NetApp HCI Manual page 332

• Consider the following conditions to help you decide whether to remove the existing Witness Node from
VMware vSphere Web Client or the storage cluster:
◦ If you want to use the same VM name for the new Witness Node, you should delete all the references
to the old Witness Node from vSphere.
◦ If you want to use the same host name on the new Witness Node, you should first remove the old
Witness Node from the storage cluster.

When should you redeploy Witness Nodes?
You should redeploy Witness Nodes in the following scenarios:
• You replaced a failed compute node that is part of a NetApp HCI installation, which has a two or three-node
storage cluster and the failed compute node was hosting a Witness Node VM.
• You performed the return to factory image (RTFI) procedure on the compute node.
• The Witness Node VM is corrupted.
• The Witness Node VM was accidentally removed from ESXi.
The VM is configured using the template that is created as part of initial deployment using the NetApp
Deployment Engine. Here is an example of what a Witness Node VM looks like:
Steps
1. In the VMware vSphere Web Client, select Hosts and Clusters.
2. Right-click the compute node that will host the Witness Node VM, and select New Virtual Machine.
3. Select Deploy from template, and select Next.
4. Follow the steps in the wizard:
You cannot remove the old Witness Node if your cluster is down to only two physical
storage nodes (and no Witness Nodes). In this scenario, you should add the new
Witness Node to the cluster first before removing the old one.
You can remove the Witness Node from the cluster using the NetApp Element
Management extension point.