High availability installation of NetCrunch

Here's how to implement it in no time it using what you (most probably) already have in your network.

Fault tolerance is an essential aspect of modern computing systems that ensures that applications and services remain available even in the presence of hardware or software failures. In virtualized environments, fault tolerance can be implemented to continue operating even if the underlying hardware or software fails.

Fault tolerance capabilities of leading virtualization platforms

One of the vital virtualization platforms that provide fault tolerance capabilities is VMware vSphere. vSphere offers several features that enable fault tolerance, including vSphere High Availability (HA) and vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT). vSphere HA provides automated failover for virtual machines in the event of a host failure. In contrast, vSphere FT delivers continuous availability for virtual machines by creating a live, redundant copy of a virtual machine on a secondary host.

Hyper-V, Microsoft's virtualization platform, also provides fault tolerance capabilities through its Failover Clustering feature. Failover Clustering allows virtual machines to be configured in a highly available configuration, where a virtual machine is automatically moved to a different host in the event of a hardware or software failure.

NetCrunch is designed for running on virtual machines

When used with the NetCrunch network monitoring system, fault tolerance can provide additional benefits, including improved reliability, enhanced performance, and reduced complexity. Whether you are using vSphere or Hyper-V, it is essential to ensure that fault tolerance is configured correctly to maximize the benefits of this technology.

Enabling fault tolerance using vCenter

Prerequisites

To configure fault tolerance in vCenter, you can follow these steps, making sure that you have the appropriate licenses to enable fault tolerance. Fault tolerance is only available in the vSphere Enterprise Plus edition.

Next, verify that your hardware is compatible with fault tolerance. Fault tolerance requires specific hardware features such as hardware virtualization support (Intel VT or AMD-V) and processors that support hardware virtualization.

Follow these steps to configure vSphere High Availability (HA) on the cluster where you want to enable fault tolerance.

1. Select the virtual machine for which you want to enable fault tolerance (in this case it's the virtual machine where the NetCrunch Server is running). Right-click on the virtual machine and select "Edit Settings."

2. Click on the "Fault Tolerance" option in the left-hand menu.

3. Select the "Turn On Fault Tolerance" checkbox. Configure the fault tolerance settings according to your needs. You can select the number of fault tolerance VMs, the network settings, and the storage policy.

4. Click "OK" to save your settings.

Once you have configured fault tolerance, you can monitor the status of your fault tolerance VMs in the vSphere Web Client. You can also test your fault tolerance configuration by simulating a failure of the primary VM and ensuring that the secondary VM takes over seamlessly.

More info on how to turn on Fault Tolerance

Enabling fault tolerance in Hyper-V

Prerequisites

It's important to note that not all virtual machines are compatible with Fault Tolerance in Hyper-V and that the secondary virtual machine must have the same hardware configuration as the primary virtual machine. Additionally, Fault Tolerance requires the Enterprise or Datacenter edition of Windows Server and a minimum of two physical servers.

To configure fault tolerance in Hyper-V, you can use the Failover Clustering feature. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Create a Failover Cluster: Open the Failover Cluster Manager on the primary server (where NetCrunch Server is running) and click "Create Cluster". Follow the prompts to add the servers to the cluster

2. Configure Shared Storage: Add a shared storage device, such as a SAN or NAS, to the Failover Cluster. Configure the shared storage for use with the Failover Cluster by formatting it as a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV)

3. Configure High Availability for the Virtual Machines: Right-click the virtual machine that you want to configure for fault tolerance and select "Configure High Availability" Follow the prompts to configure the virtual machine for use with the Failover Cluster

4. Enable Fault Tolerance: Right-click the virtual machine and select "Settings". Click "Enable Fault Tolerance" under the "Failover Clustering" section. Follow the prompts to select the secondary server and storage location for the secondary virtual machine

5. Start the Secondary Virtual Machine: Right-click the secondary virtual machine and select "Start". Once the secondary virtual machine is running, Fault Tolerance is enabled and the primary virtual machine is protected against hardware failures on the primary server.

More details on creating a failover cluster in Hyper-V.

clusterfailoverfaulthahigh-availabilitytolerance