Shutting down and powering on a vSAN Cluster when vCenter Server is running on top of vSAN

Products

VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

You can shut down the entire vSAN cluster to perform maintenance or troubleshooting.

Use the Shutdown Cluster wizard to shutdown the vSAN cluster. The wizard performs the necessary steps and alerts you when it requires user action. You also can manually shut down the cluster, if necessary.

Note: When you shut down a vSAN stretched cluster, the witness host remains active.

(Do not use Turn Off VSAN as this turns off the service and is not used to shut down the cluster)

Environment

VMware vSAN 7.u3+
VMware vSAN 8.X

Cause

Use the Shutdown cluster wizard to gracefully shut down the vSAN cluster for maintenance or troubleshooting.
The Shutdown Cluster Wizard is available with vSAN 7.0 Update 3 and later releases.

Note: If you have a vSphere with Tanzu environment, you must follow the specified order when shutting down or starting up the components. For more information, see "Shutdown and Startup of VMware Cloud Foundation" (confirm correct version) in the VMware Cloud Foundation Operations Guide.

Resolution

Shut Down the vSAN Cluster Using the Shutdown Cluster Wizard

Prepare the vSAN cluster for shutdown.
1. Check the vSAN Skyline Health to confirm that the cluster is healthy.
2. Power off all virtual machines (VMs) stored in the vSAN cluster, except for vCenter Server VMs, vCLS VMs and file service VMs. If vCenter Server is hosted on the vSAN cluster, do not power off the vCenter Server VM or VM service VMs (such as DNS, Active Directory) used by vCenter Server.
3. If this is an HCI Mesh server cluster, power off all client VMs stored on the cluster. If the client cluster's vCenter Server VM is stored on this cluster, either migrate or power off the VM. Once this server cluster is shutdown, its shared datastore is inaccessible to clients.
4. Verify that all resynchronization tasks are complete.
  Click the Monitor tab and select vSAN > Resyncing Objects.
  
  Note: If any member hosts are in lockdown mode, add the host's root account to the security profile Exception User list. For more information, see Lockdown Mode in vSphere Security.
Right-click the vSAN cluster in the vSphere Client, and select menu Shutdown cluster.
You also can click Shutdown Cluster on the vSAN Services page.
On the Shutdown cluster wizard, verify that the Shutdown pre-checks are green checks. Resolve any issues that are red exclamations. Click Next.

If vCenter Server appliance is deployed on the vSAN cluster, the Shutdown cluster wizard displays the vCenter Server notice. Note the IP address of the orchestration host, in case you need it during the cluster restart. If vCenter Server uses service VMs such as DNS or Active Directory, note them as exceptional VMs in the Shutdown cluster wizard.
Enter a reason for performing the shutdown, and click Shutdown.
The vSAN Services page changes to display information about the shutdown process.
Monitor the shutdown process.
vSAN performs the steps to shutdown the cluster, powers off the system VMs, and powers off the hosts.

Restart the vSAN Cluster
You can restart a vSAN cluster that is shut down for maintenance or troubleshooting.

Power on the cluster hosts.
If the vCenter Server is hosted on the vSAN cluster, wait for vCenter Server to restart.
Right-click the vSAN cluster in the vSphere Client, and select menu Restart cluster.
You also can click Restart Cluster on the vSAN Services page.
On the Restart Cluster dialog, click Restart.
The vSAN Services page changes to display information about the restart process.
After the cluster has restarted, check the vSAN Skyline Health and resolve any outstanding issues.

Additional Information

Steps are documented in Shutting Down and Restarting the vSAN Cluster from the Administering VMware vSAN documents

see KB vSAN cluster unable to restart after a planned cluster shutdown if issues are encountered when restarting the cluster.