Auto Start HA

[SilviaFP]

Hello,

I'am using VMware  ESXi 6.7.0. to configure a HA system. In case of power loss, I  want the system to start up the virtual machines in a specific order and an specific server. 

• I have selected "Guest heartbeats detected" as VM dependency restart condition
• I have created a VM group for each virtual machine (1-srv1,2-srv1,....1-srv2,2-srv2...)
• I have created Virtual machine to host rules, selecting the server where the virtual machine SHOULD run
• I have created virtual machine to virtual machines rules to select the previous group to check before starting a new virtual machine group as follows :

     1-SRV1 -> 2_SRV1 -> 3-SRV1....

     1-SRV2 -> 2-SRV2 -> 3- SRV2... 

     After the power loss,  1-srv1 and 1-srv2 groups start but another groups start at the same time ,n ot only this two groups. In additin the virtual machines are running not always in the server where they should run.

I will appreciate if someone can give a clue where the error is or if my configuration is wrong or incomplete.

Thank you in advance.

[depping]

Well first and foremost: a should rule does not provide any guarantees. A should rule is what it says it is "the VM should run on a particular host, but if the host is unavailable than the VM can get started on any other host in the cluster."

Secondly, how are you configuring the VM dependency? Are you using Restart Priority or are you defining explicit rules for that as well? Note that the rules means that HA will follow anything within a rule set, but not across rule sets. So it will power on the first group at the same time as the second group.

[depping]

Also, moved your question to the vSphere HA sub forum, as that is basically the topic.

[SilviaFP]

Thank you Duncan, I'm using explicit rules based on group dependency. After a power off,  1- srv01 and 1-srv02 groups start but, for example  3-srv01,6-srv01,5-srv2 groups start at the same time. it seems that it is starting all the virtual machines but not paying attention to the defined rules.

Regards

[SilviaFP]

I followed the steps of this article to configure it

https://www.sikich.com/insight/setting-virtual-machine-start-order-with-vmware-vsphere-6-7-high-avai...

[depping]

That is strange, I have not experienced this behavior. But I have never created this number of dependencies. I am not 100% confident the scheduler is smart enough to detect multiple levels. It wouldn't surprise me if it only takes 1 level in to account, which would explain what you are seeing. If I have time I will try to validate this in the lab later today.

[depping]

Most people use "restart priority" by the way, Because if 1 of your VMs cannot be restarted it could also result in the whole group not being restarted, which is pretty risky

[SilviaFP]

When you say "restart priority",  you mean the configuration that is done on each host, enabling  the auto start and selecting  the order, am I right?