Retreat Mode Steps
Note: Starting in vSphere 7.0 U3o and 8.0 U2, entering Retreat Mode is now available as a Cluster setting within the vCenter Server UI.
vSphere 7.0 U3o/8.0 U2 and Later
- Log into vCenter's HTML5 client
- In Hosts and Clusters inventory, select a cluster.
- Click on the Configure tab.
- Under vSphere Cluster Services, select General.
- In the top right, click on EDIT VCLS MODE.
- In the Edit vCLS Mode pop up window, click on the second radio option Retreat Mode.
- Click OK.
For Versions Prior to vSphere 7.0 U3o and 8.0 U2, Using the vSphere Client
- Log in to the vSphere Client.
- Navigate to the cluster on which vCLS should be disabled. Copy the cluster domain id from the URL of the browser. It should be similar to 'domain-c<number>', not the entire string.
Notes: You only need to copy
domain-c<number>
part of the URL. For example: When you navigate to cluster in vSphere client, your URL will be similar to this:
https://<fqdn-of-vCenter-server>/ui/app/cluster;nav=h/urn:vmomi:ClusterComputeResource:domain-c1006:ce4a7b9f-768c-2222-3333-fe50bd6341c8/summary
. You only need to copy
domain-c1006
to use in the steps below.
Using other values, for example the cluster UUID, or a combination of the cluster ID and the UUID, will result in vpxd failing to start when you next restart it. Therefore please be careful to only use the ID
domain-c<number>.
If you already did add the wrong value by accident, causing vpxd to no longer start, you can remove the VCLS retreat mode settings from the
vpxd.cfg
configuration file. Take a backup of the
vpxd.cfg
, then run the following command:
# sed '/<vcls>/,/<\/vcls>/d' -i /etc/vmware-vpx/vpxd.cfg
This will remove all retreat mode settings from all of the clusters in this vCenter, but it will allow vpxd to start again
- Navigate to the vCenter Server and then to Configure tab.
- Click on Advanced setting section and then on Edit settings button.
- Add a new entry with name = config.vcls.clusters.domain-c<number>.enabled and value = False.
Note: True and False are case insensitive, so any case of these two values should be accepted.
- Click Save.
- vCLS monitoring service will initiate the clean-up of vCLS VMs and user will start noticing the tasks with the VM deletion.
- If this cluster has DRS enabled, then it will not be functional and additional warning will be displayed in the cluster summary. DRS will be disabled until vCLS is re-enabled on this cluster.
- To remove Retreat Mode from the cluster, change the value to True in step# 5 above.
Note: True and False are case insensitive, so any case of these two values should be accepted.
- Once you configure retreat mode on a cluster, the entry for the cluster will stay in the vCenter Advanced Settings. There is no way to delete this entry from vSphere Client, there will be no issue with keeping this entry.
Using APIs/CLIs
Use the attached retreatModeConfiguration.py
script to configure retreat mode on multiple clusters on the VC.
Usage: python retreatModeConfiguration.py -r disable or python retreatModeConfiguration.py -r enable
Identifying vCLS VMs
- In the vSphere Client UI, vCLS VMs are named
vCLS (<number>)
where the number field is auto-generated. All vCLS VMs with the Datacenter of a vSphere Client are visible in the VMs and Template tab of the client inside a VMs and Templates folder named vCLS.
If you click on the summary of these VMs, you will see a banner which reads vSphere Cluster Service VM is required to maintain the health of vSphere Cluster Services. Power state and resource of this VM is managed by vSphere Cluster Services, along with a Learn More link which takes you to the KB article.
- Using vSphere Managed Object Browser (MOB)
Identifying all the vCLS VMs for a given datacenter
Sample MOB query examples:
Replace IP address and moid to a vCLS VM in these sample queries:
https://<IP address>
/mob/?moid=vm-1004&doPath=config.managedBy <then screenshot 1>
https://<IP address>
/mob/?moid=vm-1004&doPath=config.extraConfig%5b%22HDCS.agent%22%5d
Sample MOB query:
Replace IP address and moid to a VM folder named vCLS in the sample query
https://<IP address>/mob/?moid=group-v16