Hi all,

I am thinking about using Hyper V for better redundancy. Maybe clustering 2 servers with iSCSI storage. I would have at least 2 VMs running (SBS 2003/8 and Terminal Server). A few questions the Hyper V gurus out there:

1) Non-cluster, 2 servers of different specs with hyper-v server (free!!!) connected to a single iSCSI device: Server1 fails, VMs manually started on Server2, Server1 repaired, VMs shut down and started on Server1. Is this plausible?

2) Cluster. There would just be the 2 physical servers of similar specs, no AD or DNS. I understand that for clustering I have to use Windows Server 2008 Enterprise. In an active/failover scenario, do both servers have to be licensed OR could the failover be licensed under the active servers?

Any other comments on this? Potential problems? Hints or tips?

Thanks

Ivan

Hi Ivan,
Looking at option 1, if you are out of the office, if you want to vpn back in to do the swap and youd sbs server is down that you want to authenticate against you are at a lose. But as said it is cheaper.

For option 2:
http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/07/16/failover-clustering-for-hyper-v-with-file-server-storage.aspx
It does say winfows 2008 Enterprise, but what you could do is use evaluation versions for the servers to save the bucks and reinstall every 180 days or so.

What might be possible is to use ESXi for High Availability and keep your VMs running.
I am going to look into it a little more myself.
Thanks
David

Thanks Dave,

That link is excellent. It will take me a while to digest it all but it looks like it will answer all my questions.

Cheers

Ivan

Hi Ivan,
I found this TechNet article for you:
Hyper-V Step-by-Step Guide: Hyper-V and Failover Clustering
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732181.aspx

HTH
David

Also have a look at http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/default.aspx / http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2008/06/17/windows-server-2008-hyper-v-failover-clustering-options.aspx
and the articles on VDS.
If you are looking at iscsi adding a second dual gig nic, on link aggregation for the san/server makes a hugh difference (As does jumbo frames, but issues with it and esx as far as I remember). Single nic (non-iscsi HBA) will give you avg sustained 65MB/Sec with bursts to 80mb. Openfiler has good iScsi or try open-e's iSCSI-R3 (free 30 day trial).
I think with RAID6 and the GB/€ on SAS drives iscsi provides a viable storage solution but the chasis are still too expensive imo, if you were into DIY a 20Drive (hot swap) system with RAID6 about e3k and then 20 1TB SATA2 raid disks at €160 each. I stuck one together and use it for storing dvd's for the HTPC and run most of the virtualisation hard drives off it through iscsi.