vSAN-related menus are missing in the vSphere UI

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

In the vCenter UI, for a vSAN-enabled cluster, all vSAN-related menus under the Monitor tab are missing. Additionally, under the Configure tab for the cluster, only the vSAN Services option is available.

Environment

VMware vSAN 8.x

Cause

By design, the vSphere UI queries vSAN-related properties of the cluster, and the results of these properties determine what is displayed in the UI. If there has been an improper shutdown of the vSAN cluster, the cluster’s power state may be set incorrectly, causing the UI to filter out all vSAN-related menus.

Resolution

Method 1: Restart the Cluster from the UI

1. Restart the vSAN Cluster:

   • Use the "Restart cluster" option in the vSphere UI to restart the affected cluster. This will update the vSAN properties and restore the missing vSAN-related menus.

2. If the "Restart cluster" option is unavailable:

   • Refer to "Workaround for scenario 3" in the KB article: How to handle inconsistent cluster power status in vSAN shutdown workflow to manually restart the affected cluster.

   Once the cluster is restarted, the vSAN-related properties will be updated, and the menus will reappear in the UI.

Method 2: Workaround (Without Restarting the Cluster)

If you cannot restart the cluster or prefer not to, you can manually update the cluster's power state to restore the vSAN menus:

1. Query vSAN Cluster Properties:

   a. Open an SSH session to the vCenter Server:

   b. Run the following command to query the vSAN-related properties of the cluster:

    

   dcli +server http://localhost/vsan/api +i +username <administrator@domain name> +password <password>

   Then, run the query:

   com vmware cis data provider resourcemodel query --resource-models "com.vmware.vsan.ClusterModel" --return-total-count true --properties "@modelKey" --properties "isPoweringOn" --properties "isPoweringOff" --properties "isPoweredOn" --properties "isPoweredOff"

   Example Output:

   dcli> com vmware cis data provider resourcemodel query --resource-models "com.vmware.vsan.ClusterModel" --return-total-count true --properties "@modelKey" --properties "isPoweringOn" --properties "isPoweringOff" --properties "isPoweredOn" --properties "isPoweredOff"

   items:

   - property_values:

   - domain-cXXXX:

   - False

   - False

   - False

   - True

    

   properties:

   - @modelKey

   - isPoweringOn

   - isPoweringOff

   - isPoweredOn

   - isPoweredOff

   total_count: 1

   The output of the above command will give the properties of all the vSAN enabled clusters. We need to check for the properties of affected cluster based on the cluster ID. The cluster ID can be obtained from the URL of the browser by selecting the affected cluster in the UI. It will be similar to domain-cXXXX   
   In the example above, the isPoweredOn value is False and isPoweredOff is True, indicating that the cluster is considered powered off. As a result, the vSAN-related UI menus will not appear.

   Note: To validate if the vSAN properties are updated correctly, we can use the above dcli commands.

2. Update the Cluster Power State:

   a. Access the vSAN MOB (Managed Object Browser) by navigating to:

   https://vcenterIp/vsan/mob/?moid=vsan-cluster-power-system&method=updateClusterPowerStatus

   If the MOB link is inaccessible, follow these steps to enable it:

   • SSH into the vCenter appliance.

   • Run the command:

     rvc administrator@<domain name>@localhost

   • Provide your credentials, then enter:

     vsan.debug.mob --start 1

     quit

   b. Update the Cluster Power Status:

   • Once logged into the MOB, find the cluster section.
   • Replace MOID with the cluster ID (e.g., domain-cXXXX), which can be obtained from the browser URL when selecting the affected cluster.

Example: <cluster type="ComputeResource">domain-cXXXX</cluster>

• • In the string section, enter clusterPoweredOn.
  • Click "Invoke Method" to update the power status.

     3.Validate the Change:

• • After updating the cluster power status, run the same dcli command to ensure the isPoweredOn and isPoweredOff properties are updated correctly.
  • Refresh your browser to check if all the vSAN-related menus are now available in the UI.

Note: The above workaround will only update the cluster power status, if there are any vCLS related issues in the cluster refer vCLS VMs are not re-created in a vSAN Cluster following a complete shutdown of a vSAN cluster