vSphere DRS and Cluster Management Quiz

Module 9: Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters

• Organizations rely on computer-based services (email, databases, web apps)
• Service failures lead to lost productivity and revenue
• vSphere HA (High Availability) enables highly available computer-based services
• vSphere DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) improves service levels by guaranteeing appropriate resources for VMs.

Module Lessons

• vSphere Clusters Overview
• vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler
• Introduction to vSphere High Availability
• vSphere High Availability Architecture
• Configuring vSphere High Availability

Lesson 1: vSphere Clusters Overview

• Learner Objectives:
  • Create a vSphere cluster
  • Recognize cluster options that you can configure with Cluster Quickstart
  • View information about a vSphere cluster

About vSphere Clusters

• A vSphere cluster shares physical resources among ESXi hosts.
• vCenter manages cluster resources as a single pool of resources.
• Clusters are created based on purpose (e.g., management, production, compute).
• A cluster can have up to 96 ESXi hosts.
• The provided screenshot shows five different clusters.
• vSphere 7 Update 1 or later is required to support 96 hosts.

Creating a vSphere Cluster

• Create a cluster via name and selection of relevant services
• Activate services like vSphere HA (high availability), vSphere DRS (VM placement/load balancing), and VSAN (software-defined storage)
• Manage host updates using ESXi images via vSphere Lifecycle Manager

About Cluster Quickstart

• The Cluster Quickstart workflow guides cluster setup, including host, network, and vSphere settings.
• It aids in adding additional hosts for cluster expansion.
• Simplifies cluster configuration by automating tasks like service setup, hardware/software compatibility check, distributed switch deployment, network configuration, and vSAN setup/fault-domain creation.

Cluster Quickstart: Activating Services

• Edit cluster name
• Enable/disable vSphere DRS, vSphere HA, and vSAN services
• Select vSphere Lifecycle Manager image for host management

Cluster Quickstart: Adding Hosts

• Add new or existing ESXi hosts to the cluster
• Enter IP address or FQDN for each host
• The workflow provides health check validation for each added host.

Cluster Quickstart: Configuring the Cluster

• Configure host networking settings and customize cluster services within the vSphere Client.
• Users can manually configure a cluster by skipping the Cluster Quickstart workflow.
• Any newly added hosts after skipping must be manually configured.

Configuring a Cluster: Distributed Switches

• Configure up to three distributed switches
• Select a network for vSphere vMotion
• Select at least one physical adapter
• Configure networking settings later (optional)
• The option to configure networking later hides host-networking options and configures service defaults.

Configuring a Cluster: vSAN and vMotion Traffic

• Enter IP addresses for vSphere vMotion and vSAN networks
• Similar IP information for ESXi hosts allows auto-filling of fields.

Configuring a Cluster: Advanced Options

• Various settings based on enabled cluster services (High Availability, Distributed Resource Scheduler, Host Options, Enhanced vMotion Compatibility)
• Options like lockdown mode, NTP server configuration, and Enhanced vMotion Compatibility are available.

Viewing Cluster Summary Information

• The Summary tab provides quick information about cluster resources and consumers.

Monitoring Cluster Resources

• View CPU and memory allocation details.
• Access memory statistics for the cluster (total cluster CPU, memory, memory overhead, storage capacity etc).

vSphere Cluster Services VMs

• Up to three vSphere Cluster Service VMs are present in each vSphere cluster.
• Required for maintaining the health and availability of cluster services such as vSphere DRS and vSphere HA.
• Not directly visible in the Hosts and Clusters inventory or the VMs view in the vSphere Client but, can be viewed via the Cluster's VMs tab or VMs and Templates inventory.
• An alert is shown if healthy vSphere Cluster Service VMs are not available in the cluster.
• If a cluster service VM is manually powered off, vCenter automatically powers it on.

Review of Learner Objectives

• Create a vSphere cluster
• Recognize cluster options that you can configure with Cluster Quickstart
• View information about a vSphere cluster

Lesson 2: vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler

• Learner Objectives:
  • Describe functions of a vSphere DRS cluster
  • Explain how it determines VM placement
  • Recognize use cases for vSphere DRS settings.
  • Configure vSphere DRS in a cluster
  • Monitor a vSphere DRS cluster

About vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler

• Improves resource allocation across all hosts in a cluster
• Initially places VMs when powered on
• Balances load appropriately
• Migrates VMs when an ESXi host is placed in maintenance mode

vSphere DRS: VM Focused

• vSphere DRS operates on an individual VM basis
• Assesses the VM's resource requirements.
• Calculates a score for each VM and makes recommendations to maintain ideal performance

About the VM DRS Score

• Tracks how well a VM's resource requirements are met
• Scores closer to 0% indicate severe resource contention
• Scores closer to 100% indicate mild to zero resource contention

VM DRS Score List

• Displays details for VMs (DRS score, CPU utilization, memory utilization, network utilization)

vSphere DRS Cluster Requirements

• ESXi hosts need to satisfy certain requirements for cluster success
• Must be part of the vSphere vMotion network to enable DRS load balancing
• VMs must meet vSphere vMotion requirements

vSphere DRS Settings: Automation Level

• Determines whether DRS makes migration recommendations or automatically places/migrates VMs across hosts

vSphere DRS Settings: Migration Threshold

• Determines how aggressively DRS selects to migrate VMs
• Varying levels provide different degrees of aggressiveness in VM migration

vSphere DRS Settings: Predictive DRS

• Predicts future resource demand and optimizes resource allocation across hosts
• Retrieves information like resource usage statistics from ESXi hosts and the VMware Aria Operations Server

Viewing vSphere DRS Settings

• View DRS settings like Automation level and Migration threshold

vSphere DRS Settings: VM Level Automation

• Individual VM-level configuration for flexibility in automation over the cluster

vSphere DRS Settings: VM Swap File Location

• Determines where VM swap files are stored (On a local or shared datastore).

vSphere DRS Settings: VM Affinity

• Defines affinity (same host) or anti-affinity (different hosts) rules for VMs

vSphere DRS Settings: DRS Groups

• Defines VM groups (collection of VMs) and host groups (collection of hosts).
• Help to create VM-Host affinity rules which determine to which hosts a VM can be placed.

vSphere DRS Settings: VM-Host Affinity Rules

• Defines affinity/anti-affinity relationship between VM and host groups
• Determines where VMs will be placed

vSphere HA Scenario: ESXi Host Failure

• vSphere HA restarts affected VMs on other hosts.

vSphere HA Scenario: Guest Operating System Failure

• vSphere HA restarts the VM on the same host

vSphere HA Scenario: Application Failure

• vSphere HA restarts the VM on the same host

vSphere HA Scenario: Datastore Accessibility Failures

• HA detects datastore accessibility problems
• Takes actions (Issue events, power off and restart VMs) based on the failure type (APD/PDL)

Importance of Heartbeat Networks

• Heartbeat network used for communication between primary and secondary hosts
• Helps detect failures/isolation scenarios.
• Redundant heartbeat networks lessen the occurrence of host isolation scenarios.

Heartbeat Network Redundancy Using NIC Teaming

• Use NIC teaming to create a redundant heartbeat network using multiple physical network adapters.

Heartbeat Network Redundancy Using Additional Networks

• Create a separate virtual switch and VMkernel port for network redundancy (redundant heartbeat paths)

Review of Learner Objectives (Lesson 3: Introduction to vSphere HA/Availability)

• Describe how vSphere HA responds to various types of failures
• Describe how vSphere HA responds to network isolation
• Identify options for configuring network redundancy in a vSphere HA cluster

Lesson 4: vSphere HA Architecture

• Learner Objectives:
  • Identify the heartbeat mechanisms used by vSphere HA
  • Describe failure scenarios
  • Recognize vSphere HA design considerations

vSphere HA Architecture: Agent Communication

• FDM (Fault Domain Manager) service on each host in a cluster
• Communication between hosts and vCenter

vSphere HA Architecture: Network Heartbeats

• Primary host sends periodic heartbeats to secondary hosts
• Secondary hosts use one heartbeat network to communicate; automatically switch if the first network connection fails
• If a secondary host does not respond within the set timeout period, the primary host declares it as "unreachable".

vSphere HA Architecture: Datastore Heartbeats

• Primary host uses datastore heartbeating to determine the cause of secondary host failure\isolation.

vSphere HA Failure Scenarios

• vSphere HA detects and responds to host, network, and datastore failures
• Takes action (e.g., restarts VMs on other hosts)

Failed Secondary Hosts

• Primary host determines if a secondary host is isolated or failed using datastore heartbeat checks

Failed Primary Hosts

• Secondary hosts detect primary host fail/deactivation
• Election process selects a new primary host by using the MOID (Managed Object ID)

Isolated Hosts

• A host is isolated if it does not receive heartbeats from the cluster and fails to ping its IP address

VM Storage Failures

Causes of VM storage related connectivity issues

• Network/switch problems
• Array problems
• Power outages.
• These problems impact VM availability negatively.

Protecting Against Storage Failures with VMCP

• VM Component Protection (VMCP) protects VMs against storage failures by providing automated recovery.

vSphere HA Design Considerations

• Implement redundant heartbeat networks and isolation addresses to prevent issues.
• Separate VM networks from heartbeat networks.
• Physically separate IP storage networks from heartbeat networks (for IP storage).

Review of Learner Objectives

• Identify heartbeat mechanisms
• Describe failure scenarios
• Recognize vSphere HA design considerations

Lesson 5: Configuring vSphere HA

• Learner Objectives:
  • Recognize requirements for creating and using vSphere HA
  • Recognize use cases for vSphere HA
  • Recognize when to use vSphere Fault Tolerance
  • Configure a vSphere HA cluster

vSphere HA Prerequisites

• Hosts must have static IP addresses or stable DHCP addresses.
• Hosts must share at least one heartbeat network.
• VMware Tools is required for VM monitoring.

Configuring vSphere HA Settings

• Configure HA settings and failures responses (e.g., host failure responses, VM monitoring)
• Admission control policy for managing cluster resources

vSphere HA Settings: Default VM Restart Priority

• Priority determines the order in which VMs are restarted during a host failure

vSphere HA Settings: VM-Level Restart Priority

• Customize VM restart priority to override the cluster-wide default

About vSphere HA Orchestrated Restart

• Alternative to using VM restart priority (e.g., for application-specific startup orders)

Orchestrated Restart in Action

• VMs are restarted in a predefined order to ensure proper application functionality

Configuring Orchestrated Restart

• Create VM groups tailored to application tiers
• Configure specific rules to specify dependencies on each other for VM restart order

vSphere HA Settings: VM Monitoring

• Configure VM monitoring behavior
• Monitors VM and application heartbeats/state

vSphere HA Settings: Admission Control

• Ensure sufficient resources for failover protection
• Respect VM resource reservations (including persistent memory).
• Admission control settings (e.g., Disabled, Slot Policy, Cluster Resource Percentage, Dedicated Failover Hosts)

Example: Admission Control Using Slots (1) & (2)

• This topic explains how vSphere HA calculates "slot" sizes for resource allocation for failover VM capacity in cluster operations when hosts are added/removed.

vSphere HA Settings: Performance Degradation VMs Tolerate

• Configuration values determine how much performance degradation VMs can tolerate.

vSphere HA Settings: Heartbeat Datastores

• Configuring which datastores to use for HA operations

vSphere HA Settings: Advanced Options

• Cluster Configuration

Network Configuration and Maintenance

• Deactivate host monitoring before changing virtual network components
• Ensure proper functioning and avoid unexpected failover attempts.

Monitoring vSphere HA Cluster Status

• Summary tab of the Monitor to monitor vSphere HA cluster status
• Look for errors or warnings (i.e., hosts failed, network isolation issues)

Using vSphere HA with vSphere DRS

• vSphere HA integrates with vSphere DRS during failover operations
• DRS helps to maintain balance and optimizes resources among the remaining hosts

About vSphere Fault Tolerance

• Provides instantaneous HA for mission-critical applications
• Maintains identical state between primary and secondary VMs
• Detects and acts upon host failures automatically

vSphere Fault Tolerance Checkpointing

• Describes how changes on the primary VM are reflected (or not) on the secondary VM. This includes memory updates.

vSphere Fault Tolerance with vSphere HA and vSphere DRS

• vSphere HA and DRS are aware of FT.
• vSphere HA is required for FT.
• DRS does not handle fault-tolerant VM migration automatically

vSphere Fault Tolerance Features

• Highlights the features available for vSphere FT (VM count supported per host, Memory, vSphere vMotion support, disk format support, VSAN support.)

Configuring vSphere Fault Tolerance on a VM

• Steps for activating FT on individual VMs within a vSphere environment.
• Setting limitations for memory size and reservation changes after activation of FT.
• Setting limitations for addition/removal of disks while FT is activated

Lab 25: Configuring vSphere HA

• Steps for Configuration and testing of vSphere HA
• Includes information about network, resource, and performance considerations for HA

Review of Learner Objectives & Key Points

• Comprehensive overview of the key concepts, configurations, and functions related to HA and FT.

Test your knowledge of vSphere DRS and its role in cluster management. This quiz covers key features like automation levels, VM recovery, and Lifecycle Management. Perfect for those looking to enhance their understanding of VMware virtualization concepts.