6.5.1
Table Of Contents
- Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service
- Contents
- About Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service
- Getting Started with MSCS
- Clustering Configuration Overview
- Hardware and Software Requirements for Clustering
- Supported Shared Storage Configurations
- PSP_RR Support for MSCS
- iSCSI Support for MSCS
- FCoE Support for MSCS
- vMotion support for MSCS
- vSphere MSCS Setup Limitations
- MSCS and Booting from a SAN
- Set up CCR and DAG Groups
- Setting up AlwaysOn Availability Groups with SQL Server 2012
- Cluster Virtual Machines on One Physical Host
- Cluster Virtual Machines Across Physical Hosts
- Cluster Physical and Virtual Machines
- Use MSCS in an vSphere HA and vSphere DRS Environment
- vSphere MSCS Setup Checklist
- Index
Supported Shared Storage Configurations
Dierent MSCS cluster setups support dierent types of shared storage congurations. Some setups support
more than one type. Select the recommended type of shared storage for best results.
Table 1‑2. Shared Storage Requirements
Storage Type
Clusters on One Physical
Machine
(Cluster in a Box)
Clusters Across
Physical Machines
(Cluster Across
Boxes)
Clusters of Physical
and Virtual
Machines
(Standby Host
Clustering)
Virtual disks Yes
(recommended)
No No
Pass-through RDM
(physical compatibility mode)
No Yes
(recommended)
Yes
Non-pass-through RDM
(virtual compatibility mode)
Yes No No
Use of software iSCSI initiators within guest operating systems congured with MSCS, in any conguration
supported by Microsoft, is transparent to ESXi hosts and there is no need for explicit support statements
from VMware.
PSP_RR Support for MSCS
ESXi 6.0 supports PSP_RR for MSCS.
n
ESXi 6.0 supports PSP_RR for Windows Server 2008 SP2 and above releases. Windows Server 2003 is
not supported.
n
PSPs congured in mixed mode is supported. In a 2 node cluster one ESXi host can be congured to use
PSP_FIXED and the other ESXi host can use PSP_RR.
n
Shared disk quorum or data must be provisioned to guest in PassThrough RDM mode only.
n
All hosts must be running ESXi 6.0.
n
Mixed mode congurations of ESXi 6.0 with previous ESXi releases are not supported.
n
Rolling upgrades of cluster Hosts from previous versions of ESXi to ESXi 6.0 builds are not supported.
iSCSI Support for MSCS
ESXi 6.0 supports iSCSI storage and up to 5 node MSCS cluster using Qlogic, Emulex and Broadcom
adapters.
n
ESXi 6.0 supports iSCSI for Windows Server 2008 SP2 and above releases. Windows Server 2003 is not
supported.
n
Cluster-across-box (CAB) and cluster-in-a-box (CIB) are supported. A mixture of CAB and CIB is not
supported.
n
No qualication is needed for SWiSCSI initiator in a guest operating system.
n
N+1 cluster conguration comprising of a cluster between "N" virtual machines on separate ESXi hosts
and one physical machine running Windows natively is supported.
n
All hosts must be running ESXi 6.0.
n
Mixed cluster nodes running FC or FCOE and iSCSI are not supported.
Chapter 1 Getting Started with MSCS
VMware, Inc. 11