Create a Microsoft Failover Cluster on Nutanix

This simple blog post will show you how to create a Microsoft Failover Cluster on Nutanix. (Focussing only on the witness disk).

There are some blogposts available already:

But not one is showing the real steps for the witness disk. So I decided to share this with you.

In this example I have two Windows Server 2022 servers:

    • CLUSTER-01 60GB Boot, 2 vCPU and 4GB RAM;
    • CLUSTER-02 60GB Boot, 2 vCPU and 4GB RAM.

    Create a shared storage, needed for the witness on the cluster:

      In Prism navigate to Storage -> Volume Group, and click: “+ Volume Group”;
      Give it a name and attache some storage

      After clicking on save you have to update the created  volume group. Now it is possible to attach virtual machines.

      Attach the VM’s:

      In Windows open disk management and mark the witness disk online and then initialize:

      Create a volume, format it (NTFS) and assign a drive letter:

      On the second Windows machine you only have to mark the disk online.

      Create the Microsoft Failover Cluster:

      On each node install feature: Failover Clustering.

      Start: Failover Cluster Manager and select: Create Cluster.

      Add both servers and click next.

      Let the wizard run all validation tests to see if all is correct:

      When you fixxed all errors 😉 you will return to the create cluster wizard to enter a cluster name and click: Next.

      In the confirmation screen, make sure “Add all aligible storage to the cluster” is selected and click: Next.

      When cluster is created click finish. (Notice the Quorum disk ;))

      Thats all. Now deploy you cluster aware applications 😉

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