Failover Cluster: No disks suitable for cluster disks were found

Question

I am trying to setup a failover cluster with two nodes. After running the validation tests, the storage sections had many warnings. The next step after creating the cluster with two nodes on the same domain is to add storage. I right click on storage and choose "add a disk", then I get the following error:

No disks suitable for cluster disks were found. For diagnostic information about disks available to the cluster, use the Validate a Configuration Wizard to run Storage tests.

I have already ran the tests, what can I do to continue the steps of creating a failover cluster?

What kind of SAN are you using? Can the servers see the SAN LUNs that you're going to use for shared storage? — Chris S, Sep 09 '11 at 18:24
I am not using SAN. I have installed four virtual machines using Hyper-V... — Jean-François Beaulieu, Sep 09 '11 at 18:33
You can't have a cluster without shared storage (which for simplicity sake we'll say requires a SAN). If you're only using disk drives that are *in* the servers you can not cluster them... If one server failed how would the other access the disks in the failed server. — Chris S, Sep 09 '11 at 18:45

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 09 '11 at 18:50

4

This is not possible without using a shared-storage technology like iscsi. Hyper-V does not support shared SCSI, which is what would be needed to have multiple Hyper-V instances to access the same .VHD file.

answered Sep 09 '11 at 18:50

sysadmin1138

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You can use a SAS SAN, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you know what you're getting into. – Chris S Sep 09 '11 at 18:54
wow, thanks. In this case, how could Hyper-V could be as useful as ESXi for example? I know that this would be possible with an ESX server... – Jean-François Beaulieu Sep 09 '11 at 19:05
@JFB - This would NOT be possilbe with an ESX server – Jason Berg Sep 09 '11 at 19:06
Ok, I thought it was possible using iSCSI with ESX virtual machines. – Jean-François Beaulieu Sep 09 '11 at 20:00
iSCSI, yes. Just not with VMDK files. – sysadmin1138 Sep 09 '11 at 20:07
You can cluster VMDK files if the files are attached as SCSI3 devices. SCSI2 (the default) isn't supported by Windows 2008 for clustering. If you want a Windows 2003 cluster the SCSI2 disks will be fine. – mrdenny Sep 09 '11 at 20:19

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 09 '11 at 19:06

You need to first understand the requirements for the technology you're trying to implement before attempting to set it up. All high availability VM scenarios require shared storage. That can be a fibre SAN, an iSCSI SAN, or a direct attached SAS enclosure. The VHDs are stored on this shared storage which is accessible by all machines in the cluster. That is the disk that is suitable for cluster uses. So, your next steps involve writing up a proposal, presenting it to the decision makers, and spending some money.

Failover Cluster: No disks suitable for cluster disks were found

2 Answers2