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New vSphere 6.0 API for configuring SMP-FT

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Symmetric Multi-Processing Fault Tolerance (SMP-FT) is a new feature that was introduced in vSphere 6.0 which allows you to enable FT against a Virtual Machine with up to 4 vCPU. In addition to this new functionality, a new vSphere 6.0 API was also introduced to allow customers to easily manage this from an Automation standpoint. Previously, the CreateSecondaryVM_Task() vSphere API was used to enable Uni-Processing Fault Tolerance (UP-FT). With SMP-FT, there is a now a new vSphere API method called CreateSecondaryVMEx_Task() which supports a few additional parameters which is now required for enabling FT (UP-FT & SMP-FT) compared to the old "Legacy FT" mode.

smp-ft-vsphere-api

Disclaimer: The example script is meant to be used for educational purposes. Please ensure proper testing is done if you decide to use it for Production environments.

I have created a small PowerCLI script called Set-FT.ps1 which exercises this new vSphere 6.0 API and below are examples on how to turn on or off SMP-FT for a VM:
Turning On SMP-FT

Set-FT -vmname "SMP-VM" -Operation on -Datastore "vsanDatastore" -Vmhost "vesxi60-5.primp-industries.com"

Turning off SMP-FT

Set-FT -vmname "SMP-VM" -Operation off -Datastore "vsanDatastore" -Vmhost "vesxi60-5.primp-industries.com"

How to configure SMP-FT using Nested ESXi in vSphere 6?

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Symmetric Multi-Processing Fault Tolerance (SMP-FT) has been a long-awaited feature by many VMware customers. With the release of vSphere 6.0, the SMP-FT capability is now finally available and if you want to try out this new feature and see how it works from a "functional" perspective, you can easily do so by running it in a Nested ESXi environment. SMP-FT no longer uses the "record/replay" capability like its younger brother Uniprocessing Fault Tolerance (UP-FT). Instead, SMP-FT now uses a new Fast Checkpointing technique which not only improves the overall performance of its predecessor but also greatly simplifies and reduces additional configurations when running in a Nested ESXi environment.

Disclaimer: Running SMP-FT in a Nested ESXi environment does not replace or substitute actual testing of physical hardware. For any type of performance testing, please test SMP-FT using real hardware.

Requirements:

  • pESXi host running either ESXi 5.5 or 6.0
  • vCenter Server 6.0
  • 2 x Nested ESXi VMs running ESXi 6.0 (vHW9+)
  • Shared storage for the Nested ESXi VMs

Instructions:

Step 1 - Created a Nested ESXi VM using guestOS type "ESXi 5.5/6.0 or later". You will need at least 2 vCPU or greater, 4GB of memory or greater for the installation of ESXi and most importantly, a VMXNET3 network adapter. The reason a VMXNET3 adapter is required is that SMP-FT has a requirement for 10Gbit network connection and the VMXNET3 driver can simulate a 10Gbit connection for a Nested ESXi VM. For further instructions on creating a Nested ESXi VM, please take a look at this article. If you are unable to add VMXNET3 adapter, you may need to first change the guestOS type to "Other 64-bit", add the adapter and then change the guestOS type back.

smp-ft-nested-esxi-0
Step 2 - Install ESXi 6.0 on the Nested ESXi VM and ensure you also have a vCenter Server 6.0 deployed if you have not done so already and add your Nested ESXi instances to a new vSphere Cluster which has vSphere HA enabled.

Step 3 - You will need to enable both vMotion and Fault Tolerance traffic type for the VMkernel interface that you wish to run FT traffic across.

smp-ft-nested-esxi-1
Step 4 - At this point, you can create a real or dummy VM and power it on. Once you have the powered on VM, you can now enable either UP-FT or SMP-FT by right clicking and selecting "Enable Fault Tolerance".

smp-ft-nested-esxi-2
As you can see from the screenshot above, I have successfully enabled FT on a VM with 4vCPU running inside of a Nested ESXi VM, how cool is that!? Hopefully this will help you get more familiar with the new SMP-FT feature when you are ready to give it a real spin on real hardware 🙂

Note: Intel Sandy Bridge is recommended when using SMP-FT (real physical hardware) but if you have older CPUs, you enable "Legacy FT" mode by adding the following VM Advanced Setting "vm.uselegacyft" to the VM you are enabling FT on.