If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 1)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 2)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 3)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 4)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 5)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 6)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 7)
Throughout this article series, I have discussed the ins and outs of Windows Failover Clustering, especially as it relates to Microsoft Hyper-V. In this article, I want to address a situation that you may encounter in the real world.
OK, so here is the scenario that I want to discuss. Imagine for a moment that a relatively small organization has been using one or more standalone Hyper-V servers to host their production workloads. Perhaps they were protecting their virtual machines using Hyper-V replication or some other protective mechanism, but they have finally accepted the need for failover clustering and have constructed a failover cluster. Now the organization must consider how they will be able to move their production workloads over to the failover cluster and then make those workloads fault tolerant.
On the surface this sounds like a really simple task. In all honesty, there is nothing overly difficult about the process, but some of the steps are really non-intuitive, which is why I wanted to walk you through the process.
In order to complete our objective, there are three things that have to happen:
- The virtual machine has to be moved from the standalone Hyper-V server to a failover cluster node.
- The virtual machine’s components have to be placed on cluster storage.
- The virtual machine must be made fault tolerant.
None of these tasks are overly difficult, but there are several steps involved in the process.
Step 1: Move the Virtual Machine From a Standalone Hyper-V Server to a Cluster Node
The first step in the process is to move the virtual machine from a standalone Hyper-V server to a failover cluster node. Assuming that all of the Hyper-V servers belong to a common management domain, you should be able to accomplish this step by performing a live migration.
Live migrations are really simple to perform, but before you can live migrate a virtual machine to a cluster node, you will have to make sure that live migrations are enabled for the node. You can do this in either the Hyper-V Manager or in System Center Virtual Machine Manager. If you want to use Virtual Machine Manager, then select the VMs and Services workspace and then right click on the cluster node and select the Properties command from the shortcut menu. You can configure inbound live migrations through the Migration Settings portion of the host Properties dialog box, shown in Figure A.
Figure A: Inbound live migrations must be enabled on the cluster nodes.
To live migrate the virtual machine using System Center Virtual Machine Manager, select the host server on which the virtual machine currently resides to reveal a list of the virtual machines running on that server. Next, right click on the virtual machine and choose the Migrate Virtual Machine command from the shortcut menu, as shown in Figure B.
Figure B: Right click on the virtual machine and choose the Migrate Virtual Machine command from the shortcut menu.
At this point, Virtual Machine Manager will launch the Migrate VM Wizard. Select the cluster node to which you want to migrate the virtual machine, as shown in Figure C, and click Next. If no connection to the virtual machine network can be found then you may need to shut down the virtual machine and disconnect the virtual network adapter. You can re-enable the virtual network adapter once the migration is complete.
Figure C: Select the cluster node to which you want to migrate the virtual machine.
At this point, you will see a screen similar to the one shown in Figure D, which asks for the storage location that you want to use for the virtual machine. You could save a step and use this step to move the virtual machine to the cluster storage, but I am going to show you how to do that as a separate process later on.
Figure D: Choose the VM storage location.
Click Next and you will see a screen asking which virtual network you would like to connect the virtual machine to. Make your selection and click Next. You should now see a screen displaying the summary information for your move. Make sure that the summary information looks good and then click the Move button.
Step 2: Moving the Virtual Machine to Cluster Storage
Once the virtual machine has been migrated to a cluster node, the next step in the process is to move the virtual machine to cluster storage. This is actually very easy to do. Within Virtual Machine Manager, click on the cluster node on which the virtual machine resides and then right click on the VM and select the Migrate Storage command from the shortcut menu, as was shown in Figure B. When you do, Virtual Machine Manager will launch the Migrate Storage Wizard.
The wizard’s initial screen asks you to choose the new storage location. You will typically need to pick C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1 as the storage location (your location may vary), and choose the option to automatically place all VHDs, as shown in Figure E. Click Next, followed by Move, and the virtual machine will be moved to cluster storage.
Step 3: Make the Virtual Machine Highly Available
The last step in the process involves making the virtual machine highly available. As it stands right now, the virtual machine is running on a cluster node and the virtual hard disks reside on a cluster volume. Even so, the virtual machine is not yet clustered.
Early in this series, I showed you how to use the Failover Cluster Manager to make a virtual machine highly available, but you can use Virtual Machine Manager instead. However, the process involved in doing so is anything but intuitive. Basically, you have to perform a live migration to nowhere. Let me show you what I mean.
To make the virtual machine highly available using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2, select the host server where the virtual machine currently resides. Next, right click on the virtual machine and then select the Migrate Virtual Machine command from the shortcut menu, as shown in Figure B. This will cause Virtual Machine Manager to launch the now familiar Migrate VM Wizard.
As you will recall, the wizard’s initial screen asks you which host you want to migrate the virtual machine to. Choose the same host where the virtual machine currently resides. If you look at Figure C, you will notice that the screen contains a checkbox labeled Make This VM Highly Available. You must select this checkbox. Now, simply work your way through the remainder of the Migrate VM Wizard. You won’t be performing a true migration because the virtual machine isn’t going anywhere, but the process will make the VM highly available.
Conclusion
In this article series, I have discussed failover clustering, especially as it relates to Hyper-V virtual machines. In doing so, I have talked about concepts such as building a cluster, migrating virtual machines to a cluster, making virtual machines highly available, and even prioritizing your virtual machines.
If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 1)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 2)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 3)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 4)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 5)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 6)
- Taking a Fresh Look at Hyper-V Clusters (Part 7)
