Configuring Hyper-V VM as a Cluster Role Without Shared Storage in a Failover Cluster

Question

Hello, community! 👋

I am working on setting up a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) with Hyper-V to make virtual machines highly available.

However, I am limited to using local storage on each cluster node and do not want to use traditional shared storage solutions. I Want to Configure Hyper-V VM as a Cluster Role Without Shared Storage.)

When I try to make a virtual machine highly available, I encounter an error related to the storage not being shared or accessible by all cluster nodes.

Below are the details of what I've tried and the results.

---

What I Have Tried

1. Added Physical Servers to the Cluster:
   • Added two physical Windows servers as nodes in the failover cluster.
2. Prepared Hyper-V VMs on Local Storage:
   • Pre-created Hyper-V VMs on local storage on one of the cluster nodes (e.g., C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V).
3. Configured High Availability via Failover Cluster Manager:
   • Attempted to make the VM highly available: - Failover Cluster Manager → Roles → Configure Role

→ Virtual Machine

[![](https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images/5525085e-f83a-4ad5-867d-58c8a8607822?upload=true&fud_access=hC1SxZhn7m%2FZQJkOIiOVstu10yTQgXS4A%2FDBzZTg8nbaCgIogkrcDydMeI5Y4za2dOqDdWtsG2JNS3E35V60i9TiGHR7STMpJHheeXuDvO8nwjUlqCBHhJ0NDvuYN7OSHRlSYFV8VpjuyP2M5q%2FfUMfBWGGuKLJNFh24Tj2FVdR85wXKVYtjdf1Z0Qy3s2fLC50a16%2FIN%2FQuZw23MS1qZca7a7ItTcKC0wnY%2FQNuFWosbyhL6dHndTS%2FVYXRW%2B%2Bm6hjQ1%2FAWK2N0DQ87CpiLLm8hYTP0kgVgmfPnVJIoYULWD0uMvbR1IsJbX69JOS%2B7QRJUSBSfQfgH0ppi42kTI3LLNzzBiWX0fTsTHyh%2F7Fdf5C9svJfWv64oHVpJbyw16hz5IzEWRFHaOTC2FcIbgSHtusKQRVRL81S%2F0McthIA%3D)](https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images/5525085e-f83a-4ad5-867d-58c8a8607822?upload=true&fud_access=hC1SxZhn7m%2FZQJkOIiOVstu10yTQgXS4A%2FDBzZTg8nbaCgIogkrcDydMeI5Y4za2dOqDdWtsG2JNS3E35V60i9TiGHR7STMpJHheeXuDvO8nwjUlqCBHhJ0NDvuYN7OSHRlSYFV8VpjuyP2M5q%2FfUMfBWGGuKLJNFh24Tj2FVdR85wXKVYtjdf1Z0Qy3s2fLC50a16%2FIN%2FQuZw23MS1qZca7a7ItTcKC0wnY%2FQNuFWosbyhL6dHndTS%2FVYXRW%2B%2Bm6hjQ1%2FAWK2N0DQ87CpiLLm8hYTP0kgVgmfPnVJIoYULWD0uMvbR1IsJbX69JOS%2B7QRJUSBSfQfgH0ppi42kTI3LLNzzBiWX0fTsTHyh%2F7Fdf5C9svJfWv64oHVpJbyw16hz5IzEWRFHaOTC2FcIbgSHtusKQRVRL81S%2F0McthIA%3D "filestore.community.support.microsoft.com")  

→ Select VM

[![](https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images/e50c1e4b-54ca-492e-8b7a-39e2f7b9fd9d?upload=true&fud_access=hC1SxZhn7m%2FZQJkOIiOVstu10yTQgXS4A%2FDBzZTg8nbaCgIogkrcDydMeI5Y4za2dOqDdWtsG2JNS3E35V60i9TiGHR7STMpJHheeXuDvO8nwjUlqCBHhJ0NDvuYN7OSHRlSYFV8VpjuyP2M5q%2FfUMfBWGGuKLJNFh24Tj2FVdR85wXKVYtjdf1Z0Qy3s2fLC50a16%2FIN%2FQuZw23MS1qZca7a7ItTcKC0wnY%2FQNuFWq0IcWryY4GpM4o52%2BxJSTs9r8w3BM44ejfQby8GUfajIXrMi6wjzt3O72Zsoi76lNaMjkyKNMo7Z%2FK8RN0667qZbJogwAOdFQdLzNGS22%2FL3V69z1TszZy2aRGXckRxoJjuJcqrRE6217n%2BIUC92qJZzemReAvfGcxKy7Xkf1%2B9EdmCGOTrMaZmXcakfJKJoA%3D)](https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images/e50c1e4b-54ca-492e-8b7a-39e2f7b9fd9d?upload=true&fud_access=hC1SxZhn7m%2FZQJkOIiOVstu10yTQgXS4A%2FDBzZTg8nbaCgIogkrcDydMeI5Y4za2dOqDdWtsG2JNS3E35V60i9TiGHR7STMpJHheeXuDvO8nwjUlqCBHhJ0NDvuYN7OSHRlSYFV8VpjuyP2M5q%2FfUMfBWGGuKLJNFh24Tj2FVdR85wXKVYtjdf1Z0Qy3s2fLC50a16%2FIN%2FQuZw23MS1qZca7a7ItTcKC0wnY%2FQNuFWq0IcWryY4GpM4o52%2BxJSTs9r8w3BM44ejfQby8GUfajIXrMi6wjzt3O72Zsoi76lNaMjkyKNMo7Z%2FK8RN0667qZbJogwAOdFQdLzNGS22%2FL3V69z1TszZy2aRGXckRxoJjuJcqrRE6217n%2BIUC92qJZzemReAvfGcxKy7Xkf1%2B9EdmCGOTrMaZmXcakfJKJoA%3D "filestore.community.support.microsoft.com")  

**** 

→ Configure High Availability.

- Result : Configuration failed with the following detailed log:

     New Virtual Machine

     Looking for required storage...

     The path 'C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V' where the virtual machine configuration is stored is not a path to storage in the cluster or to storage that can be added to the cluster. You must ensure this storage is available to every node in the cluster to make this virtual machine highly available.

     Configuring virtual machine 'New Virtual Machine'...

     Creating virtual machine role 'New Virtual Machine'...

     Creating resources for virtual machine 'New Virtual Machine'...

     Creating virtual machine resource 'Virtual Machine New Virtual Machine'...

     Creating virtual machine configuration resource 'Virtual Machine Configuration New Virtual Machine'...

     Configuring virtual machine resource 'New Virtual Machine'...

     Configuring virtual machine configuration resource 'Virtual Machine Configuration New Virtual Machine'...

     Configuring dependencies between virtual machine and its configuration resource...

     Configuring storage for virtual machine 'New Virtual Machine'...

     Configuring dependencies between the virtual machine resources and their storage...

     Notifying virtual machine configuration resource 'Virtual Machine Configuration New Virtual Machine' that its configuration has changed...

     Bringing virtual machine configuration resource 'Virtual Machine Configuration New Virtual Machine' online...

     There was a failure bringing the virtual machine configuration resource 'Virtual Machine Configuration New Virtual Machine' online.

     Deleting virtual machine resource 'Virtual Machine New Virtual Machine'.

     Deleting virtual machine configuration resource 'Virtual Machine Configuration New Virtual Machine'.

     Removing storage that is no longer needed from virtual machine 'New Virtual Machine'...

     Deleting virtual machine role 'New Virtual Machine'...

     There was a failure configuring the virtual machine role for 'New Virtual Machine'.

     An error occurred while attempting to bring the resource 'Virtual Machine Configuration New Virtual Machine' online.

     The cluster resource could not be brought online by the resource monitor

     An error was encountered while configuring the clustered virtual machine. The clustered role that was being configured has been removed.

Query

Is there any way to configure high availability for Hyper-V VMs using local storage only, without relying on traditional shared storage solutions?

Thanks in advance for your insights and suggestions! 🙏

Answer 1

Hi,

The storage needs to be available to other nodes if you want to configure high availability to the VMs. Since you can only use the local disks on your cluster nodes you may give a try to Storage Spaces Direct.

Deploy Storage Spaces Direct on Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

Answer 2

Thank you for your suggestion regarding Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) as an option for shared storage and the “Hyperconverged Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct” setup.

I’ve reviewed the [Storage Spaces Direct hardware requirements | Microsoft Learn) and my current storage configuration:

On my system, storage is RAID-based, and here are the details:

• Windows Server 2022 environment
• Storage Type: RAID1 (using SAS 3916 with 3x 893 GB SSDs)
• RAID Configuration Details: RAID1 configured with a Broadcom SAS 3916 SCSI RAID controller and three 893 GB SATA SSDs configured as part of a virtual drive array. PS C:\Users\Administrator> diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.20348.1 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. On computer: WIN-17VPVFVOKGO DISKPART> lis dis

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  
  Disk 0    Online          893 GB  1024 KB        *
  

  DISKPART> sel dis 0 Disk 0 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> det dis BROADCOM SAS 3916 SCSI Disk Device Disk ID: {C04D1C49-E88B-47B4-8CFA-856B64BCE55A} Type : RAID Status : Online Path : 1 Target : 239 LUN ID : 0 Location Path : PCIROOT(6E)#PCI(0100)#PCI(0000)#RAID(P01T239L00 Current Read-only State : No Read-only : No Boot Disk : Yes Pagefile Disk : Yes Hibernation File Disk : No Crashdump Disk : Yes Clustered Disk : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  
  Volume 0     C                NTFS   Partition    893 GB  Healthy    Boot
  
  Volume 1                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  
  Volume 2                      NTFS   Partition    599 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  

  PS C:\Users\Administrator> storcli64 /cAll show Generating detailed summary of the adapter, it may take a while to complete. CLI Version = 007.2309.0000.0000 Sep 16, 2022 Operating system = Windows Server 2022 Controller = 0 Status = Success Description = None Product Name = SAS 3916 Serial Number = VA249S000950 Current Personality = RAID-Mode Vendor Id = 0x1000 Device Id = 0x10E2 SubVendor Id = 0x15D9 SubDevice Id = 0x1B67 Host Interface = PCI-E Device Interface = SAS-12G Bus Number = 111 Device Number = 0 Function Number = 0 Domain ID = 0 Security Protocol = None Drive Groups = 1 TOPOLOGY : ========

  ---

  DG Arr Row EID:Slot DID Type State BT Size PDC PI SED DS3 FSpace TR

  ---

  0 - - - - RAID1 Optl N 893.750 GB dflt N N none N N 0 0 - - - RAID1 Optl N 893.750 GB dflt N N none N N 0 0 0 252:0 0 DRIVE Onln N 893.750 GB dflt N N none - N 0 0 1 252:1 1 DRIVE Onln N 893.750 GB dflt N N none - N 0 - - 252:2 2 DRIVE DHS - 893.750 GB - - - - - N

  ---

  Virtual Drives = 1 VD LIST : =======

  ---

  DG/VD TYPE State Access Consist Cache Cac sCC Size Name

  ---

  0/239 RAID1 Optl RW Yes RWTD - ON 893.750 GB VD0

  ---

  Physical Drives = 3 PD LIST : =======

  ---

  EID:Slt DID State DG Size Intf Med SED PI SeSz Model Sp Type

  ---

  252:0 0 Onln 0 893.750 GB SATA SSD Y N 512B SAMSUNG MZ7L3960HBLT-00A07 U - 252:1 1 Onln 0 893.750 GB SATA SSD Y N 512B SAMSUNG MZ7L3960HBLT-00A07 U - 252:2 2 DHS 0 893.750 GB SATA SSD Y N 512B SAMSUNG MZ7L3960HBLT-00A07 U -

  ---

  Enclosures = 1 Enclosure LIST : ==============

  ---

  EID State Slots PD PS Fans TSs Alms SIM Port# ProdID VendorSpecific

  ---

  252 OK 16 3 0 0 0 0 0 - VirtualSES

  ---

According to the Microsoft documentation, Storage Spaces Direct supports configurations with SAS or NVMe drives in a direct pass-through mode.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-spaces/storage-spaces-direct-hardware-requirements#drives
**So based on the above setup, is my configuration supported by Storage Spaces Direct?**I’m sorry for my limited knowledge and understanding in this area as I’m very new to this technology.

My Goal :

I need to set up a failover cluster and add stateless virtual machines (running Debian-based operating systems) to the cluster. These VMs will host stateless HTTP applications, so the application layer is the primary focus.

• No Shared Storage Requirement: Since the VMs are stateless, there’s no need for the entire VM disk to be part of the cluster or to ensure its high availability.
• Application-Level Failover: I want to ensure failover for the HTTP applications hosted on these VMs.

Key Questions

1. Is it possible to integrate such stateless VMs into a failover cluster, primarily for application workload failover, without requiring shared storage?
2. If not, I am considering enabling Hyper-V Replication on the Windows nodes and setting up replication for these VMs. After enabling replication, I plan to attempt adding these replicated VMs into the cluster. Would this approach work for my use case?

Thank you again for guiding me as I navigate this setup.

Your guidance and support are much appreciated!