VM/Host Rules with HA and not DSR

[brudal750]

Hello,

We have created rules on a HA cluster with 2 hosts to move certain VM's to certain hosts.

For this we have created 2 host groups and 2 VM groups:

Host Groups:

Host1: Server 1

Host2: Server 2

VM Groups:

VmG1: VM1

VmG2: VM2

As rules I have created 2 rules:

Rules1: Virtual machines that are members of cluster VM group VMG1 should run on host group Host1.

Rules2: Virtual machines that are members of cluster VM group VMG2 should run on host group Host2.

during a UPS test of Server 2 all VM's on Server1 were migrated automatically.

But after starting server2 VM2 is not migrated back to server2.

Do I still need to trigger/start the rules somehow (the rules are enabled)?

[scott28tt]

@brudal750 

Was this just a copy/paste error? (did you mean Host2 rather than Host1)

"Rules2: Virtual machines that are members of cluster VM group VMG2 should run on host group Host1."

[berndweyand]

do you have drs enabled or not ? if not then the rules wont work.

what you have seen during ups test was HA - which has nothing to do with DRS

[brudal750]

Hello,

yes it was a copy/paste error.

If have fixed

thank you

[brudal750]

DRS is disable (is it not possiply with Essentials Plus Kit)

is it possible to run some vm's out of the cluster on a defined host when HA is enabled??

[berndweyand]

ok without drs there is no reason to create drs rules - they are needless

if only ha is working then place the vm to the host you want. they will never be migrated. only during an ha-event they will be restarted on the other host and you have to manually migrate them back when the failed host is recovered

[brudal750]

I did not realize that these rules only apply to drs.

is there no way without migrate manually?

[berndweyand]

no - without drs there is no automatism - you have to manually migrate.

if you want to automate have a look at powercli

[depping]

Actually, these are Cluster level rules. Both HA and DRS will take them into consideration. However, if you do not have DRS enabled, you will need to manually ensure the VMs are placed correctly, unfortunately. If however then a situation occurs where a restart needs to happen of the VM by vSphere HA, then HA will take the rule into consideration. 

[berndweyand]

ok thats new to me that ha pays attention to drs rules - you never stop learning 🙂