2 ESX Server and 2 mirrored Starwind server

[holger]

My configuration

2 ESX Server
2 mirrored Starwind server

Mirror Source

Device: Mirror0 (esxsan1)
Image file name: Mirror Volumes\D\iSCSI Volumes\esxsan1.mir
Total size: 4016 MB
First image path: D:\iSCSI Volumes\esxsan1.img (active)
First image state: Valid
Second image path: #iscsi:192.168.1.52:3260|TargetName=mirrorsan1|InitiatorName=3070ED0953B8BD590C65069585D3E5AC
Second image state: Valid
Read-only: No
Clustered: Yes
Persistent reservation: Yes
Mirrors are synchronized


Mirror Target

Device: ImageFile0 (mirrorsan1)
Image file name: My Computer\D\iSCSI Volumes\esxmirrorSAN2.img
Total size: 430000 MB
Asynchronous: Yes
Read-only: No
Clustered: Yes
Persistent reservation: Yes


I added both Starwind Servers to the iSCSI Software Adapter in the Dynamic Discovery.
Both targets are now shown in the iSCSI Software Adapter.

after that a added the esxsan1 target to the storage of the esx servers.
but when i also add the mirrorsan1 target to the storage of the esx servers i have to format it.

This is not the worst problem because if you start with a new Partition things went well.
Both SAN´s are now browseable. And everything is being synchronized like it should be.
So far this is what i expected.
The Background is that if the first SAN becomes unavailable i can switch to the second san and start the Virtuell Machines.
So i am able to keep the server running with very short down time.
Sure if this happens i have to reconfigure the Mirroring between the two sans but i do not need to wait until the complete esxsan1 is recovered from the mirrorsan1.

And now the big problem i got.
if the mirrors need to be synchronized manually with the command "Check and Synchronize.."
the mirrorsan1 disappears in the storage configuration of all esx servers.
And when i want to add this disk again, i have to format it and everything is lost on this disk.
To get all things work well again i have to move everything from esxsan1 to anywhere and back again to the esxsan1 to get the moirroring working right again.

So what can i do to prevent this disk from beeing formated by the esx server.

Is there a solution for this problem or do i have to change my configuration.

Best Regards

Holger

[Bohdan (staff)]

Mirror device is not designed to work in configuration you have described.
You may connect only esxsan1. The other one (mirrorsan1) is used only for replication as a part of mirror device.

In case you esxsan1 host is down you may manually connect mirrorsan1 from clients and use it for some time. Late on when esxsan1 host brings online you may switch active mirror to the mirrorsan1 and perform synchronization.

iSCSI do not solve the task of maintaining distributed write locks and keeping file caches coherent. To use clustering option you must be sure that you software (filesystem) is able to solve the task of maintaining distributed write locks and keeping file caches coherent.

NTFS, FAT and most of other generic file systems do not support simultaneous access for several initiator clients.