Shared VHDX

One feature introduced in Windows Server 2012 R2 that is receiving a lot of attention is the shared virtual hard disk (VHDX). Shared VHDX allows a guest cluster to share a virtual hard disk. This makes deployment of cluster configuration simpler and allows for the use of storage from SMB shares as opposed to Fibre Channel or iSCSI.

Why is this cool? Because it makes administration of the virtual environment easier.  Most organizations want to authorize users to create their own virtual machines, particularly when developing and testing new applications. Often a guest cluster is desirable, but many admins do not want to give users access to storage networks to create cluster shared volumes. Now, with shared VHDX, all a user need do is create a virtual disk and share it between guests when configuring a virtual machine failover cluster.

Instructions on how to deploy a guest cluster using a shared virtual hard disk can be found here.

You can see a demonstration using shared VHDX at six minute mark if this video.

As mentioned many times on this site, Unitrends provides an easy to use, unified backup solution for virtual and physical systems.

Our family now includes PHD Virtual who recently announced its Backup for Hyper-V v7, which also includes support for the Server 2012 R2 products.

Please visit the Unitrends or PHD Virtual web site for more information on how you can protect your Hyper-V environment.

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