Introduction to VMware vSAN Data Protection

VMware vSAN Data Protection, introduced in vSphere 8.0 Update 3, is a powerful capability included in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) license for customers running vSAN ESA. This solution provides local protection for virtual machine workloads at no additional licensing cost. Key capabilities include:

• Define protection groups and retention schedules.
• Schedule crash-consistent snapshots of VMs at regular intervals.
• Create immutable snapshots to help recover from ransomware.
• Retain up to 200 snapshots per VM.
• Per-VM replication locally and/or to remote clusters.

VMware vSAN Daemon Liveness - EPD Status Abnormal

I reinstalled ESXi and vSAN ESA 8.0 on hosts that were previously running ESX and vSAN ESA 9.0. It's a lab environment. I did not bother to delete the previous VMFS volume on a local drive in each host. This is where ESXi was storing scratch data, logs, etc. After reinstalling 8.0 and turning on vSAN, I noticed the following error in vSAN Skyline Health: vSAN daemon liveness.

VMware VCF Installer Warning - Evacuate Offline VMs Upgrade Policy

I ran across this warning in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Installer when deploying VCF 9:

cluster <cluster name>: Evacuate Offline VMs upgrade policy configured for cluster <cluster name> on vCenter does not match default SDDC Manager ESXi upgrade policy. It has value false in vCenter, and default value true in SDDC Manager.

The fix is simple...

VMware Live Recovery Not Accessible Error

• VMware Live Recovery 9.0.3.0 and later combine the control plane, replication, and data protection into a single appliance.
• Ensure DNS--forward and reverse lookup--are functioning correctly.
• A "Not accessible" error could indicate an issue with certificates.

I recently had the opportunity to set up the latest VMware Live Recovery appliance, which simplifies deployment and configuration into a single virtual appliance. More details about this new model can be found in this blog article.

I encountered an issue where the UI displayed vSphere Replication and VMware Live Site Recovery, formerly Site Recovery Manager (SRM), was marked as "Not accessible."

Technical Introduction to vSAN ESA 2-Node Clusters

• VMware vSAN can be deployed in a 2-node cluster.

• vSAN ESA 2-node clusters provide excellent performance and availability in a small form factor.

• A vSAN Witness Host virtual appliance enables protection against "split-brain."

Introduction

VMware's vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) has streamlined hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) by optimizing performance and efficiency. A particularly compelling deployment model within this architecture is the 2-node cluster. This setup offers a high-availability solution ideal for small sites and edge computing environments where space and hardware resources are limited.