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Using Nested ESXi for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Workload Domain fails with vSAN ESA Auto Disk Claim 

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As of VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.0, you can now use the new vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) when deploying a VCF Workload Domain where as in earlier releases, only the vSAN Original Storage Architecture (OSA) was supported, which is typically what I deploy for testing purposes.

While working on some enhancements to my VCF Automated Lab Deployment Script, I needed to go through a VCF Workload Domain deployment using vSAN ESA but I kept running into the following error within SDDC Manager: Perform vSAN ESA Auto Disk Claim


Based on the error message, I had assumed there was an issue with claiming the SSD on the Nested ESXi VM for vSAN ESA but when I logged into the VCF Workload Domain vCenter Server, I was able to claim the devices without any issues. Looking at the SDDC Manager logs /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log also did not yield anything useful:

2024-05-27T12:43:44.545+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.v.c.f.p.a.i.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction,dm-exec-14] Host host-16 does not contribute to the vSAN ESA storage. 2024-05-27T12:43:44.598+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.v.c.f.p.a.i.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction,dm-exec-14] Host host-19 does not contribute to the vSAN ESA storage. 2024-05-27T12:43:44.650+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.v.c.f.p.a.i.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction,dm-exec-14] Host host-20 does not contribute to the vSAN ESA storage. 2024-05-27T12:43:44.701+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.v.c.f.p.a.i.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction,dm-exec-14] Host host-21 does not contribute to the vSAN ESA storage. 2024-05-27T12:43:44.702+0000 DEBUG [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.e.s.c.c.v.vsphere.VsphereClient,dm-exec-14] Destroying 2 open views 2024-05-27T12:43:44.722+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.v.c.f.p.a.i.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction,dm-exec-14] Failed to verify storage pool disks for cluster wld-w01-cl01 2024-05-27T12:43:44.723+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.v.c.f.p.a.i.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction,dm-exec-14] com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.exceptions.OrchTaskException: Found host(s) in clust er wld-w01-cl01 without contributing to storage pool. 2024-05-27T12:43:44.723+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,66548000bff276b81889b17ab22d34ed,2f33] [c.v.e.s.o.model.error.ErrorFactory,dm-exec-14] [A337BL] VSPHERE_AUTO_DISK_CLAIM_FAILED Failed to enable auto claim on cluster wld-w01-cl01 com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.exceptions.OrchTaskException: Failed to enable auto claim on cluster wld-w01-cl01 at com.vmware.vcf.common.fsm.plugins.action.impl.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction.postValidate(ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction.java:119) at com.vmware.vcf.common.fsm.plugins.action.impl.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction.postValidate(ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction.java:23) at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionState.lambda$static$1(FsmActionState.java:23) at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionState.invoke(FsmActionState.java:62) at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionPlugin.invoke(FsmActionPlugin.java:159) at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.platform.action.FsmActionPlugin.invoke(FsmActionPlugin.java:144) at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.invokeMethod(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:400) at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.processTask(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:561) at com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.core.ProcessingTaskSubscriber.accept(ProcessingTaskSubscriber.java:124) at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor397.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:568) at com.google.common.eventbus.Subscriber.invokeSubscriberMethod(Subscriber.java:85) at com.google.common.eventbus.Subscriber.lambda$dispatchEvent$0(Subscriber.java:71) at com.vmware.vcf.common.tracing.TraceRunnable.run(TraceRunnable.java:59) at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1136) at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:635) at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833) Caused by: com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.exceptions.OrchTaskException: Found host(s) in cluster wld-w01-cl01 without contributing to storage pool. at com.vmware.vcf.common.fsm.plugins.action.impl.ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction.postValidate(ClaimDisksForVsanEsaClusterAction.java:113) ... 17 common frames omitted

After a bit of digging, I was wondering if this was related to a similiar issue that is seen during the VCF Bringup of the VCF Management Domain using vSAN ESA where a custom vSAN HCL JSON was required?

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ESXi on Protectli Vault Pro 6650/6670

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I always love hearing about new and interesting hardware vendors from our VMware community, which is exactly how I came to learn about Protectli back in 2021 from fellow vExpert Trevor Smith. It was in 2021 where Trevor had shared with the vExpert Community that Protectli was developing a 10GbE hardware kit, which was really interesting since there was not many options for small form factor systems at that time that included 10GbE connectivity.

After following up with Protectcli in 2021, they confirmed a 10GbE kit was in the works but it was still in early design and development, so there was nothing to evaluate at the time. Fast forward to April 2024, I received a follow-up email asking if I would be interested in kicking the tires on their first 10GbE kits with their new Protectli Vault Pro 6600 series.


So here is your first look at the ESXi running on the new Protectli 10G Vault Pro!

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Updated Inventory & Calculator Scripts for counting Cores/TiBs for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF)

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Here are two new tools to help our users understand and calculate the required subscription capacity for the new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) offerings, which are licensed based on physical CPU Cores for compute and total raw physical storage (TiBs) for vSAN.

Inventory Script

The PowerCLI script provided in KB 95927 is designed to help users inventory their existing vSphere environment (read-only account is sufficient) to assess the required VCF or VVF subscription capacity for compute and/or vSAN. The script has also been enhanced to incorporate the upcoming 100GiBs of vSAN storage entitlement for each VVF core that is provisioned to a vSAN cluster as well as the latest pricing and packaging for both VCF and VVF. For more details on how to download and use the inventory script, please check out the KB for more information.

Note: Make sure you are using the latest version of the script which had a minor update on 02/14/2024

Calculator Script

The PowerShell script provided in KB 96426 is designed to help users run different simulations for calculating the required VCF or VVF subscription capacity for compute and/or vSAN, especially in planning for a new or greenfield deployment. For customers who can not run the inventory script from KB 95927 due to organizational policies, the calculator script can be a viable alternative as long as you can manually provide the required parameters via the CSV input file used by the script. For more details on how to download and use the calculator script, please check out the KB for more information.


If you still have questions or require further assistance on sizing or pricing (including all applicable discounts), please reach out to your local VMware account team and they will be more than happy to help.