Virtual ESX 3.5 Infrastructure

I got called out now once again in the middle of the night because people panicked when a header in a cluster pinked and the guy on on-call received like 200 Ping errors via SMS ..

Anyway, long story short: I need to get a three node cluster running in a virtual environemnt and I know there is a way but I don't really have the time and connection at the moment to search the vm forums and google so I hope someone can give me a quick hint ... At the moment I am only online using free wireless in an airport lounge and whatnot but hope I can get something done in the hotel later on.

Could someone give me a hint which virtual software works fine with ESX 3.5 as "guest" so I can setup a three node cluster including vmotion ?

I want to create some environment for teaching purposes but like I said I don't really have the possibility to search vmnet and google JUST NOW :P

I do have a couple of WUDSS licenses as we are OEM partner - so the iSCSI part for vmotion is sorted

Thanks a lot for the quick help (if possible)

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RTmarc

Gomjaba wrote: »

I got called out now once again in the middle of the night because people panicked when a header in a cluster pinked and the guy on on-call received like 200 Ping errors via SMS ..

Anyway, long story short: I need to get a three node cluster running in a virtual environemnt and I know there is a way but I don't really have the time and connection at the moment to search the vm forums and google so I hope someone can give me a quick hint ... At the moment I am only online using free wireless in an airport lounge and whatnot but hope I can get something done in the hotel later on.

Could someone give me a hint which virtual software works fine with ESX 3.5 as "guest" so I can setup a three node cluster including vmotion ?

I want to create some environment for teaching purposes but like I said I don't really have the possibility to search vmnet and google JUST NOW :P

I do have a couple of WUDSS licenses as we are OEM partner - so the iSCSI part for vmotion is sorted

Thanks a lot for the quick help (if possible)

There is an article out there on how to get ESX working in a VMware Workstation environment. I followed it a while back and was able to get it working with no problems. I'll see if I can still find it. I would assume that you can use that to get it going. You might want to include a virtual SAN appliance. I know LeftHand has one that you can try for free for 30 days but will still function after that 30 days at a specific level.

EDIT: Here's a link: http://knowledge.xtravirt.com/white-papers/esx-3x.html

astorrs

RTmarc is right, VMware Workstation 6.5 and Fusion 1.0 are your only choices for running ESX 3.5 as a guest (you can run ESX 3.0.x in WS6 but not 3.5.x).

I understand you are planning on using Windows Unified Data Storage Server, but I thought I would mention that aside from the LeftHand Networks Virtual SAN Appliance already mentioned there are a few other SAN appliances out there:

EMC has a Celerra simulator that is fully functional, free and not time bombed (here).

NetApp has an ONTAP simulator (here) but you need a valid NetApp support contract to access it.

XtraVirt also has a Virtual SAN (here) that is free for use.

FreeNAS and iSCSI Enterprise Target (IET) are also good options.

Basically take your pick and have fun. If you run into any problems don't forget to check out the VMware Communities forums, chances are your questions have already been answered.

JamieMG

Also take a look at the StarWind. Although it just provides an iSCSI Target, you can easily built MS Cluster on it, just like I did