Using VMware vSphere in a homelab, we don’t necessarily care for some of the health checks. Intel NUC are not on the HCL so you will get warnings; despite the hardware working without issue.
VMware vSAN in particular, can generate a number of alerts due to “incompatible” SATA controller driver, firmware, etc.
Then add in the lack of management network redundancy, and it can be difficult to know whether that warning is a legitimate issue or something to ignore.
So let’s silence the vSAN health checks and then ignore the lack of management network redundancy.
Silencing the vSAN health checks requires using the Ruby vSphere Console.
This is accessed via SSH to the vCenter appliance, then using RVC to connect to the console.
SSH to your vCenter appliance then RVC <hostname>:
rvc vcenter.incendiary.local
Authentication defaults to the administrator account on your SSO domain, so enter that password.
Command> rvc vcenter.incendiary.local Install the "ffi" gem for better tab completion. Using default username "[email protected]". password:
You should then get:
0 / 1 vcenter.incendiary.local/ >
Create a shortcut to the cluster path using mark.
You can find the path by using ls and cd to drill through the structure.
For example:
> ls 0 / 1 localhost/ > cd localhost/ /localhost> ls 0 vSAN Datacenter (datacenter) /localhost> cd "vSAN Datacenter" /localhost/vSAN Datacenter> ls 0 storage/ 1 computers [host]/ 2 networks [network]/ 3 datastores [datastore]/ 4 vms [vm]/ /localhost/vSAN Datacenter> cd computers /localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers> ls 0 vSAN Cluster (cluster): cpu 22 GHz, memory 32 GB /localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers> mark cluster "/localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers/vSAN Cluster/"
So in this instance, the shortcut would be:
mark cluster "/localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers/vSAN Cluster/"
To call mark, use “~markname”
I marked “cluster” to the path, so I would use ~cluster
To clear and ignore the health checks related to the harddrive controller driver, firmware, and compatibility you would:
/localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers> vsan.health.silent_health_check_configure -a controllerdiskmode ~cluster Successfully update silent health check list for vSAN Cluster /localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers> vsan.health.silent_health_check_configure -a controllerdriver ~cluster Successfully update silent health check list for vSAN Cluster /localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers> vsan.health.silent_health_check_configure -a controllerfirmware ~cluster Successfully update silent health check list for vSAN Cluster /localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers> vsan.health.silent_health_check_configure -a controllerreleasesupport ~cluster Successfully update silent health check list for vSAN Cluster /localhost/vSAN Datacenter/computers> vsan.health.silent_health_check_configure -a controlleronhcl ~cluster Successfully update silent health check list for vSAN Cluster
My vSAN health check no longer reports driver issues. Instead, the checks are just grayed out.
In the vCenter HTML5 client, Hosts and Clusters \ vSAN Cluster \ Monitor \ vSAN \ Health
You can see it’s just being ignored/silence.
The next thing would be to ignore the warning about no redundancy on the management network. Since I’m using NUCs, there’s only a single onboard network and I’m using Thunderbolt for 10G.
To ignore that warning, we need to add an advanced option in the vSphere Availability section of the Cluster and vSphere HA settings.
From Hosts and Clusters you would select your Cluster \ Configure \ vSphere Availability under Services. Click the Edit button to the right of vSphere HA.
Then go to Advanced Options, then select Add.
Option name: das.ignoreRedundantNetWarning
Value: True
To clear the warning from your hosts, you will just need to “Reconfigure for vSphere HA” from the Hosts and Clusters selection in the console.
All the warnings that aren’t particularly relevant to a homelab should now be ignored or silenced.