Vcenter and vsan cluster

[DNguyen747]

I had been assigned new task to take care of one existing vmware environment. Customer had 4 cisco ucs servers and run 4 different type of ESXi version on it and each of them have their own local datastores. My question is if I install vCenter how can I setup vSAN cluster and combined all the datastores without losing data and VMs?

Thanks in advance

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[Nathan Watts]

Hi DNguyen747,

Have you checked that the hardware is on the HCL for vSAN on the vSphere version? hardware for vSAN is very specific and if it's not on the list then do not use for vSAN.
You will need to have some other storage for these VMs to move to/run from/backup to and restore, there is no upgrade migration path, this could be additional unused disks in the host.

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[Jerard Chilton]

D, that's a big ask. Nathan is right the vSAN requirements are pretty constraining and by the sounds of it you have some fairly mature kit.

You might be better off creating/deploying a virtual appliance that allows you to connect up your existing hosts e.g. a shared store using software iscsi or NFS3.  

There is no reason why you couldn't deploy vCenter as long as the networking and licensing is in place and you can explore the features. You might even find you can claim a hard disk drive etc to explore vSAN. Better still spin up 3-4 nested ESXi hosts (or use an ESXi appliance) on your current set up so you can explore vSAN in a safe environment.

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[DNguyen747]

Thanks guys, so VSAN is out of the question based on the HCL list. Can I still manage these hosts thru vCenter even though they had their own datastores? Would vMotion still work with different storage? Does VM have to power off before vMotion?

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[Nathan Watts]

So it sounds like old hardware? what version of ESXi are you running?

Can it be managed by vCenter? yes. Should you? maybe.

I'd guess this is old and possibly never patched/maintained, so why do you want to manage by vCenter? Lifecycle management?

Are they licensed for vCenter? are they just using the old free ESXi? (free ESXi equals no vCenter!)

Yes you can possibly still vMotion, again licensing is a factor, version, network capability.

You could also look at some sort of shared storage, NAS etc. if they have the money to invest, needs a reasonable amount of money spent to get performance for 4 hosts and their VMs.

What is your mandate here? maintain the status quo, improve the environment, patch and update/upgrade, re-architect the solution to Enterprise grade capability?

Before you do anything the major point will be licensing, what are they licensed for and is it under support? Broadcom subscription or old VMware SnS (most likely expired)? you may need to look at a new BC subscription for licensing, will require partner involvement here. 

Does the company want to spend money to improve and secure the platform? if it's old it will be susceptible to many security issues.

Is the hardware under maintenance/support? I'm guessing possibly not so they would be due a hardware refresh.

Personally I would at this point, prepare a new solution on new hardware, look at vSAN ready nodes (you **may** be able to reduce hardware count to 3 nodes given possible performance increases), use the available on line calculators for storage and performance etc. compare your existing hardware to new higher spec hardware. If the company is growing and requires additional capability then this too should be considered. Are they looking at cloud/private cloud modern apps? again what is the business after? what is the request and what is your mandate?

Then deploy new cluster, with vCenter & vSAN and networking, migrate your workloads to the shiny new environment, retire your old hardware job done.

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[Nathan Watts]

Hi D,
I just seem to have lost my last post so I am retrying, apologies if we get two similar posts.

Your questions raise a lot more questions.

What is your mandate here? What does the company want here?

Can you manage your 4 ESXi hosts with vCenter? Yes, should you do this, maybe, possibly not.

Let me break this down.

The first issue is licensing, are they licensed for vCenter, ESXi and vSAN? 
Do they have a current Broadcom subscription or is this running the free ESXi version? Do they just own VMware perpetual license keys? Are they under SnS still or expired?
What versions of ESXi are you currently running?
These are going to be old, most likely not maintained and subject to many security vulnerabilities, does the company wish to spend money to maintain and secure the platform and the services running on this platform?

Being they are UCS, These could be call manager appliances or another Cisco appliance solution? In which case stop now! Check compatibility and is it under maintenance with Cisco? Are the services under maintenance? Cisco has some very limiting support matrices of Host and product support.

I'm guessing that the hardware may also be end of life, out of support and maintenance etc.
If the hardware is end of support, and you have no VMware licensing you will need to purchase a new licensing subscription. You will also require new hardware.

In general for general workloads; I'd look at vSAN ready nodes, a cluster of 3 – 4 nodes and you'll get new higher performing hardware, is the company growing? Are they looking at modern applications? Public or private cloud? All questions that need addressing to deliver a solution that meets the business need.

Licensing requirements would come out of hardware requirements (need partner involvement here).

Deploy new vSAN cluster on new hardware, migrate the workloads to the new hardware, decommission old kit, job done.

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[DNguyen747]

Sorry I was away for a week.

Back to the question, customer is Air Force, DOD and they do have Enterprise License up to date as VCF 8 and all their hardware are 1 year old. The problem is every ESXi host got it's own storage and I try to figure out a way to set them up under vCenter and able to manage them.

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[ninjabrum]

You can manage them with vCenter easily.  Without shared storage, you'll be somewhat limited in DRS and HA.  VM's cannot fail over to another host since they don't share storage.  Same for DRS and balancing workloads.  Shared storage (iSCSI, FC, vSAN, NFS, etc) is a requirement for HA / DRS.  

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