Is it possible to configure Red Hat cluster between VMs running on separate ESX?

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 with High Availability or Resilient Storage Add-on
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 with High Availability or Resilient Storage Add-on

Issue

  • Unable to configure cluster with VMs running on different ESX hosts.
  • Fencing is not happening properly when VMs are running on separate ESX

Resolution

  • Yes, it is possible to configure Red Hat cluster between VMs running on separate ESX. For that make sure all the usual multicast routing is in place as per a physical cluster, otherwise the Multicast traffic won't route between the 2 ESX nodes and thus the cluster will fall apart.
  • When it is configured on a single ESX node, the vswitch inside ESX is smart enough to handle the Multicast traffic, allowing the cluster to work fine.
  • For a successful fencing ensure fence agents are able to communicate with the VMware vCenter server that is managing the virtual machines.

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