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VMware ESX Server Administration Guide
Cost-effective Standby Host — Provide a standby host for multiple physical
machines on one standby box with multiple virtual machines.
A standby host using three virtual machines on a single physical machine; all are running clustering software.
Configuring Virtual Machine Clusters with Shared Disks
To create a set of clustered virtual machines, you need to configure each of them with
the following:
• A primary virtual SCSI host adapter with one SCSI virtual disk
• At least two virtual network adapters
• A public network adapter connected to vmnicx (that is, to vmnic0 or
higher). A vmnic is a virtual machine device that uses a network adapter
dedicated to the virtual machines.
• A private network adapter connected to vmnicx (that is, to vmnic0 or
higher) or to vmnet_x (that is, to vmnet_0 or higher). This device selection
must match in all virtual machines in a cluster set. This is the network adapter
that the clustering service will use to monitor the heartbeat between nodes.
• The remaining default virtual machine devices (such as the CD-ROM drive and
the floppy disk drive).
In addition to the above devices, the following is required for shared storage:
• A secondary virtual SCSI host adapter
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