I wrote about how vSphere HA 5.x restart attempt timing works a long time ago but there appears still to be some confusion about this. I figured I would clarify this a bit more, I don’t think I can make it more simple than this:
- Initial restart attempt
- If the initial attempt failed, a restart will be retried after 2 minutes of the previous attempt
- If the previous attempt failed, a restart will be retried after 4 minutes of the previous attempt
- If the previous attempt failed, a restart will be retried after 8 minutes of the previous attempt
- If the previous attempt failed, a restart will be retried after 16 minutes of the previous attempt
After the fifth failed attempt the cycle ends. Well that is, unless a new master host is selected (for whatever reason) between the first and the fifth attempt. In that case, we start counting again. Meaning that if a new master is selected after attempt 3, the new master will start with the “initial restart attempt.
Or as Frank Denneman would say:
Related posts:
- Slight change in “restart” behavior for HA with vSphere 5.0 Update 1
- vSphere 5.0 HA restarting of VMs with no access to storage?
- I set restart priorities but still my VMs seem to be powered on in a different order!
- Limiting stress on storage caused by HA restarts by lowering restart concurrency?
- Isolation detection in vSphere 5.1 versus 5.0
Hi,
What would the usual suspects be if restarts have reached a maximum retry count\cycle?
It is still confusing. Can you re-write it?
What happens after all 5 attempts happen and nothing works – it stops?
Yes it stops. 5 attempts and then it gives up.
Duncan,
If you use the advanced option das.maxvmrestartcount, and say set it to 10, at what interval do the last 5 restarts take effect, it used to be 8 minutes, but then the restart timers changed to the ones in your post and I can’t find the info now.
Thanks
If I am not mistaken 15 minutes. But I haven’t tested this and I can’t find any doc to back it up…
Me neither