Cannot disable VSAN 6.5 stretched cluster after deleting the witness

[Anthony98989838]

I cannot disable VSAN 6.5 stretched cluster after deleting the witness host appliance. It also wont let me add the witness host appliance back.

The error I get is;

The object 'vim.HostSystem:host-52' has already been deleted or has not been completely created

Any ideas on how to fix?  I know I should of disabled the stretched cluster before I deleted the witness appliance.

[depping]

Is this a test environment or production?

[Anthony98989838]

I'm testing. Id like to be about to remove the old witness server from the stretched cluster configuration and add a new one, which it wont let me after the witness host is deleted.

[depping]

How did you delete it?

[Anthony98989838]

Using the flash web client in chrome browser, I put the nested VSAN witness into maintenance mode and then I removed it from inventory. After that I couldn't disable the stretched cluster in the web GUI, and I also could not add the nested witness hosted back.

[GreatWhiteTec · Accepted solution]

You can turn stretchedClusterMode off by running the following commands on each host.

GET state: vsish -e get /vmkModules/vsanutil/stretchedClusterMode

If 1 then it is enabled. If 0 it is disabled.

If enabled (1), turn off by setting to 0

SET state: vsish -e set /vmkModules/vsanutil/stretchedClusterMode 0

See my blog for screenshot https://greatwhitetec.com/2017/01/13/tip-cannot-complete-file-creation-operation-failed-to-place-wit...

[Anthony98989838]

Thanks for your reply. I gave it a go and all hosts where enabled, so I disabled them using your command. Vcenter still shows the stretched cluster as being enabled. How do I disable for vcenter without using a new vcenter?

[Anthony98989838]

Thanks I got it working with your command.

This way worked for me.

1. Run your command on all hosts in VSAN stretched cluster.

2. Setup new cluster and enabled VSAN on same vcenter server

3. Disconnected each host, moved to new clustered and reconnected. I did one at a time.

4. Deleted old virtual witness server from vcenter and redeployed a new one.

4. Setup HA and DRS again

5. Enabled stretched cluster again using new witness.

6. Reapplied storage policy to VMs and all VSAN errors went away and all VMs where uneffected during the move.

7. I deleted the old cluster