MS SQL on dedicated ESX 4.0 host in HA cluster

[fresan]

Hi!

I have 10 ESX 4.0 servers thar are in a HA, DRS cluster. Now I want one of the ESX hosts only to manage a MS SQL virtual machine but i still want HA to kick in in case of this ESX host would fail and restart my SQL on some other ESX host.

So how can I allow only my SQL server to be placed on this ESX but on the same time make sure that a another ESX server restart my SQL in case of a failure?

Regards

[weinstein5]

DRS is what controls where a VM is started and if it is vmotioned while it runs - so what you will have to do is disable DRS for this VM (it is in the per VM DRS settings) and leave HA enbabled - so the VM will restart if the host it is running on fails -

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[fresan]

OK.

But I don't want any other VM to run on this ESX host only the SQL. So how can i control that no other vm is started/placed on this ESX host?

/F

[jcwuerfl]

You may want to upgrade to 4.1 if your not already as there are some new DRS affinity, anti-affinity, server grouping items that will help you do this. It was mostly ISV Licensing issues that caused VMware to put in some additional enhancements but can also be applied I believe in this case to keep SQL on 1 server all the time or fail over to second if needed.

[depping]

Just disable DRS for this specific VM and place it on a specific ESX host. That way when the host fails it will be restarted on any of the other nodes in the cluster.

Duncan

VMware Communities User Moderator | VCDX

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