Configuration of a SafeKit / Hyper-V high availability cluster with synchronous replication and failover
Configuration instructions
The Hyper-V configuration is presented with a virtual machine named VM1. You will have to repeat this configuration for all VMs that you want to replicate. SafeKit supports up to 25 virtual machines.
Important: all the configuration is made from a single browser.
Launch the web console in a browser on one node by connecting to http://localhost:9010 (next image)
Enter IP address of the first node and click on Confirm (next image)
Click on New node and enter IP address of the second node (next image)
Then click on the red floppy disk to save the configuration (next image)
In the previous image, the save operation put the IP addresses in the file c:\safekit\cluster\cluster.xml and apply the distributed command c:\safekit\safekit –H "*" -G which configures node 1 and node 2.
So do not redo this operation on the other node.
Check the connectivity and firewall between both nodes for troubleshooting.
In the Configuration tab, click on hyperv.safe (xxx.safe in the next image)
then enter VM1 as the module name and Confirm (the console finds hyperv.safe in the demo/ directory that you previously filled)
Click on Validate (next image)
Before the SafeKit configuration, you have to make a configuration in Hyper-V manager (see demonstration):
- Export with the name VM1 the target VM in a directory that will be replicated, for example: D:\Repli-Hyper-V
- Remove the target VM from the inventory of Hyper-V manager
- Import the VM1 virtual machine into Hyper-V manager
Then in SafeKit configuration (next image), give the path of the replicated directory (D:\Repli-Hyper-V in next image) where the VM has been exported and enter the exported VM name (VM1 in next image).
Click on Validate (previous image)
Click on Configure (previous image)
Check the success green message on both servers and click on Next (previous image).
We assume that node 1 is the referencial with the up-to-date SQL database (otherwise do the following operation on node 2).
We assume that the services started automatically by SafeKit in the start_prim script are stopped on node 1.
Select node 1 and click on start it to make the first resynchronization in the right direction (previous image).
Before this operation, we suggest you to make a copy of replicated directories before starting the cluster to avoid any errors.
We assume that the services started automatically by SafeKit in the start_prim script are stopped on node 2.
Start node 2 (previous image) which becomes SECOND green (next image) after resynchronisation of all replicated directories (binary copy from node 1 to node 2).
The replication and failover is operational for VM1. VM1 is running on the PRIM node (previous image). Only modifications inside the Hyper-V files defining VM1 are replicated in real-time in this state.
Test
Check with Hyper-V manager that VM1 is started on the primary server and stopped on the secondary server.
Stop the PRIM node by scrolling down the menu of the primary node and by clicking on Stop.
Check that there is a failover on the SECOND node. And check the failover of VM1 with Hyper-V manager.
More information on tests in the User's Guide
Automatic start of the module at boot
Configure boot start (next image on the right side) configures the automatic boot of the module when the server boots. Do this configuration on both servers once the high availability solution is correctly running.
In Hyper-V manager, configure the replicated VM with Automatic start action: none. SafeKit controls the start and the stop of the VM on one node or the other.
Note that for synchronizing SafeKit at boot and at shutdown, on both nodes, we assume that a command line has been run during installation as administrator: .\addStartupShutdown.cmd in C:\safekit\private\bin (otherwise dot it now).
No shared disk - 
Shared disk and specific extenal bay of disk
