You can activate clustered VMDK support when you create a new VMFS6 datastore, or activate clustered VMDK on an existing VMFS6 datastore.

Before activating clustered VMDK support, ensure all hosts connected to the datastore are using ESXi 7.0 or later and are managed by vCenter 7.0 or later. All hosts connected to the datastore must be managed by the same vCenter while deactivating or activating the clustered VMDK flag on the datastore. Once the clustered VMDK flag is activated or deactivated, hosts can be managed by any vCenter with version 7.0 or later.

NVMe FC Datastores are supported for activating clustered VMDK from vSphere 8.0 onwards. With vSphere 8.0 U2, a new configuration using WSFC with Clustered VMDK and Windows Server 2022 or later supports NVMe Virtual Adapters. In vSphere 8.0 U3 or later NVMe TCP Datastores are supported.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a datastore, such as a host, a cluster, or a data center, and click the Datastores tab.
  2. Right-click the parent object and select Create a New Datastore.
  3. On the New Datastore page choose a device with the attribute Clustered VMDK Supported set to Yes. Create a VMFS6 version Datastore.
  4. Once the Datastore is created go to the Configure Datastore tab.
  5. Under General go to the Datastore Capabilities section. Click the Enable button for Clustered VMDK.
  6. Once activated, you can use the Disable button to deactivate clustered VMDK. Disable will not work if there are any WSFC VMs using clustered VMDKs on the datastore. All virtual machines with shared disks on the datastore must be powered off.