What is the"Up (Excluded)" Status on NICs during Azure Stack HCI cluster setup

Question

Problem

I created VMs on VMware ESXi server and installed Azure Stack HCI 22H2 OS on them. Now I'm trying to create and configure Azure Stack HCI cluster and seeing "Up (Excluded)" statuc on NICs due to which I'm not able to proceed with network configuration.

Anyone know how to resolve that issue?

Answer 1

Hello @Saiyed Alvi

I am summarizing all the answer for the ease of understanding. You can reach me by tagging my profile in comments for any queries.

For the Nic, up(Excluded) status on WAC.
One of the reasons for WAC marking a NIC as "Up (Excluded)" could be due to NICs driver manufacturer is reported to be "Microsoft". Using the manufacturers drivers, rebooting the host and starting cluster creation from scratch would solve it.

-In general, one would uninstall the NIC driver from Device Manager and install the latest driver from the manufacturer support site for the NIC model.

Another could be due to outdated firmware version and the other one is that you are running WAC on an un-supported OS. Make sure WAC is installed on Windows 10 and above (client) or Windows 2016 or above (Server).

Make sure the NIC firmware and drivers are updated and matched across the systems. 

More details:

I would like to suggest you a better approach in case this setup is being configured for learning or PoC purpose. HCI ver. 22H2 is easier to play with when compared to 23H2.

What all being done via WAC can also be done through SCVMM or PSH.

When not having a physical setup for deployment, there certain test beds that you can use test & learn Azure Stack HCI…

1. GitHub - Welcome to the easiest deployment of Azure Stack HCI Admin Center.
2. Deploy a virtual Azure Stack HCI, version 23H2 system 
3. Test Drive Azure Stack HCI in the Dell Demo Center! | Dell Technologies Info Hub

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