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dmaster
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Is this the reason why MSCS is not yet supported on ESX 3.5 ?

Even when it's not supported it will not say it does not work "MSCS"

Did somebody tried to build a MSCS on ESX3.5 ?

I tried to create a cluster in a box configuration for ESX 3.5.. using two virtual windows server 2003 R2 Enterprise edition, with a quorum.vmdk file created on the service console with file system type "thick". and the second SCSI controller in virtual mode.

This procedure worked for me with ESX 3 , 3.0.1 and 3.0.2.. but now with ESX 3.5, i get stuck when trying to create a new microsoft cluster with cluster administrator.

It's ends wit ha message that no shared storage could be found ??

Is this the reason why MSCS is not yet supported on ESX 3.5 ?

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dmaster
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I have managed to create a cluster in a box on ESX3.5 with MSCS, so it's working but not supported... yet..

by the way..tomorrow after the release of update 1 for ESX 3.5 .. MSCS is supported again..

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Cameron2007
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I have been running MSCS on ESX3.5 after upgrading the hosts from 3.0.1. I cloned the clustered nodes from the legacy EVA storage to new Netapp storage. There have been no major issues as yet. So up till now it has been functional if not supported. Its good to know that it will be supported from now on though. Thanks for the info.

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testmaster
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue here , i followed the peocedure in attached document which is Vmware official procedure to build MSCS , unfortunately it didnt work at all, there must be special procedure for ESX 3.5, the shared disks including the Qourum resources keep failing to be brought online all the time

those who got it work, would it be possible please to point us to the instructions you followed to setup MSCS successfully.

Best regards

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Cameron2007
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

When I built the clusters on 3.0.1. I encountered an issue where the clustered disk could not be found. Create the quorum disk as

vmkfstools -d thick -a lsilogic -c 2G /path to vmdks

then ensure the second controller is added and set to virtual.

The problem was that the disks had not been added in the same order to the scsi controller on either node and this caused the cluster to fail when building. So check that each thick disk shares the same scsi id on either node.

I have since built clustered instances on 3.5 and it worked.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

MSCS is now supported on ESX 3.5 Update 1 and then is an update guide for setup - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/vi3_35_25_u1_mscs.pdf.

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cabledguy2006
Contributor
Contributor

Hi All

I seem to remember reading somewhere that ESX only supported a two node MSCS cluster. Is this still the case for 3.5 update 1.

We're trying to use one vmware box to host a four node cluster for DR purposes. The other thing is could I have two nodes of the cluster as physical and two nodes as virtual? If so can anyone please point me to a link on the config.

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