Does HA require a dedicated network? (simple question)

[admin]

Hi All,

We have a dedicated network for FT in our server virtualization environment.

I am working on a VDI setup for 500 VM's.

Does HA require a dedicated network like FT does?

It is my understanding that the heartbeat is sent over the management console network.  That is what I understood from the whtiepapers.

Thank you,

Drew

[Gerrit_Lehr]

No, you do not. Heartbeat is going through management / SC.

[admin]

Gerrit,
Thank you for the correct answer!

Drew

[vAdmin]

and what about having two VM in separate site (prod and DR) ? can I make HA work across different subnet and sites ?

[Josh26]

Hi,

Can you get HA to work across sites? Sure that's fine.

Question is can you get the required shared storage to work across sites?

[vAdmin]

ah.. that's a good question, yes I suppose it can work because I'm on dark fiber and i am using VLAN so that i can ping my DR site from here.

[Duncan Epping]

please note that if you use DRS as well in your cluster their are specific requirements to have cross site cluster. Also note that when using HA in a fairly large cluster in order for HA to work correctly you will need to ensure you have at least a "primary" node on each site. For more details check my deepdive article on HA: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/vmware-high-availability-deepdiv/

Duncan (VCDX)

Available now on Amazon: vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS technical deepdive

[vAdmin]

great, many thanks or the confirmation Duncan,

my current netowrking technology uses layer3 routing instead of VLAN trunking between the sites, hopefully that'll work for the HA between sites.