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Heartbeart Datastore - Validation request

I have read Duncan books more than once. I think I might be wrong but who knows.

I have recently did a migration 500 VMs from IBM to Dell Storage.

During migration we had both IBM and Dell Storage presented to 10 node ESXi cluster. I would to know if it was 100% required that both "IBM + Dell" Storage to be configured as heartbeat datastore.

I know it is would be better. But I feel it is not required because when we enable Heartbeat datastore it is ESXi who need to find whether it is isolated or partition. It does not matter if it is IBM or dell Datastore.

The argument which might get  is if the ESXi host loses access to datastore and it needs to confirm if it isolated or not. But then would it matter which datastore?. But in this case PDL/APD event already has occured right?

Because all ESXi wants is to check if it isolated or not?

With Great Regards,
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ashilkrishnan
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Hi @Techstarts ,

You got that right. Heartbeat datastore is used to identify host isolation. You don't have to select datastore's from both storage arrays, but ensure that the selected datastores are accessible by all hosts in the cluster. 

Datastore Heartbeating 

Hope that helps

 

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ashilkrishnan
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Hi @Techstarts ,

You got that right. Heartbeat datastore is used to identify host isolation. You don't have to select datastore's from both storage arrays, but ensure that the selected datastores are accessible by all hosts in the cluster. 

Datastore Heartbeating 

Hope that helps

 

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depping
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"The argument which might get  is if the ESXi host loses access to datastore and it needs to confirm if it isolated or not. But then would it matter which datastore?. But in this case PDL/APD event already has occured right?"

The heartbeat datastore is used for detection an isolation, an isolation is declared when a host is not receiving any HA network traffic/heartbeats. When this happens it will ping the isolation address. If that feels it will declare itself isolated and then it will inform the rest of the cluster via the heartbeat datastore that it is isolated.

And thanks for reading the book 🙂

Techstarts
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Both, Thanks a lot for affirmation.

This was actually interview question.

I was surprised when the interviewer said, I must do this.

With Great Regards,
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