Description

This section describes how to deploy a witness node and run it as a VM on an existing VMware environment, for example, VMware vCenter.

Precautions

1. You can deploy a witness node on VMware vCenter but not HCI.
2. VMware vCenter deployment is not recommended for mid-sized or large-scale scenarios. For more information on the hardware requirements of witness nodes, see section 2.2.3 "Witness Node Configuration Requirements."
3. To expand the cluster, you need to adjust the configuration of the witness node on VMware vCenter.

Prerequisites

VMware vCenter must be on 5.5 or later versions.

Steps

1. Go to Actions > Deploy OVF Template.

2. Select Local File and click Browse to select the OVF file of the witness node.
3. Keep the default options for the name, location, and resource, and then go to the configuration page.
4. Select an option based on the cluster scale. For more information, see section 2.2.2 "HCI Cluster Configuration Requirements." Here, Tiny HCI Server indicates a configuration of 6 vCPUs + 8 GB RAM, Middle HCI Server indicates 8 vCPUs + 16 GB RAM, and Larger HCI Server indicates 10 vCPUs + 24 GB RAM.
5. Confirm your option and click Finish.
6. After the VM is imported, modify the settings.
7. Click VM Options and expand Advanced. Under Configuration Parameters, click Edit Configuration.
8. Enter "disk.enableuuid" for Name and "true" for Value, and then click OK.