VMs on vSAN showing as orphaned after power outage ( vSAN Health Service - Unicast agent not configured)

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

After power outage, VMs on a vSAN cluster present as orphaned and vSAN health reports Unicast agent not configured leading to vSAN cluster partition and vSAN object health. Alerts. 

Example

Environment

VMware vSAN (All Versions)

Cause

After reboot, the unicast agent list on all hosts referenced in the Unicast agent not configured alert has been lost and will need to be rebuilt. 

Resolution

Correct the unicast agent list. 

Option 1

Forcing the rebuild of the unicast agent list via vCenter GUI.  

Before starting the Following Tasks please set /VSAN/IgnoreClusterMemberListupdates to the default value of 0 to allow vCenter to make changes to the uicast agent list on all hosts. 

esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /VSAN/IgnoreClusterMemberListupdates 

1. 1. Place a host in to Maintenance Mode. 
   2. Drag the host in Maintenance Mode out of the vSAN cluster object,  and place it in the Datacenter object. 
   3. Drag the host in Maintenance Mode back into the Vsan cluster forcing vCenter to rebuild the unicast list on all hosts. 
   4. Remove the host from Maintenance Mode and validate vSAN health is no longer showing Unicast agent not configured, vSAN cluster partition or vSAN object health alerts. 

option 2

1. 1. Follow KB Configuring vSAN Unicast networking from the command line to rebuild the unicast agent list on impacted hosts in the cluster.  

Correct orphaned VMs 

To correct an orphaned virtual machine, the VM needs to be either re-registered if possible (if it has not been deleted) or removed from inventory. To re-register a virtual machine, navigate to the VM`s location in the Datastore Browser and re-add the VM to inventory. For more information, see How to register/add a VM to the Inventory in vCenter Server. To remove an orphaned VM from inventory, right-click the VM and choose "Remove from inventory."

Or 

Reload the orphaned Guests via RVC. 

1. 1. 1. Open an SSH session to the vCenter appliance
      2. Log into RVC with "rvc localhost" if still using [email protected] otherwise log in as rvc administrator@<domain>.local@localhost
      3. Navigate to the vSAN cluster you want to reregister OrphanedVMs on 
         
      4. Run "vsan.check_state . -re"  to reload all orphaned guests in cluster.  

 

Reference KBs

vSAN Health Service - Unicast agent not configured 

How to register/add a VM to the Inventory in vCenter Server.

Procedures for identifying Unassociated vSAN objects.