6.5.1

Figure 1‑2. Virtual Machines Clustered Across Hosts
physical machine physical machine
virtual machine
Node1
cluster
software
virtual machine
Node2
cluster
software
storage (SAN)
private
network
public
network
N Windows Server 2008 SP2 and above systems support up to ve nodes (virtual machines). Windows
Server 2003 SP1 and SP2 systems support two nodes (virtual machines). For supported guest operating
systems see Table 6-2.
This setup provides signicant hardware cost savings.
You can expand the cluster-across-boxes model and place multiple virtual machines on multiple physical
machines. For example, you can consolidate four clusters of two physical machines each to two physical
machines with four virtual machines each.
The following gure shows how you can move four two-node clusters from eight physical machines to two.
Figure 1‑3. Clustering Multiple Virtual Machines Across Hosts
physical
machine
physical
machine
VM1
VM3
VM5
VM7
VM2
VM4
VM6
VM8
1
3
5
7
2
4
6
8
Clustering Physical Machines with Virtual Machines
For a simple MSCS clustering solution with low hardware requirements, you might choose to have one
standby host.
Set up your system to have a virtual machine corresponding to each physical machine on the standby host,
and create clusters, one each for each physical machine and its corresponding virtual machine. In case of
hardware failure in one of the physical machines, the virtual machine on the standby host can take over for
that physical host.
Chapter 1 Getting Started with MSCS
VMware, Inc. 9