VCP6-DCV Exam Cram Notes: Section 9 of 10

Section 9 - Configure and Administer vSphere Availability Solutions

Objective 9.1 - Configure Advanced vSphere HA Features

Enable/Disable Advanced vSphere HA Settings:
vSphere HA > Edit > Edit Cluster Settings > Advanced Options > Add
das.isolationAddress[...] - the address to ping to determine if a host is isolated from the network
das.useDefaultIsolationAddress {true/false} - by default HA uses the default gateway of the console network as an isolation address
das.isolationShutdownTimeout - period of time the system waits for a VM to shut down before powering it off (only applies if host’s isolation response is ‘Shut Down’). Default value 300 seconds.
das.slotMemInMb - Defines the maximum bound on the memory slot size
das.slotCPUinMhz - Defines the maximum bound on the CPU slot size
das.vmMemoryMinMb - Defines the default memory resource value assigned to a VM if its memory reservation is 0 (default 0 MB)
das.vmCPUminMhz - Defines a default CPU resource value assigned to a VM if its CPU reservation is 0 (default 32 MHz)
das.ioStatsInterval - Change the default I/O stats interval for VM Monitoring sensitivity (default 120 seconds)
das.ignoreInsufficientHbDatastore - Disables config issues created if host does not have sufficient heartbeat datastores
das.heartbeatDsPerHost - Change number of heartbeat datastores required (default 2)
fdm.isolationPolicyDelaySec - Wait time in seconds before executing the isolation policy
das.respectVmVmAntiAffinityRules - Determines if HA enforces VM-VM anti-affinity rules
das.maxResets - Max number of reset attempts made by VMCP
das.maxTerminates - Max number of retries made by VMCP for VM termination
das.terminateRetryIntervalSec - If VMCP fails to terminate a VM, wait time in seconds before retry
das.config.fdm.reportFailoverFailEvent - When set to 1, enables generation of a detailed per-VM event when an attempt by HA to restart a VM is unsuccessful (default 0)
vpxd.das.completeMetaDataUpdateIntervalSec - seconds after a VM-Host affinity rule is set during which HA can restart a VM (default 300 seconds)
das.config.fdm.memReservationMb - by default vSphere HA agents run with memory limit of 250 MB - use this option to lower the limit

vSphere HA utilizes the concept of master and slave hosts to build out a HA cluster:
- hosts communicate with each other using network heartbeats every second
- master host is responsible for detecting failure of slave hosts in the cluster
- if master stops receiving heartbeats from a slave, it checks slave’s datastore heartbeats, tries ICMP ping of slave’s management IP; if all checks fail, slave is considered failed and its VMs are restarted

Identify ‘VM Overrides’:
Each VM in a vSphere HA cluster is assigned cluster default settings for:
- VM Restart Priority
- Host Isolation Response
- VM Component Protection
- VM Monitoring

VM Component Protection (VMCP) Settings: Protects against datastore accessibility failures
- PDL: Permanent Device Loss - storage device reports datastore is no longer accessible
- APD: All Paths Down - transient or unknown accessibility loss, or unidentified delay in I/O processing
Configure: Tick ‘Protect against Storage Connectivity Loss’
- PDL Failures: VM is automatically failed over to a new host unless VMCP is configured to only ‘Issue Events
- ADP Events: ‘Delay for VM failover’ then Conservative or Aggressive restart

Objective 9.2 - Configure Advanced vSphere DRS Features

Identify Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Affinity Rules:
- VM-Host Affinity (or Anti-Affinity)
- VM-VM Affinity (or Anti-Affinity)
Affinity = DRS tries to keep (groups) together
Anti-Affinity = DRS tries to keep (groups) apart
Note: Types of DRS Group = ‘Host Group’ or ‘VM Group’

VM-Host rule specifications:
- Must run on hosts in group
- Should run on hosts in group
- Must not run on hosts in group
- Should not run on hosts in group

VM-VM rule types:
- Separate Virtual Machines
- Keep Virtual Machines Together

Note: Create a VM to VM anti-affinity rule - to make sure that in the event of hardware failure of a host, VMs are not on the same host at the same time.

Configure Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Automation Levels:
Manual: Initial placement - Recommended host is displayed
Manual: Migration - Recommendation is displayed
Partially Automated: Initial placement - Automatic
Partially Automated: Migration - Recommendation is displayed
Fully Automated: Initial Placement - Automatic
Fully Automated: Migration - Recommendation is executed automatically

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