Should you really use MSCS for clustering 2 VMs for a file server?

[drheim]

I am running VSphere 6.5 and need to setup a new critical file server on 2012R2 VMs.  I will probably need 5TB of storage across 3 disks. All storage is solidstate on a FC SAN and performs great(paravirtual scsi adapter). I am debating between these options.

1. Keeping it really simple and just having a single VM with vmdks.  HA events, or reboots from Windows Updates are a risk, but maybe alright if scheduled at night.

2. 2012R2 MSCS and RDMs(shared storage) across 2 VMs.  I know this will work, but it bring a lot more complexity into the solution.  I have used this on physical servers and never had many issues, but I have never done this on VMs. I guess if I have anti-affinity rules and Cluster Aware Updating, this would be safest?

3. VMWare FT -  This is a solution that would use an extra 5TB of disk space and replication.  More of a D/R solution as we would still would be subject to HA and Windows Update events

Am I missing anything?  If you have any experience in large environments, I would like to hear you opinion or guidance.

Thanks,

Dave

[diegodco31]

Hi

I, for one, am not a big fan of Physical RDM LUNs.

vSphere version 6.5 has some improvements for MSCS:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-651-setup-mscs.pdf

Another option is to use DFS:

What's New in DFS Replication and DFS Namespaces in Windows Server | Microsoft Docs

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[drheim]

Since we have de-duplication on our SAN we are thinking about going to VMWare FT, but with us being 100% virtual in the same blade chassis and having only 1 SAN, our eggs are kind of already in the same basket.  Just not sure if it is worth consolidating everything to a single VM that is using VMWare FT with the risk for the extra complexity.