Re: [Linux-cluster] VMWare Fencing / RHCS 4

[Kevin Anderson <kanderso redhat com>]

On Wed, 2007-10-03 at 09:36 -0500, Jeremy Carroll wrote:
> Does anybody here know of a fencing module that would work with VMWare
> ESX Server 3? We utilize VMWare for our cluster infrastructure and would
> like to put fencing in place to power down virtual machines.
Our desire is to use the fence_xvm/fence_xvmd agent for all virtual machine management in the clusters.  The problem with fencing virtual machines is knowing on which physical machine the virtual instance is executing.  With the ability to failover/restart/migrate virtual instances, fence_xvmd maintains that status and tracks the movement.

This issue is that fence_xvmd uses libvirt interfaces to do this for xen and other virtual engines.  However, libvirt does not have APIs to control VMWare instances due to VMWare not providing/documenting their control points.  Given the lack of documentation, it will be problematic to integrate that capability into the open source products.

So, put pressure on VMWare from a customer standpoint to open up their interfaces.

Thanks
Kevin