Well, once again the Microsoft Cluster on VMware bit my ass … As you might know, MSCS on VMware is a particular kind of pain, with each upgrade you end up with the same problem over and over again (SCSI reservations on the RDM-LUNs being one, and the passive node not booting being the other).

So I opened up another support case with VMware, and the responded like this:

Please see this kb entry: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016106

This doesn’t completely fit my case, but since the only active cluster-node failed yesterday evening (it’s only our internal file-share server, thus no worries), I thought I’d try to set the options.

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param( [string] $vCenter, [string] $cluster, [string] $device_identifier )
 
# Add the VI-Snapin if it isn't loaded already
if ( (Get-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null )
{
    Add-PSSnapin -Name "VMware.VimAutomation.Core"
}

if ( !($vCenter) -or !($cluster) -or !($device_identifier) ) {
    Write-Host `n "cluster-fix-mscs-lun: <vcenter> <cluster> <device_identifier>" `n
    Write-Host "cluster-fix-mscs-lun sets the specified device to be perennially reserved"
    Write-Host "    thus a) the affected host(s) boot faster"
    Write-Host "    and  b) the affected passive nodes actually boots up" `n
    exit 1
}

# Turn off Errors
$ErrorActionPreference = "silentlycontinue"

Connect-VIServer -Server $vCenter

$VMhosts = Get-Cluster $cluster | Get-VMHost

foreach ($vmhost in $VMhosts) {
    # Create the ESXCLI command line
    $esxcli = Get-ESXCLI -VMHost $vmhost

    # List settings for device
    $esxcli.storage.core.device.list($device_identifier)

    # Set the specified LUN to PerenniallyReserved
    $esxcli.storage.core.device.setconfig($false, $device_identifier, $true)

    # Print verification for the above action
    $esxcli.storage.core.device.list($device_identifier)
}

Disconnect-VIServer -server $vCenter -Confirm:$false

And guess what ? My damn cluster works again 😄