Clustering Virtual Machines on a single Host...Pro's /Con's

[Former Member]

Hi,

We are moving to a new VM environment runinng ESX 4 Update 1 on HP c7000 enclosure, 8 ESX Hosts.

Our exisiting Produciton systems are clustered MSCS / SQL Server.

What is the value in clustering two VM's on the same host? typical clustering was to provide HA if one physical machine failed...but in a VM environment both VM's are on the same host.

I know I need to provide HA for production and would like to hear your comments and experience.

thanks,

Ld

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Linwood,

I don't see much value of an MSCS cluster on two VMs on the same physical ESX host. This setup would only provide protection against OS and/or DB failure and not hardware failure. Since you have 8 ESX host is there a reason you would not put the VMs on different physical ESX hosts (anti-affinity rules to always keep the VMs on different physical hosts)? The below link is to a guide from VMware regarding MSCS options on ESX 4 / vSphere 4.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_mscs.pdf

Regards,

Bill

[Former Member]

Thanks for the links and feedback.

I think a very good solution is not to use MSCS...and use VMware HA or VMware FT (or both). Less complexity according to the doc "Sap Solutions on VMware".

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/SAP_vsphere_high_availability.pdf

[Former Member]

...and last but not least

[SAP Solutions on VMware vSphere: High Availability|http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10031]

[markus_doehr2]

And just to add:

Check

Note 1374671 - High Availability in Virtual Environment on Windows

Markus