VMFS is a clustered file system that disables (by default) multiple virtual machines from opening and writing to the same virtual disk (.vmdk file). This prevents more than one virtual machine from inadvertently accessing the same .vmdk file.
The multi-writer option allows VMFS-backed disks to be shared by multiple virtual machines. This option is used to support VMware fault tolerance, which allows a primary virtual machine and a standby virtual machine to simultaneously access a .vmdk file.
You can use this option to disable the protection for certain cluster-aware applications where the applications ensure that writes originating from two or more different virtual machines does not cause data loss. This document describes methods to set the multi-writer flag for a virtual disk.
Warning: Be careful when you disable this protection. This change might cause data corruption in cases where the applications in the virtual machine do not maintain consistency in the writes performed to the shared disk. As a result, some virtual machine operations and vSphere features are not supported and these are listed below.
Use cases:
VMware FT relies on VMware vLockstep technology to establish and maintain an active secondary virtual machine that runs in virtual lockstep with the primary virtual machine. The secondary virtual machine resides on a different host and executes exactly the same sequence of virtual (guest) instructions as the primary virtual machine. The multi-writer flag is automatically enabled when you turn on FT in the vSphere Client.
Third-party cluster-aware applications, in which the applications ensure that writes originate from two or more different virtual machines, does not cause data loss (for example, you would use this for Oracle RAC virtual machines). For this case, manually enable the multi-writer flag using the instructions in this article. Follow the same procedure when using virtual RDMs.
Starting vSphere 7.0 Update 1, NVMe over Fibre Channel and NVMe over RDMA (RoCE v2) datastores now support multi-writer option enabling in-guest systems that leverage cluster-aware file systems to have distributed write capability. Please refer to the VMware NVMe Storage guidelines before configuring the NVMe Storage for shared disks with the multi-writer attribute. For more information, see About VMware NVMe Storage
Starting vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vVOL datastore backed by FC, iSCSI protocols now support multi-writer option enabling in-guest systems that leverage cluster-aware file systems to have distributed write capability. For more information, see Oracle workloads on VMware Virtual Volumes (vVOLS) using Pure Storage FlashArray X50 and Broadcom LPe36000 Fibre Channel Adapter – better performance
Starting vSphere 8.0 Update 2, vVOL datastores backed by NVMe FC, NVMe TCP also supports multi-writer option .
Support information for Veritas InfoScale in ESXi guests can be found at Veritas InfoScale Enterprise 7.x in guest storage, high availability, and disaster recovery support (Partner Verified and Supported) (51476)
Actions or Features | Supported | Unsupported | Notes |
Power on, off, restart virtual machine | √ | ||
Suspend VM | × | ||
Hot add virtual disks | √ | Only to existing adapters | |
Hot remove devices | √ | ||
Hot extend virtual disk | √ | For shared disks from vvols backend datastores from vSphere 8.0 update 2 onwards | |
Connect and disconnect devices | √ | ||
Snapshots of VMs with dependent disks | × | Virtual backup solutions leverage snapshots through the vStorage APIs; for example, VMware Data Recovery, vSphere Data Protection. These are also not supported. | |
Snapshots of VMs with independent-persistent disks | √ | Supported in vSphere 5.1 update2 and later versions. The snapshot task will be completed successfully but will skip the independent disks from the snapshot operation. Powered on virtual machines with independent disks cannot support memory snapshots. |
|
Cloning | × | ||
Storage vMotion | × | Neither shared nor non-shared disks can be migrated using Storage vMotion due to the virtual machine stun required to initiate the storage migration. | |
Changed Block Tracking (CBT) | × | ||
vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC) | × | Stale writes can lead to data loss and/or corruption | |
vMotion | √ | Supported for ORAC only and limited to 8 ESX/ESXi hosts |
When using the multi-writer mode for disks from vVOLs datastore, the virtual disk can be either thin or thick.
Hot adding a virtual disk removes Multi-Writer Flag.
Multiple VMs sharing the same disk with the Multi-Writer Flag enabled will not be allowed to power on when residing on the same host. This is by design to prevent reservation conflicts on the disk.
From vSphere 8.0 update 2 onwards virtual NVMe controller is also supported for the virtual disks with multi-writer mode.
To configure the multi-writer flag via Host Client:
NOTE: While migrating the multi -writer-VM, do disconnect the disk and reconnect after migration. Some times you will get duplicate disk information.[ Make sure to use same SCSI-id]. You can follow the process listed in Migrating VMs with shared or multi-writer disks.