HOW TO: Suppress Configuration Issues and Warnings Alerts after enabling vSphere HA in a VMware vSphere Cluster with only a single datastore

In VMware vSphere 4 1 and 5.0, if you have two or more hosts, using shared storage, (SAN/NAS) you can create a VMware vSphere Cluster and enable High Availability mode (HA), if you have the correct VMware vSphere Licensing.

VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) provides easy to use, cost effective high availability for applications running in virtual machines. In the event of VMware vSphere server failure, affected virtual machines are automatically restarted on other VMware vSphere production servers with spare capacity.

You may have noticed that after Turning On vSphere HA in Cluster settings from the vSphere Client that a Configuration Issues warning yellow box may appear on the Summary page of ALL host ESXi servers in the vSphere Cluster.


The Configuration Issues reports "The number of vSphere HA heartbeat datastores for this host is 1, which is less than requried: 2"

or another common configuration issue, when there are no shared datastores

The number of vSphere HA heartbeat datastores for this host is 0 which is
less than required 2

You will also notice there is also a yellow/orange warning triangle displayed on ALL the vSphere ESXi host servers in the vSphere Cluster.


(in the above example cluster screenshot, you may also notice "blue sleeping" icons, this indicates, the hosts are currently in standby mode. vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS) (with Distributed Power Management (DPM) ) is included in the vSphere Enterprise and Enterprise Plus edition.

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) - Dynamic Resource Balancing

The only issue, is that the Warning triangle displayed in VMware vSphere vCenter can mask real warning events.

VMware vSphere HA will still function correctly, the configuration issue, is warning that there is only one datastore connected to the ESX/ESXi host. Heartbeat datastores were introduced in VMware vSphere vCenter Server 5.0. (the warning will be issued, if you also have a mix of ESX/ESXi 4.x or ESX/ESXi 5.0 hosts managed by VMware vSphere vCenter Server v5.0)

These configuration issues and warnings alert triangles, can be suppressed as follows

1. Connect to the VMware vSphere vCenter Server

Using the VMware vSphere Client, login and connect to the VMware vSphere vCenter server. Use the IP address or hostname of the VMware vSphere vCenter server, and use the vCenter Server Administrator username and password credentials.

2. Select the Cluster in Inventory

Select the Cluster in Inventory > Hosts and Clusters, Right Click the Cluster in the right hand panel, and select Edit Settings



The vSphere Cluster settings dialogue box will be opened.

3. Select vSphere HA

Select vSphere HA and click Advanced Options, bottom right


the Advanced Options (vSphere HA) dialogue box will open.

4. Add ‘das.ignoreInsufficientHbDatastore’ value

To suppress the configuration issues box and warning triangles, the das.ignoreInsufficientHbDatastore needs to be added with a value of TRUE.

Click the left hand column under Option, and enter das.ignoreInsufficientHbDatastore


Click the right hand column under Value, and enter TRUE.


Click OK to return to Cluster Settings.

5. Click Cluster Features

Click Cluster Features and remove the Tick from Turn On vSphere HA.

This action will disable HA on ALL ESX/ESXi hosts in the cluster. Please note I would recommend any changes to a production environment be carried out and schedule out of core SLA hours.


Click OK. The HA cluster will be reconfigured, this will take a few seconds.

6. Turn On vSphere HA

Select the Cluster in Inventory > Hosts and Clusters, Right Click the Cluster in the right hand panel, and select Edit Settings

 
The vSphere Cluster settings dialogue box will be opened.


Select Turn ON vSphere HA (by clicking and ensuring a Tick appears in the box)


Click OK.

The HA cluster will be reconfigured, this will take a few seconds (test with five hosts took 40 seconds).

 
The Configuration Issues yellow box in the Summary Page and Warning Triangle will disappear immediately. (the configuration issue can also be overcome by adding the minimum number of datastores to satisfy the condition!).

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