Monitoring and troubleshooting are essential for preserving the performance, availability, and dependability of a vSAN infrastructure. By combining local discs from many ESXi hosts with vSAN, you may build a distributed storage solution that can grow along with your company’s demands.
But when your vSAN system expands, managing and troubleshooting it may be difficult, especially if you don’t have the appropriate resources, skills, and procedures in place. In order to aid you in mastering vSAN monitoring and troubleshooting, we have created this tutorial.
In this blog article, we’ll summaries VMware’s official “vSAN Monitoring and Troubleshooting Guide” and go through some of the most important ideas, suggestions, and resources for vSAN monitoring and troubleshooting. Let’s start now!
Overview of vSAN Monitoring
Let’s establish some important words and ideas before we get started with vSAN monitoring and troubleshooting.
1. vSAN cluster: A collection of ESXi hosts that are linked together and set up to use vSAN storage.
2. vSAN datastore: A distributed storage object that spans all ESXi hosts in the vSAN cluster is referred to as a “vSAN datastore.”
3. vSAN object: A logical representation of data that is saved and duplicated across several ESXi hosts in the vSAN cluster is referred to as a vSAN object.
4. vSAN component: A physical representation of an item, such as a disc group, disc, or network interface, on a particular ESXi host.
5. vSAN health service: An integrated vSphere service that keeps track of the condition and configuration of vSAN components and issues alarms and fixes suggestions.
6. vRealize Operations Manager: A VMware application called vRealize Operations Manager offers sophisticated capacity planning, analytics, and monitoring for vSAN and other vSphere components.
After defining these terminologies, let’s talk about some important
vSAN monitoring features:
1. Performance indicators: To find possible bottlenecks and improve vSAN performance, you may keep an eye on several performance indicators including IOPS, latency, throughput, and queue depth.
2. Capacity utilisation: Monitoring the vSAN datastore and disc group capacity utilisation will help you make sure you have adequate room for your virtual machines and apps.
3. Fault tolerance: To make sure you have adequate redundancy and fault tolerance, you may monitor the health and availability of vSAN objects and components, such as disc groups, discs, and network interfaces.
4. Compliance: To make sure you are adhering to best practises and avoiding possible problems, you may check the compliance of vSAN configuration parameters, such as storage rules, disc formats, and network settings.
Troubleshooting with vSAN: An Introduction
Let’s now talk about some fundamental ideas and suggestions for vSAN troubleshooting:
1. Log files: To find possible problems and faults, you may use a variety of log files, including ESXi host logs, vCenter Server logs, and vSAN health service logs.
2. Tools: To gather and analyse performance and troubleshooting data, you may make use of a number of tools, including vSAN Observer, ESXTOP, and vSphere Web Client.
3. Test scenarios: To verify the robustness and availability of your vSAN infrastructure, you may simulate several test situations including network partitioning, disc failure, and power outages.
4. Knowledge base: You may access articles, videos, and forums that can assist you in resolving certain vSAN issues by utilising VMware’s knowledge base and support services.
Conclusion
Understanding vSAN monitoring and troubleshooting will enable you to proactively identify and fix