vm copied to VSAN infrastructure don't start up

[22Tango]

Hello everyone,

Our company is moving to a VSAN infrastructure (Dell/EMC)

We have copied all the files from a single vm from our converged platform (VMFS 6) towards a ESX host on our VSAN cluster.

When we try to register the vmx file of the vm , we receive an error message: " Insufficient resources. Out of resources"

When we select the vm -> Monitor->vSan-> Physical disk placement: we don't see any disks. Although the vmdk files were copied.

Anybody can help?

Thx

[TheBobkin]

Hello 22Tango​,

Welcome to Communities.

"We have copied all the files from a single vm from our converged platform (VMFS 6) towards a ESX host on our VSAN cluster."

How exactly did you copy/move the files and to what destination? e.g. if you used cp or something similar then maybe you made -flat.vmdk files instead of vSAN Objects for the vmdks - use a supported method such as vMotion if you want to avoid this (which you should as -flat.vmdk can cause out of space issues due to namespaces being max 255GB by default). If they were copied successfully (e.g. the namespace didn't run out of space while copying)then you can use vmkfstools to clone vSAN Objects from them, otherwise migrate the VM again using a supported method that results in Objects not file-data.

If you don't have -flat.vmdk then potentially there is some other issue - "Insufficient resources. Out of resources" can mean: insufficient compute resources (e.g. if you have reservations), insufficient space (e.g. some disk(s) are full or near full), insufficient Fault Domains for component placement, cluster partition. Validate Health is in good shape (Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Health) and that vsanDatastore is showing as the correct size.

Bob

[22Tango]

Hello,

We used scp from source ESX host to destination esx host.

On the VSAN Esx host (destination), I can see the vmdk files.

If I understand correctly , I must have VSAN objects. Which is not the case here?

So i should convert the vmdk files to Vsan object with vmkfstools?

[a_p_]

I'm not award of an option to convert the .vmdk files on the ESXi host to vSAN objects, so what you may need to do - if Storage vMotion is not an option - is to convert the virtual disks into a supported format before you upload them to the vSAN datastore. See e.g. Upload Files or Folders to vSAN Datastores​

André

[IRIX201110141]

Check if your Backup Software supports vSAN and try a "restore".  But it would way easier to get one of the old Hosts as a member to your new? vCenter. The hosts doesnt need to be placed into the same cluster.

Also getting some EVC voodoo to work can help a lot because than a svMotion becomes possible and you didnt have a huge downtime during "moving". You can later lift up the  EVC mode on cluster level and than stopping VMs one after another so they can leverage the newer CPU features based on the EVC mode.

Regards,
Joerg

[22Tango]

oke thk you for the feedback , i will give it a try

For VMotion: we thought about it.

But our 2 environments (converged and hyperconverged) are owned by 2 different VCenters.

For VMotion between 2 different VCenters, you need a special license. We don't have that.

We only have VSpere Entreprise 6.0 and VCloud Advanced

[TheBobkin]

22Tango, seeing vmdk files is expected - please confirm if you see -flat.vmdk files (the problem I described initially).

If you have -flat.vmdk files then I think the next thing to validate is whether the namespace ran out of space (~250GB) mid-copy, if this is the case then the data there now may not be usable regardless of being stored as an Object or file.

Is there no possibility of adding one of the old hosts to the new vCenter or alternatively, just attaching the storage from the old hosts to one of the new ones?

a.p., it is possible to clone a new vSAN vmdk Object from one using -flat.vmdk using for example:

# vmkfstools -i <sourcePath.vmdk> <destPath.vmdk> -W vsan -d thin

As you also mentioned though, uploading them via datastore browser *should* result in Objects not file data.

Bob

[IRIX201110141]

I cant see a license problem and i dont mean that you use vCenter Linked Mode.

There might be a short stopper when your "old" Hosts only have ESXi Essentials license. Than you need to borrow on LIC from your new hosts.

There might be a short stopper when your new vCenter is a Foundation one because its limited to 4 Hosts. Switching back to Eval mode can help if its a problem or temporary reduce the number of new hosts down to 3(limit for vSAN)

There might be a short stopper when your old Hosts running ESXi 5.5 and your new vCenter is a 6.7 one

There might be a "think about" when your old cluster use a vDS.

My way would be

- Disable HA on the old Cluster

- Check if a vDS is used and when yes migrate the VM vNetwork from vDS to vSS first if needed

- Now just add the old host into the new vCenter and perform a svMotion or Migration. Let the old vCenter complain about a missing Host/VMs and ignore it. If all VM leave the old Host move it back into the old vCenter to get some more VMs. You can also start to shutdown and unregister the VMs and than register them on the migration Host trough the new vCenter.

I often do migrations from old to new by setting up a new fresh vCenter instead of trying to upgrade it. Also the VMs needs to be moved from old storage to the new hardware.

Regards,
Joerg

[IRIX201110141]

Also.... did you consider that the new vCenter just take over all "old" hosts at once?

Regards,
Joerg

[22Tango]

hello we don't have -flat.vmdk files, only *.vmdk files

Like you suggest, a host on the new VSAN infra that has access to the old and new storage. Afterwards a storage VMotion

Maybe the best idee

Thx for your help

[22Tango]

Hello Joerg,

If you do a migration or svMotion from the old host (added in the new VCenter) to a new host: do both host need access to the same datastores?

Or is it not necessary.

Thx already for your help!

[IRIX201110141]

No the Host doesnt need access to the other hosts storage.  Thats where enchanced svmotion comes into the game.  We have one vcenter with a couple of clusters and 2 cluster are vSAN based and the other are VMFS (iSCSI) based datastore.

Regards,
Joerg

[IRIX201110141]

For sure a "cold" normal migration by vCenter dont require that hosts sees the storage from the other.

Regards,
Joerg