VMware Prerequisites : Quick reference

vMotion

• Host must be licensed for vMotion
• Configure host with at least one vMotion n/w interface (vmkernel port group)
• Shared storage (this has been compromised in 5.1)
• Same VLAN and VLAN label
• GigaBit ethernet network required between hosts
• Processor compatibility between hosts
• vMotion does not support migration of applications clustered using Microsoft clustering service
• No CD ROM attached
• No affinity is enabled
• VMware tools should be installed

Fault Tolerance

Host requirements

• Hosts should have license for FT feature
• Hosts must have processors from the FT compatible processor group

Cluster requirements

• There should be at least two hosts with the same host build number
• The hosts should have the same datastores and networks
• FT logging and vMotion networking should be configured
• VMware HA should be enabled

VM requirements

• VM must be stored in vmdk or virtual RDM files that are thick provisioned
• VM files should be on shared storage
• Only VMs with single vCPU is supported by FT
• VM should be running on one of the supported operating systems

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

• Shared storage is required for the hosts in the DRS cluster
• Processor compatibility of hosts in the DRS cluster
• Should meet all vMotion prerequisites
• DRS is required for the working of DPM

High Availability

• All hosts must be licensed for HA
• All hosts must have access to the same management network
• All hosts must have access to the same VM networks and datastores
• For VMM, VMware tools must be installed
• All hosts must have DNS configured