Cannot select flash for capacity

[Eth0s]

Hi,

I am using 6.7u2.  I have 4 hosts each with 4 x SSD's.  When looking to setup vSAN I can only claim the flash/ssd'S as a cache tiers and not capacity.  I am pretty sure that when I was researching this last week I could claim the disks for both tiers.

I tried the following to set IsCapacityFlash, then a storage scan, but when I go back into the vcenter html5 interface it still cannot select it for capacity.

$ esxcli storage core device list

$ esxcli vsan storage tag add -t capacityFlash -d thedevice

$ vdq -q -d thedevice

{

      "Name"     : "thedevice",

      "VSANUUID" : "",

      "State"    : "Eligible for use by VSAN",

      "Reason"   : "None",

      "IsSSD"    : "1",

"IsCapacityFlash": "1",

      "IsPDL"    : "0",

      "Size(MB)" : "763097",

   "FormatType" : "512e",

   },

I did a quick check on another device and the IsCapacityFlash is not set.

{

      "Name"     : "otherdevice",

      "VSANUUID" : "",

      "State"    : "Eligible for use by VSAN",

      "Reason"   : "None",

      "IsSSD"    : "1",

"IsCapacityFlash": "0",

      "IsPDL"    : "0",

      "Size(MB)" : "763097",

   "FormatType" : "512e",

   },

Anyone know why this is happening?  Would be grateful of any ideas, help & tips.....

[TheBobkin]

Hello Eth0s​

Welcome to Communites.

"I am pretty sure that when I was researching this last week I could claim the disks for both tiers."

And what did you change since then?

If Deduplication is enabled on the cluster, please confirm that you have valid, non-expired vSAN Advanced or higher license (and that you have a valid license in general otherwise).

I saw issues such as this frequently with 6.7 U2 hosts but 6.7 GA/U1 vCenter so confirm that you are using a 6.7 U2 or later vCenter first and all hosts on same build.

Another issue we see perennially (and frequently after major updates) is custom-certs that are not entirely functional - one can confirm whether the issue is host or vCenter side by validating whether you can create Disk-Groups via the CLI:

#  esxcli vsan storage add -s naa.xxxxxx -d naa.xxxxxxx

Bob

[Eth0s]

Hi Bob

So the servers did have ESXi670-201908201-UG and ESXIi670-Update03 applied early today...  vSphere Client version 6.7.0.30000

We have a valid license (going to check it) and this is the first attempt at building vsan so no previous config.

Rgds

Lee

[TheBobkin · Accepted solution]

Hello Lee,

Actually vSphere Client version 6.7.0.30000 comes with vCenter 6.7 U2:

VMware vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 Release Notes

Upgrade your vCenter to 6.7 U3 as this is the only version that supports vSAN hosts running 6.7 U3:

VMware Product Interoperability Matrices

You can of course validate that the issue is vCenter-related by temporarily configuring a Disk-Group via CLI using the command noted in my previous comment.

Bob

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was it helpful? Let us know by completing this short survey here.

[Eth0s]

Hi Bob

Upgrading to vCenter to 6.7 U3 solved the issue and I can now select flash drives as capacity.

Many thanks for the help.

Rgds

Lee