6.0.1

Table Of Contents
Another potential benet of this approach is that MSCS uses a type of "shared-nothing" cluster architecture.
The cluster does not involve concurrent disk accesses from multiple nodes. In other words, the cluster does
not require a distributed lock manager. MSCS clusters typically include only two nodes and they use a
shared SCSI connection between the nodes. Only one server needs the disks at any given time, so no
concurrent data access occurs. This sharing minimizes the impact if a node fails.
Unlike the vSphere HA cluster option, the MSCS option works only for Windows virtual machines and does
not support thevCenter Server Appliance.
Set Up MSCS for vCenter Server Availability
Use the following steps to set up Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) as an availability solution for
vCenter Server.
Prerequisites
Before you can set up MSCS for vCenter Server availability, you must create a virtual machine (VM) with
one of the following guest operating systems:
n
Windows 2008 SP2
n
Windows 2012 R2 Datacenter
Also, you must add two raw device mapping (RDM) disks to this VM. These disks must be mounted and
when they are added, you must create a separate SCSI controller with the bus sharing option set to physical.
The RDM disks must also be independent and persistent.
Figure 51. MSCS Cluster for vCenter Server Availability
vCenter Server
Infrastructure Node
(VM1)
N1
vCenter Server
Infrastructure Node
(VM 2)
N2
vCenter Server
Management Node
(VM1)
M1
vCenter Server
Management Node
(VM2)
M1
MSCS Cluster
SQL Server DB
(VM2)
Node2
SQL Server DB
(VM1)
Node1
MSCS Cluster
N MSCS as an availability solution for vCenter Server is provided only for management nodes of
vCenter Server (M node). For infrastructure nodes, customers must deploy multiple N nodes for high
availability. You cannot have both M and N nodes on the same VM for MSCS protection.
Procedure
1 Power on the VM.
2 Format the two RDM disks, assign them drive leers, and convert them to MBR.
3 Using Windows > Server Manager > Features, Install .net.
4 Install vCenter Server on one of the RDM disks.
5 Set the vCenter Server start option to manual.
Chapter 5 Providing vCenter Server Availability
VMware, Inc. 63