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Windows 2012 R2 Failover Cluster with Virtual RDM - Cluster Across Boxes

It seems difficult to find a solid answer to this question. VMs are running on vSphere 5.5 across multiple ESXi hosts. VMware documentation says both physical and virtual are supported in this configuration but physical is recommended. The same documentation also states, "Clusters across physical machines with non-pass-through RDM is supported only for clustering with Windows Server 2003. It is not supported for clustering with Windows Server 2008." But I am interested in 2012 R2.

Main reason I am looking to use virtual RDM is to run native Veeam backups. I am not overly thrill having to use the Veeam agent backup due to limitations and relying on Microsoft's VSS writer.

Anyone know what is officially supported by both VMware and Microsoft, and what works best especially when you want to run snapshot based backups?

Also, the clustering is being used on file servers.

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AishR
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

To perform a snapshot based backup,  you need to configure the RDM in virtual mode. However, it is recommended to configure the RDM in physical mode. You could go through the comparison between physical and virtual RDM.When using physical RDM, you need to use agent level backup inside Guest, Virtual RDM are indeed supported. For reference: https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1037959

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dekoshal
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

You Might find this interesting

Page#9

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/techpaper/performance/sql-server-v... 

If you found this or any other answer helpful, please consider the use of the Correct or Helpful to award points.

Best Regards,

Deepak Koshal

CNE|CLA|CWMA|VCP4|VCP5|CCAH