Summary
In this post I will setup a Single node vSAN (and install vCenter as part of that process)
I will use version 9.0.1 for this setup, to later give me options for the upgrade scenario.
Requirements
You must already have a few things though before starting this. Mainly because vCenter requires it:
-
- NTP Servers
- DNS Servers
- ESX and vCenter DNS registrations (forward and reverse zone).
- Firewall rules (keep in mind that for upgrading the Witness you may need two IPs to be allowed through in the rules if you replace the Witness at each upgrade. You can get an overview over the required ports here.
Please note: that single node vSAN is not a supported way to run vSAN beyond the deployment of vCenter. You do need to add node(s) to the cluster following the deployment.
Steps before starting:
In my case the network will look as follows.
I have 2x 10Gbit pNIC per physical server, this will be used for the below traffic at the outset. Additionally I have a 4 port gigabit pNIC. The four gigabit ports are being left unused at the moment.
| VLAN | Description | Range/Subnet | MTU | vmk |
| 2000 | ESX9 – Physical hosts | 10.2.100.0/24 | 1500 | 0 |
| 2001 | vMotion | 10.2.101.0/24 | 9000 | 1 |
| 2002 | vSAN | 10.2.102.0/24 | 9000 | 2 |
| 2003 | NSX Overlay* | 10.2.103.0/24 | 9000 | |
| 2004 | VCF Appliances | 10.2.104.0/24 | 1500 | |
| 102 | vSAN Witness IP / Network | 10.1.102.101-10.1.102.102 | 1500 |
*VLAN 2003 is for future use with VCF.
It is good practice to segment different vm kernel nics (vmk)
Installing vCenter 9 on the first node (Stage 1 of vCenter deployment)
I will install the vCenter on the first host on the vSAN site. Mount the ISO and navigate to the ui installer folder. I will use MacOS for this, windows or linux can also be used, the file you are looking for is called Installer with an extension depending on OS.
(Small note: If you get a message saying the ISO is damaged, then follow the KB here. For non Intel Architecture you may also be required to install Rosetta).
1: Select Install from the options
2: Select “Deploy vCenter Server”
3: Acccept the EULA
4: Enter the information for vCenter Server Deployment target, when prompted accept the certificate:
5: Enter the vCenter name and root password info:
6: Next we select the deployment size, in my case small is enough (tiny is actually but for the simulation purposes, we should never deploy tiny in a prod environment). I leave storage size at the default for now.
7: Selecting a datastore. I removed the default created datastore1 (which usually resides on the remainder of the disk used for the ESX installer). Hence no datastore shows up. Here though, is where we select the vSAN cluster, so select the second radio button
When you select the second radio button some new options are shown.
We need to enter a datacenter. In my case “aocit-site”.
Cluster name I change to “mgmt”, since I know later I will deploy a management site on this cluster for VCF9.
As a note: Below you can enable ESA (Enterprise Storage Architecture). This will despite what you read in some older documentation work with 10Gbit. 25Gbit is more of a recommendation that was put in place post launch. You can find the information here.
8: I go with OSA for now since my backplane on the servers most likely ins’t liked by ESA.
Like before you are invited to select some disks for cache and capacity tier. I leave thin disk mode and deduplication unselected for now.
9: Enter the information required for the network settings (for vCenter).
Note: The last 2 fields, although marked with stars appear to be optional. This should be related to IPv6.
Network settings are validated and you are presented with a summary screen, press finish to start stage 1 of the deployment.
Various things take place, first the vSAN service is enabled.
Then the vSAN datastore is created.
If you look in your ESX host you see the datastore now appears.
10: Stage one completes with a verification and you get a message that you can continue to stage 2.
vCenter deployment stage 2
1: Once stage 1 completes we can start on stage 2. You can go tot he website to do this or you can continue in the vCenter Server Installer:
2: Next we configure NTP and SSH service. Generally I tend to at least enable SSH during the installation because it allows me access if need to reconfigure something inside the vCenter during the deployment. Also as mentioned it’s required for vCenter HA.
NTP is actually verified and you receive an error if ntp can’t be contacted.
3: If all works the installation continues to the SSO configuration.
In my case I don’t want to risk that I have the same vSphere SSO domain, so mine is renamed from the default vSphere.local to vcf.local
4: You are invited to join the CEIP. I disable it as I don’t allow the traffic out by default in my setup.
5: You are presented with an overview of stage 2. If all is ok, press finish to complete stage 2. You will receive a pop-up that says there is no way back if you encounter problems at this stage.
6: Let the stage 2 complete, you should eventually see it complete. The last stage with starting the Performance monitor (at 97%) will take some time to complete.
You may also encounter an issue at 71%, where the “VMware vSAN Health service failed firstboot”. I came across this, and had to clean up vSAN a couple of times. You can read about it here.
Logging into the UI of vCenter should also work.
Next step of this is to configure and add vSAN Witness, you can find that part here.