LifeKeeper for Windows can be used in the following virtualization environments.

The operating systems available for use on virtual machines depend on the descriptions provided in the Operating System section of the Certification Information.

For details on environment-specific restrictions and considerations, refer to the section “Restrictions and Considerations for the Operating Environment” below.

Restrictions and Considerations for the Operating Environment

VMware vSphere

vSAN is available with the following VMware vSphere versions:

• VMware vSphere 8.x and 9.x

Our product does not support the use of vSAN on VMware vSphere 7.0 and 7.x.
Raw Device Mapping (RDM) is not supported in vSAN environments.

vSAN Datastore Configuration

This section explains the main considerations when configuring LifeKeeper on a vSAN Datastore.

Prerequisite for vSAN Environment

When operating LifeKeeper for Windows on a vSAN Datastore, it is assumed that the VMware vSAN environment meets the following requirements.

• vSAN Cluster Health Monitoring
  The vSAN cluster is configured according to VMware best practices and is operating normally.

• Network Redundancy
  vSAN network is redundant with teaming, etc.

Considerations for Operations

• When configuring LifeKeeper resources on VMDK on a vSAN Datastore, basic failover operations follow the general shared disk configuration.

• Monitoring the health of vSAN clusters and troubleshooting regarding the vSAN Datastore should be performed in accordance with VMware’s official documentation.

Support Scope and Restriction

Failover operations in a vSAN cluster during an APD (All Paths Down) event (*) are not covered by this product’s support scope.

*An APD event refers to a situation where the vSAN network path is completely disconnected and VMware vSphere determines the All Paths Down.

Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization

Available OpenShirft Virtualization Features

• Live Migration
• Snapshot
  1. Precautions when taking snapshots
     1. When using DataKeeper, snapshots must be taken in a manner that prevents data inconsistencies between the source and target nodes. To ensure this, stop all target nodes before taking snapshots, and make sure to take snapshots on all nodes at the same point in time.
  2. Precautions when restoring
     1. Stop all LifeKeeper cluster nodes before restoring.
     2. When restoring from a snapshot, the Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) is replaced by a different PVC. If a shared disk is attached, you need to manually specify the same PVC for all virtual machines except the first one restored, as their PVCs will either remain as the old PVC or be left unspecified.
     3. For Windows VMs, if a virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) device is assigned, you must remove the vTPM device from the VM. In the OpenShift Virtualization Web console, go to the Configuration tab for the VM, set the boot mode to UEFI, and disable the vTPM setting from the YAML tab.
        (This step is not necessary for OpenShift Virtualization v4.18 and later.)

■ Before
spec:
..(snip)..
        devices:
          tpm:
            persistent: true
■ After
spec:
..(snip)..
        devices:
          tpm: {}

Configuration Requirements

Storage Requirements
The requirements for disks on which LifeKeeper is installed and those protected by LifeKeeper are as follows:

• Storage class is ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd-virtualization
• Type is Disk
• When protecting a shared disk with LifeKeeper, use the same Disk name on both nodes
• Interface is virtio
  

Network Requirements

• Networks used for LifeKeeper communication paths and IP resources must meet the following requirements.
  1. It is a Linux bridge network
  2. The network interface controller model is virtio

Client Requirements

• The intended clients are VMs and containers on the same OpenShift Virtualization.
  

Restrictions

• The following ARKs are not available for use.
  1. LB Health Check Kit
  2. ARKs for other virtualization platforms
     1. Recovery Kit for EC2
     2. Recovery Kit for Route 53
• Migration of a virtual machine with LifeKeeper installed between other virtualization platforms and OpenShift Virtualization is not supported.
• In the event of a failure related to OpenShift Data Foundation, LifeKeeper may not function as expected. We recommend implementing sufficient redundancy and preparing a solution other than LifeKeeper.

KVM

Configuration Requirements

Shared data areas can use shared storage or DataKeeper. However, the following requirements must be met.

Storage Requirements

• Virtual Device Configuration
  • Use scsi for the bus interface and virtio-scsi for the controller
    • Example of libvirt XML domain definition:
      • <target dev='sdd' bus='scsi'/>
      • <controller type='scsi' index='0' model='virtio-scsi'/>
• LifeKeeper Configuration
  • Disable LifeKeeper’s SCSI Reservation

Network Requirements

Networks used for LifeKeeper communication paths and IP resources must meet the following requirements.

• It is a Linux bridge network
• The network interface controller model is virtio

Microsoft Hyper-V Server

• This configuration does not support using virtual hard disks (VHDX files) as shared storage.
  

• LifeKeeper cannot be used within Hyper-V virtual machines configured with Hyper-V failover clustering.

• To ensure high availability, do not run all LifeKeeper clusters on a single Hyper-V node. (except during maintenance)