HA Requirements

Before you can configure HA on a resource pool, you must ensure that the following requirements are satisfied for all servers and virtual machines in the pool:

• Shared storage must be available, including at least one iSCSI, Fibre Channel or NFS LUN of 356 MiB or greater which will be used for the heartbeat SR. If you are using a NetApp or EqualLogic storage array, then you should manually provision an iSCSI LUN on the array to use for the heartbeat SR.
• We strongly recommend the use of a bonded management interface on the servers in the pool if HA is enabled, and multipath storage for the heartbeat SR.
• Adequate licenses must be installed on all servers.

• All the virtual machines you want to protect with HA must be agile . This means:

  • Virtual disks must be on shared storage. Any type of shared storage may be used; the iSCSI, Fibre Channel or NFS LUN is only required for the storage heartbeat and can be used for virtual disk storage if you prefer, but this is not necessary.
  • Virtual network interfaces must be on pool-wide networks.
  • No connection should be configured to any local DVD drive.

  VMs that are not agile (for example, with a physical CD drive mapped in from a server) can only be assigned a Restart if possible HA restart priority since they are tied to one server.