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Node Sizing

Workload Resources

The resources listed below are the minimum requirements for VergeOS. Additional resources will be required to support your specific workloads. When planning your deployment, ensure you account for the resources needed by your virtual machines, applications, and other workloads running on the system.

Minimum Requirements#

Generic Requirements (All Node Types)#

  • AMD or Intel x86 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization support
  • Minimum of 16GB RAM dedicated to VergeOS
  • IPMI, iDrac, iLO, or equivalent technology
  • NVMe direct-attached (preferred), HBA or RAID controller that supports JBOD or IT mode - NO RAID
  • 1 x 1GbE NIC for External Network (Intel, NVIDIA Mellanox, or Broadcom)
  • 1 x 10GbE NIC for Core Fabric Network (Intel, NVIDIA Mellanox, or Broadcom)

Controller Nodes (Node 1 and Node 2)#

  • 1 x +2.7GHz CPU
  • 1GB of RAM per 1TB of storage for each node (minimum requirement)
  • Tier 0: 1 x Enterprise-grade NVMe direct-attached SSD for vSAN metadata with 3 Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) or equivalent
  • Tier 0: 5GB of storage per 1TB of usable capacity for vSAN metadata (dedicated metadata storage)

Storage Nodes (Nodes that participate in vSAN storage)#

  • +2.7GHz CPU
  • 1GB of RAM per 1TB of RAW storage for each node (minimum requirement)
  • Minimum of one Enterprise-grade NVMe or Enterprise-grade SATA/SAS SSD per node for workload storage (primary storage tier)
  • Enterprise-grade HDDs can be used for snapshot, archive, or file-based service storage (secondary storage tier)
  • At least 2 nodes with the same disk configuration for data redundancy (required for vSAN)

Consumer-Grade Disks

VergeOS does not officially support consumer-grade disks. Only enterprise-grade storage devices should be used in production (and backup of production) environments. Consumer-grade disks may be acceptable for test, development, or proof-of-concept environments where data loss is acceptable. Some consumer-grade storage devices may not function properly due to firmware limitations, non-standard command implementations, or compatibility issues with VergeOS.

Large HDD Considerations

HDDs larger than 8TB are not recommended in non-archive-specific environments due to extended drive rebuild times, which can impact system performance and availability.

Compute-only Nodes#

  • Only the generic requirements apply to Compute-only nodes
  • CPU and Memory should be architected for workloads running on these nodes
  • AMD or Intel x86 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization support
  • Minimum of 16GB RAM dedicated to VergeOS
  • IPMI, iDrac, iLO, or equivalent technology
  • NVMe direct-attached (preferred) or HBA
  • 2 x 25/40/100GbE NICs (Intel, NVIDIA Mellanox, or Broadcom)
  • 2 x 10/25/40/100GbE NICs (Intel, NVIDIA Mellanox, or Broadcom)
  • Dedicated Controller Nodes (recommended for production environments)
  • 1 x +3.0GHz CPU
  • Tier 0: 2 x NVMe direct-attached SSD for vSAN metadata with 3 Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) or equivalent (redundant configuration)
  • Tier 0: 10GB of storage per 1TB of usable capacity for vSAN metadata (dedicated metadata storage)
  • +3.0GHz CPU
  • 1 CPU core per disk
  • 1.5GB of RAM per 1TB of storage for each node (recommended for better performance)
  • 2 x NVMe or SATA/SAS SSD per node for guest usage; more SSDs recommended for enhanced performance
  • At least 2 nodes with the same disk configuration for data redundancy (required for vSAN)
  • Only the generic requirements apply to Compute-only nodes
  • CPU and Memory should be architected for workloads running on these nodes

Additional Resources for Workloads

Remember to account for additional resources needed by your specific workloads, virtual machines, and applications when planning your deployment. Consider peak usage scenarios and growth requirements.

Maximum Supported Hardware Specifications#

The following table outlines the maximum supported hardware specifications for various resources in the VergeOS system as of version 4.12:

Resource Maximum Resource Type
Nodes per system 200 node
Individual physical disk size 64 terabyte
RAM per host 1 5 terabyte
vDisk size 256 terabyte
Disks per VM 2 2000 vdisk
Clusters per system 100 cluster
Tiers of storage per system 5 tiers
vSAN Fault domains per system 2 vSAN

  1. vSAN nodes require a minimum 1GB of RAM per 1TB of Storage ↩

  2. Virtio-SCSI Interface required ↩

  3. Graphics cards are supported for VM usage and may not function for console access. ↩