INF-BCO2382

VMware vSphere HA Recommendations to Maximize Virtual Machine Uptime

Josh Gray, VMware, Inc. Jeff Hunter, VMware, Inc.

#vmworldinf

Disclaimer

This session may contain product features that are

currently under development.

This session/overview of the new technology represents

no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in any generally available product.

Features are subject to change, and must not be included in

contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements of any kind.

Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery. Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features
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High Availability is Part of IT Business Continuity

Just a Few Clicks to Higher Availability

Turn ON vSphere HA
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Recent Enhancements

vSphere 5.0 Major Redesign

Fault Domain Manager (FDM)

vSphere 5.1 Minor Updates

Recommendations: Networking

Redundant Management Network Fewest hops possible Route based on originating port ID Failback policy = No Enable PortFast, Edge, etc. MTU size the same Keep things simple

Recommendations: Networking

Consistent portgroup names, network labels Host Monitoring during network maintenance Use Maintenance Mode Separate subnet for vSphere HA Specify additional network isolation address Each host can communicate with all other hosts Keep things simple

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Recommendations: Networking

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Recommendations: Networking

Advanced Configuration Options

das.allowNetwork[0-9]= das.isolationAddress[0-9]= das.useDefaultIsolationAddress= (true/false) das.failuredetectiontime
Not supported in vCenter 5.x

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Recommendations: Storage

Implement multiple paths

HBAs, storage processors (SPs), NICs, switches Appropriate multipathing policy

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Recommendations: Storage

Storage Heartbeats
HA selects two datastores by default

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Recommendations: Storage

Storage Heartbeats
Override auto-selected datastores if necessary

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HA Events
(How to Avoid Problems)

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Possible HA Events:
Host Failure Network partition Host isolation

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HA Events:
Host Failures

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HA Events:
Network Partition

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Recommendations: Network Partition

Symptoms: Network Partition

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Recommendations: Network Partition

Symptoms: Network Partition

Master

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Recommendations: Network Partition

Symptoms: Network Partition

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Recommendations: Network Partition

Symptoms: Network Partition

New Master

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Recommendations: Network Partition

Symptoms: Network Partition

New Master

New Master

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HA Events:
Host Isolation

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Host Isolation Policies:

Leave Powered On Power Off Shutdown

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Which Policy?
(How to Avoid Problems)

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Depends.
(on HOW You Want to Avoid Problems)

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Likelihood.

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Recommendations: Isolation Response

Host will retain access to datastores? Likely
VMs will retain access to VM network? Recommended Isolation Policy

Rationale

Likely

Leave Powered On

VM is running fine, why power it off Allow HA to restart on hosts that are not isolated, likely to have access to storage Avoid having two instances of the same VM on the network

Likely

Unlikely

Leave Powered On or Shutdown

Unlikely

Likely

Power off

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Recommendations: Isolation Response

Host will retain access to datastores? Likely
VMs will retain access to VM network? Recommended Isolation Policy

Rationale

Likely

Leave Powered On

VM is running fine, why power it off Allow HA to restart on hosts that are not isolated, likely to have access to storage Avoid having two instances of the same VM on the network

Likely

Unlikely

Leave Powered On or Shutdown

Unlikely

Likely

Power off

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Recommendations: Isolation Response

Host will retain access to datastores? Likely
VMs will retain access to VM network? Recommended Isolation Policy

Rationale

Likely

Leave Powered On

VM is running fine, why power it off Allow HA to restart on hosts that are not isolated, likely to have access to storage Avoid having two instances of the same VM on the network

Likely

Unlikely

Leave Powered On or Shutdown

Unlikely

Likely

Power off

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Recommendations: Isolation Response

Host will retain access to datastores? Likely
VMs will retain access to VM network? Recommended Isolation Policy

Rationale

Likely

Leave Powered On

VM is running fine, why power it off Allow HA to restart on hosts that are not isolated, likely to have access to storage Avoid having two instances of the same VM on the network

Likely

Unlikely

Leave Powered On or Shutdown

Unlikely

Likely

Power off

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Recommendations: Isolation Response

Host will retain access to datastores? Likely
VMs will retain access to VM network? Recommended Isolation Policy

Rationale

Likely

Leave Powered On

VM is running fine, why power it off Allow HA to restart on hosts that are not isolated, likely to have access to storage Avoid having two instances of the same VM on the network

Likely

Unlikely

Leave Powered On or Shutdown

Unlikely

Likely

Power off

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Recommendations: Isolation Response

Host will retain access to datastores? Likely
VMs will retain access to VM network? Recommended Isolation Policy

Rationale

Likely

Leave Powered On

VM is running fine, why power it off Allow HA to restart on hosts that are not isolated, likely to have access to storage Avoid having two instances of the same VM on the network

Likely

Unlikely

Leave Powered On or Shutdown

Unlikely

Likely

Power off

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Recommendations: Isolation Response

Host will retain access to datastores? Likely
VMs will retain access to VM network? Recommended Isolation Policy

Rationale

Likely

Leave Powered On

VM is running fine, why power it off Allow HA to restart on hosts that are not isolated, likely to have access to storage Avoid having two instances of the same VM on the network

Likely

Unlikely

Leave Powered On or Shutdown

Unlikely

Likely

Power off

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Admission Control
(How to Avoid Problems)

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Admission Control Policies:

Static number of hosts Percentage of cluster resources Dedicated failover hosts

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Static Number of Hosts

Admission Control Policy

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VMware vSphere

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Each Host: 4 CPU x 2.40 GHz CPU 16 GB memory Cluster: 38 GHz 64 GB memory

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Reservation: 2 GHz 1024 MB Each Host: 4 CPU x 2.40 GHz CPU 16 GB memory Cluster: 38 GHz 64 GB memory

Reservation: 1 GHz 2048 MB

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Reservation: 2 GHz 1024 MB

Reservation: 1 GHz 2048 MB

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Reservation: 2 GHz 1024 MB

Reservation: 1 GHz 2048 MB

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Reservation: 2 GHz 1024 MB

Reservation: 1 GHz 2048 MB

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Windows Client

vSphere Web Client

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Windows Client

vSphere Web Client

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Override default behavior

vSphere Windows Client
Sets a cap on the slot size

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

Override default behavior

vSphere Web Client

Sets the exact size. Important difference.

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Number of Hosts (Host Failures Cluster Tolerates)

VM

VM

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Recap: Static Number of Hosts

Admission Control Policy

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% of Cluster Resources
Admission Control Policy

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Percentage of cluster resources

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Percentage of cluster resources

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Percentage of cluster resources

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Percentage of cluster resources

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Dedicated Failover Hosts

Admission Control Policy

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Recommendations: Admission Control

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Which Do I Use?!?!

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Recommendations: Admission Control

Basic design principle: Do the math, and take customer requirements into account. If you need flexibility a Percentage is the way to go. Frank Denneman & Duncan Epping
VMware vSphere 5 Clustering Technical Deepdive

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vSphere HA VM Monitoring

VM Monitoring restarts VM if
VMware Tools Heartbeat not received No network or disk activity within I/O stats interval
Default 120 seconds customize in vSphere Web Client

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vSphere HA Application Monitoring

3rd-Party Solutions
Symantec ApplicationHA Neverfail vAppHA

Application Awareness API open with vSphere 5.0

Download VMware GuestAppMonitor SDK with 5.0 Download VMware Guest SDK for vSphere 5.1

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vSphere HA Futures

VMware vSphere HA Today

Storage interconnect most commonly queried KB issue Assumes storage connected on other hosts Improvements with vSphere 5.0 U1 and 5.1

Virtual Machine Component Protection (VMCP)

Fine-grained controls for VM restart policy Queries destination host(s) for storage health Demo in VMware booth on show floor

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vSphere HA Futures

VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT) Today

Protects only VMs with 1 vCPU Many mission-critical apps require multiple vCPUs

SMP Fault Tolerance (FT)

Protect VMs that have more than one vCPU

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INF-BCO2382

VMware vSphere HA Recommendations to Maximize Virtual Machine Uptime

Josh Gray, VMware, Inc. Jeff Hunter, VMware, Inc.

#vmworldinf