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Passwd123
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HA/FT without external storage

Hello guys,

I have a question, I have 2 hosts with disks.

If I wanted to make a cluster using those datastores.

Can I make one of the two be the master and the slave copy the machines into its internal datastore so as to intervene when necessary?

ClusterA: [host1 (datastore1) + host2 (datastore2)]

                        MASTER               SLAVE

Slave replicates the datastore1 VMs in datastore2. If master goes down with his datastore1 slave intervenes and turns on same vm in datastore2.

Thank you

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daphnissov
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Whatever you choose it needs to be a separate physical system providing NFS services. Windows implementation of NFS is consistently buggy and unstable and very few people use it.

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daphnissov
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No, this isn't how vSphere works unless you purchased vSAN.

Passwd123
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So I can remove the disks from the cluster and start the hosts with Flash or pendrive.

With those disks that I've removed, create a vsan storage on another server?

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daphnissov
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No, it's not that simple. vSAN has certain requirements like compatible controller and flash disks and is a purchased add-on.

Passwd123
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ok unfortunately the budget is limited, we decided to create external storage with windows NFS.

Is it better to create a host with VM Windows NFS or standalone windows installation (but this way we don't have backups on the storage)?

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daphnissov
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Neither. Windows NFS is terrible. It's better that you have a separate, physical device like a NAS providing an NFS export. You will still need to back up those VMs to a separate location, however.

Passwd123
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Why windows nfs is terrible?

I could also use linux with freenas, it has various protocols.

We make external backups with veeam

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daphnissov
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Whatever you choose it needs to be a separate physical system providing NFS services. Windows implementation of NFS is consistently buggy and unstable and very few people use it.

Passwd123
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ok so if we create a cluster with 2 hosts and an external storage on a NAS that is qnap or powervault or hpe msa or poweredge with freenas are we safer than a nfs windows?

Obviously there are also "cold" veeam backups

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daphnissov
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Yes, that's a better plan. You still need to store your Veeam data on some other location than the NAS.

Passwd123
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Yes of course, other things would be chicken! 😄

Thank you so much daphnissov you are great!

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