The number of heartbeat datastores for host is 0, which is less than required: 2

[mozer__]

Hello,

I'm having troubles creating my DRS cluster + DRS storage, i have 3 esxi 5.1 hosts for the task

First i created the cluster, no problems with that, then the storage DRS was created and now in the summary tab i can see

"The number of heartbeat datastores for host is 0, which is less than required: 2"

I've search the web and there are similar problems when people has only one datastore (the one that came with ESXi) and need to add another but in my case... vcenter detects none...

In the Storage Views i see the datastore (VMFS) but for some strange reason the cluster don't

In order to reach the minimum datastores (2) can i create an NFS and map it in ALL 3 esxi hosts?? Will vcenter consider that as a legit config?

Thanks

[depping · Accepted solution]

You probably only have local datastores, which are not what HA would require in order for this functionality (datastore heartbeating) to function correctly.

You will either need 2 iSCSI, 2 FC or 2 NFS volumes... Or a combination of any of these, for this functionality to work. If you do not want to use this functionality you can also disable it:

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/04/05/the-number-of-vsphere-ha-heartbeat-datastores-for-this-host-...

[mozer__]

Ok, i see. So the local VMFS are used for the VM's but can't be datastores heartbeat.

Thanks you very much for your response.

Cheers!

[depping]

Yes, but note if you want to use functionality like HA and DRS you need shared storage. VMs won't be migrated by DRS otherwise, and HA will not fail-over when a failure occurs.

[mozer__]

Yes, i want HA and DRS, i will probably use 2 NFS (on different servers), thanks again for the help

Steve