Since VMware allows use of RDM disks to setup a Windows cluster using VMs, which can be used to install SQL cluster, we decide to go this route.
However, now after installing the Windows cluster, I am finding out that you cannot do snapshot of these VMs due to shared disks (physical RDM, as recommended). This also means you cannot do Veeam or other backups.
We, of course, can do OS and SQL server backups, but restore from them will be quite time-consuming in a disaster. SAN level backup will require purchase of separate expensive software for just 2 VMs.
To me this is a very serious limitation of using VMs to create a Windows/SQL cluster. If I go with a single VM SQL server, I will still avoid single-point hardware failure due to VMware HA. Only disadvantage will be some down-time when server needs to reboot, for Windows updates, etc. This is a very minor inconvenience, compared to not having any VM-level backups. (There is hardly any difference in performance of RDM vs VMFS.)
Am I missing something? Is my conclusion wrong? Please share your experience and/or viewpoints. Thanks.
Jay Kulsh