Install the VMDK Recovery Kit on the servers in the cluster where you want to share your virtual hard disks. Create a virtual hard disk in VMDK format.
Virtual hard disks must be created on a datastore that is shared with the guests that make up the cluster.
Since exclusive control of the virtual hard disk depends on the hypervisor, the sharing setting of the connected SCSI controller must be set to “None”.
Because this kit operates the virtual hard disks using APIs provided by VMware, it is necessary to be able to access all VMware ESXi hosts running the guests that are participating in the cluster or managed vCenter Server via https.
The built-in file system recovery kit used to build the VMDK hierarchy detects and removes processes that are not under LifeKeeper protection using file systems mounted in a failover condition. It is highly recommended that only processes that are under LifeKeeper protection be configured to use a file system under VMDK protection.
The LKVMDKERROR tunable controls the actions the VMDK Recovery Kit takes when access to the virtual hard disk fails. The tunable has two values, halt and event with halt being the default.
If the value is set to halt and an access failure is detected, the VMDK Recovery Kit will immediately halt the system and force a failover to the backup server.
If the value is set to event, the VMDK Recovery Kit notifies LifeKeeper with an abnormal status of the disk when access is lost. LifeKeeper will then attempt to initiate a switchover to a backup node. It is possible that the switchover process may hang, due to unkillable processes running on the shared VMDK.
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