Cluster 2008 with ESXi 3.5 question

[TheTechie]

Our setup.

Two ESXi host with vCenter.

Four Windows 2008 with SQL 2008 setup in a 2 node failover cluster. So two windows 2008 in one cluster and two Windows 2008 in a second cluster using MSCS.

We're not doing vmotion, HA or any other VMware clustering or failover but relying on windows MSCS.

I'm trying to setup the above using ESXi 3.5 update 4 but ran into some concerns reading up on this. The main issue is that states: "Windows 2008 fail-over cluster will work only in ESX4 (due to lack of SCSI3 reservation in ESX 3.x)."

Does this apply to the windows MSCS or just the VMware HA?

In order to cluster Windows 2008 with SQL do I need to use ESXi 4 in order to have vmware handle it? I assume I can just use the Windows iSCSI initiator to connect to shared drives and it will work?

I'm on a strict timeline so I'm hesitant to upgrade to ESXi 4 right now so I'm leaning towards just trying to use Windows iSCSI.

Thanks for any feedback.

Message was edited by: TheTechie

[mreferre]

Does this apply to the windows MSCS or just the VMware HA?

As far as I understand "SCSI3 reservation" is a requirement for MSCS 2008 ... not for VMware HA. BTW months ago I tried to install a physical MSCS 2008 cluster but the storage array I was connecting to (an old IBM FASTt) had a firmware version that didn't support SCSI3 reservation and the MSCS compatibility wizard didn't allow me to go any further.

I wouldn't know whether the iSCSI target would need to support SCSI3 reservations or not.

Massimo.

[MHAV]

Hi,

the problem with behind the scene is the SCSI-3 Protocol that Windows 2008 Cluster requires to access the storage and this Protocol ist available with ESX 4 and not with ESX 3.5 any Update.

Regards

[Texiwill]

Hello,

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[VMmatty]

VMware says you're unsupported if you run a Windows 2008 cluster in ESX 3.5, but I can tell you that it works. I have seen both shared quorum clusters and majority node set all running on ESX 3.5 with Windows 2008 and both work. That isn't to say that you won't have problems but I can tell you that it does work.

I have used majority node set clusters several times on ESX 3.5 w/ Win2k8 to cluster Exchange and for file clusters and have them running without issue for quite a while. Maybe the SCSI3/vSphere 4 requirement is geared more towards a shared quorum cluster and not majority node set. Most of my installations have iSCSI volumes presented directly to the guest using the MS iSCSI Initiator.

I'm not sure how well SQL 2008 runs on an MNS cluster (or if it's even supported), so you should check and make sure that at least Microsoft supports you before proceeding.

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

At this time you cannot build a Windows 2008 Fail-over cluster on ESX 3.x, using the documentation of VMware (shared vmdk for cluster in a box, or RDM for other cases).

You have to use ESX 4.x.

Or use the software initiator to directly point from Windows 2008 to a shared storage.

Or use NPIV to directly connect a share FC LUN.

Andre

**if you found this or any other answer useful please consider allocating points for helpful or correct answers

[TheTechie]

Thanks for the feedback. I decided to go with the Software initiator approach directly from Windows 2008 as we had to use a 3TB drive and ESX has a 2TB limit.

[AndreTheGiant]

Just remember that the only "supported" (by VMware) cluster solution the 2 node solution with FC and RDM.

Other solution works, but are not describe in official documentation, so I think that could be not official supported.

Andre

[Formative]

TheTechie,

How is the configuration for you working out so far? Did you use ESXi 3.5 or ESXi 4.0? If I followed the thread correctly, you implemented two Windows Server 2008 clusters that support SQL Server's Active/Standby failover model. The failover clusters are implemented using a iSCSI SAN and uses the Shared Quorum model, is this correct?

Thank you,

Andrew

[TheTechie]

I ended up deployed using ESXi 3.5 as 4.0 was released too late for me to go through testing and meet our deadline. We did deploy two Windows Server 2008 clusters that support SQL Server's Active/Standby failover model using Node and Disk Majoirty Quorum model. I also used the windows iSCSI initiator in windows server 2008 to connect to a SAN that is running the MSDTC, Quorum and database drives off of (one for each cluster). Basically we have two host each running a active and a failover guest server when everything is going good. if one of the server goes down then one of the host will be running two active guest servers.

As it was pointed out I don't think this is offically supported by VMware since I'm using ESXi 3.5 with Windows 2008 cluster but everything is working great. Had an issue getting all the SAN drives to pass cluster validation test but I think that was an issue with the SAN or the setup and it eventually started working. Also I had to put the Guest OS on host local drive as vmware documentation indicated putting clustered OS on SAN could cause issues with heartbeat response times. Everything is fast and working better than when we had it in a staging environment on less powered physical servers. I was concerned using iSCSI from within windows would produce network congestion but I have two NIC teamed within VMware for private network and two NIC teamed in VMware for SAN traffic.

If I have to do this again I'll use ESXi 4.0 to be supported but with the 2TB limit on RDM I'd still have to use the guest OS iSCI inititaor to make the SAN connections..

[Formative]

Thank you for your detailed response! Your post has addressed all my concerns related to this configuration. I know it's not officially supported, but I have a contingency plan in the event a major issue arises.

Again, thanks again for your time, you and VMmatty have provided me with great assistance on this topic. It's very much appreciated.

Andrew