Convert RDM to VMDK that is accessed by Active/Passive Windows Clustered VMs

[marcatloni]

Hi everyone,

We are currently running ESXi 3.5 and are in the process of migrating our clustered virtual environment to ESX 4.0 on a different server. We have moved everything except for one RDM disk. Since we're migrating anyway, we wanted to convert the RDM disk to VMDK. I've read in various threads that a cold migration will automatically do this. The only problem is we have multiple VMs accessing the RDM disk as part of a Windows active/passive cluster. Will a cold migration still allow the two Windows clustered VMs to access the RDM disk once it has been converted to a VMDK?

As I have never performed a cold migration before, can anyone please provide or direct me to a guide that will walk me through this process? Thank you for all your help!

Best,

Marc

[a_p_]

Well, yes and no. It depends on how you set up the cluster nodes and where they run. Cluster-in-a-box (all nodes on the same host) or Cluster-across-boxes (each node on separate ESX server).

Please refer to Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) support on ESX. There you will find links to MSCS clustering in VMware.

André