vSAN -- Stretched Cluster -- Cluster Partition - Shared Witness is partitioned from all Cluster(s) it is associated with

Products

• VMware vSAN
• VMware vSAN 8.x

Issue/Introduction

The following Symptoms apply:

 

• You worked through the Troubleshooting steps outlined in KB 326958 but could not find a Network issue

 

• Via vSAN Health on the Cluster(s) where the affected Witness is shared with: You observe a Cluster Partition alert along with a degraded vSAN Object Health

The error details inform that the Witness is partitioned from the other Hosts in the Cluster (=  via showing a different partition number) Example:

 

 

 

 

• You might use a Backup solution to backup the Witness Host

• You might observe on the affected shared Witness: Witness Component Count "0"

Example:

 

 

 

Environment

vSAN 8.x

Cause

The associated Virtual Witness Appliance (= Virtual Machine) is malfunctioning.

There can be many causes for this circumstance. 

Examples: Previous outages such as Network, Power, Hosts etc.

 

If you are using a Backup solution to backup the Witness Host:

This is not supported and can corrupt the Witness Host resulting in this malfunction. See for more details: Avoid taking a snapshot of the VMware vSAN Witness Appliance

Resolution

Replace the malfunctioning Witness with a new deployed Witness by following the steps outlined in vSAN Stretch Clusters - How to Replace the Witness Appliance/Host