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equelin
Contributor
Contributor

Can't enable VSAN

Hello everyone,

I feel that it may be a noob question but I can't figure how to enabled a VSAN cluster in my vCenter Worklab... As you can see on the screenshot there's no options available in the Cluster VSAN settings...

The vcenter is in version 6.0.0 Update 2 build 3634794.

Do you have any advices ?

Thanks

Error_VSAN.jpg

Message was edited by: Erwan Quelin

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16 Replies
zdickinson
Expert
Expert

Good afternoon, the first thing I go to is the vSAN networking.  Can all host ping the addresses on the vSwitches that you have enabled vSAN?  Thank you, Zach.

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rcporto
Leadership
Leadership

Can you confirm if HA is disabled on cluster ? See: Using Virtual SAN and vSphere HA

You must disable vSphere HA before you enable Virtual SAN on the cluster. Then you can reenable vSphere HA.

---

Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto
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equelin
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

Thank you for your responses.

I'm sorry but my question was perhaps not enough precise. Here is what I'm expecting to find in my vCenter (Screenshot from another vCenter) when I look at the VSAN's settings:

Error_VSAN_2.jpg

This cluster has no host with VSAN enabled and all the options are greyed out as expected (except the modify button). If you look at the first screenshot you'll see that no informations are displayed and it's the same for the other menus related to VSAN.

So my questions are:

- I'm I missing something ?

- Is there something I have to configure on the vCenter to be able to activate a VSAN cluster (services perhaps) ?

Thank you

Erwan

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zdickinson
Expert
Expert

Understood, is it possible that is a GUI error?  Perhaps the vCenter just needs to be restarted.  Thank you, Zach.

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equelin
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

It may be a GUI error, but the reboot didn't solved the issue.

I'll try to find a way to configure the cluster through CLI.

regards,

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Muthur85
Contributor
Contributor

Hello,

You can work around this cosmetic issue without upgrading, by clearing the message, using one of these methods:

  • Restart the VPXA management agent on VSAN nodes

    Restarting the VPXA (vCenter Server) management agent on the VSAN cluster ESXi host nodes refreshes the information in vCenter Server and clears the message.
  • Force an update to cluster membership

    Removing and then re-adding a host to the VSAN cluster forces all hosts to update the information about the cluster membership, which clears the message.

Restarting the VPXA management agent on VSAN nodes

To restart the VPXA (vCenter Server) management agent on the VSAN cluster ESXi host nodes:

  1. 1. Enable SSH or the ESXi Shell on each host in the VSAN cluster. For information about enabling SSH or the ESXi Shell
  2. 2. Log in to each host in the VSAN cluster using SSH or the ESXi Shell.
  3. 3. Restart the VPXA management agent using this command:

    # /etc/init.d/vpxa restart

    Note: Wait approximately one minute before proceeding to the next host. This allow information from each host to update in vCenter Server one-at-a-time.

Forcing an update to cluster membership

This message can be cleared by removing a host from the VSAN cluster and re-adding it. This forces all hosts to update information about cluster membership and the message clears after this action.


To remove a host from the VSAN cluster and to re-add it:

  1. 1. Select one ESXi host in the VSAN cluster that can be put to the maintenance mode temporarily.

    Note: VMware recommends to select the least busy/utilized host.
  2. 2. In the vSphere Web Client, right-click the ESXi host and click Enter Maintenance Mode.


    • Select either the Ensure AccessibilityFull data migration
    • If applicable, allow powered-off virtual machines to be migrated to the remaining ESXi hosts.
  3. 3. After the host has successfully entered maintenance mode, remove it from the VSAN cluster by dragging the host out of the cluster and into the datacenter object in the vCenter Server inventory.
  4. 4. After moving the host into the data center, wait for approximately two minutes.
  5. 5. Drag the host back into the VSAN cluster.

  After the host is back in the VSAN cluster, right-click the host and click

Exit Maintenance Mode.
After the host is back in the production cluster, the message on the remaining hosts should be clear

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kermic
Expert
Expert

The option to enable vSAN should still be available even if HA is on, at least I have it in my environment.

Just a thought - what is the ESXi version you are running on your hosts?

If I'm not mistaken then vSAN was introduced with 5.5 U1, could it be that at least one of your hosts in cluster is running an older version than that? Maybe version inconsistencies in your cluster?

Unfortunately don't have a test environment available now to to test this out.

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fitz123
Contributor
Contributor

Have the same issue here, with last path VMware ESXi, 6.0.0, 3825889

Tried to create a new cluster with vSAN, but after creation if I turn it Off, I have the same white screen as Main cluster has.

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alriz12
Contributor
Contributor

We have EXACTLY the same issue. At first, we thought this was a licensing issue, but then VMware reminded us that it doesn't matter, we should still be able to configure VSAN even with trial licensing. Have you managed to fix it?
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elerium
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I've sometimes seen this occur from bad caching in a browser, can you try a different browser or use incognito or in-private browsing?

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alriz12
Contributor
Contributor

Hi everyone, could help and save time for others - we managed to fix the issue by simply restarting the vCenter appliance.

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gjbrown
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

did you make any progress with this?  I've tried all suggested in this thread including rebooting VC and still have same issue.

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san1983
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Have you tried using different browser?

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chris122686
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Equelin,

You may try to reboot your vCenter Server or its services and try again to open a browser with cleared cache.

Cheers.

Christopher Sibug
vpradeep01
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

A reboot helped me on my case,

Restarting web client, hostd, vpxa did not help. So as vc services too. Rebooting vc services brought these features back and I was able to enable the vsan.

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kevinstiegler
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I beinstalled "ESX" 6.5 and vCenter 6.5 three time trying to get vSAN configured. Even booted into Ubuntu on the host and deleted the partitions on the drives To clean out any vSAN "ghosts" left on the drives.

Things I CAN do:

+ Create the vSwitch1 with the a vmk1 on each host, assign it an IP, and ping across the cluster from vmk1 to vmk1 to vmk1 on all three hosts.

+ Set a tag on the vmk for VSAN through the esxcli network command.

+ Build a vsan cluster and mount drives using the command line.

I CAN'T do any of this through the GUI. I get errors and it times out.

- If I check the vmk1 on each host for vSAN traffic, it times out with an error and the box is unchecked when I go back to it.

- When I go to settings on try to enable VSAN from the GUI, it times out and errors.

- I built the cluster through the cramming line on each host, and I can see the vsan datastore in the storage list, but I have no space on the disks.

I rebooted the VCSA and....    no luck.

I'm going to try something stupid that should have no relevance to this problem- but it's the only thing I can think of that I changed since I last had VSAN working in my lab 3 iterations ago. 

When I rebuilt my lab, I change the sso to "MyLabName.sso" from the default "vSphere.local"....

stand by.

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