Toshiba Achieving VMware vSAN Certification

Toshiba Memory America, Inc. (TMA), the US-based subsidiary of Toshiba Memory Corporation, announced that its PM5 Series of enterprise 12Gb SAS SSDs has earned VMware vSAN 6.7 certification.

This certification enables TMA’s flash-based PM5 storage devices to be shared across connected hosts in a vSphere cluster. With the vSAN 6.7 certification, users can pool PM5 Series SSDs together in a single, distributed shared data store. This allows users to define the storage capabilities required (such as performance, capacity and availability) for each connected VM within the VMware vSAN cluster. These capabilities further HCI options in virtual environments, and also ensure that storage policies are administered and maintained within the PM5 Series with the utmost vSAN compatibility.

The certification of the PM5 Series enables VMware vSAN support for both hybrid and all-flash configurations using a two-tier storage architecture (capacity tier and cache tier). All write operations are sent to the cache tier and are subsequently de-staged to the capacity tier over time. When a PM5 Series SSD is deployed within a hybrid configuration, its cache tier is used as both a read and write cache, keeping hot data to improve performance. In an all-flash configuration, 100% of the cache tier is used for the write buffer. Given the benefits of tiered storage, PM5 Series SSDs are capable of meeting the demanding requirements of enterprise and data center customers.

Built with Toshiba’s 64-layer BiCS Flash TLC 3D flash memory, the PM5 Series offers up to 15.36TB¹ capacities in a 2.5-inch form factor², and supports a range of endurance and capacity ranges. It also utilizes the industry’s first³ MultiLink SAS architecture, which delivers the fastest⁴ SAS SSD sequential performance to date⁵. In addition, PM5 Series SSDs support multi-stream write technology – a feature that manages and groups data types together to minimize write amplification and garbage collection. This translates into reduced latency, improved endurance, increased performance, and better QoS.

“We are pleased to collaborate closely with Toshiba Memory America to jointly certify flash innovations for the fast-growing hyper-converged infrastructure market,” said Lee Caswell, VP products, storage and availability business unit, VMware. “Now that database applications represent the top workload , VMware vSAN, flash performance is critical. Customers looking for proven compatibility and interoperability can turn to Toshiba Memory’s PM5 12Gb SAS SSDs.“

“Toshiba Memory enterprise SSDs are built to withstand the most demanding performance and reliability needs of mission-critical applications,” said Alvaro Toledo, VP of SSD marketing and product planning, Toshiba Memory America. “Working directly with VMware to achieve certification for our PM5 SAS SSDs is key to providing peace of mind to customers utilizing a vSAN solution.“

The PM5 Series of 2Gb SAS SSDs with VMware vSAN 6.7 and VMware ESXi 6.7 certification is shipping. Available options include customized server OEM models also approved for vSAN all-flash capacity tier and caching tier, as well as hybrid caching tier implementations.

¹ Definition of capacity: Toshiba Memory Corporation defines 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes and 1TB as 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. A computer OS, however, reports storage capacity using powers of 2 for the definition of 1GB = 2³⁰ bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes, 1TB = 2⁴⁰ bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes and therefore shows less storage capacity. Available storage capacity (including examples of various media files) will vary based on file size, formatting, settings, software and OS, such as Microsoft OS and/or pre-installed software applications, or media content. Actual formatted capacity may vary.

² 2.5-inch indicates the form factor of the SSD. It does not indicate drive’s physical size.

³ As of August 7, 2017, this claim is based on industry-published specifications and a Toshiba Memory Corporation survey.

⁴ As of announcement, this claim is based on industry-published specs.

⁵ Read and write speed may vary depending on the host device, read and write conditions, and file size.