ESX + MSCS 2008 R2 + SQL Server 2008

Just a quick note on this little combo. Should you be looking to setup a windows 2008 R2 cluster in a virtual environment (details on specific vmware configuration left to the reader) here are some quick notes that I have on some caveats.

1.)    Either keep vmware tools un-uninstalled or make certain not to install the Shared Folder component of vmware tools.

2.)    Don’t clone the second node from the first using vmware. Even if it changes the SID it does NOT change athe NIC card underlying GUID which causes issues in the cluster validation wizard.

3.)    Make sure to configure all networking prior to presenting any raw data mappings in vmware.

4.)    Increase the cluster heartbeat timeout to prevent unnessesary failovers:

5.)    No thin provisioned disks.

There are other caveats and such but these are the ones that bit me personally (well except for the thin provisioned disks, we don’t use them where I’m at now unfortunately).

Unfortunately setting up a MS cluster in vmware sort of erases most the benefits of having a vm in the first place sometimes you just need a cluster without all the hardware and hassle thereof 🙂