My Journey from Infrastructure Admin to Cloud Architect: Upgrading to vSAN 7.0 U1 and the Surprise of Format Change
As an infrastructure administrator, I have always been focused on ensuring the smooth operation of our virtualized environment. However, with the latest upgrade to vSAN 7.0 U1, I found myself embarking on a new journey as a cloud architect. This journey was filled with unexpected surprises, one of which was the requirement for format change.
Before I dive into the details of my experience, let me provide some context. Our organization has been using vSAN for a while now, and we have always upgraded to the latest versions without any major issues. Therefore, when it came time to upgrade to vSAN 7.0 U1, I was confident that the process would be quick and seamless, like previous upgrades.
However, this time around, things were different. As I began the upgrade process, I noticed a new activity in the Resyncing Objects dashboard called “Format Change”. At first, I thought it was just another metadata change, but as I dug deeper, I realized that objects greater than 255GB would need to be rewritten to a new format. This came as a surprise, as our cluster had many such objects, such as VMs with VMDKs of 1TB.
I was curious about the reason behind this change and why it was necessary. After doing some research, I found out that the new format change is an internal optimization that allows vSAN to change policies or rebuild with less than 25-30% free space required. This means that slack space can be smaller from now on, leaving more capacity for workloads.
I was delighted by this discovery, as it meant that our cluster would have more room for growth and we could optimize our storage utilization better. However, the process of changing the format of all the affected objects took some time, as each object had to be rewritten to the new format.
To my surprise, there was also a new Skyline Health test that shows how many objects need a new format. This feature helped me identify which objects needed the format change and prioritize the process accordingly.
Through this journey of upgrading to vSAN 7.0 U1, I learned that sometimes unexpected surprises can lead to positive outcomes. The format change requirement may have caused some extra work, but it ultimately resulted in a more optimized and efficient storage environment for our organization.
As I look back on my journey from infrastructure admin to cloud architect, I realize that these types of challenges are part of the learning process. Every upgrade, every new feature, presents an opportunity to learn and grow. And as we continue to evolve our virtualized environment, I am excited to see where this journey will take us next.