Category: vSAN [en]

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vSAN 8 Update 2 – what’s new on technical level

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to participate in the VMware Exclusive Blogger Early Access Program. This is where VMware experts share news and upcoming features for products before the actual release date.
I would like to thank Pete Kohler and John Nicholson for the feature briefing on the release of vSAN 8 Update 2. I’d also like to thank Heather Haley from VMware’s global communications team and Corey Romero for helping to make it happen.

[This blogpost was under embargo until 22nd of August 5:00 AM PDT (14:00 CEST)]

VMware vSAN 8 Update 2 delivers a range of new features and improvements in flexibility, performance and ease of use.

New ESA Features at a glance

  • vSAN ESA storage-only clusters with vSAN Max
  • VMware Cloud Foundation Support for vSAN ESA in VCF 5.1
  • vSAN file services now available on vSAN ESA
  • New ESA Ready Node Profiles for small environments
  • Support for a new class of read intensive storage devices
  • Auto policy remediation
  • ESA Prescriptive Device Claim
  • Stretched- and 2-node-cluster impovements
  • Up to 500 VMs per host (vs 200 before)
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Remediate vSAN Policy ‘Out of Date’

Every object in vSAN (OSA) has an assigned storage policy. If no custom policies have been defined, objects are assigned the factory-installed vSAN default policy. Compliance of the selected policy with the current state is checked regularly. If the object is compliant with the assignes policy, the compliance status is set to ‘Compliant’.

However, it can happen that several objects in the cluster show the compliance status ‘Out of Date’. This will be shown in Skyline Health as an informative note. In the example below, several VMs with their vDisks were out of date.

Remediation in vSphere-Client

If there is only one or very few objects, the affected VM can be highlighted in Skyline Health. By doing so, we switch to the context of this VM and we can see details about namespace-object (VM Home) or the vDisks under Configuration > Policies. In the dialog (image below) we can select the object and click on ‘Reapply VM Storage Policy’. Usually this is enough to bring all objects of the VM back to the ‘Compliant’ state.

Continue reading “Remediate vSAN Policy ‘Out of Date’”
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Remove an unknown Disk from a vSAN Cluster

A failed capacity disk was removed from a vSAN 7 cluster before it could be logically detached from the disk group. The result is a remaining unknown disk device in the disk group that cannot be removed in the vSphere Client.

In such cases, esxcli is sometimes the more powerful tool.

We need to connect by SSH to the affected vSAN host.

Collect Information

Let’s check all registred disk devices on the node.

esxcli vsan storage list

A detailed list of all cache and capacity devices of this host will be displayed.

Output of disk devices (shortened)

Among the 24 active disks was the unknown zombie device. The only remaining feature was the vSAN UUID. The UUID can be used to detach the device from the configuration.

Remains of a physically removed disk in the vSAN configuration.

Extraction

The UUID of the missing unknown device was “52b17786-183b-e85f-f7f3-4befb19f67b0”. Using this information, we can remove it from the configuration.

esxcli vsan storage remove --uuid 52b17786-183b-e85f-f7f3-4befb19f67b0

The process takes a few seconds. Checking again with the esxcli vsan storage list command showed that the device was removed.

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vExpert 2023 – Subprogram Nominations

VMware annually grants the vExpert award to individuals who have made a special contribution to the VMware community. This can be either through publications, presentations, blogs, or work in the VMware User Group (VMUG). I am pleased to be part of the vExpert community for the seventh year in a row in 2023.

In addition to the common vExpert, there are subprograms for specialized application branches.

I applied for the three sub-programs vExpertPro, Application-Modernization and Multi-Cloud and was accepted in all three categories.

vExpertPro

The mission of the vExpert PRO program is to create a global network of vExperts willing to find new vExperts in their local communities, support them, and mentor them on their way to becoming vExperts.

For this purpose, vExpertPro exist in many regions of the world. I have been a member of this group since 2021 myself and have been confirmed for another year.

vExpert Multi-Cloud

The multi-cloud area covers large parts of the VMware Compute portfolio. The term cloud includes not only the public cloud, but also local data centers (private cloud) and combinations of both approaches (hybrid cloud). This includes numerous products such as vSphere, vSAN, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), Aria, VMware Cloud on AWS, Site Recovery Manager (SRM) or vCloud Director (VCD).

I submitted my first application for this relatively new vExpert path in 2023 and was accepted. Many thanks to the business unit for the decision.

vExpert Application Modernization

Application Modernization is all about Tanzu and Kubernetes, as well as the ecosystem around these technologies. The background was described in great detail by Keith Lee in his article “Announcing the VMware Application Modernization vExpert Program 2023“.