vmware.info has posted a really nice flash simulator for setting up Fault Tolerance in vSphere. This simulation gives you a great idea of how to configure and test the Fault Tolerance feature if you aren’t running vSphere in your lab. I’ll go more into what Fault Tolerance is, and how to use it in future posts. Until then, Check out the simulation!
Host requirements:
- CPUs: Only recent HV-compatible processors (AMD Barcelona+, Intel Harpertown+), processors must be the same family
- All hosts must be running the same build of VMware ESX
- Storage: shared storage (FC, iSCSI, or NAS)
- Hosts must be in an HA-enabled cluster
- Separate VMotion NIC and FT logging NIC, each Gigabit Ethernet (10GB recommended)
- System BIOS must be at mnimum version
- Hardware virtualization (Intel VT for Intel Procs) must be enabled
VM requirements:
- VMs must be single-processor (no vSMP)
- All VM disks must be “thick” (fully-allocated)
- No non-replayable devices (USB, sound, physical CD-ROM, physical floppy, physical RDMs)
- Make sure paravirtualization is not enabled by default
