Failover of a virtualized server

820 pts.
Failover Clustering
Server virtualization
Assume that a virtualized server running five virtual machines has a hardware failure that takes the physical device down, in an active to active failover enviroment of multiple nodes do all the virtual machines failover to the same node in a cluster or could each virtual machine go to a different node?

If a single machine in the virtual server discribed above fails, will that macchine be failed over to another node and all the other machine stay on the original physical server, or will a failure of one machine cause all the machines to be failed over to other nodes?

Answer Wiki


in a 2008 failover cluster running on 2008 R2 and Hyper-V R2, when you create the VM, you designate the preferred owner and the order for which the VM will fail over. For example, VM1 has preferred owners of node1, node2, and node3 listed in the general properties of the VM. VM2 has preferred owners of node3, node2, and node1 listed in that order. If both VMs are located on node1 and it fails, VM1 will fail over to node2 and VM2 will fail over to node3.
In 2008 R2, using cluster shared volumes, each VM acts independently of all others so you can move them without affecting other VMs. You can use quick migration or live migration to move VMs between nodes.

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  • Jim4522
    Spadasoe, I get the impression from what you and others have said that configuring a failover cluster is a complex process. Is it reasonable that in a data center that has thousands of servers that all of them are eventually going to be included in failover clusters
    820 pointsBadges:
  • Denny Cherry
    Which Virtualization platform are you using?
    67,485 pointsBadges:
  • Spadasoe
    Jim Failover clustering is not difficult but you do need to pay attention to detail when setting up a failover cluster. With Hyper-V the real pain points are in virtual network configuration. I think it is more likely that you will see a greater increase in virtualization but not necessarily in clustering. The costs associated with failover clusters may preclude their proliferation. I think it is more likely you will see an increase in the use of SAN storage being shifted to virtualization usage.
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