vSAN Skyline Health alert “File service VM not found on this host”
Article ID: 418895
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
In vSAN Skyline Health, a host may report the following alert “File service VM not found on this host”. Restarting the ESXi host does not resolve the issue, and all vCenter certificates remain valid.
On vCenter, the log file /var/log/vmware/eam/eam.log shows ovf access failure,
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.###Z | INFO | vlsi | OvfDownloader.java | ## | [OvfDownloader->Download:http://localhost:1080/external-vecs/http1/<VC FQDN>/443/vsanHealth/fileService/ovf/#######################/VMware-vSAN-File-Services-Appliance-#######################_OVF10.ovf] Downloading OVF descriptor from URL: http://localhost:1080/external-vecs/http1/<VC FQDN>/443/vsanHealth/fileService/ovf/#######################/VMware-vSAN-File-Services-Appliance-#######################_OVF10.ovf
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.###Z | WARN | vlsi | Workflow.java | ## | [OvfValidator->Validate:http://localhost:1080/external-vecs/http1/<VC FQDN>/443/vsanHealth/fileService/ovf/#######################/VMware-vSAN-File-Services-Appliance-#######################_OVF10.ovf] NEXT WORK ITEM : Failed to instantiate
com.vmware.eam.exception.CannotAccessOVF: Cannot access OVF at http://localhost:1080/external-vecs/http1/<VC FQDN>/443/vsanHealth/fileService/ovf/#######################/VMware-vSAN-File-Services-Appliance-#######################_OVF10.ovf
/var/log/vmware/vsan-health/vmware-vsan-health-service.log also shows failure to access ovf file, and the path displayed in this log represents the exact physical location on the vCenter where the vSAN File Services OVF package should exist.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.###Z ERROR vsan-mgmt[######] [VsanHttpProvider::doGet opID=noOpId] Looking for non-existing path /storage/vsan-health/../updatemgr/vsan/fileService/ovf-#######################/VMware-vSAN-File-Services-Appliance-#######################_OVF10.ovf, return 404
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.###Z INFO vsan-mgmt[######] [VsanMgmtServer::log_message opID=noOpId] - - "GET /vsanHealth/fileService/ovf/#######################/VMware-vSAN-File-Services-Appliance-#######################_OVF10.ovf HTTP/1.1" 404 -
These log entries indicate that vCenter is attempting to deploy an FSVM (File Service VM). However, the corresponding FSVM OVF file is not present on the system, preventing the deployment from succeeding.
Environment
vSphere and vSAN 7.x / 8.x
vSAN File Services enabled
One or more ESXi hosts report "File service VM not found on this host"
Cause
This problem occurs because the FSVM (File Service VM) that existed before a vCenter upgrade was deleted, and when vSAN attempts to automatically redeploy the FSVM, the OVF descriptor is no longer available. As a result, vSAN cannot remediate or rebuild the FSVM.
The path /storage/vsan-health/../updatemgr/vsan/fileService/ovf-#######################/VMware-vSAN-File-Services-Appliance-#######################_OVF10.ovf shown after “Looking for non-existing path” is the actual filesystem location where vCenter expects the vSAN File Services OVF package to reside.
Resolution
1. Identify the vSAN file service version from above error message, and download the corresponding FSVM ovf package (usually consists of six files) from the Broadcom support site. Make sure the version exactly matches the one shown in the log; using a different version may result in re-deployment failure.
2. On the vCenter, create the following directory (the name is retrieved from above error message),
/storage/vsan-health/../updatemgr/vsan/fileService/ovf-#######################/
NOTE: This path resolves to /storage/updatemgr/vsan/fileService/ovf-#######################/ since the .. moves one level up from vsan-health.
3. Use SCP or SFTP to upload all the downloaded FSVM ovf files (typically six files) into the newly created directory.
4. If everything is placed correctly, vCenter will automatically trigger the re-deployment of the missing FSVM on the ESXi host.
5. Re-test Skyline Health and the alert should be cleared.
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