VMware Interview Questions & Answers -VMware

Fault Tolerance
POSTED BY MOHAMMED RAFFIC ON AUGUST 25, 2012 IN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS, VMWARE
FT | 2608 VIEWS | LEAVE A RESPONSE
What is VMware Fault Tolerance?
VMware Fault Tolerance is a component of VMware vSphere and it provides continuous availability to applications
by preventing downtime and data loss of Virtual machines in the event of ESX server failures.


What is the name of the technology used by VMware FT?
VMware FT using a technology called vLockstep technology
What are requirements and Limitattions for ESX hosts & infrastructure components to run FT protected
virtual machines in Vsphere 4 & 4.1?
Please refer my blog post on ESX Host -Infrastrcuture Requirements & Limitations for VMware Fault Tolerance to
see the ESX requirements for VMware FT.
What are Requirements and Limitations for Virtual Machine to Enable FT ?
Please refer my blog post on Virtual Machine Requirements for VMware Fault Tolerance
How do i check my host for FT compatibility from vSphere client?
One way from vSphere client is to run the cluster complaince check from profile compliance tab of your cluster. The
below checks as specified below will be performed as part of the compliance check.
Validate that Fault Tolerancelogging NIC speed is at least 1000 Mbps.
Validate that power management is supported on the host
Validate that Fault Tolerance logging is enabled.
Validate that VMotion NIC speed is at least 1000 Mbps.
Validate that all the hosts in the cluster have the same build for Fault Tolerance
Validate that the host hardware supports Fault Tolerance.
Validate that VMotion is enabled.
Validate that at least one shared datastore exists

Another way is to check the summary tab of the ESX/ESXi host, Host Configured for FT yes or NO.

If Host Configured for FT is No. It will display the items required for that particular ESX for FT to work.

What is FT Logging Traffic?
FT logging is the one of option in VMkernel port setting which is similar to enable vmotion option in the vmkernel
port. when FT is enabled for the virtual machine, all the inputs (disk read.. wirte,etc..) of the primary virtual machine
are recorded and sent to the secondary VM over via FT logging enabled VMkernel port.
How to Enable FT Logging in VMkernel Port?
GO the ESX host -> Configuration-> Networking -> Properties of Virtual switch with the VMkernel portgroup
configured
Click on VMkernel Port -> click on Edit -> General tab -> select the Fault Tolerance Logging -> click on OK.

How do you configure or enable FT for the virtual machine ?
FT can be enabled only per virtual machine basis not at the cluster or ESX level.
Right-click the virtual Machine -> Fault Tolerance -> Turn on Fault Tolerance

How does the FT enabled virtual machine will be differentiated with non FT VMs in vSphere client?
FT Enabled Virtual machine will appear in Dark Blue colour as compared to non-protected virtual machines.

By default, Only Primary virtual machine will appear under the cluster and ESX host. To take a look at the
secondary VM , Go to Virtual Machines tab of the Cluster or Host.


How Does VMware Fault Tolerance Work?
When you enable Fault Tolerance for the virtual machine, a secondary virtual machine will be created to work with
the primary virtual machine in which you have enabled FT. The primary and secondary virtual machine resides on a
different ESX hosts in the cluster. Whatever the events or actions performed by the primary VM will be transmitted
via gigabit Ethernet network to be replayed by the secondary virtual machine using VLockstep technology.
Eventhough both the primary and secondary virtual machines appear as a single entity and access a common disk,
both running with the single IP address, MAc address but writes are only performed by the primary virtual
machine.The primary and secondary virtual machines sends heartbeat between each other frequently with
millisecond intervals to the check for the availability. If either of the virtual machine loses the heartbeat, other
virtual machine will take over the primary virtual machine role immediately.

Graphics Thanks toVMware.com
What happens when you enabled Fault Tolerance for your virtual machine?
When you enable Fault Tolerance for the virtual machine, a secondary virtual machine (live shadow image of the
primary) will be created to work with the primary virtual machine in which you have enabled FT. The primary and
secondary virtual machine resides on a different ESX hosts in the cluster.
What will happen when the ESX host of primary VM failed?
When a failure is detected on the primary VMs ESX host, the secondary virtual machine which is running on the
another ESX server in the same cluster will takes the place of the first one with the least possible interruption of
service.
If vCenter is down, will the FT work?
vCenter server is only required to enable FT on the virtual machine.once it is configured, vCenter is not required to
be in online for FT to work. FT failover between primary and secondary will occure even if the vCenter is down.
How does Vmware FT differs from VMware HA?
1.VMware HA is enabled per cluster basis but FT is enabled per VM basis.
2. In case of ESX host failure, virtual machines in the failed host are restarted and powered-on on the other active
hosts in HA cluster. So the restart duration of the virtual machine is the downtime for the virtual machine in HA
cluster. But in FT enabled virtual machine, there is no downtime. In case of host failure, secondary VM will become
primary and continuing the execution from the exact point where the primary VM is left off or failed. It happens
automatically without data loss, without downtime and with a little delay. Users will not see any interruption.
How do you see the summary status of the FT enabled virtual machines in the ESX host from vsphere client?
Click on Summary tab of the ESX host -> Fault tolerance information and VM counts will be displayed


What is VMware HA?

As per VMware Definition,
VMware High Availability (HA) provides easy to use, cost effective high availability for applications running in
virtual machines. In the event of server failure, affected virtual machines are automatically restarted on
other production servers with spare capacity
Download Now and Complete your End to End P2v Migrations using VMware Arenas P2V ADMIN ISO
What is AAM in HA?
AAM is the Legato automated availability management. Prior to vSphere4.1, VMwares HA is actually re
engineered to work with VMs with the help of Legatos Automated Availability Manager (AAM) software.
VMwaresvCenter agent (vpxa) interfaces with the VMware HA agent which acts as an intermediary to the AAM
software. From vSphere 5.0, it uses an agent called FDM (Fault Domain Manager).
What are pre-requites for HA to work?
1.Shared storage for the VMs running in HA cluster
2.Essentials plus, standard, Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Licensing
3.Create VMHA enabled Cluster
4.Management network redundancy to avoid frequent isolation response in case of temporary network issues
(preferred not a requirement)
What is maximum number of primary HA hosts in vSphere 4.1?
Maximum number of primary HA host is 5. VMware HA cluster chooses the first 5 hosts that joins the cluster as
primary nodes and all others hosts are automatically selected as secondary nodes.
How to see the list of Primary nodes in HA cluster?
View the log file named aam_config_util_listnodes.log under /var/log/vmware/aam using the below command
cat /var/log/vmware/aam/aam_config_util_listnodes.log

What is the command to restart /Start/Stop HA agent in the ESX host?
service vmware-aam restart
service vmware-aam stop
service vmware-aam start
Where to located HA related logs in case of troubleshooting?
/Var/log/vmware/aam
What the basic troubleshooting steps in case of HA agent install failed on hosts in HA cluster?
Below steps are are taken from my blog posts Troubleshooting HA
1. Check for some network issues
2. Check the DNS is configured properly
3. Check the vmware HA agent status in ESX host by using below commands
service vmware-aam status
4. Check the networks are properly configured and named exactly as other hosts in the cluster. otherwise, you will
get the below errors while installing or reconfiguring HA agent.
5. Check HA related ports are open in firewall to allow for the communication

Incoming port: TCP/UDP 8042-8045
Outgoing port: TCP/UDP 2050-2250
6. First try to restart /stop/start the vmware HA agent on the affected host using the below commands. In
addition u can also try to restart vpxa and management agent in the Host.
service vmware-aam restart
service vmware-aam stop
service vmware-aam start
7. Right Click the affected host and click on Reconfigure for VMWare HA to re-install the HA agent that
particular host.
8. Remove the affected host from the cluster. Removing ESX host from the cluster will not be allowed untill that
host is put into maintenance mode.
9.Alternative solution for 3 step is, Goto cluster settings and uncheck thevmware HA in to turnoff the HA in that
cluster and re-enable the vmwareHA to get the agent installed.
10. For further troubleshooting , review the HA logs under /Var/log/vmware/aam directory.
What is the maximum number of hosts per HA cluster?
Maximum number of hosts in the HA cluster is 32
What is Host Isolation?
VMware HA has a mechanism to detect a host is isolated from rest of hostsin the cluster. When the ESX host loses
its ability to exchange heartbeat viamanagement network between the other hosts in the HA cluster, that ESX host
will be considered as a Isolated.
How Host Isolation is detected?
In HA cluster, ESX hosts uses heartbeats to communicate among other hosts in the cluster.By default, Heartbeat will
be sent every 1 second.
If a ESX host in the cluster didnt received heartbeat for for 13 seconds from any other hosts in the cluster, The host
considered it as isolated and host will ping the configured isolation address(default gateway by default). If the ping
fails, VMware HA will execute the Host isolation response
What are the different types isolation response available in HA?


Power off All the VMs are powered off , when the HA detects that the network isolation occurs
Shut down All VMs running on that host are shut down with the help of VMware Tools, when the HA detects that
the network isolation occurs.If the shutdown via VMWare tools not happened within 5 minutes, VMs
poweroff operation will be executed. This behavior can be changed with the help of HA advanced options. Please
refer my Post on HA Advanced configuration

Leave powered on The VMs state remain powered on or remain unchanged, when the HA detects that the
network isolation occurs.
How to add additional isolation address for redundancy?
By default, VMWare HA use to ping default gateway as the isolation address if it stops receiving heartbeat.We can
add an additional values in case if we are using redundant service console both belongs to different subnet.Lets say
we can add the default gateway of SC1 as first value andgateway of SC2 as the additional one using the below value
1. Right Click your HA cluster
2. Goto to advanced options of HA
3. Add the line das.isolationaddress1 = 192.168.0.1
4. Add the line das.isolationaddress2 = 192.168.1.1 as the additional isolation address
To know more about the Advanced HA Options
What is HA Admission control?
As per VMware Availability Guide,
VCenter Server uses admission control to ensure that sufficient resources are available in a cluster to provide failover
protection and to ensure that virtual machine resource reservations are respected.
What are the 2 types of settings available for admission control?



Enable: Do not power on VMs that violate availability constraints
Disable: Power on VMs that violate availability constraints
What are the different types of Admission control policy available with VMware HA?
There are 3 different types of Admission control policy available.

Host failures cluster tolerates
Percentage of cluster resources reserved as fail over spare capacity
Specify a fail over host
How the Host Failures cluster tolerates admission control policy works?




Select the maximum number of host failures that you can afford for or to guarantee fail over. Prior vSphere 4.1,
Minimum is 1 and the maximum is 4.
In the Host Failures cluster tolerates admission control policy , we can define the specific number of hosts that can
fail in the cluster and also it ensures that the sufficient resources remain to fail over all the virtual machines from
that failed hosts to the other hosts in cluster. VMware High Availability(HA) uses a mechanism called slots to
calculate both the available and required resources in the cluster for a failing over virtual machines from a failed host
to other hosts in the cluster.
What is SLOT?
As per VMWares Definition,
A slot is a logical representation of the memory and CPU resources that satisfy the requirements for any powered-
on virtual machine in the cluster.
If you have configured reservations at VM level, It influence the HA slot calculation. Highest memory reservation
and highest CPU reservation of the VM in your cluster determines the slot size for the cluster.
How the HA Slots are Calculated?
I have written a post about how the HA slots are calculated.
How to Check the HA Slot information from vSphere Client?
Click on Cluster Summary Tab and Click on Advanced Runtime Info to see the the detailed HA slots information.

What is use of Host Monitoring status in HA cluster?

Lets take an example, you are performing network maintenance activity on your switches which connects your one
of th ESX host in HA cluster.
what will happen if the switch connected to the ESX host in HA cluster is down?
It will not receive heartbeat and also ping to the isolation address also failed. so, host will think itself as isolated and
HA will initiate the reboot of virtual machines on the host to other hosts in the cluster. Why do you need this
unwanted situation while performing scheduled maintenance window.
To avoid the above situation when performing scheduled activity which may cause ESX host to isolate, remove the
check box in Enable Host Monitoring until you are done with the network maintenance activity.
How to Manually define the HA Slot size?
By default, HA slot size is determined by the Virtual machine Highest CPU and memory reservation. If no
reservation is specified at the VM level, default slot size of 256 MHZ for CPU and 0 MB + memory overhead for
RAM will be taken as slot size. We can control the HA slot size manually by using the following values.
There are 4 options we can configure at HA advanced options related to slot size
das.slotMemInMB Maximum Bound value for HA memory slot size
das.slotCpuInMHz Maximum Bound value for HA CPU slot Size
das.vmMemoryMinMB Minimum Bound value for HA memory slot size
das.vmCpuMinMHz Minimum Bound value for HA CPU slot size
For More HA related Advanced options, Please refer my blog post
How the Percentage of cluster resources reserved as failover spare capacity admission control policy
works?




In the Percentage of cluster resources reserved as failover spare capacity admission control policy, We can define the
specific percentage of total cluster resources are reserved for failover.In contrast to the Host Failures cluster
tolerates admission control policy, It will not use slots. Instead This policy calculates the in the way below
1.It calculates the Total resource requirement for all Powered-on Virtual Machines in the cluster and also calculates
the total resource available in host for virtual machines.
2.It calculates the current CPU and Memory Failover capacity for the capacity.
3.If the current CPU and Memory Failover capacity for the cluster < configured failover capacity (ex 25 %)
4.Admission control will not allow to power on the virtual machine which violates the availability constraints.
How the Specify a failover host admission control policy works?




In the Specify a failover host admission control policy, We can define a specific host as a dedicated failover host.
When isolation response is detected, HA attempts to restart the virtual machines on the specified failover host.In this
Approach, dedicated failover hist will be sitting idle without actively involving or not participating in DRS load
balancing.DRS will not migrate or power on placement of virtual machines on the defined failover host.
What is VM Monitoring status?
HA will usually monitors ESX hosts and reboot the virtual machine in the failed hosts in the other host in the cluster
in case of host isolation but ineed the HA to monitors for Virtual machine failures also. here the feature called VM
monitoring status as part of HA settings.VM monitoring restarts the virtual machine if the vmware tools heartbeat
didnt received with the specified time using Monitoring sensitivity.

If you are looking for more VMware interview questions Please click Interview Questions.