How to add SimpliVity datastore to standard ESXi server

But why one may ask...

I came across this issue once I was actually decommissioning SimpliVity cluster and I had to vMotion all Virtual Machines to another host with local datastore.

vMotion was failing for some reason and the only way to resolve it was to attach Simplivity to the target host.

Here is my runlist:

1. Download and run https://github.com/herseyc/SVT/blob/master/check-svtnfs.ps1
   • connect to vCenter where your SimpliVity node and standard ESXi is running
   • execute : ./check-svtnfs.ps1 -ComputeNode name_of_your_esxi_host
2. Check IP address of the OVC controller. It must be an IP address assigned to a storage portgroup – typically a private IP address 192.168.x.x , also used for vMotion traffic.

3. Check and enable SSH on your ESXi host

4. Disable Lockdown mode if you are using this feature

5. SSH to standard ESXi host

• Edit /etc/hosts
• insert a line that points OVC storage ip address (captured in previous step) to omni.cube.io

vi /etc/hosts
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail .
127.0.0.1    localhost.localdomain localhost
[Output omited]

192.168.60.12 omni.cube.io

6. Using vSphere client, right click on SimpliVity datastore that you want to attach to standard ESXI server,

• navigate to all SimpliVity actions → manage standard ESXi hosts and ensure new ESXi is selected

• right click again on the SimpliVity datastore and select mount datastore to additional ESXi and select new ESXi server.

7. SimpliVity datastore should now be mounted to ESXi server, validate that by navigating to standard ESXi server → datastores