MS Clustering and VMware

[jadaboumalham]

Hello,

What are the disadvantages of installing MS clustering in ESX 3.5?

Thanks.

[anujmodi1]

Small overhead running on Virtual Infrastructure, but a lot of benefits to move on this.

Look for more details in

Anuj Modi,

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[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

Major issue I have is you lose the ability to vmotion the nodes of the cluster which also means you can not use the DRS with your MSCS cluster - but if the business needs call for an MSCS cluster it runs fine -

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[azn2kew]

That's why every Exchange 2007 CCR clustering solution will not be able to run VMotion within the cluster so its a matter of design if its worth it.

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Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[MauroBonder]

This documents is nice.

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[jadaboumalham]

Thanks for your reply,but the customer needs a document that mentions your says. Can you please provide with a document that says we cannot use VMotion and DRS if we install MS Cluster under VMware.

Thanks.

[jadaboumalham]

Thanks for your reply,your pdf is very helpful,and that's what I needed,but why Idon't have the option toput your answer as correct or helpful. ?:|

[notorious_bdg]

MSCS clusters with shared disks require SCSI controllers in bus sharing mode which cannot be vmotioned. CCR clusters use MSCS clusters without shared disks, which does not require bus sharing mode. That means CCR cluster nodes can be vmotioned. The document, http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/solutions/08Q4_VM_Exchange_Server_2007_VI3_WP.pdf, mentions that VMware's own Exchange 2007 servers use both vmotion and CCR.

[emcclend]

We have been running 2 MSCS in VMware for a few months now and belive it or not, we are thinking about moving away from the MSCS and just letting VMware handle the clustering using HA/DRS. We are clustering across host and it is working just fine. However when using the MSCS we are giving up some of the native features within VMware most notable is vMotion. We are still is the dicussion phase, but it looks like we may be moving to a single server option for each of our now 2 MSCS. Since we are clustering file & print services in an active/passive environment, we may get better results without using MSCS. However from what we have been told, if you are using MSCS in an active/active environment, the benifits may be greater.