6.5.1

Getting Started with MSCS 1
VMware
®
vSphere
®
supports clustering using MSCS across virtual machines. Clustering virtual machines
can reduce the hardware costs of traditional high-availability clusters.
N vSphere High Availability (vSphere HA) supports a clustering solution in conjunction with
vCenter Server clusters. vSphere Availability describes vSphere HA functionality.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Clustering Conguration Overview,” on page 7
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“Hardware and Software Requirements for Clustering,” on page 10
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“Supported Shared Storage Congurations,” on page 11
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“PSP_RR Support for MSCS,” on page 11
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“iSCSI Support for MSCS,” on page 11
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“FCoE Support for MSCS,” on page 12
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“vMotion support for MSCS,” on page 12
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“vSphere MSCS Setup Limitations,” on page 13
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“MSCS and Booting from a SAN,” on page 13
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“Seing up Clustered Continuous Replication or Database Availability Groups with Exchange,” on
page 14
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“Seing up AlwaysOn Availability Groups with SQL Server 2012,” on page 14
Clustering Configuration Overview
Several applications use clustering, including stateless applications such as Web servers, and applications
with built-in recovery features such as database servers. You can set up MSCS clusters in several
congurations, depending on your environment.
A typical clustering setup includes:
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Disks that are shared between nodes. A shared disk is required as a quorum disk. In a cluster of virtual
machines across physical hosts, the shared disk must be on a Fibre Channel (FC) SAN, FCoE or iSCSI. A
quorum disk must have a homogenous set of disks. This means that if the conguration is done with FC
SAN, then all of the cluster disks should be FC SAN only. Mixed mode is not supported.
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A private heartbeat network between nodes.
You can set up the shared disks and private heartbeat using one of several clustering congurations.
VMware, Inc.
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