Preparing the vCenter cluster for VSAN
There are some cluster-level prerequisites that must be satisfied before VSAN can be enabled. As we have already discussed, you will need a minimum of three hosts, with a minimum of one SSD and one spinning disk or capacity-tier SSD per host. This is probably optional, but it would help with 5.5/6.0 convergence of the text.
In addition, the following prerequisites need to be satisfied:
- Disable vSphere HA
- Apply licensing
- Configure networking
- Tagging disks as SSDs if using RAID-0 mode
Getting ready
You should be logged in to the vSphere Web Client as an administrator or user, authorized to alter cluster-level settings. All VSAN operations must be executed via the vSphere Web Client. The legacy vSphere Client is not supported for VSAN operations.
How to do it…
- To disable vSphere HA in preparation for VSAN enablement, you must browse the vSphere Web Client. Navigate to Home | Hosts and Clusters | Datacenter | Cluster | Manage:
- If vSphere HA is enabled, click on the Edit button, and then uncheck the Turn on vSphere HA checkbox.
- Click on OK, and then monitor the Recent Tasks until the process completes.
- If vSphere HA is not enabled, then no further action is required.
There's more…
Introducing VSAN into a vSphere infrastructure fundamentally changes how vSphere HA works. To permit these changes, vSphere HA must be completely disabled so that we can re-enable it after VSAN is activated. This permits vSphere HA to be reconfigured with knowledge of the VSAN infrastructure and enable proper interoperability.
This step is not optional—disabling vSphere HA is enforced by the VSAN enablement process.
See also
- For much greater detail regarding VSAN and HA interoperability, please see the section Chapter 2 – HA requirements for VSAN enablement in Appendix A, Chapter-specific Expansions