Subscribe to Windows IT Pro

 

Get Newsletters

  • Get the Latest News
  • Product Updates
  • Helpful Tricks
  • Productivity Tips

Subscribe Now!

November 15, 2009 12:00 AM

Q. Can a Hyper-V guest use pass-through disks and still use Live Migration?

Windows IT Pro
InstantDoc ID #103123
Rating: (0)

A. Live Migration is the technology that copies the memory of a running Hyper-V guest to a target node while the guest is still running, which means there's no downtime of the guest required to transfer the virtual machine (VM) state from one Hyper-V host to another. To solve the time delay of dismounting and mounting the LUN that holds a VM's VHD files, the system uses Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs), which allows all nodes in the cluster to access the CSV enabled storage concurrently, so no dismount/mount operation is needed.

If you're using pass-through disks, your pass-through disk can't be part of the CSV namespace, because the Hyper-V host isn't actually mounting the storage. The guest performs I/O directly, which means the storage isn't accessible to all nodes at the same time. In the Failover Clustering configuration of the VM, you'll configure the pass-through disk as a dependency for the resource group, so when you perform a Live Migration the pass-through storage will have to dismount from the current Hyper-V host and mount on the new Hyper-V host. This process will slow down the migration of the VM and probably cause a noticeable pause to clients, or even disconnects.

The answer is, then, that you can still use Live Migration with pass-through disks, but the dismount/mount of the pass-through will take time and may break the TCP connection timeout. Your best option is to use VHDs instead of pass-through, because VHDs can be part of CSVs, and you won't need the dismount/mount operation. VHD and pass-through disk performance is basically equal, so performance isn't a major concern.

Related Reading:

Check out hundreds more useful Q&As like this in John Savill's FAQ for Windows. Also, watch instructional videos made by John at ITTV.net.

Related Content:

ARTICLE TOOLS

Comments
    There are no comments to display. Be the first one!
You must log on before posting a comment.

Are you a new visitor? Register Here

advertisement

advertisement

White Papers

Get your Windows 7 deployment off to the right start by implementing PC lockdown. A locked-down environment is easier and cheaper to support since users are less likely to make unnecessary changes to the core system configuration - read more here!

Essential Guides

Is your iSCSI "lossy"? The reality is that most off-the-shelf Ethernet hardware deployed for iSCSI can lose packets, resulting in slow performance or application downtime. Learn how to assess your current iSCSI infrastructure and engineer an advanced iSCSI SAN infrastructure.

Web Seminars

What's the best way to keep your network safe from malware? In this web seminar, security expert Greg Shields suggests an alternative method to the traditional blacklisting approach that is common with anti-virus and anti-malware solutions.

eLearning Series

We bring the experts direct to you to share their real-world perspective and expertise. During each event, three sessions stream in real time, so you can learn, ask questions, and get solutions.
Upcoming event: Getting the Most with Exchange 2010 with Paul Robichaux

Subscribe to Windows IT Pro!

Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies. Windows IT Pro is used by Penton Media Inc. under license from owner.