Switch for HA

[open24hrs]

Hello All,

I will be adding a new node (3rd node) in my VMware cluster. Currently I have 2 hosts and HA uses a cross over cable between the 2 hosts. Now that I will be adding a 3rd host I will need to add a switch so there will be HA between all 3 hosts. Are there any recommendations on what type of switch I should use?

Thanks.

[mcowger]

I'd recommend something with decent management that supports 802.1q.

If you like dell, theres: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/powerconnect-5424/pd

If you like HP, theres: http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/products/switches/HP_V1700_Switch_Series/index.aspx

Both are reasonable cheap and support most of what you could want.

[open24hrs]

Thanks for the quick response. I guess if my NICS on the hosts are 1GB speed then I better go for at least a 1GB speed switch. It seems that HA has it own private network, is that standard practice? I guess it wouldnt make sense to connect the HA NICs to the regular switched network then it would just slow things down if I had a host fail??

[mcowger]

HA/mgmt generally has its own network.  Not necessarily for performance (very little traffic ever goes over the network), but for isolation to make sure it is the most rock solid part of the design.

Its not unheard of to put HA on the same network switches as the VM traffic (I've done it myself), but the general bst practive is to have a dedicated VLAN and ports at a minimum.

The nice thing about getting a switch like this is that you can use it for HA as well as VMotion traffic.  Given that its so cheap ($750), its cheap insurance and opens up a lot of options for the future (HA, Fault Tolerance, VMotion, iSCSI traffic).

[bulletprooffool]

You don;t need gigabit switches . .just reliable switches.

The only traffic on the HA network is 'heartbeat' type network to determine whether hosts / VMs are still running.

Failover if handled by restarting a VM on a different host, so the VM is not actually copied or moved or anything.

you'd be be better off buying 2 cheaper, good quality 100MB switches and creating a redundant vSwitch than buying an expensive, single gigabit switch.

Of course, there is no reason for you to not use other switches that you already have in your environment.

[open24hrs]

Since I'll be installing a new switch and I have to transfer the cable to the switch I dont want the hosts to loose the heartbeat and think they should initiate a failover. Is there anyway to temporarily disable HA (without restarting the hosts hopefully) so I can setup the switch and have all 3 nodes on it?

[weinstein5]

You can temporarily disable HA on the cluster - and when the network is switched over reenable HA

[Troy_Clavell]

open24hrs wrote:

Since I'll be installing a new switch and I have to transfer the cable to the switch I dont want the hosts to loose the heartbeat and think they should initiate a failover. Is there anyway to temporarily disable HA (without restarting the hosts hopefully) so I can setup the switch and have all 3 nodes on it?

sure... Just edit settings of the cluster.. Go to Cluster Features, and uncheck "Turn on VMware HA".  This will unconfigure the cluster for HA. Once complete you can do your maintenance, then "Turn on VMware HA" again.

[bulletprooffool]

Right clicking the cluster and disabling HA will not affect your VMs, or ESX hosts, other than to remove the HA agents from the hosts.

Of course, re-enabling it afterwards will take a few minutes, but it is probably the best method fo ryou to achieve what you are trying to do.