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SteveRoam
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-08-2013 11:33 AM

Using RDM to create a shared disk, over Fibre Channel?

Is it possible to use RDM to create a shared disk, and to share the disk with 2 VMs, over Fibre Channel?

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5 Replies
vmroyale
Immortal
Immortal
‎02-08-2013 11:35 AM

Hello and welcome to the communities.

Note: Discussion successfully moved from Community Website Help to VMware vSphere™ Storage

Yes, you can do this. Are you setting up a specific clustering solution?

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
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todddamore
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-08-2013 11:38 AM

It's possible, but keep in mind that using a shared RDM disk with a SCSI adapter in physical sharing mode will prevent migration while the VM's are powered on.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership
‎02-08-2013 12:01 PM

Welcome to the Community,

KB article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004617 contains links to detailed instruction on how to setup MSCS with shared disks.

André

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SteveRoam
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-08-2013 12:03 PM

How would we use RDM to create a shared disk and share the disk with 2 VMs? What are the steps?

We set up 2 Windows 2008R2 servers, clustered together using MSCS, and we want to run SQL Server. We want to use RDMs for the SQL data stores.

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todddamore
Contributor
Contributor
‎02-08-2013 01:23 PM

Read this -  http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-51-setup-m...

Basically, you add a new disk as type RDM on the first cluster node and then add that disk to your second node as an existing vmdk mapped back to the first VM. I really reccomend that you read that guide I linked as there are other considerations to take into account such as HA\DRS and anti-affinity rules for your clustered VM's.

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