2-Node Cluster in vSAN 7

[matthiasDonner]

Hey Volks,

I have the following situation:

• 2 Node Cluster
• Wittness ova is deployed
• tha vSAN VMKs are correct (Mgmt over dediated VLAN on switch and vSAN Data as direct 10Gbit Interface)
• i have created three diskgroups (all flash)

When i try to create a vm storage policy with FTT=1 than i get no compatible available storage. When i look at not compatible i see the vsanDatastore and a information that i need at least three FailureDomains ... how could i do this with a 2-node environment and a "nested Wittness ESXi" ? I looked around a lot already but found no solution. I read somewhere that i should have a option "nested Failure Domain" in the wizard for vm storage policy but i do not have them.

I appreciate each support to get this accomplished. My hardware setup is RAID0 so my understanding is that whenever a single disk fail in the vsanDatastore my VMs are lost (beside my backups, sure). However i would not risk to loose all my VMs on a single disk failure so FTT=1 is a requirement for me.

Thanks in advance

Matthias

[maksym007]

This doc might help 

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/vsan-planning/GUID-AB546FEB-034B-4544-8208-B9144FEFD65... 

[matthiasDonner]

Thanks for posting a Link to a Tutorial but i have a specific question for a issue that occurs when following it. Maybe posthunting should not be prio 1 ....

[TheBobkin · Accepted solution]

@matthiasDonner "how could i do this with a 2-node environment and a "nested Wittness ESXi" ?" - a '2-node' vSAN cluster is comprised of 2 physical ESXi data-nodes + a 3rd Witness Appliance (generally ESXi running as a VM elsewhere), these are configured via:

Cluster > Configure > vSAN > Fault Domains > Configure Stretched cluster > Select and configure Witness.

Data in such a cluster is typically placed as data+data+witness placed across DataNode1+DataNode2+WitnessAppliance (e.g. 3 Fault-Domains).

Good documentation on 2-node clusters here:

https://core.vmware.com/resource/vsan-2-node-cluster-guide

" I read somewhere that i should have a option "nested Failure Domain" in the wizard for vm storage policy but i do not have them."

This is something entirely beyond regular FTT=1 in a 2-node cluster - this is additional per-node data protection, 2-node cluster option that requires minimum or 3 Disk-Groups per data-node: https://core.vmware.com/blog/nested-fault-domain-2-node-cluster-deployments

[matthiasDonner]

Thanks for all the help, after some trial and error i was able to create the 2-node cluster. After working on some post-configuration issues (assigning witness to vmk interface) i was able to use the data storage policy to be save against disk failure what was my goal. Thanks anybody who tried to support me on this!

regards

Matthias