how can use all vcenter feature such as HA and drs without shared storage

[baber]

Hi

i have 2 esxi host dl 380g8

but i don't have any shared storage or san now i want use vcenter feature like ha and drs now for use this features do i have to run VSAN?

i readed for for use vsan we have to buy ATLEAST ONE ssd disk is this trure?

ssd disk is necessary?

atleast one ssd disk for each host ?

can use from all of vcenter feature with VSAN ?

please some help me

[RyanH84]

Hi,

For VSAN you need at LEAST 3 hosts (4 recommended).

Each host must have 1 SSD for read cache/write buffer.

Do you have any storage at all? How about running a NAS such as "OpenFiler" or "FreeNAS". That way you can present shared storage via that way. (I'd use this in Lab only). These NAS O/S's also work as virtual machines so you can turn any disk into shared storage.

[baber]

is that necessary to have 3 host ?

is there ssd disk special for hp servers?

we have to install esxi on ssd disk for use vsan?

[RyanH84]

Yes mandatory 3 servers for VSAN cluster.
Consult the VSAN HCL for information on support disks.

Install ESXi on server on any supported media (Internal hdd, Internal SD card, USB, etc, etc) but do not install it on the disks you want to use for the VSAN configuration.

[baber]

i have 2 host and use local disk for storage and don't have any shared storage now i want know without shared storage from which vcenter feature can i use ?

for example can i user drs ?

Bes regards

Babak

[zdickinson]

HA requires shared storage.  I suppose DRS might not require shared storage.  If you had say, 3 hosts in a cluster all with local storage.  DRS could recommend a migration from one host to another.  It would have to a vMotion and a Storage Motion at the same time, which is possible... but slow.  Thank you, Zach.

[depping]

HA and DRS both require shared storage to be available.

If you only have 2 hosts then maybe a solution like Starwind is an option to create "shared storage" from local storage. (StarWind Software – StarWind Virtual SAN® – Starwindsoftware.com)

[Anton_Kolomyeyt]

Duncan,

thanks for reference!

Indeed StarWind Virtual SAN can keep quorum with just two nodes (no external third entity is required). Good news: our free version is capacity unlimited, production use is allowed and it;s evergreen (no time bombs). Two nodes can feed shared storage to N-node cluster (no need to license or install StarWind on every host on the cluster, that's VERY different from VMware offering where you have to license every single host). We'll be changing licensing policy this week (2-node "hyper-converged" with iSCSI in a loopback would turn into 2-node "bare metal" over NFS, think about FreeNAS or OpenFiler doing HA storage with "shared nothing" two nodes out of box) so if OP wants to go "2 and only 2" he may apply for his free key ASAP

StarWind Virtual SAN Free

Good luck!

Anton

[baber]

i have created 3 Vm that installed esxi 5.5 on that each of them has 3 HDD (one of them for install esxi  , other for SSD and last HDD for data) i assign scsiX:Y.virtualSSD = 1  to my second vmdk and in storage show SSD and i did not add my 3rd vmdk in my storage(means not create vmfs) but when i type vdq -q in ssh for show compatible disk for VSAN it just show one of my vmdk disk are eligible others are not eligible

what do i have to do ?