilience, and efficiency.

This article breaks down the core components of vSAN’s policy-driven architecture so you can confidently apply them in real-world scenarios — and ace the exam.

1. Understanding vSAN Storage Policies: Foundation of vSAN Management

vSAN uses Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM), which allows administrators to define how a virtual machine’s data is stored. Instead of configuring storage manually, SPBM applies rules automatically.

A vSAN Storage Policy determines:

  • Availability (failure tolerance)

  • Performance characteristics

  • Space efficiency

  • Data placement

  • Use of RAID mechanisms

Every VM object — such as VMDKs, namespace objects, snapshots, and swap objects — adheres to a policy.

Exam Tip: vSAN policies are applied per-object, not per-datastore.

2. Key vSAN Storage Policy Rules You Must Know for 5V0-22.23

vSAN includes specific rules that define how data behaves in the cluster. These are crucial for your exam:

a. Failure Tolerance Method (FTM)

Determines how vSAN protects data:

  1. RAID-1 (Mirroring)

    • Best for performance

    • Higher capacity usage

  2. RAID-5 / RAID-6 (Erasure Coding)

    • Best for capacity efficiency

    • RAID-5: requires 4 hosts

    • RAID-6: requires 6 hosts

  3. RAID-1 + Witness (Stretched Cluster)

    • For cross-site protection

b. Failures to Tolerate (FTT)

Defines how many failures the system can withstand.

  • FTT=1 → 1 failure protection

  • FTT=2 → double protection

  • FTT=3 → high-availability clusters

Rule:
RAID-1 → requires 2 × FTT + 1 hosts
RAID-5/6 → requires 4 or 6 hosts minimum

c. Number of Disk Stripes per Object (Stripe Width)

Improves read/write performance by spreading components across disks.

  • Default = 1

  • Higher values improve parallelism

  • Useful for workloads needing faster throughput

d. Object Space Reservation (OSR)

Controls how much physical space is reserved.

  • 0% = thin provisioning

  • 100% = thick provisioning

e. Flash Read Cache Reservation (FRCR)

  • Only used for hybrid vSAN

  • Reserves cache space for read operations

Not used in all-flash configurations.

3. vSAN Data Services: Enhancing Storage Efficiency & Security

vSAN offers built-in data services to optimize performance and reduce cost. These services operate at the storage layer and are policy-driven.

a. Deduplication & Compression

  • Available on all-flash vSAN clusters

  • Reduces storage consumption significantly

  • Enabled at the cluster level (not per-object)

b. vSAN Encryption

Two types:

  1. vSAN Datastore Encryption

    • Encrypts data at rest

    • One key per disk

    • Requires external KMS

  2. vSAN Encryption for Data-in-Transit

    • Encrypts traffic between hosts

    • No KMS required

c. Checksum / Data Integrity

  • Protects against silent data corruption

  • vSAN verifies data during reads

  • Automatically corrects issues via redundancy

d. vSAN File Services

Enables SMB & NFS file shares using vSAN datastore capacity.

  • Useful for container workloads

  • Runs on vSAN-native protocol stack

e. iSCSI Target Service

Allows vSAN to present storage to external systems.

  • Not recommended for production workloads

  • Often appears in the exam in scenario questions

4. vSAN’s Intelligent Data Placement & Rebuild Logic

Understanding how vSAN places, moves, and repairs data is critical:

Rebuild Triggers

  • Host failure

  • Disk failure

  • Policy change

  • Object compliance check

vSAN aims to restore compliance as soon as resources allow.

Exam Tip: If capacity falls below threshold, rebuild cannot start — and vSAN will show "Reduced Availability."

5. Real-World Scenarios You Must Understand for the Exam

✔ Running RAID-5 but cluster has only 3 hosts

→ Object becomes non-compliant

✔ FTT=2 in a 4-node cluster

→ vSAN cannot satisfy policy

✔ Enabling Deduplication & Compression in a non-all-flash cluster

→ Not allowed

✔ Encrypted vSAN cluster without KMS reachable

→ Objects become inaccessible

✔ High stripe width on hybrid

→ May improve performance but affects component count

These scenarios commonly appear in both theoretical questions and hands-on exam items.

Conclusion: Mastering vSAN Policies Leads to Exam Success

The 5V0-22.23 exam strongly focuses on how policies and rules impact data placement, performance, and availability. By mastering:

  • RAID types

  • FTT levels

  • Object components

  • Data services (encryption, D&C)

  • SPBM behavior

…you'll be equipped to design, troubleshoot, and operate vSAN efficiently — and pass the exam with confidence.

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