vSAN Cluster changes

[andvm]

Hi,

I plan to do the following as part of relocating this cluster to another physical network (Will connect back to same VCSA):

1. Place Hosts in MM with no data migration
2. Take them out of the current Cluster
3. Remove them from Inventory
4. Delete the current Cluster
5. Update DNS to reflect the new ESXi Host Names and respective new IPs
6. Once relocated - rename ESXi Hostnames via Server Console
7. re-IP Mgmt vmkernel
8. add Hosts to vCenter
9. re-IP vSAN vmkernel
10. re-IP vMotion vmkernel
11. Create new Cluster on VCSA and add these Hosts to it
12. Enable HA
13. Verify vSAN datastore
14. Perform Health Checks

Am using Distributed Switches for vSAN and for VM Traffic and Standard Switch for Mgmt Traffic. 

Think I will need to remove these Hosts also from these Distributed Switches (since Hosts will be renamed) and add them back after.

Any comments or suggestions on the above and will I need to turn off vSAN from the Cluster before and re-enable after or that can stay as is?

Alternatively I can consider leaving them with same ESXi Hostname and just re-IP. (If it complicated matters too much)

Thanks

[andvm]

So should I turn off vSAN and Remove the Hosts from VCSA Inventory? (Remove from existing dvSwitches)

Then at the new DC, rename the Servers and re-IP the Hosts Services (Mgmt, vSAN, vMotion etc..) and add to new vCenter DC and Cluster and re-enable vSAN and other Cluster Services?

[depping]

I would not disable vSAN, to be honest. But I never tried this full procedure either. I would indeed create a new cluster, make sure HA, DRS, vSAN is enabled on the cluster and then move the hosts into the cluster. This normally would result in vSAN detecting the diskgroups, form a cluster again, and make the data available.

[depping]

Also, I would probably indeed remove the interfaces from the Distributed Switch, and clean that up before recreating it.

[andvm]

ok @depping - I have created a new DC and Cluster on the VCSA.

I will remove the Hosts from the dvSwitches and unregister the Hosts from VCSA but leave vSAN enabled (all has been migrated off from it so have nothing to lose in any case)

I was just thinking that disabling vSAN would be a cleaner way of doing it and then re-enabling once all Hosts joined to the new DC and Cluster, but if vSAN Service does not have any relation to Cluster/DC/ESXi hostname changes along with vmk IP changes and can simply resume back once it has connectivity again on new network than leaving it enabled may work.

Will drop an update in a few weeks after this happens to let you know but in meantime let me know if you have other suggestions

[andvm]

Since I am re-adding the renamed Hosts to a new Cluster I do not want to leave the current vSAN datastore in old Cluster with status (inaccessible).

I have disabled vSAN with the hope it would remove the datastore from appearing under the Cluster Datastores View but it is still listed there as inaccessible.

On the Hosts or Cluster View, under Datastore it does NOT show, however it shows under DataStores View status (inaccessible). Looks like as if vCenter still has a reference to it even vSAN was disable for this cluster.

Is this expected and what further actions are needed to remove it?  (Cannot see anything like Remove from Inventory etc...)

Note: I left the Servers vSAN disk group untouched with the hope that once on the new Cluster and re-IP, I would just re-enable vSAN

[andvm]

ok found out why - had a VM shut down which I purposely left on vSAN, so I have now removed it from Inventory which in turn removed the inaccessible vSAN datastore from showing up under Datastores View