PRODUC T DATASHEE T

VMware High Availability

Cost effective high availability for virtual machines

at a g l a n c e How is VMware High Availability Used in the Enterprise?

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.
benEfits
Minimize downtime and IT service disruption while
eliminating the need for dedicated stand-by hardware
and installation of additional software.
Provide uniform high availability across the entire virtu-
alized IT environment without the cost and complexity
of failover solutions tied to either operating systems or
specific applications.
VMware High Availability (HA) allows companies to provide high
availability to any application running in a virtual machine. With
VMware HA IT organizations can:
Protect applications with no other failover option. Provide
cost-effective high availability for any application running in a
virtual machine. High availability solutions are often relatively
complex and expensive, and typically reserved for mission critical
applications. VMware HA provides a cost-effective high availability
solution that makes high availability possible for software applica-
tions that were formerly left unprotected.
Establish consistent first line of defense for an entire IT envi-
ronment. Unlike other high availability solutions that are operat-
ing system or software application specific, VMware HA represents
a consistent, easy to manage high availability solution for the
entire IT environment. VMware HA provides basic failover for any
application with minimum cost and management overhead.

How Does VMware HA Work?

VMware HA continuously monitors all servers in a resource pool
and detects server failures. An agent placed on each server main-
App App App
tains a heartbeat with the other servers in the resource pool and a
App App App App
OS OS OS
App App
loss of heartbeat initiates the restart process of all affected virtual
OS OS OS OS OS OS
machines on other servers. VMware HA ensures that sufficient
ESX Server ESX Server
ESX Server ESX Server resources are available in the resource pool at all times to be able
to restart virtual machines on different physical servers in the event
Resource Pool
of server failure. Restart of virtual machines is made possible by
the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) clustered file system which
gives multiple ESX Server instances read-write access to the same
virtual machine files, concurrently. VMware HA is easily configured
for a resource pool through VirtualCenter.
Physical Servers

Key Features of VMware HA

VMware HA provides cost effective availability for all applications running in
virtual machines.
Automatic detection of server failures. Automate the monitor-
ing of physical server availability. HA detects server failures and
initiates the virtual machine restart without any human interven-
tion.
Resource checks. Ensure that capacity is always available in
order to restart all virtual machines affected by server failure. HA
continuously monitors capacity utilization and reserves spare
capacity to be able to restart virtual machines.
 V M WA R E H I G H AVA I L A B I L I T Y P R O D U C T D ATA S H E E T

K E Y F E AT U R E S

Automatic restart of virtual machines. Protect any

application with automatic restart in a different physical
server in the resource pool.
Intelligent choice of servers (when used with VMware
Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)). Automate the
optimal placement of virtual machines restarted after
server failure.

How Can I Purchase VMware HA?

VMware HA is included with VMware Infrastructure 3
Enterprise.
VMware HA can also be purchased separately with
VMware Infrastructure 3 Standard and VMware
Infrastructure 3 Starter.

Product Specifications and System Requirements

VMware HA requires ESX Server and VirtualCenter
Management Server.
For detailed product specifications and system require-
ments refer to the VMware Infrastructure Resource
Management Guide located at http://www.vmware.com/
support/pubs/vi_pubs.html.

The set it and forget it automation aspect of VMware HA and DRS will
enable us to automatically allocate resources as needed, whenever needed,
all without our intervention.
Systems Engineer
Leading Insurance Company

VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com
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