Objective 4.5 – Describe vsanSparse Snapshots

What are vsanSparse Snapshots?

vSAN 6.0 has a new on-disk (v2) format that facilitates the introduction of a new type of performance-based snapshot. The new vsanSparse format leverages the underlying sparseness of the new VirstoFS filesystem (v2) on-disk format and a new in-memory caching mechanism for tracking updates. This v2 format is an always-sparse file system (512-byte block size instead of 1MB block size on VMFS-L) and is only available with vSAN 6.0.

Why is vsanSparse Needed?

The new vsanSparse snapshot format provides vSAN administrators with enterprise class snapshots and clones. The goal is to improve snapshot performance by continuing to use the existing redo logs  mechanism but now utilizing an “in-memory” metadata cache and a more efficient sparse filesystem layout.

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Source: vsanSparse Tech Note