HA error: "The number of heartbeat datastores for host is 1, which is less than required: 2"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

To resolve the The number of heartbeat datastores for host is 1, which is less than required: 2 error, add a secondary heartbeat datastore.

Symptoms:

• The datastore is not accessible by all hosts.
• The number of shared datastores between all hosts is less than 2.
• While implementing a vSphere High Availability (HA) configuration, you see this error on one of the ESXi 6.x and above hosts:
  
  The number of heartbeat datastores for host is 1, which is less than required: 2

Environment

6.x
7.x
8.x

Cause

This issue occurs if there is no redundancy in shared storage to allow for datastore heart beating. As of vSphere 6.0 and above, vSphere HA requires a minimum of two shared datastores shared between all hosts in a cluster for proper datastore heartbeat detection to function.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, add a secondary heartbeat datastore.

 

Warning: This workaround suppresses the error which reports the configuration having insufficient heartbeat datastores.

 

To disable the HA error message:

1. Log in to vCenter Server.
2. Right-click the cluster and click Settings.
3. Go to Configure tab and under Services and click on vSphere Availability.
4. Click Edit vSphere HA and in Edit Cluster Settings go to Advanced Options tab.
5. In the Option field type das.ignoreInsufficientHbDatastore and in Value field type true and Click on ADD and click OK.
6. In vSphere Availability click on Edit for vSphere HA and toggle vSphere HA to disable HA and click OK.
7. Allow time for all the hosts in the cluster to be unconfigure vSphere HA.
8. In vSphere Availability the vSphere HA will be Turned OFF, To Turn ON, Click on Edit vSphere HA.
9. Enable vSphere HA by toggle and click OK. Wait for all the hosts to get vSphere HA configured.
10. Make sure vSphere HA is Turned ON state.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
If the HA error message is disabled, there is no notification of the lack of redundancy for datastore heartbeat.