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Installing vSphere Storage Appliance fails with the error: Failed to complete network configuration for specified host: 'hostname' (2037665)

Symptoms

  • Cannot install vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA)
  • Installing VSA fails
  • You see the error:

    Cannot create VSA Cluster: Failed to complete network configuration for specified host: 'hostname', hence reverted all other hosts. Could not find 2 NICs on the system
    Cluster creation rollback will undo any tasks that were completed. This may take a couple of minutes to complete.
     
  • The VSA logs report entries similar to:
     
    11:09:11,606 51 [PNICSelectorImpl] [pool-135-thread-1] INFO  - Getting NICs to use for switch vSwitch0
    11:09:11,606 561 [SessionService] [pool-135-thread-1] ERROR - Failed to configure network on host: host-xx
    java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not find 2 NICs on the system.
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.config.NetworkConfigurator.getAvailableNics(NetworkConfigurator.java:380)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.config.NetworkConfigurator.getAvailablePrimaryAndSecondaryNics(NetworkConfigurator.java:255)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.config.NetworkConfigurator.configureSwitch(NetworkConfigurator.java:411)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.config.NetworkConfigurator.configure(NetworkConfigurator.java:154)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.config.NetworkConfigurator.configureHostNetwork(NetworkConfigurator.java:114)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.service.SessionService.configureNetwork(SessionService.java:550)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.jobservices.tasks.TaskNetworkConfig.execute(TaskNetworkConfig.java:39)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.jobservices.impl.DefaultTaskRunner.handleTaskStart(DefaultTaskRunner.java:70)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.jobservices.impl.DefaultTaskRunner.call(DefaultTaskRunner.java:33)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.jobservices.impl.SyncTaskGroup.execute(SyncTaskGroup.java:46)
            at com.vmware.sva.manager.jobservices.impl.DefaultJobRunner.run(DefaultJobRunner.java:60)
            at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:441)
            at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
            at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
            at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
            at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
            at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
    11:09:11,616 89 [DefaultTaskRunner] [pool-135-thread-1] INFO  - Notifying listeners of task exception. TaskID:NetworkConfig
    2012-10-10 11:09:11,616 80 [DefaultJobRunner] [pool-135-thread-1] ERROR - Exception caught. Starting rollback for job if rollback support . JobName:ClusterCreation-datacenter-21
    java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to complete network configuration for specified host: 192.168.xx.xxx, hence reverted all other hosts.  Could not find 2 NICs on the system.

  • The VSA cluster includes an ESXi 5.1 host which has one Quad port NIC

Cause

According to design principles, the installer fails the NIC validation step, where a host has a single quad-port NIC. This is because the VSA is designed to achieve increased availability and redundancy, and having a single quad-port NIC is inconsistent with the redundancy principle. If a quad-port NIC fails, the host becomes isolated, resulting in HA restarts for the virtual machines that are registered on that host.
 
The datastores go into a degraded state, leaving the cluster vulnerable to total outage in the event of an additional failure anywhere in the remaining networking infrastructure or the remaining host(s).

Resolution

With VSA 5.1, the hosts can be configured with "brownfield" networking, as oppposed to "greenfield" (fresh ESXi install).
 
Here is how the VSA wishes to see brownfield networking:

Note: Case sensitivity and spelling are important for the Port Group names and vMotion and Management portgroups should be configured as vmkernel port groups.

vSwitch0:

 ---> vmnic0, vmnic2

 ---> NIC Teaming --> Originating Virtual Port ID, both NICs as Active.

 ---> "VM Network" port group --> NIC Teaming: vmnic2 active / vmnic0 standby

 ---> "Management Network" port group --> NIC Teaming: vmnic2 active / vmnic0 standby

 ---> "VSA-Front End" port group --> NIC Teaming: vmnic0 active / vmnic2 standby

vSwitch1:

 ---> vmnic1, vmnic3

 ---> NIC Teaming --> Originating Virtual Port ID, both NICs as Active

 - Port Group:

 ---> "VSA-Back End" --> NIC Teaming: vmnic1 active / vmnic3 standby

 ---> "VSA-VMotion" --> NIC Teaming: vmnic3 active / vmnic1 standby 
 
Note: In configurations like this, VMware recommends that you maintain Tested and Compatible spare hardware equipment at the host location, so that a hardware failure can be rectified as quickly as possible.

Additional Information

For more information, see the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance 5.1 Release Notes.

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