6.3

Installation Guide
14 VMware, Inc.
Figure 1-3. Apply Process
The apply process running on the passive server’s receive queue applies all updates in strict sequence,
duplicating an identical set of file operations on the passive server as illustrated in Figure 1-3.
Communications
The VMware Channel is a crucial component of the setup and can be configured in a number of ways.
Both the Primary and Secondary servers must have two or more network interface connections (NICs).
The Principal (Public) network requires one NIC. The VMware Channel uses a separate NIC for the private
connection between the servers used for control and data transfer between the pair of servers.
A second pair of NICs can be used to provide a degree of redundancy for the VMware Channel. In this
configuration, the VMware Channel has a dual channel if more than one dedicated NIC is provided for the
VMware Channel on each server. To provide added resilience, the communications for the second channel
must be completely independent from the first channel. They must not share any switches, virtual switches,
routers or the same WAN connection.
Figure 1-4. Communication Between Primary and Secondary Servers
The IP address a client uses to connect to the active server (the Principal (Public) IP address) must be
configured as a static IP address, that is, not DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) enabled. In the
figure above, the IP address is configured as 192.168.1.127.
NOTE Obtain the IP address: type ipconfig at the prompt in a DOS shell. For additional information about
the IP configuration, add the switch /All to the ipconfig command.