How to add RDM to multiple VM's

[letoatrads]

Ok guys, having a brain fart here and can't find the docs on how to do this.

I've created an RDM on VM1 for a 150GB LUN. I need to add this RDM to VM2 so they both can access this.

I've tried just adding a second disk to VM2 and pointing to the RDM file on the datastore and I get an error. What critical step/ path am I missing.

Thanks in advance.

[VirtualNoitall]

Hello,

You are trying to have two virtual machines access the same disk at the same time? Is this for cluster?

[letoatrads]

Somewhat of a 'poor' man cluster.

I have 3 web servers that will be separate VM's on separate ESX hosts.

I want to have them all access the same data space to share out their web files, i.e. a common /www root for them.

Is this possible with RDM? If not, what do you think is the best method for that?

Thanks,

Mike

[jdvcp]

You should not have multiple systems (VMs or physical) access the same volume without a clustered application/operating system in place. You can corrupt your volume.

[VirtualNoitall · Accepted solution]

Hey,

Unless you are using clustering software I would connect multiple virtual machines to the same RDM.

To do what you are asking you might be able to use something like a windows or nfs share?

You could also look into a replication tool to keep your web root directories in sync. This may be a better approach as relying on one share\drive for your files creates a single point of failure.

[letoatrads]

That was my sneaking suspicion - that I would have to NFS share the data, or do an rsynch. Alrighy, thanks everyone for the input.