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pugmaster
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Question for the experts: are vsan service like vsansystem vsanmgmtsvc requiredif I don't have vSAN?

Good day,

Our VMware ESXi 7.0.2 hosts have HW Raid1 local storage only for esxi - all storage for VMs provided via fiber channel storage. We do not have any vSAN licenses or deployments. Yet I'm getting hundreds of thousands of syslogs generated by vsansystem, vsanmgmtsvc etc.

Is vSAN a core service for the running of esxi hosts even if we don't have any vSAN deployments? Can I safely stop these services? If I can stop them, how? I don't see vsan running as service in the web client. I'm happy to stop them via esxcli if someone could advise me.

Thanks!

 

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pkvmw
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Just to add, you could also leave the vSAN services untouched and exclude logs using logfilter:
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.install.doc/GUID-D0D77526-65DC-4D08-A5...

Could make things easier when you're updating and those VIBs will get re-installed. However not tested myself.

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continuum
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Running a test ESXi 7.03 I disbled those services by removing their entry in boot.cfg.
No problems so far .... - keep a copy of the original boot.cfg to be on the safe side and are able to switch back.


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Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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scott28tt
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Duplicate of https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-vSAN-Discussions/I-don-t-have-a-vSAN-license-I-don-t-use-vS...

Reported to moderators.

 


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pugmaster
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Thanks continuum. I'll give that a whack but I'm wanting to know from vmware what's going on here. 

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pugmaster
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Can you let me know which .v00 (are those kernel mods?) have the vsan stuff? Or can you point me to a doc or reference I can source?

Thanks

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continuum
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Look for modules with vsan in the name:
vsan.v00
vsanheal.v00
vsanmgnt.v00

 


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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pugmaster
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Thanks!

Doing my homework here, I discovered the 'jumpstart' command (can't find documentation on it) and it seems I can reboot and disable modules as found in this link: https://clearyourdoubt.com/vmware/2021/05/disable-vsan-modules-during-esxi-boot-process/

I can't find yet any documentation on what these kernel mods are: vsan,lsom,plog,virsto,cmmds but it seems this might be a first approach way before I tweak the boot.cfg file.

Do you have familiarity with jumpstart? Are those modules related only to vsan? Does the jumpstart command reboot the host? It seems I could do something like:

jumpstart --disable-plugins=<plugin>[,<plugin>]

specifically:

jumpstart --disable-plugins=vsan,lsom,plog,virsto,cmmds

But maybe I'm overthinking it. 

Any feedback is appreciated

And if you have any links to those modules, I'd appreciate it!

 

 

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continuum
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I am a coward - before I risk using jumpstart or stuff like that I rather remove the 3 items starting with vsan and check what it does ....

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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pugmaster
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Ha thanks.

It would be nice if VMware had any documentation on jumpstart:)

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pkvmw
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Just to add, you could also leave the vSAN services untouched and exclude logs using logfilter:
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.install.doc/GUID-D0D77526-65DC-4D08-A5...

Could make things easier when you're updating and those VIBs will get re-installed. However not tested myself.

pugmaster
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YOU ARE MY HERO! LOL

Reading up, here's my logfilters file

0|vsanEsxcli|\w
0|vsantraceUrgent|\w
0|vsananalyticsevents|\w
0|vsandevicemonitord|\w
0|vsanfs.configdump|\w
0|vsanfs.mgmt|\w
0|vsanfs.vdfsop|\w
0|VSANMGMTSVC|\w
0|vsansystem|\w
0|storageRM|Invalid share value: 0. Using default

Note: the \w is a python regex matching (essentially) all char

Note2: I added the storageRM ident cause that was generating tons of logs

I have my esxi hosts pumping to graylog and now all the useless vsan logs I was getting (I don't have any vSAN) are being filtered out!

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