What should be the disk mode for a virtual disk to be used as a clustered disk in Windows 2008 R2 2-node cluster?

[PCWC]

I'm building a windows 2008 r2 cluster using one host.  What should be the disk mode for a virtual disk to be used as a clustered disk?

[pratjain]

If you are setting up a MSCS Cluster on ESXi host use RDM's and set the SCSI controller to Shared mode.

This document should provide you complete information

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-mscs-gu...

[PCWC]

Hi PJ

I'm setting up a 2-node cluster on same host (CIB) not across hosts (CAB) and are using VMDK instead of RDM.  I have read the document you provided but it does not mention anything about which disk mode to set.

Thanks,

PC

[Borja_Mari]

Hello,

the document explains the disk mode in the "Supported Shared Storage Configurations" section (page 9).

Get some additional information from here:

VMware KB: Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) support on ESXi/ESX

The document pointed by PJ user, is included in the above vmware's kb.

Best regards,

Pablo

[rsoc]

The big thing with the "shared" disks in MSCS clusters on vSphere is that you need to use a second SCSI controller. So if your OS disk is on SCSI 0:0 then you need to create a SCSI 1:0 on each VM for the shared disks to communicate on. This is on page 13 of the document. You can use VMDK's as long as they are from a FC connected datastore or you can use RDMs in virtual or physical mode. Also, when I create a MSCS clusters in vSphere I like to put the shared disks in a separate folder named something descriptive to make it obvious that those disks are shared and that folder isn't a VM.

[PCWC]

Hi Pablo,

I'm talking about the Disk Mode shown in the above image.   I believe it should be set to Independent - Persistent.

Regards,

Peter

[PCWC]

Hi rsoc,

I have already added a 2nd SCSI controller (see image in my post to Pablo).   I'm not sure whether the datastore is FC connected or not.  How can I check?

Regards,

Peter 

[rsoc]

If your datastore is local (disks in your server) which is likely in your case then you wouldn't need to worry about the transport mechanism (FC or Fiber Channel). I have never built a MSCS cluster from virtual disks but "Independent - Persistent" would be the option that I would choose because you don't want snapshots on those disks for several reasons.

[Borja_Mari]

Hello,

it must be independent persistent:

windows server 2008 r2 - How to present shared storage for MS Cluster Services running on vSphere 5 ...