Vmware Fault Tolerance (FT)

Fault Tolerance

Vmware FT provides zero downtime and continuous availability of virtual machines in case of host failure.

This is achieve by creating 'Live Shadow' copy of the running virtual machine and using new fast check-pointing mechanism to keep the primary and the secondary virtual machines in sync.

                                                                                                                          grpahics by vmware

If an ESX Server fails the shadow will take over and a new shadow will be created in the cluster on other ESX Server. The secondary virtual machine is a completely separate including storage for the first time and can now be on a different datastore from the primary.

Its takes the VMHA to the next level, works for all application and most of the guest operating system supports F.T.

Requirement of F.T

• CPU's must Support F.T (check vmware official cpu compatibility list)
• Vmkernel interface on both ESXi host with F.T enabled.
• Host must be in a HA cluster.
• Recommended NIC's of 10 Gig for F.T
• VM's on shared SAN and accessible by server
• vSphere standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus  any of these licence.