2 Node Cluster with NFS

[KevinEagle]

I see community notes about a 2 node cluster with NFS working for HA/DRS/etc. but all of the official guidance only talks about 3 node clusters with shared block.

Is 2 node with NFS a supported option? Does it call it out anywhere in documentation?

[CalvinZito]

I'd start here, in the v9.1.0 documentation (this was documentation created from the code): Infrastructure > Clusters > HVM Clusters , and Infrastructure > Storage 

A 2-node configuration is supported, but the standard documented 2-node HVM configuration uses shared block/GFS2 with a Distributed Worker witness. The documentation does also describe NFS with as few as two hosts, but specifically in the Stretch Clusters & Witness Nodes guidance. Despite this part of the documentation talking about it in a stretched clusters, that isn't required.  

I would not interpret the documentation (or community posts) saying that a generic “2-node + NFS” deployment is equivalent to the documented standard 2-node GFS2/witness topology. With block storage, we need 2 nodes plus a witness. 

Finally, in the HPE Support Center VM Essentials deployment guide, it says: NFS: VM Essentials can use NFS shares as external shared data stores, in this case the minimum number of HVM hosts in a cluster is two (2) if virtual machine availability is desired.