gopher_49
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migrating a VM from non clusters member to cluster member VSA ESXi 5.1
I have a two node VSA cluster. I have a VM on a non cluster member (my vcenter/vsa manager ESXi server) that I want to migrate to a cluster member. Is this okay? Do I simply migrate and chose the ESXi cluster member I want for the host?
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Yes, Migrate and select the Host and Datastore required to host this VM.
ASKER
okay.. I migrated to host and VSA datastore.. How do I see the replica copy on the datastores via the browse method? I thought all VM's where mirrored to a second datastore. I only see 1 VM folder and that's the production one.
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ASKER
With that said.. When I migrate a VM from a non-cluster ESXi host to a host in the cluster datastore is it okay to chose any datastore presented in the cluster for the only ones presented are the ones being published via shared storage, correct?
That very much depends on what requirements you have for the VM?
A Local Datastore is a single point of failure, and you will not be able to use VMware HA, vMotion or DRS on a local datastore - a datastore attached only to a single host.
Is you Shared Storage provided by VMware VSA, if so this clustered storage, so highly available, and not a single point of failure, so you would want all your VMs on clustered storage. Shared Storage then provides VMware HA, vMotion, DRS, and the advantage of VSA is clustered storage, so is not a single point of failure.
A Local Datastore is a single point of failure, and you will not be able to use VMware HA, vMotion or DRS on a local datastore - a datastore attached only to a single host.
Is you Shared Storage provided by VMware VSA, if so this clustered storage, so highly available, and not a single point of failure, so you would want all your VMs on clustered storage. Shared Storage then provides VMware HA, vMotion, DRS, and the advantage of VSA is clustered storage, so is not a single point of failure.
ASKER
I migrated a few VM's to shared storage and VSA cluster member servers. The part that confuses me is that one host exports one storage and the other host exports the other storage. (I have a two node cluster). My concern is that if I select the storage exported by the host that has the VM it wouldn't be HA for it would be on its local disk and the shared disk its exporting. I guess as long as I place it into a VSA shared data store its HA regardless of which one I select, correct?
Yes, just make sure VMs are on shared storgae not local storage. We often name our datastores servername_local to indicate it's local storage.
ASKER
okay.. I always name my local storage 'LUNraidtypehostname'. This lets me know it's a local LUN and I do it the same in every environment. I'm still a little confused about VSA. I'll read the deep dive guide again.. But.. I'm using only ESXi hosts that are cluster members and shared storage.
Also,
I have a virtual firewall that I would like to put in the cluster. The problem is that it does the inter-VLAN routing which is required for VSA to work. With that said.. I would assume this is not a good idea for if the host that it resides on fails then there's a chance the front/backend network can't talk to the vcenter VSA/Cluster manager, correct?
Also,
I have a virtual firewall that I would like to put in the cluster. The problem is that it does the inter-VLAN routing which is required for VSA to work. With that said.. I would assume this is not a good idea for if the host that it resides on fails then there's a chance the front/backend network can't talk to the vcenter VSA/Cluster manager, correct?
That is correct, you would need to be careful applying firewall rules.
ASKER
I'm a little confused about performance and deciding which datastore to pick. Ok.. I have a two node VSA cluster... With that said.. As I understand is each ESXi host can access either NFS volume. But.. One of the NFS volumes is local and one is not. So, with that said wouldn't I get better performance picking the NFS volume that is local to the ESXi host?
But if you pick a local volume, you have no resilience, and it's a single point of failure.
ASKER
okay.. So, as long as I install the VM onto one of the shared VSA datastores I'm good, correct? It doesn't matter which one.. As long as it's a VSA shared datastore. right?