Best practices for a domain controller in a DRS cluster

[digitlman77]

Hello all,

We have our 2 domain controllers virtualized.  One is in a DRS cluster, the other is on a 3rd stand alone ESX host.

On the cluster, what's the best way to make sure that the domain controller starts first?  We lost our AC for a while last night (again), and when the cluster hosts came back on, apparently the domain controller didn't come up fully first, leading to a bunch of issues with the other vms.

On the 3rd host, the second DC is set to start first, with all other vms on a 45 second delay.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

If using HA, you can set the restart priority to "high". The can be found by editing the settings of your cluster and "virtual machine options".

[cougar694u]

Edit the cluster settings, go to Virtual Machine Options under VMware  HA.  Set the default VM restart priority to medium (or whatever you  want), and in the Virtual Machine Settings, set your DC to High.  As  long as the DC is set higher than the rest, it should come up first.

**EDIT**
Ha! Troy probably replied about the time I clicked reply.

[digitlman77]

Done.

is there no way to specify a numerical wait setting, like you can with a non-clustered host?

[Troy_Clavell]

not that I'm aware of.  If your host is part of an HA cluster the restart priorities are used instead of the startup/shutdown options.

[digitlman77]

OK.  Thanks guys.

[cougar694u]

I don't believe there is, since HA/DRS are designed to load balance everything anyway, so it powers on VMs and decides where to put them on the fly.

[Troy_Clavell]

Hi digitlman77

Can we assume all your questions have been answered?  If so, can you mark your thread as such?