Manage VSAN 5.5 with RVC Part 1 - Basic Configuration Tasks

The "Manage VSAN with RVC" series explains how to use Ruby vSphere Console command line to control your VSAN environment. The first part explains basic configuration tasks that are required for the initial setup:

• vsan.enable_vsan_on_cluster
• vsan.disable_vsan_on_cluster
• vsan.apply_license_to_cluster
• vsan.host_consume_disks
• vsan.cluster_set_default_policy
• vsan.host_wipe_vsan_disks

To make commands look better I created marks for a Cluster, a Virtual Machine and an ESXi Hosts. This allows me to use ~cluster, ~vm and ~esx in my examples:

/localhost/DC> mark cluster ~/computers/VSAN-Cluster/
/localhost/DC> mark vm ~/vms/vma.virten.lab
/localhost/DC> mark esx ~/computers/VSAN-Cluster/hosts/esx1.virten.lab/

Basic Configuration Tasks

vsan.enable_vsan_on_cluster
Enables VSAN on a cluster. When VSAN is already enabled you can also use this command to enable/disable auto claim. When not specified, auto claim is enabled by default.

Example 1 - Enable VSAN on a Cluster:

/localhost/DC> vsan.enable_vsan_on_cluster ~cluster
ReconfigureComputeResource VSAN-Cluster: success
 esx1.virten.lab: success
 esx2.virten.lab: success
 esx3.virten.lab: success

Example 2 - Disable auto claim on a VSAN enabled Cluster:

/localhost/DC> vsan.enable_vsan_on_cluster --disable-storage-auto-claim ~cluster
ReconfigureComputeResource VSAN-Cluster: success
 esx1.virten.lab: success
 esx2.virten.lab: success
 esx3.virten.lab: success

vsan.disable_vsan_on_cluster
Disables VSAN on a cluster. HA has to be disabled to use this command.

Example 1 - Disable VSAN on a HA enabled Cluster:

/localhost/DC> cluster.configure_ha --disabled ~cluster
ReconfigureComputeResource VSAN-Cluster: success
esx1.virten.lab: success
esx2.virten.lab: success
esx3.virten.lab: success
/localhost/DC> vsan.disable_vsan_on_cluster ~cluster
ReconfigureComputeResource VSAN-Cluster: success
esx1.virten.lab: success
esx2.virten.lab: success
esx3.virten.lab: success

vsan.apply_license_to_cluster
Applies a license key to a VSAN Cluster. This command also triggers a Null-Reconfigure of all hosts to ensure that all disks are claimed when auto-claim is enabled.

Example 1 - Apply a VSAN license and for auto-claim:

/localhost/DC> vsan.apply_license_to_cluster -k 00000-00000-00000-00000-00000 ~cluster
VSAN-Cluster: Applying VSAN License on the cluster...
VSAN-Cluster: Null-Reconfigure to force auto-claim...
ReconfigureComputeResource VSAN-Cluster: success
 esx1.virten.lab: success
 esx2.virten.lab: success
 esx3.virten.lab: success

Example 2 - Replace a VSAN license key:

/localhost/DC> vsan.apply_license_to_cluster -r -k 00000-00000-00000-00000-00000 ~cluster 
VSAN-Cluster: Applying VSAN License on the cluster...

vsan.host_consume_disks
Consumes all eligible disks on a host. When you have multiple SSDs you can specify the appropriate SSD by its model.

Example 1 - Identify SSD Model description and create a disk group. This is required when you have more than one SSD:

/localhost/DC> esxcli.execute ~esx storage core device list
[...]
IsSSD: true
Model: "SanDisk SDSSDP06"
[...]
/localhost/DC> vsan.host_consume_disks ~esx --filter-ssd-by-model "SanDisk SDSSDP06"
AddDisks esx1.virten.lab: success

Example 2 - Add all eligible disks to a new or existing disk group:

/localhost/DC> vsan.host_consume_disks ~esx
AddDisks esx1.virten.lab: success

vsan.cluster_set_default_policy
Set default policy on a cluster. That policy is used by default when an object has no VM Storage Policy defined. Available values are:

• hostFailuresToTolerate (Number of failures to tolerate)
• forceProvisioning (Force provisioning)
• stripeWidth (Number of disk stripes per object)
• cacheReservation (Flash read cache reservation)
• proportionalCapacity (Object space reservation)

Default Policy: (("hostFailuresToTolerate" i1) ("forceProvisioning" i1))

Example 1 - Change the default policy to tolerate two host failures:

/localhost/DC> vsan.cluster_set_default_policy ~cluster '(("hostFailuresToTolerate" i2) ("forceProvisioning" i1))'

Example 2 - Find out the current default policy from a existing host and add a 3rd Rule:

/localhost/DC> esxcli.execute ~esx vsan policy getdefault
+--------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Policy Class | Policy Value                                             |
+--------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| cluster      | (("hostFailuresToTolerate" i1) ("forceProvisioning" i1)) |
| vdisk        | (("hostFailuresToTolerate" i1) ("forceProvisioning" i1)) |
| vmnamespace  | (("hostFailuresToTolerate" i1) ("forceProvisioning" i1)) |
| vmswap       | (("hostFailuresToTolerate" i1) ("forceProvisioning" i1)) |
+--------------+----------------------------------------------------------+
/localhost/DC> vsan.cluster_set_default_policy ~cluster '(("hostFailuresToTolerate" i1) ("forceProvisioning" i1) ("stripeWidth" i2))'

vsan.host_wipe_vsan_disks
Deletes the content of all VSAN enabled disks on a host. When the command is uses without the force option it only tells what it would wipe.

Example 1 - Run the command in dry mode:

/localhost/DC> vsan.host_wipe_vsan_disks ~esx
Would wipe disk WDC_WD1500HLFS (ATA WDC WD1500HLFS-0, ssd = false)
Would wipe disk WDC_WD1500HLFS (ATA WDC WD1500HLFS-0, ssd = false)
Would wipe disk WDC_WD1500HLFS (ATA WDC WD1500HLFS-0, ssd = false)
Would wipe disk SanDisk_SDSSDP064G (ATA SanDisk SDSSDP06, ssd = true)

NO ACTION WAS TAKEN. Use --force to actually wipe.
CAUTION: Wiping disks means all user data will be destroyed!

Example 2 - Wipe the content of all VSAN disks:

/localhost/DC> vsan.host_wipe_vsan_disks ~esx --force
RemoveDiskMapping esx1.virten.lab: success

Manage VSAN with RVC Series

• Manage VSAN with RVC Part 1 – Basic Configuration Tasks
• Manage VSAN with RVC Part 2 – VSAN Cluster Administration
• Manage VSAN with RVC Part 3 – Object Management
• Manage VSAN with RVC Part 4 – Troubleshooting
• Manage VSAN with RVC Part 5 – Observer