Should hosts accessing the same VMFS *always* be clustered?

[pjapk]

Hi all,

As above, given a config where there are multiple ESX/i hosts & multiple VMFS volumes, normally you would configure clusters, then present the shared storage to the clusters etc.

However I'm seeing a config at the moment where there are a number of "independant" hosts (managed by the same VCenter) which are *not* in a cluster, but each host is currently running VMs from the same shared storage.

Is this a sensible config? It seems not to me! I'm looking into why they haven't clustered (they have Enterprise licenses) but I wanted to double-check whether this is an acceptable (i.e. supported) config because it seems a little odd to me!

(If I could be pointed towards a document covering it then it'd be ideal supporting material to my argument).

Regards,

Paul

[Shakaal]

Hi,

The only purpose of presenting VMFS datastores to a Cluster is ease of use, easily manageable, Scalable, easy to troubleshoot.

From Support perspective they can't say NO to you even if you share Storage without Vmware Cluster.

Regards

[pjapk]

Thanks for the response.

So just to confirm, there's no requirement similar to windows where the only way to share disks is within a cluster, otherwise the windows hosts will likely corrupt the volume that has been presented to both hosts?

[Shakaal · Accepted solution]

Hi Paul,

You are correct, there is no such requirement as incase of Windows Cluster.

Regards

[harrygunter]

VMFS is a clustered filesystem, so you will be ok.

Below is a doc for more info.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmfs-best-practices-wp.pdf

[pjapk]

Many thanks guys, exactly what I was after.

[Shakaal]

Hi,

the only thing that you have to take care is that any VMFS should not be presented to other OSes (Like Windows/Solaris Etc) they should only be presented to ESX hosts.

Regards

[aravinds3107]

Please also make your network configuration the cluster failover as well and you have VMkernel configured for vMotion

[pjapk]

(Yep, I'm aware that such volumes should ONLY be presented to ESX).

I've actually carried out a few deployments (VI3 & vSphere) but mine have always been fully clustered etc. whereas the environment I've just walked into has a config where they have 5 hosts in a vCenter with 2 sharing VMFS volumes on one pair of FC storage devices and 3 sharing access to VMFS on another hybrid storage (fc backend presented via iSCSI) but with none of the hosts clustered (despite having Enterprise licenses) so I feel they're missing a trick and a great deal of flexibility so just wanted to confirm what areas of their config are supported or not.

Thanks again all!