Upgrading vSAN Witness Appliance Using CLI

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• If the upgrade via vSphere Lifecycle Manager is failing due to issues with the vCenter Server, or if the vCenter Server is down, the witness ESXi version matches the ESXi version of the data nodes. The command line can be used to upgrade the vSAN witness host.

• vSAN witness host can be upgraded using vCenter lifecycle manager. However, if the vCenter server is currently down or not connected to vCenter lifecycle manager , an upgrade to the witness is required, below steps can be used.

Environment

VMware vSAN 7.x

VMware vSAN 8.x

 

Resolution

• Download the desired ESXI Offline Zip bundle from the steps mentioned in KB : Download ESXi patches and ISOs for latest releases

• Copy this file ( VMware-ESXi-<Build+version>depot.zip to OSDATA partition using the  WinSCP or similar software. Ensure that it has enough free space before copying.  ( df -h command )  

• Run the commands to validate the ZIP bundle. ( Exampled from lab ) 
   
  esxcli software  sources  profile  list  -d '/vmfs/volumes/<OSFS_PATH>/VMware-ESXi-8.0U3-24022510-depot.zip'
Name                          Vendor        Acceptance Level  Creation Time        Modification Time
----------------------------  ------------  ----------------  -------------------  -----------------
ESXi-8.0U3-24022510-no-tools  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported  2024-06-11T13:40:11  2024-06-11T13:40:11
ESXi-8.0U3-24022510-standard  VMware, Inc.  PartnerSupported  2024-06-11T13:40:11  2024-06-11T13:40:11

• Run the command to update the ESXI OS. Refer KB - Patching ESXi host using Command Line DO NOT USE INSTALL option

esxcli software  profile  update -p ESXi-8.0U3-24022510-standard -d '/vmfs/volumes/<OSFS_PATH>/VMware-ESXi-8.0U3-24022510-depot.zip' --no-hardware-warning
Update Result
   Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
   Reboot Required: true
   VIBs Installed: VMW_bootbank_atlantic_1.0.3.0-13vmw.803.0.0.24022510, VMW_bootbank_bcm-mpi3_8.8.1.0.0.0-1vmw.803.0.0.24022510, 
   VIBs Removed: VMW_bootbank_atlantic_1.0.3.0-8vmw.703.0.20.19193900, VMW_bootbank_bnxtnet_216.0.50.0-44vmw.703.0.50.20036589, 
   VIBs Skipped:

Note : As the vSAN witness disk comes with limited space ,we must keep a check on the space while creating ram disk.

Additional Information

A new witness VM can be deployed from the below OVF file 

• Download the vSAN witness appliance OVF with appropriate build using the link below. a new witness VM can deployed and can be added to stretch/ROBO  cluster
  • Download location of vSAN Witness Appliance and File Service Appliance
    
    
• Steps to change the witness VM 
  • Change the Witness Host