VMs and LUN Allocation

Multiple VMs per LUN

Cheng's Random Thoughts on System Management — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:09:54 GMT

Hi there, Rakesh just posted a new blog , through which he explains the ins and outs about the model

CSV: Any SAN feature requirements??

jeremyahagan@gmail.com — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:32:40 GMT

Thanks for this post Rakesh, this is a feature/design limitation that I am particularly interested in getting rid of. Can you tell me or find out if there will be any SAN features or configuration required to get CSV working (over and above the configuration and features required for WS08 Failover Clustering)?

Cheers,

Jeremy.

re: VMs and LUN Allocation

rakeshm — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:07:32 GMT

once you have WS08 clustering set up, CSV just sits on top, no other special configuration or features required

re: VMs and LUN Allocation

itchy92 — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:13:16 GMT

Hi Rakesh,

I know this is an older blog post, so I'm not sure if you still review the comments.

I understand the limitations imposed with non-CFS failover of VMs, and that it takes all the VMs with it. But I still have to plead with you (Microsoft) to make it available in VMM.

I am deploying a Hyper-V cluster in a DR environment for a client right now, and I think it's a bit absurd to have to create upwards of 100+ LUNs to be able to manage their VMs; it's wasteful of SAN space, and it also presents the issue of overcoming the HBA's limitation of 64 persistent bindings to LUNs; I still haven't figured out the latter issue.

I've used 2008 R2, and know that CSV will alleviate these issues, but that's not scheduled for release until Q4. Is there *any* way to remove this limitation from VMM and allow it to manage multiple VMs on the same LUN? In an environment like this, there's going to be virtually no single-VM failover (no pun intended), so it doesn't make sense to deal with the headache if they don't have to.

Also, what about support for third-party clustered file systems, like Kayo FS? I read a blurb in some documentation or another that it is not supported, but is that "not SUPPORTED" as in it will not work, or "NOT supported" as in VMM will still not work?

Thanks.