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vSphere HA 5.x restart attempt timing

Duncan Epping · Feb 18, 2013 ·

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:

vSphere HA 5.x restart attempt timing

 

** Disclaimer: This article contains references to the words master and/or slave. I recognize these as exclusionary words. The words are used in this article for consistency because it’s currently the words that appear in the software, in the UI, and in the log files. When the software is updated to remove the words, this article will be updated to be in alignment. **

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BC-DR, Server 5.0, 5.1, 5.x, ha, VMware, vSphere

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Comments

  1. Martin Banda says

    18 February, 2013 at 21:19

    Hi,
    What would the usual suspects be if restarts have reached a maximum retry count\cycle?

  2. Ranjit says

    18 February, 2013 at 23:50

    It is still confusing. Can you re-write it?

    What happens after all 5 attempts happen and nothing works – it stops?

    • Duncan Epping says

      19 February, 2013 at 00:53

      Yes it stops. 5 attempts and then it gives up.

  3. Jim Moyle says

    20 February, 2013 at 09:51

    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

    • Duncan Epping says

      20 February, 2013 at 10:07

      If I am not mistaken 15 minutes. But I haven’t tested this and I can’t find any doc to back it up…

      • Jim Moyle says

        20 February, 2013 at 16:44

        Me neither 🙁

  4. Sebastien Winiarz says

    29 April, 2014 at 09:04

    Hello Ducan,
    Do you some more informations about HA restart time line if you configure more than 5 restart tries ? I’ve not found any informations about it and we have several customers that are asking for it because 30mn is very short in case of DR …
    Thanks.

    • [email protected] says

      30 April, 2014 at 15:25

      15/16 minutes is when each retry will occur.

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About the author

Duncan Epping is a Chief Technologist in the Office of CTO of the Cloud Platform BU at VMware. He is a VCDX (# 007), the author of the "vSAN Deep Dive", the “vSphere Clustering Technical Deep Dive” series, and the host of the "Unexplored Territory" podcast.

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