Locking VMs into specific hosts within a cluster

[Emil_Frias1]

Is there a way to restrict a VM to a specific set of hosts within a cluster?

I have created DRS rules to separate and keep VMs together but can not find a way (if there is one) to keep VMs locked to a set of hosts within a cluster.

Example.

8 Hosts: 6 with 16GB RAM and 2 with 32GB RAM

2 Development servers which will use 8GB of RAM each

I want to force the 2 Dev. VMs to only migrate between the 2 32GB hosts while allowing other VMs to migrate freely among all of the hosts.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome

Thanks in advance.

[RParker]

I have created DRS rules to separate and keep VMs together but can not find a way (if there is one) to keep VMs locked to a set of hosts within a cluster.

Yes you can but first I have a question, what is the problem with allowing these VM's to migrate to ESX hosts of the same hardware? If your ESX hosts are ALL the same, what's the problem?

You can either edit the DRS settings for these VM's so that they don't migrate at all, or define a rule to keep them separate, but you can't 'lock' them to a single host. But if the hosts are the same hardware and configuration, what difference does it make which host they are on?

[athlon_crazy]

I don't know whether this work or not. Perhaps you can try :

1 - Create one ghost VM (NO OS, power-off) on each ESX hosts (32GB ram)

2 - Don't let this ghost VM to migrate at all in DRS

3 - Set the DRS rule & pairing together your Dev server each with this ghost VM.

Just opinion...

VMware newbie..

Zen Systems Sdn Bhd

www.no-x.org

[mehul96 · Accepted solution]

DRS works within the cluster realm, so there is no way to actually lock VMs to subset within cluster

If creating a separate cluster is not an option, a workaround would be to keep automation level for these VMs to partially automated and then apply only recommendation that moves them to desired hosts. Not a very optimal solution but would still work for non-critical VMs

Mehul

PS: if you find responses correct or helpful, pl consider awarding points to keep the spirit of these forums alive!

[Emil_Frias1]

It is not a problem. I understand that VMs will only migrate to a host with available resources. The owners of the DEV VMs supplied the additional RAM to allow the extra hosts to be brought on-line. This is an attempt to provide them assurance that their VMs will have the resources they require.

[RParker]

This is an attempt to provide them assurance that their VMs will have the resources they require.

That's what reservations are for. Plus the VM's themselves have swap. They will still get their RAM.

Resource pools and reservations is what you want, not a lockdown.

[mehul96]

Ah - we run into this many times!

In this case, you should create a separate resource pool under the cluster for that group, set an appropriate reservation/share and move their VMs to their resource pool.

It would be interesting to know what expectation thay have for CPU when they only paid for extra RAM?

Mehul