Too bad, the Essentials Plus package would allow you to create a vSphere HA cluster. That would probably provide the HA you were looking for, as long as 100% uptime wasn't a requirement.
To support clustering in a virtual environment you'd need to present the shared disks as RDMs (Raw Device Mappings). This is typically done using iSCSI with a software initiator on the guest OS. That would require your SAN support iSCSI. Can also be accomplished using HBAs on the host. There is a ton of information out there on how to setup a virtual Windows Cluster, as well as a lot of Pros/Cons that should be reviewed. I'm not sure I agree with your comments regarding the difficulty in resizing a virtual disk, or it being any more difficult to move. Even without features like storage vMotion, a VMDK is typically more portable than a LUN on most storage platforms. On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 8:54 AM, Kish n Kepi <[email protected]> wrote: > VMware vCenter/vSphere Essentials package (meaning 3 hosts, software > upgrades but no support) > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Sean Martin > *Sent:* Wednesday, January 14, 2015 7:52 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [NTSysADM] Windows File Server High-Availability > > > > Which virtualization product are you using? > > > > - Sean > > > > On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 8:41 AM, Kish n Kepi <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello All, > > > > My boss requested that I make our File Server highly available. > > > > We currently have a physical server running Windows 2012, with shares > published using DFS. The server has large quantities of DAS, some of which > are shared primarily for IT dept use, and is connected to an 8 TB SAN which > has the main, most used, share. > > > > I know that I can go out and purchase another physical file server and > connect it to the same SAN LUN and finish the requirement. > > > > Besides acting as a file server, this server also serves WSUS and WDS. > > > > However, I’m thinking that it may make more sense to create 2 VMs on 2 > existing separate physical hosts and create a cluster . The question is how > I’d attach the SAN LUN to the virtual cluster. Would I need to create a > virtual disk on the SAN, attach it to the cluster and copy the contents of > the shares into that virtual disk? The downside of a virtual disk is that > once created, it’s difficult to resize if necessary, and unwieldy to > copy/move to a new SAN that we will certainly need to get eventually. > > > > Any input for either scenario welcome, and I certainly will embrance any > new ideas of how to accomplish this task. > > > > Kish N Kepi > > > > > > >
