DRS

[Encino40]

If I have a DRS cluster (not using HA) and if one of my ESXi servers goes down will the guests be moved to one of the other ESXi servers? They all have access to the SAN where the VM's are stored.

 

[Titleist]

No, they won't move. DRS basically just load balances your ESX servers. You need to enable HA for automatic failover.

John

 

[Encino40]

OK, so if I do not have HA enabled is there a way to get the VM's up?
I understand that DRS is like load balancing so I though that if the one server died it it would see that it doesnt have the resources and move it to another ESXi server.

 

[Titleist]

Without some elaborate scripting, i don't think it's possible. If you have DRS you must have HA. Why not use it?

 

[Encino40]

I was just curious if HA was not enabled how I would get the failed guests started.

 

[ArizonaGeek]

You would have to manually start the VMs if a host failed. Like Titleist says, it might be possible with some elaborate scripting but if you have DRS you have HA it would be FAR easier just to turn it on.

You can control the start up order of the VMs after a failure, there is a post a few down from this one on how to do it. You can also write affinity rules to keep machines together or apart after a failure just an FYI here are the instructions:

http://bit.ly/Khu6VO

Is there a specific reason you do not want to use HA?

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!