VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) cluster
In this use case, we discuss the recommended configuration and best practices for installing the Exinda Virtual Appliance on VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) cluster. For this use-case, you require:
- Exinda firmware version – 7.4.9
- Hypervisor Fault Tolerance Cluster (software versions 5.5 and 6.0)
- vMotion support
- vMotion = Yes for INLINE
- VMware best practice recommends that at least 4 hosts are used for this configuration
- Licensing for the Exinda Virtual Appliance units will include one full license and one cold standby license.
- Each Exinda Virtual Appliance must maintain network connectivity with the Exinda License server and will shut down the Exinda virtual appliance after 96 hours without a successful connection.
- Optionally, the Exinda Virtual Appliance can co-reside with the Application workloads, but an external switch and an additional NIC is required for vMotion support.
Use-case for VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) cluster
In this use-case:
- There are four hypervisor hosts:
- one running virtual workloads and a second as the Fault Tolerance system
- one running Exinda Virtual Appliance active and a second running as a cold standby and Fault Tolerant.
- Optionally, move the Exinda Virtual Appliance to co-reside on the same hosts as the virtual workloads; however if vMotion is a requirement you must provide an external switch and separate NIC to pass the traffic between the workloads and the Exinda Virtual Appliance.
- Having a separate host for the Exinda Virtual Appliance allows you to:
- Segment other virtual appliances from the application workloads.
- Support vMotion just for the application workloads, and not for the host running the Exinda virtual appliance.
- There are two networks:
- A management network for vMotion and access to the external workload VMDK data stores
- A production network for data traffic to and from the applications and WANWide Area Network
- This configuration assumes INLINE mode; optionally you can run in out of path mode which requires WCCP.