Microsoft Windows Failover Cluster Manager fails to recognize shared disks

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Shared disks reflect in Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering Disk Management.

Shared disks can be added to the VM's but do not appear in "Add Disk" in Microsoft Windows Server Failover Cluster Manager.

Below mentioned error is reported with no disks appearing in Microsoft Windows Server Failover Cluster Manager.

"No disks suitable for cluster disks were found. For diagnostic information about disks available to the cluster, use the Validate a Configuration Wizard to run Storage tests."

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.x

Cause

The issue is due to unsupported datastore (clustered vmdk disabled) configuration for shared disks.

Resolution

Power off both WSFC VMs

Activate clustered vmdk support on an vmfs6 datastore.

In vCenter >> Datastores >> Datastore_name >> Configure >> General >> Datastore Capabilities >> Clustered VMDK needs to be enabled.

Power on the WSFC VMs and validate disk visibility in Failover Cluster Manager.

 

 

Note : It’s not recommended to use a clustered vmdk datastore for storing non-clustered vmdk's. However, keeping both clustered and non-clustered disks on a clustered vmdk datastore is supported. VMs using non-clustered disks on a clustered vmdk datastore will continue to work normally and all operations(i.e. snapshot, clone etc.),are supported.

Additional Information

According to Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) with shared disks on VMware vSphere 8.x: Guidelines for supported configurations:

Require the datastore capability clustered VMDK support to be enabled.