vSAN 4 nodes + witness with vCenter Foundation

[ahmad090]

hi,

i have the following environment

- stretched cluster (2+2+1) : 2 preferred site 2 secondary and 1 witness

- witness is deployed as an appliance

- i have vcenter foundation lincese (it supports 4 hosts as informed)

Problem :

when i add the 4 vsan nodes and 1 witness node to the vcenter. then install vcenter foundation license; the witness become disconnected due to insufficient license.

is the license counting the witness as a physical host ??

thanks in advance.

[GreatWhiteTec]

Prior to vSphere 6.5 U1, the foundation license limited you to 3 hosts. After 6.5 Update 1, you can now have up to 4 hosts. The witness appliance is a virtualized ESXi server, so it does count as a host. Since you are trying to have 5 hosts with a foundation license, this is why you are seeing such behavior, as you can only have a maximum of 4 hosts.

VMware Announces General Availability of vSphere 6.5 Update 1 - VMware vSphere Blog

[ahmad090]

hi,

but i was informed that the witness appliance will not be allocated as an ESXi physical host and based on that i bought the foundation license

[GreatWhiteTec]

See Page 7 of this document. The witness appliance includes the ESXi license (so no need to buy that), but it is an ESXi host after all.

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsan/vmware-vsan-66-licen...

[ahmad090]

hi,

but i have vcenter foundation license not essentials

does foundation differ from essential?

[GreatWhiteTec]

Main difference is host count; 3 in essentials, and 4 on foundation(6.5 U1+). Here is a VMTN thread no the comparison.

vCenter Editions: Foundation vs. Essentials vs. Standard

[ahmad090]

hi,

many thanks.

one more question does foundation license support linked clone? i cant find full features of foundation!!

because i already deployed vcenter with external PSC.

[IRIX201110141 · Accepted solution]

According to Duncan Blog under Adding a fifth (virtual) ESXi host to vCenter Foundation - Yellow Bricks the given answer isnt right. There was a bug in previous vCenter versions that the witness ESXI VM counts as a real ESX within vCenter. A workaround was to add this VM first and than your real ESXi Hosts. This bug was fix with u2. Check VMware vCenter Server 6.5 Update 2 Release Notes (scroll down... its the last point).

If you planung a stretched 4 node Cluster you may ask your VMware Sales first.

Regards,

Joerg

[ahmad090]

hi,

but i have a production vSAN, with vDS

how can i remove these 4 production hosts without affecting the vSAN cluster??

because now i have 5 hosts (4 hosts + witness appliance) on vcenter with trial license. and in order to re-add the witness appliance before the data hosts, i am afraid if i removed the hosts from the vsan it will affect the cluster.

regards,