This article explains the vSphere Update Manager (now called vSphere Lifecycle Manager (VLM) In vSphere7) – vSAN build recommendation engine health check in the vSAN Health Service and provides details about why it might report an error.

vSAN's build recommendations for Update Manager require that Update Manager is available. The build recommendation engine relies on the VMware Compatibility Guide and VMware release metadata.

Information in the VMware Compatibility Guide and vSAN Release Catalog is combined with information about the currently installed ESXi release. The vSAN Release Catalog maintains information about available releases, preference order for releases, and critical patches needed for each release. When a new, compatible update becomes available, a notification is proactively displayed in vSAN Health. This eliminates the manual effort of researching and correlating information from various sources to determine the best release for an environment.

Administrators can use the Remediate option in vSphere Update Manager to perform a rolling upgrade of the cluster. vSphere Update Manager migrates virtual machines from the host being upgraded to other hosts in the cluster with no downtime.

Internet connectivity and valid Customer Connect (customerconnect.vmware.com) credentials are required to download and provide build recommendations.

This health check verifies that the vSAN cluster meets all dependencies and the build recommendations are made correctly.

VMware vSAN 8.0.x
VMware vSAN 7.0.x
VMware vSAN 6.6.x

Q: What does the vSAN Build Recommendation Engine health check do?

This health check detects any configuration issues in the vSAN build recommendation engine.

Q: What does it mean when it is in an error state?

The following issues might be detected by this check.

• Internet access is unavailable.
  Check and restore Internet connectivity to ensure that release metadata and VMware compatibility information can be updated correctly.
• vSphere Update Manager is disabled or is not installed.
  Make sure that Update Manager is installed, enabled, and available. 
  Configuring the Update Manager Download Sources
• vSphere Update Manager (VUM) is not responsive.
  Make sure that the Update Manager is enabled and available.
• vSAN release metadata is outdated.
  This warning can occur if the vSAN build recommendation engine has lost internet connectivity for an extended time. Check and restore Internet connectivity to refresh the release metadata.
• customerconnect.vmware.com login credentials are not set or authentication failed
  Log in to customerconnect.vmware.com with proper credentials, through the vSphere client. vSAN system baselines are generated after a few minutes, if necessary.
• Unexpected vSphere Update Manager (VUM) baseline creation failure.
  Check vsan-health log to view detailed error information.
  • For a VCSA, the vmware-vsan-health-service.log file is located at /var/log/vmware/vsan-health/
  • For a Windows vCenter Server, the vmware-vsan-health-service.log file is located at %VMWARE_LOG_DIR%/vsan-health/

vSAN Build Recommendation Engine Health -- Unexpected VMware Update Manager (VUM) baseline creation failure (2151692)