Let’s learn how to configure and prepare VMware VMs for supporting Microsoft cluster, or any other cluster type that requires a shared storage between the cluster nodes, to enable all the member VMs to read and write on shared hard disks.
Learn here about the steps, limitations, disadvantages, and precautions
Based on your implementation, follow this table very carefully for choosing the correct disk type:
Steps:
1.Power-off the VM.
2.Edit VM configuration settings.
3.Add a new SCSI controller.
4.Set the sharing mode for the new controller to “Virtual” mode.
5.Add a new virtual disk or RDM. (Thick eager-zeroed only)
6.Set the sharing mode for the new disk to “Multi-writer”.
7.Attach the new disk to a SCSI controller with bus-sharing enabled.
8.Save the settings.
9.Power-on the VM.
10.For the other VMs in the cluster, repeat the same steps from 1 through 4, then follow the following steps.
11.Add an existing disk and navigate to the VMDK of the master VM in the cluster.
12.Then follow the same steps from 6 through 9.
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IMPORTANT!!
Limitations & disadvantages:
- Snapshots are not supported.
- vMotion is not supported for shared virtual disks (VMDK).
- Storage vMotion is disabled for all types of shared disks.
- Snapshot-based backup solutions can no longer work with clustered VMs.
- Never Ever expand shared disks using vSphere client / web client, THIS WILL CORRUPT THE CLUSTER, use ESXCLI. Follow the steps in KB: 1033570.
Disk order in Windows is different than the ordering in the VM setting, follow the 0-2-3-1 rule. the numbers are the ID of the SCSI controller, so the figure “0” means the VM SCSI CONT 0
References:
IMPORTAT: Setup for failover clustering and Microsoft Clusters on vSPhere:
Click to access vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-65-setup-mscs.pdf
Expand eager-zeroed disk:
Architecting Microsoft SQL Server
on VMware vSphere®:
Click to access sql-server-on-vmware-best-practices-guide.pdf
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