{"id":22766,"date":"2018-01-22T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T08:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/?p=22766"},"modified":"2023-07-16T11:27:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T09:27:57","slug":"vmware-vcenter-high-availability-maintenance-test-failover-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/vmware-vcenter-high-availability-maintenance-test-failover-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"VMware vCenter High Availability: maintenance and test failover - pt.2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-01\"<\/p>\n

Once the HA cluster has been created, the vCenter High Availability maintenance and test failover procedures ensure the VCSA 6.5<\/a> is protected against multiple types of hardware and software failures<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When the vCenter Server nodes (Active, Passive and Witness) have been deployed, the\u00a0maintenance and test failover<\/strong>\u00a0of the HA cluster should be performed on regular basis to guarantee a\u00a0working and protected<\/strong>\u00a0cluster.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blog Series<\/h2>\n

VMware vCenter High Availability: setup - pt.1<\/a>
\nVMware vCenter High Availability: maintenance and test failover - pt.2<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monitoring the HA cluster status<\/h2>\n

Checking the vCenter Server HA status on regulare basis, ensures the maximum protection for the virtual infrastructure functionality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To check the current status of the HA cluster, open the vSphere Web Client and select\u00a0Configure > vCenter HA<\/strong>. Click vCenter HA Monitoring<\/strong>\u00a0to access the monitoring window.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-02\"<\/p>\n

The window displays the current status of the Active, Passive and Witness nodes. Click vCenter HA Settings<\/strong> to go back to the management page.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-03\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HA cluster maintenance<\/h2>\n

The HA cluster is enabled by default and performs an automated failover<\/strong> when a failure occurs. If you need to control the behavior of the HA cluster, from the vCenter HA<\/strong> area click on\u00a0Edit<\/strong> button.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-04\"<\/p>\n

Selecting the\u00a0Maintenance mode<\/strong> option, the automatic failover is disabled but replication still works<\/strong> between Active and Passive nodes. Click OK<\/strong> to\u00a0 confirm. This option is used during the update procedure of the vCenter Server.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-05\"<\/p>\n

When the HA cluster is in Maintenance Mode, the current Status<\/strong> is displayed in the table.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-06\"<\/p>\n

Selecting Disable vCenter HA<\/strong>\u00a0option, it disables both\u00a0failover and replication<\/strong> but HA configuration remains intact<\/strong>. Click OK<\/strong> to confirm.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-07\"<\/p>\n

When the HA cluster is disabled, the current Status<\/strong> is displayed in the table.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-08\"<\/p>\n

Selecting the Remove vCenter HA<\/strong> option the HA cluster is completely removed<\/strong>\u00a0but the Active node continues to run normally.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-09\"<\/p>\n

If the HA cluster is in Maintenance Mode or Disabled, select Enable vCenter HA<\/strong> to restore the default HA cluster functionality.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-10\"<\/p>\n

When the HA cluster is enabled, it requires some minutes before the automatic failover protection is available<\/strong> again since the intial replication may still be\u00a0in progress.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-11\"<\/p>\n

The vCenter HA is available again and the automatic failover protection is enabled.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-12\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Backup and Restore<\/h2>\n

As backup strategy, backup the Active node only<\/strong> skipping the Passive and Witness nodes. In case you need to restore the Active node<\/strong>, you must remove the HA cluster<\/strong> configuration, restore and re-create the HA cluster<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-13\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Testing failover<\/h2>\n

To test the failover, from Configure > vCenter HA<\/strong> area click the Initiate Failover<\/strong> button.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-14\"<\/p>\n

Flag the Force the failover...<\/strong> option then click Yes<\/strong> to initiate the failover.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-15\"<\/p>\n

You can view the failover progress<\/strong> from the browser by using, of course, same DNS name or IP address. VMware reports an RTO of 5 minutes<\/strong>, maybe a little bit to high but surely will be improved in future releases.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-16\"<\/p>\n

The Passive node took over<\/strong> the Active role and the HA IP address (in the example 192.168.70.10) remained, as expected, the same.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-17\"<\/p>\n

When the Active node comes back, the normal status is restored.<\/p>\n

\"vcha-maintenance-test-failover-18\"<\/p>\n

Configuring the vCenter Server HA ensure an higher level of protection<\/strong> for your virtual environment with no extra licenses<\/strong> required. Testing failover is the good way to make sure that everything works as expected<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once the HA cluster has been created, the vCenter High Availability maintenance and test failover procedures ensure the VCSA 6.5 is protected against multiple types of hardware and software failures. When the vCenter Server nodes (Active, Passive and Witness) have been deployed, the\u00a0maintenance and test failover\u00a0of the HA cluster should be performed on regular basis to guarantee a\u00a0working and protected\u00a0cluster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"linkedin_93tdZWzMZc_93tdZWzMZc":"","facebook_2879994398731222_17841400390232720":"","twitter_113568041_113568041":"","mastodon_115463926174894442_115463926174894442":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[903,2701],"tags":[1781,1805,467,583],"class_list":["post-22766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vmware-en","category-vsphere-en","tag-failover","tag-high-availability","tag-maintenance","tag-vcenter-en","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nolabnoparty.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}