Windows Failover Cluster Manager

[M4T]

hi,

Can you use windows failover cluster manager with esxi hosts. If I connect my 8 Esxi hosts to the "AD DC" then try add them to the windows failover cluster manager does it work?

is there any particular configuration that needs to be set up. Im guessing the user accounts need to be all exactly the same.

matt

[MikeStoica]

No, Windows Failover Clustering can be used only with Windows Server machines.

For ESXi hosts you have the option to create a cluster from the vCenter

[rajen450m · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Your question is not clear. Are you asking whether "windows fail-over cluster of VMs running on ESXi or ESXis to be part of windows fail over cluster?"

As Mike said, you cannot cluster ESXi hosts using windows fail-over cluster, since they are to different platform and you cannot do it.

If you want to know, the VMs running on ESXi can be clustered, YES you can cluster virtual machines running windows server to fail-over clustering. Refer the below document for the same:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-651-setup-mscs.pdf

Regards,

[vmman34]

I come from a Hyper V background and I am trying to learn VMware.

I can't see how you can or would want to add the ESXi hosts to FOCM in Windows Server?

The point of FOCM is to manage Windows Server devices that participate in Cluster.

I like FOCM because it is quick and part of the OS, but it lacks the full functionality of SCVMM for managing multiple Clouds etc..

In the world of VMware you want to be using vCenter to create clusters and manage your hosts. It is similar to SCVMM and has a lot of functionality to learn.

[rajen450m]

Hi,

That's what we already mentioned, you cannot add ESXi hosts to FCOM.

Coming to VMware, vCenter is the only one and one centralized management to access your clusters, hosts, datastores etc.,

Whereas in windows, you will find multiple management components like Hyper-V Manager, FCOM, SCVMM...

Regards,

[VMBoy79]

Hi,

You can make Windows clusters with two different virtual machines running on the ESXi host. VMware supports Microsoft clustering in both format Cluster-Across-Box and Cluster-In-box let me know if you need any more help.