Software Advisory for Cisco HyperFlex Stretched Cluster Operations, Release 4.0(1a)

Cisco HyperFlex Software Advisory for HX Release 4.0(1a)

Cisco engineering has identified an issue with Cisco HyperFlex Release 4.0(1a) release that may affect your use of this software. Please review the Software Advisory notice here to determine if the issues apply to your environment and the steps required to address the issue.

Contents:

 

 

 

 

 

Software Advisory for CSCvq06952 and CSCvp88515: Snapshot Creation on Change Block Tracking (CBT) Enabled Fails

 

February 27, 2020

 

Dear Cisco Customer,

 

Cisco engineering has identified an incompatibility issue with the Cisco HyperFlex Native Snapshot API and VMware ESXi 6.7 U2 and U3. This combination may affect your use of this software. Please review the Software Advisory notice here to determine if the issues apply to your environment, and the steps required to address the issue.

For more comprehensive information about what is included in this software, refer to the Cisco software Release Notes, available from the Product Selector tool. From this page, select the product you are interested in. Release Notes are under "General Information" on the product page.

 

 

Reason for Advisory:

This software advisory is a notification about an incompatibility found when using Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform Snapshot API and VMware ESXi 6.7 U2 and U3 Hypervisor. This combination is causing the snapshot creation on Change Block Tracking (CBT) enabled VM to fails with the error “Failed in vmreparent vmkfstools clone1"

 

Solution:

Users running Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 release should upgrade to 3.5(2g) to resolve this issue.

Users running Cisco HyperFlex 4.0 release should upgrade to 4.0(2a) to resolve this issue.

 

Affected Hardware Platforms:

HX220C-M5

HX220C-M5SX

HX220C-M5 Edge

HX240C-M5

HX240C-M5SX

HX220C-AF M5

HX240C-AF M5

HX240C-M5L

HXAF220c-M5SN

HXAF220C-M5SX

HXAF240C-M5SX

HX220C All NVMe M5

 

Symptom: Due to a technical incompatibility between Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform’s Native Snapshot APIs and the VMWare ESXi 6.7 U2 and U3 hypervisor, when Cisco HyperFlex Native Snapshot API is invoked for VMs that have Change Block Tracking (CBT) enabled, snapshots fail. After the snapshot failure, the backup process that initially called the native snapshot API will also fail.

 

Conditions: The issue is limited to users with the following combination of Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform versions and VMWare ESXi hypervisor versions

·         Clusters running one of the Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform versions listed above when a HyperFlex Native Snapshot is attempted for VMs that have CBT enabled.

·         Cisco HyperFlex cluster that have upgraded to or fresh installed with the hypervisor version VMWare ESXi 6.7 U2 and U3.

Workaround: None. See Solution.

 

More Info:  None.

 

 

 

 

Software Advisory for CSCvo56350: SW Type: VMware ESXi 6.7 Hypervisor

 

Updated: May 20, 2019

 

Dear Cisco Customer,

Cisco engineering has identified an issue with certain components in the VMware ESXi 6.7 hypervisor that may affect your use of this software. Please review the Software Advisory notice here to determine if the issues apply to your environment and the steps required to address the issue.

For more comprehensive information about what is included in this software, refer to the Cisco software Release Notes, available from the Product Selector tool. From this page, select the product you are interested in. Release Notes are under "General Information" on the product page.

 

 

Reason for Advisory:

This software advisory addresses a bug found in the VMware ESXi 6.7 Hypervisor.

 

CSCvo56350 - PSOD - ESX_Only Upgrade from 6.5 to 6.7: Failed to mount boot tardisks

 

Related VMware PR 2324122 - ESXi hosts might fail with a purple diagnostic screen while booting with an error for boot tardisks mounting failure

 

Affected Hardware Platforms:

HX220C-M5

HX220C-M5SX

HX220C-M5 Edge

HX240C-M5

HX240C-M5SX

HX220C-AF M5

HX240C-AF M5

HX240C-M5L

HXAF220c-M5SN

HXAF220C-M5SX

HXAF240C-M5SX

HX220C All NVMe M5

Symptom: A software bug exists in the VMware hypervisor that may cause ESXi to PSOD when running the listed ESXi build combined with HyperFlex Data Platform version 4.0.  This issue has not been observed with earlier HXDP releases. The issue is acknowledged by VMware(VMware PR 2324122) and fixed in ESXi 6.7 U2 EP8 (build 13473784)

 

Conditions: The following HyperFlex clusters  are susceptible:

·         Clusters running HyperFlex Data Platform 4.0(1a) when an upgrade to 6.7U1 EP6 is attempted. 

·         Clusters upgrading to 4.0(1a) from a previous HX release which is running ESX 6.7U1 EP6

Workaround: If you are running HX version 4.0(1a), do not attempt to upgrade from 6.0 or 6.5 to the 6.7 build listed above. VMware vSphere 6.7 U2 EP8(build 13473784) is unaffected, however, this version is only supported starting with HXDP 4.0(1a). When you are on 4.0(1a) you can upgrade to VMware vSphere 6.7U2 EP8(build 13473784) from 6.0 or 6.5.

 

Do not upgrade to HX version 4.0(1a) from a previous HX version running ESXi 6.7U1 EP6. This advisory will be updated when a VMware patch is released and will contain upgrade instructions.

Customers not currently on vSphere 6.7 are advised to first upgrade to HyperFlex Data Platform version 4.0(1a) and then upgrade to ESXi 6.7U2 EP8 (build 13473784), which remains unaffected by this bug.

More Info: When this issue is encountered, ESXi will PSOD upon reboot after upgrading to 6.7U1 EP6. Due to the failed boot, ESXi will then revert back to the alternate bootbank, and successfully reboot back into the original ESXi version before upgrade was initiated.