After replacing the witness appliance for a 2 node stretch cluster objects are reported as reduced no rebuild

Products

• VMware vSAN
• VMware vSAN 8.x

Issue/Introduction

• A 2-node stretch cluster experiences vSAN objects in a "Reduced availability with no rebuild" state after the witness appliance was replaced.
• Even with a stretched storage policy, all data objects are in a "reduced availability with no rebuild" health state.

Environment

VMware vSAN 8
VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.2.0

Cause

Shortly after changing the witness appliance one of the data nodes in the cluster start logging reduced availability with no rebuild errors. This discrepancy typically occurs during a witness replacement or a lifecycle operation where the cluster personality fails to synchronize across all nodes.

ESXi: /var/log/clomd.log

Check this log on the host that is showing "reduced availability with no rebuild" errors :

2026-04-14T16:24:40.409Z No(29) clomd[2112276]: [Originator@6876] CLOM_ReadParamsFromVsi: Setting CLOMGetAppCxt()->isMetroCluster to FALSE
2026-04-14T16:25:40.411Z No(29) clomd[2112276]: [Originator@6876] CLOM_ReadParamsFromVsi: Setting CLOMGetAppCxt()->isMetroCluster to FALSE
2026-04-14T16:26:40.414Z No(29) clomd[2112276]: [Originator@6876] CLOM_ReadParamsFromVsi: Setting CLOMGetAppCxt()->isMetroCluster to FALSE
2026-04-14T16:27:40.415Z No(29) clomd[2112276]: [Originator@6876] CLOM_ReadParamsFromVsi: Setting CLOMGetAppCxt()->isMetroCluster to FALSE

Here the data node has logged that it was in a stretched cluster previously then post witness change it no longer is seen as part of a stretched cluster.

2026-04-14T12:33:19.540Z No(29) clomd[7944449]: [Originator@6876] main: Is in stretched cluster mode? Yes
2026-04-14T12:33:49.919Z No(29) clomd[7944536]: [Originator@6876] main: Is in stretched cluster mode? Yes
2026-04-14T12:34:12.908Z No(29) clomd[7944834]: [Originator@6876] main: Is in stretched cluster mode? Yes
2026-04-14T12:45:26.067Z No(29) clomd[2099873]: [Originator@6876] main: Is in stretched cluster mode? Yes
2026-04-14T13:26:18.012Z No(29) clomd[2112109]: [Originator@6876] main: Is in stretched cluster mode? No
2026-04-14T13:26:40.148Z No(29) clomd[2112276]: [Originator@6876] main: Is in stretched cluster mode? No

Resolution

Open a case with vSAN Support for further assistance.