VMware vSAN Lab - How to Create Fake SSD on VMware workstation?

VMware vSAN is a hyper-converged, widely used software-defined storage for a VMware vSphere environment. Using Nested virtualization, Many of us will try to practice vSAN Lab on VMware Workstation. In my old article, I have shared the trick to convert the Non-SSD to SDD disk by enabling the rule on ESXi. But this procedure is going to be a straight forward to create the emulated SSD using VMware Workstation. Let’s walk through the procedure to create the fake SSD.

Environment:

VMware Workstation Pro 14
VMware ESXi 6.5
vCenter Server 6.5
vSAN

Assuming that you have test LAB for vSAN running on VMware workstation with above-mentioned software versions.

1. Edit the ESXi virtual machine and click to add a device.

2. Select the device type as Harddisk and click next.

VMware Workstation - Add HDD for ESXi VM node — VMware Workstation – Add HDD for ESXi VM node

3. Select the disk type as NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory express)

Select Disk type as NVMe - VMware workstation — Select Disk type as NVMe – VMware workstation

Note: VMware Workstation 14 Pro introduces a new virtual NVMe storage controller for improved guest operating system performance on Host SSD drives and support for testing VMware vSAN. NVMe devices require virtual hardware version 13 / ESXi 6.5 compatibility and later.

4. Create a new virtual disk and click next.

VMware workstation - Create Fake SSD — VMware workstation – Create Fake SSD

5. Enter the size of NVMe disk.

VMware workstation - Create Fake SSD - size — VMware workstation – Create Fake SSD – size

6. Once you have added the disk, you can see like below.

NVMe - HDD - VMware Workstation — NVMe – HDD – VMware Workstation

7. Login to the vSphere web client. (Not on HTML5 UI).

8. Navigate to Datastore tab and select the existing vSAN datastore. Click on configure and select device backing. select the highlighted icon to claim the disks under vSAN. This operation will create a new disk group.