Select the or vSphere product division from the portal dashboard.
Navigate to your primary vSAN Cluster -> Monitor -> vSAN Health to verify that the witness host is successfully communicating and showing a green health status. To help clarify your next steps, let me know: Which vSpg., 7.0, 8.0) are you currently running? Are you setting up a 2-node cluster or a stretched cluster ?
In your vSphere Client, right-click the host and select "Deploy OVF Template" . Select File: Choose the OVA file you downloaded.
Provide a distinct virtual machine name (e.g., vSAN-Witness-Cluster01 ) and select the target datacenter or folder. Step 3: Compute and Storage Selection download vsan witness appliance
Search for and select the specific version matching your production environment (e.g., vSphere 8.0).
for the Witness Appliance in more detail.
Supports up to 10 VMs and 750 components. Best for small ROBO sites with minimal workloads. Select the or vSphere product division from the
Go to the My Downloads section and click on VMware Cloud Foundation. Select vSAN: Click on the vSAN download area.
The official source for the appliance is the Broadcom portal. You can download the required version by following these exact steps:
The vSAN Witness Appliance is a preconfigured virtual machine (packaged as an OVA file) that runs a specialized version of ESXi. Unlike a full ESXi host, this appliance’s sole purpose is to host , which are lightweight metadata objects that participate in vSAN’s quorum mechanism. It does not store actual VM data and runs no regular virtual machines. Critically, the appliance is free and includes its own embedded license; no separate vSAN license or physical disks are required. Are you setting up a 2-node cluster or a stretched cluster
Fits over 500 virtual machines. Uses 2 CPUs and 32 GB RAM. Step 4: Deploy the File
To bridge this gap, Broadcom offers the . This specialized virtual machine acts as a tie-breaker in two-node clusters and stretched clusters, providing a highly cost-effective way to maintain high availability without duplication of physical hardware.
For stretched clusters, the round-trip time (RTT) to the witness typically needs to be under 200ms , though lower is always better for stability. Conclusion
Assign the management network and the vSAN traffic network. Step 5: Configure the Cluster Once deployed, connect the witness to your vSAN cluster. Turn On: Power on the new witness virtual machine. Add Host: Add the witness to vCenter as a managed host.