Task 33: Primary Storage Provision for vSAN HCI Mesh cluster post Day1

1. [ ] For vSAN HCI Mesh cluster, click LAUNCH VCENTER and log in to the VC.
After HCI mesh compute-only cluster Day1 bring-up is done, you must perform the following steps to
provision this cluster so that Day2 operations and LCM upgrade can be performed. Go to >
Configure > VxRail > System page. A warning message reports: VxRail cluster is not fully ready.

Note: See the instructions in KB 000185917 to perform the provision steps for HCI mesh client cluster.

Figure 59 VxRail Physical View Warning Page

2. [ ] Set up the vSAN network.

a. Right-click HCIA Distributed Switch of Dynamic Node cluster. Select Distributed Port Group > New
Distributed Port Group.

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 Figure 60 New Distributed Port Group

b. Specify the distributed port group name and location, and click NEXT.

Figure 61 Name and location

c. Select Customize default policies configuration, and click NEXT.

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 Figure 62 Configure settings

d. Configure Security, Traffic shaping, Teaming and failover, Monitoring, Miscellaneous, and click
NEXT.

Figure 63 Teaming and failover

e. Click FINISH.
f. Right-click the port group newly added and click Add VMkernel Adapters.

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 Figure 64 Add VMkernel Adapters

g. Select hosts and click NEXT.

Figure 65 Select hosts

h. Select vSAN as available services in the Configure VMkernel adapter page and click NEXT.

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 Figure 66 Configure VMkernel adapter.

i. Configure IPv4 settings and click NEXT.

Figure 67 IPv4 settings

j. Click FINISH.

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 Figure 68 Ready to complete

3. [ ] Set up vSAN datastore.

a. Go to Cluster > Configure > vSAN > Services page, click Configure vSAN.

Figure 69 Configure vSAN

b. Select vSAN HCI Mesh compute cluster and click NEXT.

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 Figure 70 Configuration type

c. Click FINISH.

Figure 71 Review

d. Go to > Configure > vSAN > Remote Datastores page, click MOUNT REMOTE
DATASTORES.

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 Figure 72 Mount Remote Datastores

e. Select a datastore and click NEXT.

Figure 73 Select datastore

f. Wait for check compatibility success and click FINISH.

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 Figure 74 Check compatibility

g. Go to > Datastores page and ensure that vSAN datastore has mounted.

Figure 75 Check Datastores

4. [ ] Call primary storage provision API to set up VxRail primary system storage and enable VxRail
Day 2 operations.
API description:
API path: https://< >/rest/vxm/v1/system/primary-storage
Method: POST
Parameters:
primary_storage_type: Fixed value "VSAN_HCI_MESH" for vSAN HCI mesh cluster
primary_storage_name: Remote vSAN datastore name
storage_policy_profile_name: Storage policy profile name for VxRail Manager. This field is optional, if
not provided, the default will be "vSAN Default Storage Policy".

Note:For more details about this API, see the API User Guide.

Example of curl command API call procedure:

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a. Open a command line which can access VxRail Manager.
b. Run the curl command.
curl -u "<vc user name>:<vc password>" --request POST 'https://< VxRail
Manager IP>/rest/vxm/v1/system/primary-storage' --header 'Content-Type:
application/json' --data-raw '{
"primary_storage_type": "VSAN_HCI_MESH",
"primary_storage_name": "<vSAN datastore name>",
"storage_policy_profile_name": "<storage policy profile name>"
}'
For example:
curl -u "administrator@vsphere.local:**************" --request POST
'https://172.16.10.200/rest/vxm/v1/system/primary-storage' --header
'Content-Type: application/json' --data-raw '{
"primary_storage_type": "VSAN_HCI_MESH",
"primary_storage_name": "VxRail-Virtual-SAN-Datastore-c0df83c5-302c-
42f8-8798-1804c058f0f9",
"storage_policy_profile_name": "vSAN Default Storage Policy"
}'
c. Wait for a response. If response code is 200 and status is SUCCESS, the primary storage provision
is successful and day2 operations are enabled.

Figure 76 Successful response

Note: (For All-Flash arrays only) If Deduplication and Compression are going to be used in an All-Flash
array, the user will need to manually set this up under Virtual SAN General setting. This should be set up
before the appliance is used for production.

Connect VxRail to Existing External SRS Gateway

A VxRail Cluster can connect to an existing SRS VE. This allows you to monitor multiple VxRail Cluster(s)
and non-VxRail nodes with a single SRS VE instance.

Task 34: Verify Customer Prerequisites

Verify the VxRail cluster is configured, deployed and operational.
Verify the VxRail cluster is running version 4.5 or higher.
Verify an active external SRS VE is deployed.
o SRS VE 3.20 and later up to and including 3.28 are supported.

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