Direct access storage for persistent services in a distributed storage system

An example virtualized computing system includes a cluster of hosts having a virtualization layer executing thereon and configured to manage virtual machines (VMs); first and second local storage devices in a first host, the first local storage device being part of a virtual storage area network (vSAN) and the second local storage device being exclusive of the vSAN; and an orchestration control plane, integrated with the virtualization layer and including a master server managing state of the orchestration control plane, the state including objects representing the hosts and the VMs, the orchestration control plane deploying a persistent application executing on a first VM, the persistent application storing persistent data on the second local storage device; and a virtualization management server configured to manage the cluster and to cooperate with the orchestration control plane to modify the state to notify the master server of a virtual infrastructure (VI) event.