Data Center Modernization & VMware vSAN Stretched Cluster Deployment

Hyperconverged Infrastructure Implementation with High Availability, Workload Migration, and Disaster Recovery Across University’s Multi-Site Data Centers

This Maryland-based university sought to modernize its IT infrastructure by centralizing services, improving security, and increasing the availability of mission-critical workloads. Existing systems lacked the density, scalability, and resilience required to support institution-wide applications and data. Additionally, the university needed to reduce administrative overhead, improve licensing efficiency, and enable geographically distributed high availability across multiple campus data centers. To meet these evolving demands, the university required a data center modernization strategy with a robust VMware vSAN stretched cluster deployment capable of supporting secure, scalable, and highly available operations.

To address these challenges, the university partnered with Data Networks to execute a comprehensive hyperconverged infrastructure deployment, leveraging VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSAN Enterprise technologies. The solution was designed to deliver a modern, software-defined data center architecture with built-in redundancy, streamlined management, and enhanced security capabilities.

Data Networks initiated the project with detailed planning and architectural design, aligning with institutional stakeholders to define deployment strategy, migration requirements, and performance expectations. The solution included the deployment of ten Dell PowerEdge servers across two geographically separate data centers, forming a resilient vSAN stretched cluster architecture with five nodes per site. An additional witness server was deployed at a third location to support quorum and ensure seamless failover operations.

As part of the data center modernization, Data Networks installed, configured, and integrated all physical and virtual components. This included racking and cabling servers, configuring Dell iDRAC management interfaces, and integrating system authentication with Microsoft Active Directory. The team deployed VMware vCenter Server Appliance and configured distributed virtual networking, including VLANs, port groups, vMotion, and storage traffic networks.

The vSAN environment was configured using VMware’s Express Storage Architecture, implementing RAID 5 erasure coding to optimize storage efficiency and performance. Custom storage policies were created to align with workload requirements, and the cluster was validated to ensure capacity, performance, and resilience targets were met.

To enhance operational visibility and management, Data Networks deployed Dell OpenManage Enterprise and integrated it with the VMware environment. This provided centralized monitoring, configuration compliance, and lifecycle management across all infrastructure components.

A critical component of the engagement was the development and validation of a workload migration strategy. Data Networks documented and tested processes for migrating workloads from existing VMware environments to the new hyperconverged platform, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal disruption. In parallel, the team developed and validated comprehensive failover and failback procedures, conducting live testing to confirm the environment’s ability to maintain continuity during site-level outages.

The engagement concluded with detailed documentation, validation reports, and knowledge transfer sessions to empower the university’s IT team. As a result, the university now operates a highly resilient, secure, and scalable VMware vSAN stretched cluster environment, providing centralized infrastructure, improved performance, and a future-ready foundation for continued digital transformation.

Tags: Hi-Ed, higher education, data center