Windows 2003 Clustering on VMWare ESX 3.5

[M3ph]

Hi all,

Í've been searching around and I can only find documents of vi30 about the support for Windows 2003 Clustering Services on ESX.

We have a customer with a 3.5 update 4 enviroment and wish to setup a print cluster for load balancing reasons. We want to do this by using our ESX enviroment, and setup the virtual servers on multiple nodes.

For version 30 i've read that its supported but you cannot use HA or VMotion using Microsoft Clustering services. Now i've also found some statements that VMotion and HA is supported after 3.5 update 1, but I cannot find any official statement about this.

Is there anybody around that can show me any real document about current support statements for Microsoft 2003 Clustering Services?

Thank you so much!

[benma]

Hi,

following the document for VI3.5. There you will find your anwers.

[M3ph]

Hi there,

I've read that document but it refers to 3.0. I need official statements on 3.5 update 4..

[benma · Accepted solution]

The Document refers to ESX3.5 U2 or later. And there is no ESX 3.5 U4.

[M3ph]

I appreciate your help but is there any official statement or document for me that points that out, which I can use in communication to my customers?

Edit

Never mind I see you changed the document Sorry about that.. Thank you so much!

[Kamaraj_Anandha]

Hi Mate,

Please go through the following documents.

Setup for Microsoft Cluster Service

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_mscs.pdf

Technical Overview of Windows Server 2003 Clustering Services

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/overview/clustering.mspx

Microsoft Cluster Service Installation Resources

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259267

Guide to Creating and Configuring a Server Cluster Under Windows Server 2003

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=96F76ED7-9634-4300-9159-89638F4B4EF7

How to Install the Majority Node Set File Share Witness Feature

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998287.aspx

DFS Replication

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/469a9269-0b9b-48cc-8679-c3d68a0a25fe1033.mspx?

mfr=true

File Share Witness and Configurable Cluster Heartbeat for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921181

Kamaraj Anandhan

[Erik_Zandboer]

Hi,

I have looked at the document "vi3_35_25_u2_mscs.pdf". There appears to be an error in this document. On page 16, it is stated that "The boot disk of the ESX Server host should be on local storage". Hmmm. This sounds as if ESX boot-from-SAN is unsupported in an MSCS environment. But on page 17 they continue by describing how to implement boot-from-SAN. But apparently they mean booting the VM from shared storage there (I think). I'm puzzled. The term "boot from SAN" has always referenced to booting ESX itself, now it appears they also use it for VM bootup (so any VM on shared SAN storage uses "boot from SAN" in that perspective). Are they mixing up ESX and VM bootup here?

And most important, what do they mean in this doc. Can or cannot boot the MSCS VMs (Win2003) from shared storage?

Visit my blog at

[Kamaraj_Anandha]

Hi Mate,

Please go through this KB.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305547/en-us

Kamaraj Anandhan