Any idea what Virtual Machine Cluster WMI is for?

Question

We have a Windows Failover Cluster to host our SQL Server Availability Group. We have a resource that popped up that no one recalls creating named "Virtual Machine Cluster WMI". We have other Failover clusters, but none of them have this cluster resource. The nodes in our cluster span multiple subnets. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. The reason why it has caught our attention is that we moved the cluster host and the "Virtual Machine Cluster WMI" went offline. Didn't seem to effect the AG as we saw no problems. However, a few hours later this resource came back online and the cluster host moved back to the original server. This has happened twice now so we are trying to figure out what this resource does and if we can safely remove it.

Thanks!

Answer 1

It's specifically for helping with controlling and administration of virtual machine cluster sets/grouping. It's not used for SQL Server at all and isn't needed for typical cluster functionality. It's safe to remove and sounds like it wasn't setup properly in the first place as it lacks an address or other such resource to come online in the other subnet.

You can see more information about the resource along with the dll that implements the functionality and note that it's part of the virtual machine infrastructure (hyper-v):

DisplayName            : Virtual Machine Cluster WMI Provider
DllName                : vmclusres.dll

Answer 2

Hi @Bill Ennis ,

Virtual Machine Cluster WMI (vmclusres.dll): The Virtual Machine Cluster WMI resource type is one used when virtual machine grouping (also known as virtual machine sets) has been configured. It is a cluster resource type (DDL)

If you don't need it, you can delete

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/failover-clustering/windows-server-2016-2019-cluster-resource-resource-types/ba-p/372163

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