vSphere 5.5 nuggets: changes to disk.terminateVMOnPDLDefault

Those who were in the vSphere 5.5 beta program might have noticed it but I am suspecting many did not. With vSphere 5.5 there is finally an advanced setting to enable Disk.terminateVMOnPDLDefault. This advanced setting was introduced with vSphere 5.0 and unfortunately needed to be enabled in a file (/etc/vmware/settings); which was inconvenient to say the least. I asked the engineering team what the plans were to improve this but there were no direct plans. It took a bit longer then expected, but nevertheless the feature request I created made it in to the product. So if you are using a vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (what a coincidence, I am presenting on this topic in an hour at VMworld) please note that the following method should now be used to allow vSphere HA to respond to a Permanent Device Loss aka PDL:

1. Browse to the host in the vSphere Web Client navigator
2. Click the Manage tab and click Settings
3. Under System, click Advanced System Settings
4. In Advanced System Settings, select “VMkernel.Boot.terminateVMOnPDL”
5. Click the Edit button (pencil) to edit the value and set it to “Yes”
6. Click OK

Note the change in setting name from Disk.terminateVMOnPDLDefault to VMkernel.Boot.terminateVMOnPDL!

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