DRSRule – a DRS rules and groups module

One of the nice vSphere features is the ability to define DRS rules.

DRSRule-introThe feature allows a vSphere administrator to control the placement of virtual machines in a vSphere cluster. There are the VM to VM affinity and anti-affinity rules, and the newer VM to VMHost rules. With the VM to VMHost rules, vSphere introduced the concept of VM and VMHost groups, and the ability to have rules that are a requirement (‘shall’) or a preference (‘should’).

In a recent VMTN PowerCLI community thread a PowerCLI user had a query about exporting and importing DRS rules and groups. At that point Matt Boren and myself developed the idea to provide a PowerShell module. The PowerShell module, which we named DRSRule, provides all the functions we deemed useful for working with DRS rules and groups. And yes, the module includes an export and an import cmdlet !

Continue reading DRSRule – a DRS rules and groups module

Automate your SDRS Anti-Affinity rules

One of the hot new features in vSphere 5 was the introduction of SDRS. And with SDRS came the concept of affinity rules for VMs and VMDKs. Cormac, aka @VMwareStorage, posted a nice overview of the SDRS affinity rules in Storage DRS Affinity & Anti-Affinity Rules.

choice and directions signs

Since then several posts have appeared on the subject of SDRS affinity rules.  To list just a few:

Currently there are no PowerCLI cmdlets to define the inter- and intra-vm anti-affinity rules for SDRS. After a question in the VMTN PowerCLI Community I decided to write a function. This function will allow you to automate the creation of the SDRS anti-affinity rules.

Continue reading Automate your SDRS Anti-Affinity rules