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Gusco2k
Contributor
Contributor

Failover Cluster Microsoft SQL - ESX 6.0 - Best praticies

Hi guys good morning,

I'm bulding a Windows 2012 R2 cluster to run SQL Server 2016, with 1 being active node and 1 passive node (no simultaneous writing to the disk), VM´s will be in different ESX.

Checking vmware documentation I see the recommendation is use RMD disks, but I have vSphere Replication (DR) and vSphere Data Protection and both tools do not work with RDM.

By performing a test with VMs on different host everything worked but when I performed a vmotion the disk dropped and went up again, would it be that problem or will I have other problems if I choose to use VMDK instead of RDM?

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vijayrana968
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Make sure you have configured clustering with CAB consideration, a correct way would be here : Say Hello to vMotion-compatible Shared-Disks Windows Clustering on vSphere - Virtualize Applications

Also check : VMware Knowledge Base

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Gusco2k
Contributor
Contributor

Viajayrana thanks for the feedback.

Reading the Vmware Cluster documentation, the only problem with following the CAB model without using the RDM disks is the VMOTION, the disks disconnect and connect, do you believe that I will encounter other difficulties?

Tks

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vijayrana968
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

May I know the VM hardware version in use.

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Gusco2k
Contributor
Contributor

Here is some information about the environment:

VM Hardware Version: ESXi 6.0 and later (VM version 11)

SAN: Fiber Channel

ESX Version: VMware ESXi, 6.0.0, 3380124

Vm Configuration: SCSI - Physchial, Disk on cluster eager zeroed

Remembering that it will be active/passive SQL cluster,  there will be no simultaneous writing on shared disks.

Do you think I can continue without using RDM?

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