VCF 5.2 Limitation: Clusters Cannot Be Stretched vSAN – Migration Options

[Mandy468]

#vcf #ImportCluster #vcf5.2#VCFImportTool

I have a 2-node vSAN ROBO cluster with a witness node running in my vSphere infrastructure. I'm looking to understand how this setup can be imported or migrated into VCF 5.2.

From the documentation, I see that VCF 5.2 does not support stretched or 2-node vSAN clusters with witness:

"Clusters cannot be stretched vSAN when converting or importing existing vSphere environments into VMware Cloud Foundation."

What is the right way to approach this scenario?

if I want to add this vSAN ROBO cluster as a new cluster under the existing workload domain,  what is the right approach to achieve it ?

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[ninjabrum]

You'll need to convert this from a ROBO 2 node cluster + witness to a standard 3 node cluster:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/384761/vsan-convert-2node-stretched-cluster-to.html

part of this is converting from a stretched cluster to a standard vSAN cluster.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsan/vsan/7-0/vsan-planning-and-deployment/working-with-virtual-san-stretched-cluster/converting-a-vsan-stretched-cluster-into-a-single-site-vsan-cluster.html

My advice is to open a support ticket and get guidance or engage professional services to assist.  This is not a straight forward conversion. If the workloads are critical, get assistance from the vendor.

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[Mandy468]

Thank you so much for the information.

Is there any supported way to create a ROBO cluster inside a VCF 5.2 existing workload domain as a new cluster, and then move or migrate data from an existing VVF environment into VCF?

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[ninjabrum]

You can use the VCF Import Tool to import a 2 node vSAN ROBO cluster into an existing workload domain.

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[Mandy468]

if i'm not wrong, Import tool does not support stretched vSAN cluster.  
vSAN ROBO (2-node + witness). 
Also, When using vSAN, all clusters must be 3 nodes minimum.

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[ninjabrum]

I think you are correct.  I had read that you could import a two node cluster into a workload domain, but it depends on the storage backing.  This is from:

https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2025/07/03/vcf-9-0-deployment-pathways/#:~:text=for%20further%20detail.-,Import%20a%20vCenter%20Deployment%20into%20VCF,NFS%20or%20VMFS%20on%20FC).

A minimum number of hosts are required when importing existing vCenter environments into VCF as a workload domain. (3 vSAN ready nodes or 2 vSphere hosts configured using NFS or VMFS on FC).

Two node vSAN is a no-go.  If it is NFS or FC, then yes.  Thank you for the clarification.

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[Mandy468]

Thanks for the update.

In conclusion, the plan for the ROBO cluster in VCF 5.2 is:

• There is no direct way to import a ROBO cluster as-is.
• Convert the ROBO cluster to a standard vSAN cluster and add a third node to make it legible for import tool, then use the import tool to bring it in as a new workload domain in VCF 5.2.   

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