VSAN – The Migration from FreeNAS

Posted on August 18, 2014 Updated on July 7, 2016

Well folks it’s my long awaited blog post around moving my Homelab from FreeNAS to VMware VSAN.

Here are the steps I took to migrate my Home Lab GEN II with FreeNAS to Home Lab GEN III with VSAN.

Note –

• I am not putting a focus on ESXi setup as I want to focus on the steps to setup VSAN.
• My home lab is in no way on the VMware HCL, if you are building something like this for production you should use the VSAN HCL as your reference

The Plan –

• Meet the Requirements
• Backup VM’s
• Update and Prepare Hardware
• Distribute Existing hardware to VSAN ESXi Hosts
• Install ESXi on all Hosts
• Setup VSAN

The Steps –

Meet the Requirements – Detailed list here

• Minimum of three hosts
• Each host has a minimum of one SSD and one HDD
• The host must be managed by vCenter Server 5.5 and configured as a Virtual SAN cluster
• Min 6GB RAM
• Each host has a Pass-thru RAID controller as specified in the HCL. The RAID controller must be able to present disks directly to the host without a RAID configuration.
• 1GB NIC, I’ll be running 2 x 1Gbs NICs. However 10GB and Jumbo frames are recommended
• VSAN VMkernel port configured on every host participating in the cluster.
• All disks that VSAN will be allocated to should be clear of any data.

Backup Existing VMs

• No secret here around backups. I just used vCenter Server OVF Export to a local disk to backup all my critical VM’s
• More Information Here

Update and Prepare Hardware

• Update all Motherboard (Mobo) BIOS and disk Firmware
• Remove all HDD’s / SDD’s from FreeNAS SAN
• Remove any Data from HDD/SDD’s . Either of these tools do the job
  • Windows Tools – “MiniTool Partition Wizard”
  • Boot ISO – GParted

Distribute Existing hardware to VSAN ESXi Hosts

• Current Lab – 1 x VMware Workstation PC, 2 x ESXi Hosts boot to USB (Host 1 and 2), 1 x FreeNAS SAN
• Desired Lab – 3 x ESXi hosts with VSAN and 1 x Workstation PC
• End Results after moves
  • All Hosts ESXi 5.5U1 with VSAN enabled
  • Host 1 – MSI 7676, i7-3770, 24GB RAM, Boot 160GB HDD, VSAN disks (2 x 2TB HDD SATA II, 1 x 60GB SSD SATA III), 5 xpNICs
  • Host 2 – MSI 7676, i7-2600, 32 GB RAM, Boot 160GB HDD, VSAN disks (2 x 2TB HDD SATA II, 1 x 90 GB SSD SATA III), 5 x pNICs
  • Host 3 – MSI 7676, i7-2600, 32 GB RAM, Boot 160GB HDD, VSAN disks (2 x 2TB HDD SATA II, 1 x 90 GB SSD SATA III), 5 x pNICs
  • Note – I have ditched my Gigabyte z68xp-UD3 Mobo and bought another MSI 7676 board. I started this VSAN conversion with it and it started to give me fits again similar to the past. There are many web posts with bugs around this board. I am simply done with it and will move to a more reliable Mobo that is working well for me.

Install ESXi on all Hosts

• Starting with Host 1
  • Prior to Install ensure all data has been removed and all disk show up in BIOS in AHCI Mode
  • Install ESXi to Local Boot HD
    • After the install I experienced the ESXi hanging at Boot – ‘Starting up Services – Running usbarbitrator start’
    • Solution – Stop usbarbitrator service
    • http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1023976
  • Setup ESXi base IP address via direct Console, DNS, disable IP 6, enable shell and SSH
  • Using the VI Client setup the basic ESXi networking and vSwitch
  • Using VI Client I restored the vCSA and my AD server from OVF and powered them on
  • Once booted I logged into the vCSA via the web client
  • I built out Datacenter and add host 1
  • Create a cluster but only enabled EVC to support my different Intel CPU’s
  • Cleaned up any old DNS settings and ensure all ESXi Hosts are correct
  • From the Web client Validate that 2 x HDD and 1 x SDD are present in Host
  • Installed ESXi Host 2 / 3, followed most of these steps, and added them to the cluster

Setup VSAN

• Logon to the Webclient
  • Ensure on all the hosts
    • Networking is setup and all functions are working
    • NTP is working
    • All expected HDD’s for VSAN are reporting in to ESXi
  • Create a vSwitch for VSAN and attach networking to it
    • I attached 2 x 1Gbs NICs for my load that should be enough
  • Assign the VSAN License Key
    • Click on the Cluster > Manage > Settings > Virtual SAN Licensing > Assign License Key

• Enable VSAN
  • Under Virtual SAN click on General then Edit
  • Choose ‘Turn on Virtual SAN’
  • Set ‘Add disks to storage’ to Manual
  • Note – for a system on the HCL, chances are the Automatic setting will work without issue. However my system is not on the any VMware HCL and I want to control the drives to add to my Disk Group.

     

• Add Disks to VSAN
  • Under Virtual SAN click on ‘Disk Management’
  • Choose the ICON with the Check boxes on it
  • Finally add the disks you want in your disk group

• Allow VSAN to complete its tasks, you can check on its progress by going to ‘Tasks’

• Once complete ensure all disks report in as healthy.

• Ensure VSAN General tab is coming up correct
  • 3 Hosts
  • 3 of 3 SSD’s
  • 6 of 6 Data disks

• Check to see if the data store is online

Summary –

Migrating from FreeNAS to VSAN was relatively a simple process. I simply moved, prepared, and installed and the product came right up. My only issue was working with a faulty Gigabyte Mobo which I resolved by replacing it. I’ll post up more as I continue to work with VSAN. If you are interested in more detail around VSAN I would recommend the following book.