Configuring VMware Fault Tolerance

 

 

 

 

 

How to Enable FT Logging

The following steps will show you how to configure a virtual switch for FT logging.

  1. GO to Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters.
  2. Select your ESXi host in the Lab Cluster and view the General pane of the Summary tab. The Summary tab should show No in the Host Configured for FT field.
  3. Click the Configuration tab.
  4. Click the Networking link and click Virtual Switch.
  5. Scroll to the virtual switch that contains the VMware vMotion port group and click properties.
  6. Select the vMotion from the list and click Edit.
  7. Select the Fault Tolerance logging check box and click OK.
  8. Click Yes to dismiss the warning window.
    Because of bandwidth requirements, in a production environment VMware does not recommend enabling both vMotion and FT logging on a single physical or virtual adapter. Instead dedicate one GigE adapter each to vMotion and FT.
  9. Click Close to dismiss the vSwitch Properties dialog box.
  10. Click the Summary tab and confirm that the Host Configured for FT field now shows Yes.

 

 

 

How to Activate FT

The following steps will show you how to enable FT on a virtual machine.

  1. Go to Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters.
  2. Select a virtual machine in the inventory and verify that it meets the requirements for FT.
  3. Right-click the virtual machine and select Power > Shut Down Guest. Click Yes to confirm shutdown.
  4. Right-click the virtual machine and select Fault Tolerance > Turn On Fault Tolerance.
  5. Read the warning window and click Yes to confirm that you want to turn on FT.
  6. Quickly view the virtual machine consoles side by side and watch what happens over the next couple of minutes. (Pay special attentions to the console title bars.)
  7. Click the Lab Cluster’s Virtual Machines tab. View the host information displayed for the primary and secondary virtual machines.
  8. In the Virtual Machines tab, double-click the primary virtual machine to open the virtual machine’s Summary tab. View the FT information.
  9. Access the console of the primary virtual machine. Press Ctrl+C to stop the continuous pings. Close the consoles.

 

 

 

 

How to Disable FT

The following steps will show you how to disable FT for the virtual machine.

    1. In the inventory, right-click the protected virtual machine and select Fault Tolerance.
    2. Click Turn Off Fault Tolerance. A warning message appears. Read the warning message and click No.
    3. Right-click the protected virtual machine and select Fault Tolerance. Select Disable Fault Tolerance. When a warning message appears, read it and click No.
    4. Turn off FT. Right-click the protected virtual machine and select Fault Tolerance > Turn Off Fault Tolerance. At the warning message, click yes.
    5. Verify that the Fault Tolerance pane on the Summary tab is no longer present.