VMware Cloud Community
usmansiddiqui
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

2 Clusters in VMware

Hi,

We are running 7 ESX servers added in a vmware vcenter cluster (lets say Cluster 1). ESX servers have Enterprise licenses

We want to add 6 more ESX servers to this Cluster but by mistake purchased license of advanced ESX server which are failing to add to cluster 1 giving error.

Now questions are

1) is there any workaround so that these 6 new esx servers can be added to Cluster 1 so that we can take benefits of virtualization using 13 ESX servers in total?

2) If one vcenter server can run 2 clusters (cluster 1 will host 7 enterprise ESX while cluster 2 will host 6 Advanced esx server)??

3) esx servers from cluster 1 and esx servers from cluster2 can share same Storage LUNs????

4) If we go for 2 Clusters and get enterprise licenses after sometime, then what will be the procedure of consolidating these 2 clusters.....What will happen to VMs running on six esx servers of cluster 2?

Best Regards

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

1) I do not suggest to have a cluster with more than 8 hosts, max num of VM per hosts will be reduce with more than 8 hosts.

2) Yes

But I suggest to have some LUNs only for cluster 1 and other for cluster 2.

Only a few shared between the two cluster, to use storage vMotion (on the Enterprise ESX)

3) Yes

4) You can simple drag & drop the hosts.

PS: note that if you have different CPU you have to enable EVC feature in your clusters to normalize all the hosts at the same baseline

PS2: vMotion will work (with compatibile CPU) also across clusters

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
4 Replies
AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

1) I do not suggest to have a cluster with more than 8 hosts, max num of VM per hosts will be reduce with more than 8 hosts.

2) Yes

But I suggest to have some LUNs only for cluster 1 and other for cluster 2.

Only a few shared between the two cluster, to use storage vMotion (on the Enterprise ESX)

3) Yes

4) You can simple drag & drop the hosts.

PS: note that if you have different CPU you have to enable EVC feature in your clusters to normalize all the hosts at the same baseline

PS2: vMotion will work (with compatibile CPU) also across clusters

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
Reply
0 Kudos
jcwuerfl
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

What was the error that you saw when you tried to add them to the existing cluster? You could upgrade the Licenses at some point whenver that makes sense but wouldn't do that until they had the same license type as you couldn't enable some of the cluster features with the different license types so could be related to the error you saw.

1) I would create a second cluster until the licenses are upgraded. Later they can be moved when the licenses are upgraded if necessary.

2) Yes, one vCenter can do multiple clusters

3) Yes, however generally storage should be only be visiable within that cluster only. Because of the scsi reservation issus mainly. However, you CAN and SHOULD have a lun or two between all the clusters so that you can do Storage VMotion between the clusters.

4) Provided all of them are the same hardware, you can move the Hosts back to Cluste1 at any time the VM's will follow the Host in this case with no downtime to the VM. However if they are different CPU's then you would need to enable EVC to put them in the same cluster so that you can use the Cluster Features.

Hopefully that gives you some more information to that which was already provided.

VMmatty
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
Jump to solution

I agree with what the others have said - make another cluster and if you upgrade to Advanced licenses you can just move them. The error that you saw is probably because you have a feature enabled in the cluster that isn't available in Advanced. DRS is a good example. I know I've combined license types in the same cluster before (Standard and Advanced) without issue so long as the one with the higher license isn't configured to use a feature not available in the lower license.

Have you spoken to your reseller about returning the liceneses and buying Enterprise instead? As long as it hasn't been a long time since you purchased them you may be able to return them and get the higher level license.

Matt

My blog:

Matt | http://www.thelowercasew.com | @mattliebowitz
usmansiddiqui
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

The error is regarding the DRS, not included in advanced license.It says

"License not availabe to perform the operation.The vSphere 4 Advanced license for host does not include VMware DRS. Upgrade the licens

Reply
0 Kudos