MS Cluster on NFS and iSCSI simultaneously?

[JaySMX]

The clustering guide for vSphere states that only fiber channel storage is supported for MSCS/FC clusters, so I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but...

I have a client who wants to run a failover clustering enabled solution on NetApp storage, configuring the OS drives for the Windows 2008 R2 servers on an NFS volume and the application data drives on an iSCSI DRM. IOPs and networking aside, has anyone configured a cluster like this before, and if so what were your experiences? I'm just trying to get an idea of what kind of potential headaches to expect down the road. I'm also assuming VMware is not going to support it since they specifically advise against it. Thoughts?

-Justin

[DSTAVERT]

As you said it wouldn't be supported. While clustering can be accomplished over other protocols and regardless of what anyone has experienced I would spend a great deal of time testing in your environment.

[cdu · Accepted solution]

I believe it simply will not work. Software iSCSI initiator in ESX/ESXi doesn't support SCSI-3 persistent reservation which is required by MSCS on 2008 and above. Using RDM will not change it. I'm not sure if iSCSI HBA will work.

The workaround for it is to use software iSCSI initiator inside 2008. OS can sit on NFS datastore. Quorum and data have to be on iSCSI LUN connected through Windows iSCSI initiator.

[edwardob]

You other main issue is MS support.

If you do not build a MSCS under "their" supported configurations dont bother calling them for help.

Not using FC RDM under vmware is an unsupported configuration.

Regardless if it works or not, which you can most likely getting it working.

[JaySMX]

Do you have a link to more documentation on persistent reservation support on the software initator?

-Justin