MS failover clustering with Windows 2012 R2 on ESXi 5.5 across boxes (Cluster Accross Boxes)

[glenn3]

Hi all,

Sorry if this a noob question. I've done the research but geeting conflicting information.

I want to setup MSCS (using W2K12 R2) accross two ESXi 5.5 machines. I have shared storage through FC. It seems that to do CAB (Cluster accross boxes) I must configure my shared disks as RDM. I was wondering if I can do this with a simple shared VMDK disk. The VMDK disks reside on a shared data store (Fiber Channel).

Is this supported? Or is a simple shared VMDK disk supported only for CIB (Cluster in a box)?

Thanks!

[john23]

For MSCS vmfs vmdk is not supported, you have to go with physical RDM only.

-A

[glenn3]

Thanks for the fast reply!

I found this statement on the VMWare site:

"VMFS: Virtual disks used as shared storage for clustered virtual machines must reside on VMFS datastores and must be created using the EagerZeroedThick option"

I'm assuming this is only for Cluster in a Box?

Thanks.

[john23 · Accepted solution]

correct. Cluster in a box it will work.

Cluster across box still you need physical mode (scsi controller) with rdm.

-A

[weinstein5]

You might want to review this document - http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-setup-m...

[glenn3]

Thanks!

Glenn.

[pomaskin]

You know why cannot use virtual disks for MSCS? I can't find the answer to this question.

[FarhanParkar]

The reason is MSCS required to have SCSI 3 Persistent reservation, without that MSCS does not get validated, without validation MSCS cannot be created, even with some way around then it will be not supported at all by MS Support.