Powering off and powering on a VSAN cluster

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Powering off and powering on a vSAN 7.0 cluster

To poweroff and poweron a vSAN 7.0 cluster use following steps:

1. Go to Hosts and clusters view and select cluster. Go to monitor and check vSAN health. vSAN should be healthy before we consider shutting down vSAN cluster.
2. Power off all virtual machines on the cluster except vCenter.
3. Enable retreat mode to poweroff vCLS (vSphere Cluster Services) VMs using
   1. Navigate to the cluster on which vCLS has to be disabled. Copy the cluster domain id from the URL of the browser. It should be similar to 'domain-c<number>'.

      For example When you navigate to cluster in vSphere client, your URL will be similar to this: https://<fqdn-of-vCenter-server>/ui/app/cluster;nav=h/urn:vmomi:ClusterComputeResource:domain-c8:eef257af-fa50-455a-af7a-6899324fabe6/summary. You only need to copy domain-c8 to use in the steps below.

   2. Navigate to the vCenter Server and then to Configure tab.
   3. Click on Advanced setting section and then on Edit settings button.
   4. Modify entry with name = config.vcls.clusters.domain-c<number>.enabled and value = false.

      If entry does not exists you can add it using 'Add' option in the same popup window.

      Note: True and False are case insensitive, so any case of these two values should be accepted.

   5. Click Save.
   6. vCLS monitoring service will initiate the clean-up of vCLS VMs and user will start noticing the tasks with the VM deletion.

      If this cluster has DRS enabled, then it will not be functional and additional warning will be displayed in the cluster summary. DRS will be disabled until vCLS is re-enabled on this cluster.

4. Note the host on which vCenter is running and open ESXi host web UI.
5. Disable HA on the cluster
6. Verify that all resynchronization tasks are complete. Click the Monitor tab and select vSAN > Resyncing Objects.
7. Shutdown vCenter VM
8. On each and every ESXi host run:

   esxcfg-advcfg -s 1 /VSAN/IgnoreClusterMemberListUpdates

9. Log in to any host in the cluster other than the witness host.
10. Run below command Only on one host:

    python /usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/reboot_helper.py prepare

    The above fails if systems do not have matching time. To configure matching time on servers refer Configure NTP from cli or UI

11. Run the below command on all ESXi hosts

    esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -m noAction

12. After all hosts are in maintenance mode we can poweroff all hosts one by one.

To power on the cluster back use following steps:

1. Power on all ESXi hosts one by one
2. After all hosts have booted without issue, bring all hosts one by one out of maintenance mode using:

   esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e false

3. On only one of the hosts run the following command:

   python /usr/lib/vmware/vsan/bin/reboot_helper.py recover

4. Verify that all hosts are in cluster using:

   esxcli vsan cluster get

5. Run this command on all hosts:

   esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /VSAN/IgnoreClusterMemberListUpdates

6. Start the vCenter using the same host from which it was powered off
7. Disable the retreat mode using same steps and used during powering down except this time in Advanced settings for domain-c<n> set value to true
8. Again verify that all hosts are participating in cluster using:

   esxcli vsan cluster get

9. Start the remaining VMs using vCenter
10. Check vCenter vSAN health issues, if any and resolve them
11. Enable HA again on the cluster.

Refer:

• https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vsan-monitoring.doc/GUID-31B4F958-30A9-4BEC-819E-32A18A685688.html
• https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/80472

Powering off and powering on a vSAN 6.7 or earlier cluster

To power off and power on a VSAN cluster use following steps:

1. Consider increasing default repair delay as mentioned at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2075456 This might be important if cluster will not be powered on within 60 minutes default repair delay timings
2. Check VSAN health using retest and repair unhealthy components before powering off the cluster ( https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2144650 )
3. Power of all non vCenter and PSC VMs.
4. Note vCenter and PSC host and login into corresponding esxi host(s) using web console
5. Also SSH to vcenter and PSC ESXi host(s)
6. Put all other hosts in maintenance mode with "no action"
7. Shutdown vCenter and PSC VMs using esxi host web console
8. Put vcenter and PSC host(s) in maintenance mode using:

   esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -m noAction

9. Power of all ESXi hosts

For power on:

1. Power on all ESXi hosts
2. SSH to vcenter and PSC ESXi host
3. Exit maintenance mode using:

   esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e false

4. Start vcenter VM
5. Check VSAN cluster health
6. Exit other hosts from maintenance mode
7. Start necessary VMs.

Refer:

• https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2142676

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