ESX clusters and HA / DRS

[TheVMinator]

Is it possible to take an ESX host that is part of a cluster where DRS and HA are enabled, and Disable only DRS on it?  This way DRS won't try to move vms onto it that you move off of it - but if another host fails HA can still use it to restart VMs.

[AndreTheGiant]

You can create (in 4.1) host affinity rules for other hosts.

Andre

[bulletprooffool]

HA and DRS are independent of each other. You can enable HA without enabling DRS.

DRS manages resources by vMotioning VMs around, HA does not use vMotion for anything.

Also, setting Processor affinity rules foce VMs to stay on specific hosts.

Lastly, if you right click your cluster and enable DRS, you can go VMWare DRS - Rules -> virtual Machine options and disable DRS for any specific VMs that you choose to.

[TheVMinator]

OK thanks.  The goal here is to be able to take one host in an existing DRS cluster, move all vms off of it without putting it in maintenance mode.  DRS should still keep running on all the other hosts though.  I can disable DRS for an individual VM but can I disable it for an individual ESX host?

[Troy_Clavell]

why not disconnect the host from the cluster, move it to be standalone within the datacenter, then vmotion all the guests onto other hosts in the DRS cluster.