Hyper-V cluster automatic start

[cdcooper]

We've recently switched our prod cluster from VMware to Hyper-V and I would like to know what everyone else does to handle VM startup after a major power failure. With both VMware and standalone Hyper-V I could set VM startup sequence/delay, and it was just part of my process that if I moved the VM to another host I would reconfigure the startup settings. With the cluster, the VM automatically moves as the hosts go offline and the automatic startup settings are wiped as they always have, but since it's not a manual move there is no manual task to reconfigure startup. I'm still trying to understand the clustering startup, so I guess the question is, is there a way I'm not seeing through failover cluster manager to configure startup at the cluster level or is the solution just to use a shared PowerShell startup script on the nodes to control the startup sequence?

I know the correct answer is "don't shutdown all nodes in the cluster", but when you have frequent 6+ hour power outages it is required.

[yaroslav (staff)]

I think this is more a question for Microsoft than StarWind VSAN.
Failover Cluster VMs have failover thresholds. Once exceeded, the VM does not start up. The CSV might not come up online in time as well, as the cluster is too fast to poll the resources.
If VSAN was able to sort out the synchronization on itself (i.e., full synchronization started), and targets are connected right, sometimes manual intervention is needed to bring up the CSVs or even the cluster itself.
What you could do is write a sample script that polls the VMs after host startup if a 6009 event is logged and starts them up. The trick will work only if CSVs are online.

p.s. Speaking of power outages, check this out https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resour ... owerchute/

[cdcooper]

True, definitely more a Microsoft question than StarWind, but I figured there would be plenty of similar size admins here - moving from 2 or 3 host standalone Hyper-V or VMware Essentials to 2 or 3 node VSAN Hyper-V clusters, without the big tools like SCVMM.
In our case I usually know when the power goes out and have plenty of time to manually shutdown what isn't already scripted, it's the startup that has been the most inconsistent. Knock on wood we haven't had any problem with the CSV post outage.
Sounds like scripting is the only way to go to get what I'm looking for. Thank you.

[yaroslav (staff)]

Hi,

Yes, sadly, there's no ready script here.
Take a look at what I have: it might help you to shut down and start up things smoothly.