HA-Lizard Software
Current Version 2.2.3

Purpose

HA-lizard provides complete automation for managing Xen server pools which utilize the XAPI management interface and toolstack (as in Xen Cloud Platform and XenServer). This hyper-converged software suite provides complete HA features within a given pool. The overall design is intended to be lightweight with no compromise of system stability. Traditional cluster management suites are not required. XenServer HA is provided with built-in logic for detecting and recovering failed services and hosts.

HA features provided:

• Auto-start of any failed VMs
• Auto-start any VMs on the host boot
• Detection of failed hosts and automated recovery of any affected VMs
• Detect and clean up orphaned resources after a failed host is removed
• Removal of any failed hosts from the pool with a takeover of services
• Fencing support for HP ILO, XVM, and POOL fencing (forceful removal of the host from the pool)
• Split-brain prevention using heuristics from external network points and quorum
• HA support for pools with two hosts
• Structured interface for simple “bolt-on” of fencing scripts
• Dual operating modes for applying HA to appliances or individual VMs
• Ability to exclude selected appliances and VMs from HA logic
• Auto-detection of host status allows for safely working on hosts without disabling HA
• Centralized configuration for the entire pool stored in XAPI database
• Command-line tool for managing global configuration parameters
• Parameter override available per host for custom configurations
• HA can be enabled/disabled via a command-line tool or graphical interface (like XenCenter)
• Extensive Logging capabilities to the system log file
• Email alerting on configurable triggers
• Dynamic cluster management logic auto-selects roles and determines recovery policy
• No changes to the existing pool configuration are required. All logic is external
• No dependencies – does not compromise pool stability or introduce complex SW packages.
• Designed to work with the resident packages on a standard XCP/XenServer host

 (click drawing for larger view)

XenServer HA Development is well-tested and based on Xen Cloud Platform (XCP) version 1.6 and XenServer 6.1/6.2/6.5/7.x/8.x