HA Network Compliance Check

Starting with Virtual Center 2.5 Update 2, HA has an enhanced network compliance check to increase cluster reliability.  This enhanced network compliance check helps to ensure correct cluster-wide heartbeat network paths. This also helps prevent delayed failure detection and “Split Brain” conditions in certain scenarios. 

This error message commonly occurs when the nodes in a cluster contain incompatible networks. For example:

Host1 has service console 1 (10.16.0.1/24) and service console 2 (192.100.0.1/24).

Host2 has service console 1 (10.16.0.2/24) and service console 2 (198.168.0.1/24).

If Host1 was the first node to be configured, when Host2 is configured, it would generate the above error message and fail the setup.  This is because service console 2 does not match.  If both hosts contained the same networks for both service consoles, it would pass the compliance check.  The das.allowNetwork advanced option is available as a way to limit the networks selected for HA communication .  Routable VLANS are not considered compatible because they are different subnets. Additional information on how to use the das.allowNetwork option can found in KB 1006541. Additional information on HA enhancements for Virtual Center 2.5 Update 2 can be found in the Resource Management Guide at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_resource_mgmt.pdf.