Definitive Answer - Can I share LUNs across different ESX Clusters

[dlm1975]

I have scoured the communities for the answer, but have not seen anything official from VMware.

Can I share a LUN across multiple ESX Clusters? Is it supported? Can you point me to anything official?

Thanks.

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

Yes you can share a LUN across clusters and yes it is supported. As long as the ESX Servers can see the LUN it can use it even if they are in different clusters. The question does it make good sense - you will want to insure the loads is balance on the LUNs -

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[karavinds1]

Yes you can share the LUNs between ESX in different cluster. It is same as how you assign a LUN to a ESX servers in the same cluster. There is no difference as how an ESX servers looks a LUN, for both in the same cluster and in different cluster.

However as "weinstein5" said we may need to answer the question, why would we need it to be setup so?

Regards,

Aravind K

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[dlm1975]

I have a cluster of 8 Dell 2950s. I have a new cluster of 8 Dell R710s. I am trying to figure out a way to move the VMs off the 2950s with the least amount of downtime.

If I present the same set of LUNs to the R710s, could I just shut it down on the 2950 & then add to inventory on the new cluster? And then turn it back on? Or will the differect cpu architecture present the problem?

[weinstein5]

I would cold migrate form the 2950s to the 710s with out changing their storage location - this will keep the VC database clean -

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[dlm1975]

That's probably the safest solution. Thanks for your help.

[JonWeatherhead]

We have actually just finished doing similar moves from old IBM 445's to relatively newer Dell 1950's. As long as you power off the VMs and do cold migrates, you only need about 5 or 10 minutes of downtime and since your are doing it cold you won't have to worry about any CPU mask errors.

Our next step is cold migrate from HP DL580's to Dell 1950's. Then storage migrate from EVA SAN to DS4500 SAN... fun, fun , fun.

[thlinh105]

Hi JonWeather!

Can you share with me your experiencies -> storage migration from HP-EVA to IBM-DS?

My eMail is thlinh105@yahoo.com.vn

Waiting for your reply and have nice day...

thlinh