vSphere Clustering Service (vCLS) Workaround for ESXi-Arm in vSphere 7.0 Update 1

The vSphere Clustering Service (vCLS) is a new capability that is introduced in the vSphere 7 Update 1 release. The issue is that the vCLS VMs are x86 and can not be deployed to an ESXi-Arm Cluster as the CPU architecture is not supported. But We could disable it according documentation:

Putting a Cluster in Retreat Mode

This task explains how to put a cluster in retreat mode.

Procedure

  • Login to the vSphere Client.
  • Navigate to the cluster on which vCLS must be disabled.
  • Copy the cluster domain ID from the URL of the browser. It should be similar to domain-c(number).
  • Navigate to the vCenter Server Configure tab.
  • Under Advanced Settings, click the Edit Settings button.
  • Add new key “config.vcls.clusters.domain-c841.enabled” use the domain ID copied in previous step.
  • For the cluster with the domain ID, set the Value to False.
Check new key “config.vcls.clusters.domain-c841.enabled” – Flase
  • Click Save.

Author: Daniel Micanek

Senior Service Architect, SAP Platform Services Team at Tietoevry | SUSE SCA | vExpert ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | vExpert NSX | VCIX-DCV/NV | VCAP-DCV/NV Design+Deploy | VCP-DCV/NV/CMA/TKO/DTM | NCIE-DP | OCP | Azure Solutions Architect | Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)