VM's in inaccessible state after restarting the vSAN cluster.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• After powering on the vSAN cluster, all virtual machines shows as inaccessible state.

• All vSAN objects became inaccessible.

• vCenter will also be inaccessible if running from the same vSAN datastore.

• 'esxcli vsan cluster get' command on ESXi host CLI shows the maintenance mode is enabled on the host:

[root@esx01:~] esxcli vsan cluster get
Cluster Information
Enabled: true
Current Local Time: 2025-03-17T03:03:20Z
Local Node UUID: ########-####-####-####-##########
Local Node Type: NORMAL
Local Node State: BACKUP
Local Node Health State: HEALTHY
Sub-Cluster Master UUID: ########-####-####-####-##########
Sub-Cluster Backup UUID: ########-####-####-####-##########
Sub-Cluster UUID: ########-####-####-####-##########
Sub-Cluster Membership Entry Revision: 2
Sub-Cluster Member Count: 3
Sub-Cluster Member UUIDs: ########-####-####-####-##########, ########-####-####-####-##########, ########-####-####-####-##########
Sub-Cluster Member HostNames: ESX01, ESX02, ESX03
Sub-Cluster Membership UUID: ########-####-####-####-##########
Unicast Mode Enabled: true
Maintenance Mode State: ON
Config Generation: ########-####-####-####-########## 8 2025-03-14T21:49:39.934
Mode: REGULAR
vSAN ESA Enabled: false
[root@esx01:~]

• 'localcli system maintenanceMode get' will show the maintenance mode is disabled on the host.    [root@esx01:~] esxcli system maintenanceMode get
    Disabled
    [root@esx01:~]

Environment

VMware vSAN 7.x
VMware vSAN 8.x

 

Cause

The issue occurs when a vSAN node has not completely exited the decommissioned state.

As a result, the components associated with that node remain in a stale state, causing the objects to become inaccessible.

Resolution

To fix the issue take the vSAN node out of the decommissioned state,

• From host UI/Client session,
  Place the affected host into Maintenance mode with 'No Action' and then exit from Maintenance mode immediately.

OR

• Place the host into Maintenance mode and exit the same using CLI:
  • esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e true -m noAction
  • esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e false

Note:
Perform the above steps on all hosts where vSAN decommissioned state is enabled.

Additional Information

Please refer to the below KB article:

vSAN objects unhealthy due to DECOM state