Is it possible for an ESXi Host to see another ESXi host's disks?

[Newbie2007]

I googled- came up with nothing and played around for a bit.

I can not vmkping between the hosts but they are reachable over the management network

Thanks

[a_p_]

I assume you are asking whether it is possible to directly access a host's local datastore(s) from another host!? No, this is not. The only way to share local storage is to create a VM  (OpenFiler, Starwind, Open-E, HP VSA) and present the VM's virtual disk space as shared storage.

André

[Newbie2007]

The actual reason is becasue I tried Vmotion for the first tiem and got this error (I am running all this on a laptop partition).  Vmotion is enabled

A general

system error

occurred:

The VMotion

failed

because the

ESX hosts

were not

able to

connect

over the

VMotion

network. 

Please check

your

VMotion

network

settings and

physical

network

configurati-

on.

View details...

[Newbie2007]

Here are the details

The vMotion migrations failed because the ESX hosts were not able to connect over the vMotion network.  Check the vMotion network settings and physical network configuration.

vMotion migration [-1062705974:1300561055752467] failed to create a connection with remote host <192.168.100.203>: The ESX hosts failed to connect over the VMotion network

Migration [-1062705974:1300561055752467] failed to connect to remote host <192.168.100.203>: Timeout

[a_p_]

I am running all this on a laptop partition

Can you please elaborate on your setup? Which VMware product are you using? How did you setup the virtual network for the guests? A screen shot of the virtual network configuration of the host and the guests could help.

André

[Newbie2007]

Attached is a pic of the setup and a netwok map pic

Win 7 OS

VM Workstation 7.1

ESXi 4.1

Vsphere 4.1

[a_p_]

Interesting configuration. However, this does not show the network configuration I am looking for. What I would like to see is the vSwitch configuration where you configured the vMotion network, i.e. tab "Configuration" -> "Network" on the hosts. Did you configure a dedicated Host-Only network on the host (Virtual Network Editor) for the vMotion network?

André

[Newbie2007]

yes I did- see attached

[a_p_]

There's no vMotion network setup. Add a third virtual NIC to the ESXi guests and create another vSwitch with a VMkernel port for vMotion.

André

[Newbie2007]

OK so i need a 3rd network- that seems odd- if that a requirement?

i figure a mgmt and data network is sufficient.  Also does the host PC need another VM adapter?  i currently have 2

[a_p_]

It is best practice to create a dedicated VMotion network. Either by using dedicated NICs or by using a dedicated VLAN. To setup your lab close to real live, setup an additional Host-Only network in the Virtual Network Editor (this does not need a host connection) and add this to the ESXi VMs for the third vSwitch.

André

[Newbie2007]

Ok let me do that and will post results.

[Newbie2007]

Ok that worked....but why?

Why can't i use the datanetwork- i had vmotion set up just the samer and ESXi should not know the difference

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

You could use the data network, however in any case you have to create a VMkernel port group for VMotion, because VMotion is a function of the operating system (the VMkernel). The reasons to use dedicated NICs and/or networks is to make sure VMotion has the bandwidth it needs and for securtity (VMotion traffic is unencrypted).

André