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roshancom
Contributor
Contributor

Two ESX 3.x hosts mounting to same VMFS datastore on SAN

I'm running two ESX 3.x servers with virtual center. I know that it is possible to create redundancy or high availability by configuring a clustered environment. For HA to work, both ESX hosts must mount to the same datastore on SAN. When one ESX host goes down, the other ESX can take over the VM. How do I configure the second ESX 3.5 server to mount on to an existing VMFS datastore, but the primary ESX host must still maintain its master status? Could someone explain the configuration steps?

Thanks

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Welcome to the Community,

all you need to do is to present the storage LUNs to both hosts using the same LUN-ID, so that both of them have access to the same datastores.

André

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roshancom
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

I'm assuming that by presenting the storage LUNs you mean adding a datastore.  Won't that process format the VMFS LUN and erase all the existing data?

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

>>> I'm assuming that by presenting the storage LUNs you mean adding a datastore

No, I'm talking about presenting the LUN from the storage system.

>>> Won't that process format the VMFS LUN and erase all the existing data?

Once you present a LUN to an ESXi host, which already contains a VMFS datastore (i.e. is formatted with VMware's VMFS file system), the host will detect the datastore, and there's no need to format it again.

André

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aleph0
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

hello and welcome!

first question: do you have vCenter Server?

If not--> how can you create a VMWare cluster? No need to have shared storage between hosts as you may not leverage features such as vMotion and HA ( and all the dependant features)

if yes:

create datacenter(optional)

create cluster.

insert the two hosts in  the cluster.

present external storage wwn or iscsi iqn to the two hosts the hosts (remember to zone / mask on the fabric)

create a VMFS volume.

also the other host will get the same partition(s)

If the external storage is NFS, repeat Mount NFS Mount point for each host; there's no need to format it as it's NFS

PS: there is no master status: VMWare cluster is not a "Failback" cluster by design. VMFS is a clustered FS that's designed for small big file and supports the "VMWare Way " of doing Clustering.

with HA you can achieve the three 9s availability. Now with FT on 5.5 you can achive 9s availability on critical VMs (max 4 per host)

Aleph

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aleph0
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

any news?

resolved?

\aleph0

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