6.5

Configuring Public Network Connection Checks
The Network Monitoring page allows you to view the status of the network and make adjustments to the IP
addresses used to ping multiple servers within the network.
The Principal (Public) network monitoring feature, previously discussed, is enabled by default during the
installation of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat. This feature integrates the polling of designated waypoints
around the network through the active server’s Principal (Public) connection to ensure connectivity with the
Principal (Public) network is operational. By default, the IP addresses of the default gateway, the primary DNS
server, and the global catalog server are all selected. When one or more of the automatically discovered
waypoints are co-located on a physical machine (leading to duplication of IP addresses), the ability to override
existing settings and specify additional waypoints manually becomes an advantage.
Procedure
◆
To specify a manual target for Principal (Public) network checking, click Congure Pings to invoke the
Ping Conguration dialog. Select the Ping Routing tab to modify the existing target IP addresses for each
server to ping.
Note If IP address values are added to the Network Monitoring > Ping Conguration > Ping Routing
dialog, the new values added will replace the default ping targets of the global catalog, primary DNS
server, and default gateway.
In a WAN environment, the target addresses for Principal (Public) network monitoring on the Secondary
server may be dierent to those automatically selected on the Primary server. Again, the ability to override
automatically discovered selections is provided by manually specifying the target address.
Principal (Public) Network Monitoring is carried out by the active server eectively pinging the target
addresses at regular time intervals. The time interval is set by default to every 10 seconds but the frequency
may be increased or decreased as required. Each target is allowed 5 seconds (default) to respond. On
slower networks where latency and network collisions are high, increase this interval by changing the
Ping echo timeout value.
The failure of all three targets to respond is allowed up to the Auto-switchover if client network is lost for
threshold value. If the failure count of all three targets exceeds this value, vCenter Server Heartbeat initiates
an auto-switchover.
Enabling Automatic Switchover in a WAN
By default, when deployed in a WAN environment, auto-switchover is disabled. To enable auto-switchover
in a WAN environment, follow the steps below.
Procedure
1 In the vCenter Server Heartbeat Console, select the Network tab to display the Network Monitoring page.
2 Click Congure Auto-switchover.
3 Select the Auto-switchover if client network connectivity lost for check box.
4 Congure the number of pings to wait before performing the auto-switchover.
5 Click OK.
42 VMware, Inc.
Administrator Guide