Planning and Implementing VMWare FT.

Question 1

VMWare FT Requirements.

Answer 1

Designed for critical VMs.
vSphere 6 supports FT for VMs with up to four vCPUs.

1. vSphere Configuration: All host hardware must be certified for FT and all hosts must have certificate checking enabled. Minimum of three hosts in a cluster.
2. Storage: VMs must provisioned with shared storage. With vSphere 6, can be eager zero thick, thick or thin. Can now be backed up in normal manner because each VM has its own VMDK in shared storage.
3. Networking: vSphere 6 FT requires a minimum of two 1 Gbps vmnics. One for vMotion and one FT logging. 10 Gbps vmnics are recommended.
   vMotion and FT logging should be configured on separate virtual switches and on separate VLANs.
   Three or more vmnics are recommended.
   Fast Checkpoint technology.
4. Processor: Up to four vCPU VMs supported with Enterprise Plus licensing.
   Standard supports two vCPUs on FT VM.
   VMs must run a supported guest OS.
   Host processors must be compatible with one another.
5. Host BIOS: Hosts must have hardware virtualization enabled. Must run same instruction set.

Question 2

Config VMWare FT Networking.

Answer 2

Two separate switches on two subnets: one for vMotion and one for FT Logging.

1. Distribute each vmnic team over two physical switches to eliminate SPOF.
2. Use deterministic teaming policy (i.e. Originating Port ID). Ensures specific traffic type stay on their vmnics.
3. When using active/standby policies, take into account the traffic types that would share a vmnic in the event of a failure.
4. Configure all active adapters for a particular type of traffic (e.g. FT Logging) to the same physical switch. The standby adapter should use the physical switch.

Question 3

Enabling/Disabling FT on VM.

Answer 3

Secondary VM not connected to the network normally but by using FT Logging and Fast Checkpoint technology.

With vSphere 6, you can enable FT on a VM that is powered on.

Monitor the Recent Tasks pane and your inventory to see the changes.

Question 4

Determine Use Case for Enabling VMWare FT on VM.

Answer 4

1. Applications that need to be available at all times, even in the event of hardware failure.
2. Custom applications that are not cluster-aware and have no other way of being protected from physical failure.
3. Clustering is beyond capabilities of administrators.
4. When critical transaction is happening, such as the transfer of large DB or creation of time-sensitive report. FT can be enabled “on demand” for the servers used in this event and disabled when the transaction is finished.