Knowledge Base

VMware vSphere support for Microsoft clustering solutions on VMware

1. When DRS affinity/anti-affinity rules are used. For more information, see HA/DRS specific configuration for clustered virtual machines.
2. See additional considerations for shared disk configurations below.
3. Supported in Cluster in a Box (CIB) configurations only. For more information, see Considerations for Shared Storage Clustering.
   
4. Two node cluster configuration with Cisco CNA cards (VIC 1240/1280) and driver version 1.5.0.8 is supported on Windows 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit Guest OS in vSphere 5.1 Update 1.
   See the VMware Hardware Compatibility guide for details:
   Cisco UCS VIC1240
   Cisco UCS VIC1280
   

• For the purpose of this document, SQL Mirroring is not considered by VMware to be a clustering solution. VMware fully supports SQL Mirroring on vSphere with no specific restrictions.
• MSCS clusters are not supported for VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controllers.
• vMotion and Storage vMotion migrations for Shared Disk are not supported and will fail when the migration is attempted. For more information, see Troubleshooting migration compatibility error: Device is a SCSI controller engaged in bus-sharing (1003797).
• ESXi 5.1.x supports up to five node clusters for Windows Server 2008 SP2 and above, whereas older ESXi versions support only two node clusters. For more information see, Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service - ESXi 5.1 vCenter Server 5.1.

Commonly used Microsoft clustering solutions

• Microsoft Clustering Services (MSCS): MSCS or Windows Failover Clustering is a clustering function that provides failover and availability at the operating system level. Commonly clustered applications include:
  
  
  • Microsoft Exchange Server
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • File and Print Services
  • Custom Applications
    
    
• Microsoft Network Load Balance (I/O Load Balance): Microsoft Network Load Balance (NLB) is suited for stateless applications or Tier 1 of multi-tiered applications, such as web servers providing a front end for back end database and application servers. A physical alternative is an appliance like those available from F5.

VMware vSphere support for running Microsoft Clustered Configurations

• Support policy for Microsoft SQL Server products that are running in a hardware virtualization environment
• Support Policy for Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clusters
• Support Policies and Recommendations for Exchange Servers in Hardware Virtualization Environments
• Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program

Considerations for Shared Storage Clustering

• Fibre Channel: Configuration using shared storage for Quorum and/or Data must be on Fibre Channel (FC) based RDMs (physical mode for cluster across boxes "CAB", virtual mode for cluster in a box "CIB"). RDMs on storage other than FC (such as NFS or iSCSI) are not currently supported. Virtual disk based shared storage is supported with CIB configuration only and must be created using the EagerZeroedThick option on VMFS datastores.
  
  
• Native iSCSI (not in the guest OS): VMware does not currently support the use of ESXi/ESX host iSCSI, also known as native iSCSI (hardware or software), initiators with MSCS.
  
  
• In-guest iSCSI software initiators: VMware fully supports a configuration of MSCS using in-guest iSCSI initiators, provided that all other configuration meets the documented, supported MSCS configuration. Using this configuration in VMware virtual machines is relatively similar to using it in physical environments.
  
  
• FCoE: FCoE is supported in a very specific configuration. For details see note 4 in the Microsoft clustering solutions table.
  

• RDM: Configuration using shared storage for Quorum and/or Data must be on Fibre Channel (FC) based RDMs (physical mode for cluster across boxes "CAB", virtual mode for cluster in a box "CIB"). RDMs on other than FC are not currently supported.
  
  
• VMFS: Virtual disks used as shared storage for Clustered virtual machines must reside on VMFS datastores and must be created using the EagerZeroedThick option. This can be done using the vmkfstools command from the console, the vSphere CLI, or from the user interface. For more information, see the Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service guide for ESXi/ESX 4.x or ESXi 5.x.
  
  Using the vmkfstools command:
  
  
  1. Log into the console of the host or launch the VMware vSphere CLI.
  2. For example, to create a 10 GB file in datastore1 named myVMData.vmdk, run the command:
     
     
     • Console:
       
       vmkfstools –d eagerzeroedthick –c 10g /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/myVM/myVMData.vmdk
       
       Note: You can replace 10g with the size you want.
       
       
     • vSphere CLI:
       
       vmkfstools.pl –-server ESXHost –-username username --password passwd –d eagerzeroedthick –c 10g /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/myVM/myVMData.vmdk
  
  Using the user interface:
  
  
  1. Using the vSphere Client, select the virtual machine for which you want to create the new virtual disk.
  2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
  3. From the virtual machine properties dialog box, click Add to add new hardware.
  4. In the Add Hardware dialog box, select Hard Disk from the device list.
  5. Select Create a new virtual disk and click Next.
  6. Select the disk size you want to create.
  7. Select the datastore with the virtual machine or select a different datastore by clicking Specify a datastore and browsing to find the desired datastore.
  8. To create an eager zeroed thick disk, select Support clustering features such as Fault Tolerance.
     
     Note: Step 8 must be the last step. Changes to datastores after selecting Support clustering features such as Fault Tolerance cause it to become deselected.
     
     
  9. Complete the wizard to create the virtual disk.

• With the Exchange Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) in Microsoft Exchange 2007, data is replicated between the cluster nodes over the network. Exchange Database Availability Group (DAG) in Microsoft Exchange 2010 replaced the CCR feature that was available with Exchange 2007. This feature is network-based and does not require shared storage. For related information, see the Microsoft Exchange 2010 on VMware Best Practices Guide.
• Microsoft Network Load Balance (NLB) must be configured in Multicast Mode. For more information, see Sample Configuration - Network Load Balancing (NLB) Multicast Mode Configuration (1006558).

HA/DRS specific configuration for clustered virtual machines

1. In the vSphere Client, right-click the cluster in the inventory and click Edit Settings.
2. In the left pane of the Cluster Settings dialog under VMware DRS, click Rules.
3. Click Add.
4. In the Rule dialog, enter a name for the rule.
5. From the Type dropdown, select a rule:
   
   
   • For a cluster of virtual machines on one physical host, select Keep Virtual Machines Together.
   • For a cluster of virtual machines across physical hosts, select Separate Virtual Machines.
     
     
6. Click Add.
7. Select the two virtual machines to which the rule applies and click OK.
8. Click OK.

Multipathing Configuration

• ESXi/ESX 4.x MSCS Setup
• ESXi 5.0 MSCS Setup
• ESXi 5.1 MSCS Setup

Additional Information

• Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) support on ESXi/ESX (1004617)
• ESXi/ESX hosts hosting passive MSCS nodes with RDM LUNs may take a long time to boot (1016106)

• Español: Agrupación en clústeres de Microsoft en VMware vSphere: Pautas para configuraciones compatibles (2033131)
• Português: Clustering da Microsoft no VMware vSphere: Diretrizes para as configurações suportadas (2032969)
  
• 日本語： VMware vSphere環境上のMicrosoftクラスタリング： サポートされる構成のためのガイドライン (2011107)