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We are excited to announce the introduction of vSAN proactive support in VMware Skyline. Customers utilizing vSAN will receive proactive findings that identify potential issues for vSAN. In order to enable vSAN proactive support in Skyline, customers must upgrade to Skyline Collector 1.4. The Release Notes for Skyline Collector 1.4 can be found here.
To upgrade to Skyline Collector 1.4, either enable Auto-Upgrade within Skyline Collector 1.3, or login to the Skyline Collector VAMI and check for and install updates.
VMware Skyline documentation is now available on VMware Docs. Visit VMware Docs for instructions to enable Auto-Upgrade or manually upgrade your Skyline Collector.
vSAN Proactive Findings
The following are two of the vSAN proactive findings being delivering in Skyline.
Proactive Finding: Internal vSAN Memory (LSOM) or SSD Device Congestion
For this finding, Skyline utilizes the VC_EVENT endpoint to check for the vSAN LSOM congestion state exceeded message. If the congestion state exceeded message is observed by Skyline, this proactive finding will appear within your next Operational Summary Report (OSR).
If a virtual machine, or virtual machines, perform a high number of write operations, write buffers could fill up on flash cache devices. These buffers must be de-staged to magnetic disks in hybrid configurations. De-staging can only be performed at a rate at which the magnetic disks in a hybrid configuration can handle.
vSAN Proactive Finding: vSAN memory or SSD congestion reached threshold limit
VMware Knowledge Base article 2071384 provides you with information to remediate this issue.
Proactive Finding: H730 Mini-Controller running 25.5.3.0005 Firmware may cause vSAN Host Instability
This finding determines if the H730 RAID Controller is being utilized for vSAN. If the H730 RAID Controller is being utilized, Skyline then checks the version of firmware. If the firmware version is 25.5.3.0005, this proactive finding is added to the customer’s Operational Summary Report (OSR).
VMware Knowledge Base (KB) article 52783 is provided within the proactive finding. This KB article provides additional symptoms related to this potential issue, such as specific entries in log files. This issue is resolved in firmware version 25.5.3.0006. Additionally, the link to the PowerEdge RAID Controller H730 support page is provided within the KB article.
If your vSAN environment matches the characteristics detailed in either of these proactive findings, you can expect to see these vSAN proactive findings in your OSR. These are just two examples of the vSAN proactive findings now available within Skyline. There are more vSAN proactive findings available today, and we will continue to add new vSAN proactive findings in the future.
vSAN proactive support with Skyline does not replace vSAN Support Insight. We are continuing to evaluate how to utilize the information available within both Skyline and Support Insight to deliver a single, holistic support experience for our customers.
Additional vSphere Proactive Findings
While we’re on the topic of new proactive findings added to Skyline, I wanted to highlight two vSphere proactive findings added a short-time ago.
Proactive Finding: Network becomes Unavailable with ntg3 Driver on ESXi 6.5
This finding determines if the native ntg3 driver is being used on a passthrough Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet Adapter in your vSphere environment. If it is, it is possible that the network on the ESXi 6.5 host becomes unavailable. To resolve this potential issue, the recommendation is to run the ntg3 driver in legacy mode. As with all of the proactive findings delivered within the Operational Summary Report (OSR), a Knowledge Base (KB) article is provided for your reference. For this particular finding, KB article 2150889 is provided.
Proactive Finding: ESXi 6.5 host fails with PSOD when IPv6 disabled
This finding is interesting because there is no resolution at this time. If you disable IPv6 within ESXi 6.5, the ESXi host could fail with a purple screen of death (PSOD). To workaround this issue, enable IPv6. Additional information, including log excerpts, are provided within KB 2150794.
You’re probably thinking, why would Skyline alert me of a potential issue that does not have a resolution. First, one goal of Skyline is to notify customers of potential issues. In most instances, a resolution is provided for the potential issue. For this finding, a workaround is provided. However, once a resolution is available, customers will be notified that the KB article has been updated, and that a resolution is now available for this potential issue. By better understanding how our customer’s are utilizing our products and services, we can better provide relevant, personalized information and recommendations.
From VMware Docs, how to enable or disable IPv6 on an ESXi host.
Conclusion
We continue to expand the features and functionality available within Skyline. vSAN is the latest product to be added, joining VMware vSphere and VMware NSX. We will be announcing additional features and functionality for Skyline in less than two weeks at VMworld US. If you’re attending VMworld US and want to learn more about proactive support with Skyline, keep an eye out for our upcoming blog post that will provide details for where to find Skyline content at VMworld.
Additionally, follow @VMwareCSE (VMware Customer Support Experience) on Twitter for additional information related to proactive support with Skyline, along with Communities, Intelligent Search, My VMware and other VMware customer support programs.
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