Shared storage for ESXi

[smart2011]

Hi,

I am create test environment of Storage Foundation HA for Exchange 2010 on ESXi 4.1 without any shared storage.

I’m clear about all prerequisites but the bottle neck is storage. Is there any way I can create shared storage on same ESXi server? I’ll use that storage to failover between different server.

Is there any possibility in ESXi to create shared storage? I’ll appreciate your assistance.

thank you in advance.

[rhanley · Accepted solution]

Hi smart2011,

      Yes it is possible to create shared storage between virtual machines in an ESXi environment; however, configuring this is done solely from within ESX and not from within Storage Foundation HA.

Once the shared storage has been configured properly, SFW will automatically see the new/available luns and you'll be able to create clustered Diskgroups which will allow the storage to failover from 1 node to the other via VCS (Veritas Cluster Server) which is part of the SFW-HA solution.

I would recommend checking the VMWare Support site and/or posting this question in their forum since this is where the storage configuration needs to take place. They should be able to provide further assistance in this area.

Once the storage has been configured from the ESX side, please let us know if you run into any problems or have additional questions concerning the configuration within SFW-HA.

Cheers,

rjhanley

[Wally_Heim]

Hi Smart2011,

Rjhanley is correct on his post.  VMware typically provides instructions on how to configure ESXi for a virtual MSCS cluster.  Since SFW-HA works with the disks in the same manner as MSCS you are able to follow the instructions for configuring the storage for virutal MSCS and it will work for virtual SFW-HA clusters.

Thanks,

Wally

[smart2011]

Thanks guys. Let me work around it i'll try to post full article on that.