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Performing a controlled power down of a VMware vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) 5.1 cluster (2040965)

Purpose

It may be occasionally necessary to completely power down a vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) 5.1 cluster.

Some use cases for this include:
  • Powering down a production VSA cluster in an orderly fashion in advance of an anticipated extended electric power cut.
  • Having built a VSA cluster in a specific physical location, you wish to now power it all down, pack the components for shipment, and ship to a different physical location.
This article also provides steps to power up the VSA cluster.

The instructions in this article are for VSA 5.1 clusters and later. For VSA 1.0 clusters, see Performing a controlled power down of a VMware vSphere Storage Appliance cluster (2019135).

Resolution

Note: Before performing these steps, ensure that you have backups of your virtual machines on media that is not part of the VSA Cluster storage. If you require guidance on creating backups, please file a support request with VMware Technical Support, and the VSA support team will respond.

To power down a vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) 5.1 and later cluster:

  1. Shut down all guest virtual machines that are in the cluster, except the VSA Appliance virtual machines (VSA-0, VSA-1, etc). From the VSA Manager tab in the vSphere Client which is logged into vCenter Server, click Enter Cluster Maintenance Mode.
  2. A pop-up appears with the message:

    Putting a VSA cluster in maintenance mode will render all running virtual machines unavailable. Do you want the selected VSA cluster to enter maintenance mode?

    If all of the guests have completed the power off operation initiated in step 1, click Yes. To back out of this operation, click No.

  3. After clicking Yes, you see a progress indicator followed by a pop-up with a green check mark with the message, VSA cluster entered maintenance mode. Click Close.
  4. Launch the vSphere Client directly into each cluster host, right-click its VSA Appliance virtual machine, then click Power > Power Off.

    Note: This method is disabled from vCenter Server, but works from the vSphere Client logged directly into the host.

  5. After powering off the VSA Appliance virtual machine, the VSA's datastores are grayed out and italicized (and in an inactive state) when Configuration > Storage is clicked from the vSphere Client logged into each host. Also, any virtual machines are grayed out, italicized, named Unknown, and (inaccessible). Finally, you see alarms in vCenter Server that the VSA Storage Cluster is Offline, and one or more VSA Member is Offline. All of these observations are normal in this situation.
  6. From the vSphere Client logged into vCenter Server, right-click each host and click Enter Maintenance Mode.
  7. After the hosts are all in Maintenance Mode, right-click each host and click Shut Down. After the power off operation is complete, the hosts appear grayed out and (not responding), which is normal.
  8. If the vCenter Server is installed on a separate machine in the cluster location, power off that machine now. If the vCenter Server is remote, but the VSA Cluster Service is installed on a separate machine in the cluster location, power off that machine now.
You have now completely powered down the cluster.


To power up a vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) 5.1 and later cluster:

  1. If the vCenter Server is installed on a separate machine in the cluster location, power it on. If the vCenter Server is remote, but the VSA Cluster Service is installed on a separate machine in the cluster location, power it on.
  2. After the machines above have powered on and all VMware automatic-start services have fully started, launch the vSphere Client and connect to the vCenter Server.

    Notes:
    • It is normal to see some alarms, and these can be cleared by selecting the object where the alarm is shown, clicking the Alarms tab, and right-clicking the alarm text and clicking Clear.
    • You might not see the VSA Manager tab appear when you select the datacenter object at this point in the procedure.

  3. Power on each host. After the host successfully completes its power on operation, it reconnects with vCenter Server.

    Note: The automatic virtual machine startup and shutdown settings ensure that the VSA Appliance virtual machines power on as well.

  4. Click the datacenter object, then click the VSA Manager tab.

    Note: If you do not see the VSA Manager tab appear when you click the datacenter object at this time, close the vSphere Client and relaunch it and connect to the vCenter Server. The VSA Manager tab now appears.

  5. From the Appliances view, verify that you can see all Appliances Online and in the Green status.
  6. From the Datastores view, verify that you can see all the VSA's datastores in Maintenance mode.
  7. Click Exit VSA Cluster Maintenance Mode. After a short time (2 minutes or less), a pop-up appears with a green check mark and the message, VSA cluster exited maintenance mode.
  8. After a few moments, the datastores again become accessible and all the virtual machines are available to power on. Power on the virtual machines in your preferred priority sequence.
The cluster is now powered up.


If you experience any issues when following this procedure, please file a support request with VMware Technical Support and note this Knowledge Base article ID (2040965) in the problem description. For more information, see Filing a Support Request in My VMware (2006985).


Notes:
  • If vCenter Server is installed on local storage, maintenance can be done by connecting the vSphere Client directly to the hosts. This is because vCenter Server cannot access the hosts after entering maintenance mode.
  • After powering up the cluster and reconfiguring HA and clearing alarms, you may have to restart the vCenter Server service to clear the unprotected alarm messages.

See Also

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